Caroline’s Visit

Tom and Caroline in La Corregidora

Wow. It has been nearly two months since Caroline came to visit for Holy Week.

Since we had never taken the bus from the Mexico City airport to Querétaro, we decided to take the bus ourselves to pick her up, just to make sure it was as easy as everyone says. It was. After a three hour trip in a first class bus that has leg supports and seats that recline about twice what airplanes do, plenty of leg room (much better than American), a bag lunch consisting of a sandwich, cookies and a soft drink, and a movie, we arrived refreshed and ready to go. (We did not use the kitchen in the back of the bus!) It was a simple two minute walk up some stairs at the airport to get to the international arrivals concourse. Then we waited 45 minutes for Caroline to get through customs, etc.

The problem with the airport is that they have three gates for arrivals, and while your flight might be scheduled and show up on the computer screens for one gate, E1 for example, folks coming through from the planes can take any gate to exit the customs area, so you never know quite where to look for them. Caroline came out of E2 instead of E3 where her flight was listed and Christiane was waiting. I was waiting between E2 and E1 just in case, but did not catch Caroline. Oh well.

Fifteen minutes later we were in the bus on our way back home, another bagged lunch, another cookie, another movie, etc.

To speed this up and try to get us back on a more timely track, I will only hit some of the highlights of her visit. One of these was Caroline eating grasshopper tacos at Bernal. To see some photos of the experience just click on the NEW - Other Photos link on the right side of this page. We have introduced this link to Flickr so that I can load more pictures, faster, for your viewing pleasure. There are also additional photos of some of the things already discussed in the blog.

A Little Shopping in Bernal

A Courtyard/Shop/Restaurant in Bernal

Another highlight of Caroline’s visit was the Holy Week celebrations in San Miguel de Allende and Querétaro.

On Maundy Thursday, we did the “seven altars” in the evening. This is a Querétano tradition where families visit the flower decorated altars of seven churches in the historic district. We started at the chapel across the street from La Cruz church that had been built for the indigenous people back in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. People were mostly moving quickly through the chapel to admire the altar and say a brief prayer. This was the process in most churches, a brief walk-through or at least as brief as the crowds would allow. Others in this chapel were reading or making statements aloud as they had promised to do during the year in return for some dispensation or other.

Next, we moved on to La Cruz. Outside, ladies from the church were handing out petit pains (little loaves of bread in English, can’t remember in Spanish) and bouquets of chamomile (as in the tea) for a donation. The air was full of the smell of fresh chamomile as I put the bouquet in my bag, and handed the petit pain to a woman asking for limosna (alms). She took the bread but had a puzzled look on her face. I think she wanted real money. We ended up visiting eight or nine churches. At Santa Rosa, they had taken the full-sized statues of the twelve apostles from the convent room where they are normally found into the main sanctuary. They are very life like and look from a distance like a bunch of guys hanging out, talking and having a meal together. Most of the churches simply had special flower arrangements. It seemed like every family in town was out visiting altars.

On our way back home, we passed by Plaza Guerrero where there was a market selling Judas figures, explosive Judas figures. Some were a meter or more high, and some were small. I bought a small one with the intention of blowing it up on Saturday, but it looked so cool, we decided to keep it as a souvenir. We somehow missed the communal Judas burning festivities later that weekend. Maybe next year.

Our Explosive Paper Mache Judas Figure, Note the Wick

On Good Friday in San Miguel, we wandered into the inner courtyard of the main church where the procession (over an hour long) began and where Pontius Pilate held the trial of Barnabas and Jesus, all narrated by the parish priest. Part of the procession included little girls dressed as angels and little boys with real crowns of thorns and carrying skulls. One kid did not have a crown, and we figured it was because he had cried too much, and they let him go without. There was also a bow to anthropology with Adam and Eve dressed as cavemen. We had lunch on a roof top and got out of town before the procession reached the area where we had the car parked, otherwise we would have been stuck for a couple of hours.

Adam and Eve in San Miguel, Note the Leopard Skin and Fig Leaves

That afternoon, we headed to La Cruz church near our house where Querétaro’s procession of silence would start. This involves most of the lay organizations at the various churches in town in a procession around the historic district. It starts with little girls dressed as angels (notice the continuity here), and little boys dressed in penitent robes strangely reminiscent of KKK outfits, but really intended to prevent self pride by imposing anonymity. They carried little crosses. Next came adolescents with somewhat larger crosses, and then adults bearing even larger crosses. As the age increased so did the level of penance with most going barefoot and with chains tied to their ankles that they occasionally stepped on barefoot (ouch!) and which swung around with every step hitting their other leg. At the end, most had bloody sores where the chains had been tied to their ankles. All this was done in silence (except for the grating/clinking sound of the chains). Even the crowd was silent. The streets and sidewalks were jammed on either side and as the last penitent walked past, the crowd silently fell in behind. It took over an hour for the procession to leave the church. (Check the “Other Photos” link for more pix.)

Little Penitents in San Miguel with Crowns of Thorns

Little San Miguel Angels

Little Angels in Querétaro

Little Penitents in Querétaro

One unintended consequence of the procession was that people along the route had left their doors open while they sat on chairs on the sidewalk. As we walked past at the end of the procession and before they could close their doors, we got a glimpse of the inside courtyards of many houses we will never see otherwise. Some were truly extraordinary, and some were in sad need of repair. From the street you would never know the difference.

On Easter Sunday, we visited La Señora in Puebla as I noted in a previous post.

As Caroline’s five days wound down on the Monday after Easter, we went to the Terminal de Autobuses (bus station) to get her a ticket back to the airport. No go. They were all full with people traveling home after the holiday. So despite my better judgment and desire to never, ever, ever drive to the airport in the D.F., we piled into the car and headed for the airport. It took a little over an hour and a half (not the three hours of the bus, but I was flying low) to get there and another hour to find the airport entrance and get into the airport. The airport signs stop just as you enter the area of the airport, and we made at least one and a half tours of the airport before we finally went through a market and somehow found the airport entrance. I think the police have removed the signs on purpose.

As it turns out, this is the street where people get held-up by the police when they wander off the correct road. We were lucky since there were too many other things keeping the police busy on the day after Easter. This is the one area in México to avoid if you are driving. And if the police who try to stop you are on foot, keep driving, and don’t look back. Seriously.

We dropped Caroline off, and she got home in the wee hours of the morning after long layovers in the southwest. It might be worth it to pay extra for a direct flight to the D.F. or even Querétaro when you come.