Zipolite 15 Cutting Down Coconuts

The Day of the Dead in Mexico: What’s it all about? OCT 30 Posted by Ted Campbell

https://nohaybronca.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/the-day-of-the-dead-in-mexico-whats-it-all-about/

← 8 Tips for Budget Travel in Chiapas

My Guidebook to Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, Mexico →

The Day of the Dead in Mexico: What’s it all about?

OCT 30

Posted by Ted Campbell

In Mexico, a country full of color, tradition and flavor, the Day of the Dead stands out as especially colorful, traditional and flavorful. Rooted in Pre-Hispanic practice and caught up in the trick-or-treat influence of Halloween, the holiday is a chance to honor deceased relatives with an altar in the home, dress up as an elegant skeleton, and sample the best of Mexico’s artesanal candy.

The Day of the Dead takes place on November 2, but it’s celebrated several days or even several weeks before, especially when there’s a long weekend like this year. While it’s one of the most public holidays in Mexico, in many ways it’s also the most personal. Besides costumes and outdoor events (more on those below), perhaps the most interesting part of the holiday is that people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried.

They clean it up, adorn it with flowers, and even may spend the night there, eating, drinking, playing music, and remembering their loved ones.

“We don’t cry. It’s a celebration,” says Pedro, a guitarist and music teacher. His family decorates their relatives’ graves with candles, photographs, and orange flowers. They sing songs, tell stories, and inform their dead relatives of all that’s new in their lives.

The Ofrenda (Altar)

Another more personal manifestation of the Day of the Dead is an altar that families set up in their homes. Called an ofrenda, in it they place photographs of deceased relatives and some of their favorite foods, including cigarettes and alcohol if the person liked them. It’s as if the relative will come back for a visit and the family wants them to feel welcome again.

Not only families do this, but places all over Mexico. Here’s an ofrenda from the university where I work:

Day of the Dead Parade

In Spectre, the most recent James Bond movie from 2015, they give a highly stylized view of the Day of the Dead. In the first scenes of the movie, you see a big parade with lots of noise and action and people running around in colorful dresses and skull makeup. Apparently the Mexican government spent a huge amount of money to get the scene included in the movie, and the skeleton character even made it onto the cover:

In an example of life following art (or art following art?), the first Day of the Dead parade, called the Paseo de las Animas, went down the same city streets on Saturday, October 29 in Mexico City. Along with floats of skulls and big colorful monsters called alebrijes, it included 1,000 actors in skeleton costumes and makeup. (The skeleton, called catrina for women and catrin for men, is the iconic figure wearing a suit or a flowing gown).

A big catrin figure in Toluca, State of Mexico:

Feria del Alfeñique in Toluca

The Mexico City parade might be new, but displays, events and markets selling Day of the Dead specialities occur all over the country leading up to the holiday.

The Feria del Alfeñique in Toluca, the central Mexican city where I live, is a great place to sample all the flavors and soak up the atmosphere. (Alfeñique is a type of sugar candy).

In the Portales, an outdoor mall of arches in the center of town, hundreds of vendors sell all kinds of candies, decorations, and skeleton figures for the Day of the Dead, either to try right there or put in your family altar.

No altar would be complete without calaveritas, the colorful candy skulls. They represent the dead relative, whose name you can have drawn on the forehead in sugar.

You can get candied everything, including all kinds of vegetables and fruit, like limes, pumpkin, and nopales (cactus leaves). Here are some tempting bananas:

I especially enjoy the oficios, little skeletons doing their various jobs.

Outside the fair, people in elaborate costumes accept money to pose with you for photographs.

So if you want to experience the Day of the Dead but without the enormous crowds of a parade or the late night in a cemetery, come to Toluca for the Feria del Alfeñique. It’s an easy bus ride from the Observatorio metro stop/bus station in the west of Mexico City. Once you get to the Toluca bus station, take a “safe taxi” (taxi seguro) to centro, downtown.

And look out for this guy:

David Archuleta - Invincible (Official Lyric Video)

THE BIG "C" and ME! (Part 8)

BROKEN NECK Prank

Relaxing Piano Music: Beautiful Music, Soothing Music, Sleep Meditation Music, Soft Music, Relax

Suspense Lazarus Walks Halloween 1946

fer87 Ferdinand Alavez Imgiest.com # Zipolite #Oaxaca # Mexico #Travel #Travel #instantravel #instanmoment #travel # zipolite #instantravel #oaxaca #instanmoment # mexico #viajes.

fer87 Ferdinand Alavez Imgiest.com # Zipolite #Oaxaca # Mexico #Travel #Travel #instantravel #instanmoment #travel # zipolite #instantravel #oaxaca #instanmoment # mexico #viajes.

Zipolite

Des de l'hamaca de la terrassa d'un bungalou de La Loma Linda, a Zipolite ("la platja dels morts"), observo com un picot (carpintero chejé) menja els fruits d'una palmera. L'ocell té un cant estrident i llueix taques de color vermell i groc al cap, i a les ales té ratlles blanques i negres (estil zebra).

El Pacífic fa respecte amb les seves onades gegants que aprofiten el surfistes, no pas avui, perquè el cel és ben fosc i amenaça tempesta.

La costa oaxaquenya té fama de remota i verge. Zipolite, en concret, és un paradís hippie i té l'única platja nudista reconeguda oficialment a Mèxic. 

He vist gent rarota i molta pudor de porro. La diferència entre els indígenes i els estrangers és tan bèstia que els segons semblen extraterrestres. He ensopegat amb una colla que devien sortir de fer meditació o ioga, la majoria dels quals joves, i caminaven esmaperduts, entotsolats, en silenci...

No estic gaire catòlic. He passat una mala nit. La culpa va ser del sopar. Vaig badar i ho estic pagant car. Al tercer món no pots despistar-te ni un minut, sinó pringues. El restaurant era dubtós i el peix que vaig demanar encara més. Mira, em feia ilu menjar peix després de veure les barques dels pescadors... Els bacteris van envair-me els budells. Les corrípies van ser fulminants, amb perill de deshidratació. He dormit poc. De bon matí he anat a un OXXO (omnipresents en aquest país, petits súpers oberts les 24 h on pots trobar de tot). Allà he aconseguit Gatorade i píndoles adients per estroncar el tema. Estic millor. He begut aigua de coco (amb una canya, succionant-la del coco natural) i acabo de menjar un plàtan madur. No tot són flors i violes, família. Em feia el xulo per haver resistit 15 dies la picantosa gastronomia mexicana (ous de formiga i saltamartins inclosos) i, ja veus, he caigut de quatre grapes al final. Cal ser més humil i anar amb molt de compte.

Bandera vermella a la platja. Ben a prop n'hi ha una, de platja, que es diu Playa del Amor. A veure si la puc visitar demà, que farà més bon temps i tindré més empenta.

Mentrestant, em conformo amb la contemplació de l'espectacle del cel, trons i llampecs, el vent que aixeca onades sorolloses, la verdor que m'envolta, espessa i selvàtica, el temps que transcorre lentament... 

Avui, com ahir, la propietària de l'hotel és alemanya. Es diu Katia. És mestra de ioga i Feldenkrais. El marit és mexicà (Diego). Tenen dos fills adolescents i un parell de gossos mansos.

El picot ha marxat en sentir un tro ben gros. 

Hi ha dies que millor no moure's gaire. No és mal lloc per a reposar. Per què li van posar pacífic al Pacífic? Algú ho sap? 

https://entrellum.blogspot.com/2017/10/zipolite.html

Zipolite

Justin Bieber & BloodPop® - Friends (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do Mashup (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Taylor Swift - ...Ready For It? (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Dua Lipa - New Rules (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Jason Derulo - If I'm Lucky (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

ZAYN - Dusk Till Dawn ft. Sia (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Charlie Puth – How Long (Tyler & Ryan Cover)

Tyler & Ryan - Too Friendly, Too Jealous (Official Music Video)

Just For Laughs Gags - Halloween Special 2017

http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/even-the-butterflies-have-a-mobile-app/?utm_source=Mexico+News+Daily&utm_campaign=6ec037d3c5-october+21&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f1536a3787-6ec037d3c5-348153685

Even the butterflies have a mobile app

Application provides real-time data about migration of monarch butterflies

Mexico News Daily | Saturday, October 21, 2017

Monarch butterfly record-keeping is going high tech in Guanajuato with the development of a mobile app to record sightings.

MonarcaMX is designed to give volunteers and environmental authorities real-time data about the presence of the migratory insect in the state.

“Before . . . we gathered information on a piece of paper and then mapped it and traced the [butterflies’] route,” said David Guzmán González, the natural protected areas coordinator of the state’s Institute of Ecology.

Now there are no more bits of paper but instead an application that is available in the Google Play Store.

In less than a minute, Guzmán said, volunteers can report in detail the sighting of a monarch butterfly.

“We’ll have data in real time regarding the date, the place and the number of butterflies sighted, allowing us to have larger coverage of the state. Any [Android] cell phone owner can download the app, which does not take up too much space and can work offline,” he explained.

Guzmán also reported that the state government continues teaching people more about the monarch butterfly and the importance of its annual migration to Mexico from Canada and the United States.

The program is designed to promote the conservation of the migratory insect, and is also directed at the staff of several municipalities.

Last year, volunteers made 1,200 monarch sightings, a trove of data that has allowed authorities to know more about the different stages of the insects’ route through Guanajuato.

Training volunteers and government workers for monitoring the butterflies began on October 5. “Twenty municipalities have joined this effort and we’ve trained a total of 1,500 people, 500 of whom are volunteers,” Guzmán said. “We still have a few more days . . . to train more people because we’re expecting to see the monarch butterflies to be flying over the state between October 25 and 30.”

The Institute of Ecology’s butterfly conservation efforts also include the care of pollinating gardens in the municipalities of Acámbaro, Silao and Celaya, where the monarchs can obtain food and rest.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Goblins in Space - Connection Festival 2017 [Old Goa Trance Mix] ᴴᴰ