Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas in Malinalco


Christmas eve day agenda: We visited the ancient Mexica tribe’s El Cuacalli, the Fortress of the Ocelot and Eagle Warriors, carved into the top of a mountain in Malinalco, Estado de Mexico. It was pristine. You could still see the eagle carvings on the wall of the war room. After this, we went to the outdoor market and I bought cactus, mandarins, and pan borrachero (drunk bread) for Christmas lunch tomorrow. I drank a lima-lime smoothie in an Indian-Mexican cafe while I shuffled through a deck of tarot cards. Our waiter wore a robe and may have possibly been the person responsible for the excellent feng shui we enjoyed in the tea room.


I am currently sleeping in this beautiful town named after the Aztec Goddess of magic (it is indeed magic!) and the house is beautiful and the weather is gorgeous. It is known for having great trucha, trout, and there is a whole section of town that is nothing but restaurants serving up fresh trucha al gusto next to the stream. I could be happy living here if I had a longer attention span. We rented a 3 bedroom house in town. This is the view from my room (the rest of the house is equally beautiful):



I am reading a book I found in this house which is supposedly the verbal translation of demon possessions (in demon code) of an ex-Spanish conquistador, Juan Antonio Llorente. It is Called Los Demonos de la Lengua and it is taking me forever to read because it is in Spanish with all this new religious and colonial vocabulary and there is a lot of background story I had to wiki in order to appreciate its spookiness(The Black Legend of Spain and the introduction of Catholicism to the native peoples of Mexico). It is really good for expanding my grasp of the language, but it also took me 6 hours to read 35 pages. I have been reading it while soaking in the bathtub the last two evenings, and I have enjoyed it despite all the work.

Yesterday, while I was in the tub, I heard a horse whinny and gallop by. That and the roosters crowing at all hours of the day is so great. We need to get MC to a cock fight some time soon.

Right now, the people of Malinalco are setting of very loud firecrackers every 10 minutes which are amplified by the huge mountains surrounding us from every side. This happened last night until I went to sleep around 1 am. Mexicans love to party and they love to celebrate their baby Jesus. I love Mexicans. And their fireworks.

We had an excellent Noche Bueno dinner of rare prime rib, potato wedges, zalbutes, tacos del conchonito (Yucatan cuisine I have been told), lemon mousse, Spanish wine and mandarin margaritas at Hotel Ámel. If I ever come back here and I can't rent the place I am currently staying in, I will certainly stay there. Swanky. My normally sober parents and us normally drunk hermanas killed two bottles of wine in addition to our Christmas margaritas over dinner. Mary Claire started driving off with my mom halfway in the car, halfway in the street. She could have been seriously injured but she wasn't and we were drunk, so we just thought it was really funny. I am chuckling (or as my spanish dictionary defines it, sonreirse tontamente) right now thinking about it.

Tomorrow we are going to Chalma, near Malinalco, to see this pilgrimage of people coming to see the cave in which a black Christ idol miraculously appeared over night. This is the second most popular Mexican pilgrimage spot after the Basilica de Guadalupe in D.F. according to wikipedia. Originally, the caves that house Black Jesus belonged to the Nahualt Goddess of trash and filth (Tlazatcotl) and God of human destiny and night (Oxtoteot). Wow. Talk about the Christmas Spirit. This year my secular ass is going ALL OUT!

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