Jesus de los Rabanos

"Most towns in Mexico, saving the capital, are in themselves, at once. As if they had been lowered from heaven in a napkin, and deposited, rather foreign, in the wild plain." - D. H. Lawrence, Mornings in Mexico

Some days when traveling, you just get lucky. Today was such a day. Today is Palm Sunday, one of the biggies here for processions and festivities. San Antonino is about a 45 minute bus ride, so out we went.

If you've ever wondered what happened to those school buses you rode in the 1960s, they are all here in Mexico and we rode one today. A bit rickety and noisy, but it does the job without complaint. 

We arrived at the bus stop to the town and from there we took a tuk tuk. San Antonino was bustling with a big market with many outdoor restaurants. This town is also famous for making these amazing Mexican wedding dresses with very intricate embroidery. Amy asked the price of an especially nice one...4000 pesos, about $275. She ended up getting a nice blouse for 200 pesos. That's my gal!

While looking at the dresses, a young girl started a conversation with Amy, as she wanted to try out her English. She mentioned that we should head down to the cemetery, as people were decorating graves.  Well it also turned out, that is where the procession would start. 

When we got there, there was a pretty good size crowd outside the cemetery. And the center of attention was a life size statue of Jesus on his donkey. Not so unusual for Palm Sunday. What was unusual was that all around the base of the statue was an enormous amount of food!  And it came all the way up past his waist!  It was all fresh food, brought in by different people. There were oranges, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and the most enormous radishes (rabanos) you've ever seen. Then several men put on this very long string of buns, so it went around the statue a couple of times. And then strings of chilies. And then more strings of rolls. Last of all, they put  giant dried fish on the back.  And gave him all kinds of things to carry in his hands too. 

In addition to this, many locals brought different offerings. There were three old ladies who were accepting the offerings. Not sure who they were, but they were obviously important. People brought all sorts of things; bread, fruit, chocolate, money, toys, shoes. There were even live goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits and a squealing pig!  Everything was accepted by the ladies with a smile. 

By now, after the painstaking work of piling the produce around the Christ statue, everyone was ready to roll. Poles were inserted under... About 12 men carried the by now incredibly heavy statue down the dirt street toward the church. All the locals and a few of us tourists followed, all of us also carrying our little palm offerings. Some had specific offerings wrapped in plastic... Fancy shoes with sparkles... Small sets of speakers.... Music was playing and fireworks were exploding. After about 1/2 kilometer, we arrived at the church where a mass would follow.

It was a fun day and especially nice because we were amongst local folk in a real and very traditional event. Hopefully, we will find mor like this. 

Pueblo de Los Pollos

"The great affair is to move", Robert Louis Stevenson

Zongolica...the name doesn't exactly run off the tongue, but it does sound exotic and interesting. It's a Nahuatl  (the language of people who were once Aztecs) village about 25 miles from Orizaba so we thought we'd go see it (thanks to Amy's exhaustive research we find things like this). High up and over the mountains, had no road til the 1950s so stayed traditional, very pretty too! 

To get there you travel by Adela's buses:

Next to theAdela's  bus station in Orizaba,  a motel that rents rooms by the hour (?!?!?!)...

Although only 25 miles, it's way up in the mountains at the end of a very twisty road that goes up and down many mountains and valleys, so it takes about 90 minutes to get there. Leaving Orizaba, we went along a deep canyon, then suddenly started climbing steeply to a pass at around 6000 feet. Then along a ridge, over another pass and then down into the valley of Zongolica, where we arrived at the town. 

Today, Thursday, was market day. Since this is an Indian town we imagined that all the women would be dressed in native costumes and the goods sold would all be locally made. Well, welcome to the modern world. Very few women were wearing native dress, only women from neighboring towns and almost everything sold there, except for the food, was from China or India. 

As we walked through the market we started noticing a theme...there were chickens everywhere, mostly of the dead and defeathered variety, but a few live ones, too. And they all had that lovely yellow skin that indicates a free range chicken that eats lots of bugs and worms. 

More market scenes...

Nice looking peppers...

Although only 10am, we were quite hungry and found a restaurant that served, you guessed it, chicken. In fact, you could order anything you like here, as long as it was chicken. We ordered a half order of a chicken with chipotle and whole peppers. Apparently, a half order means a half chicken. But it was one of the best chickens I've ever had, so much flavor!  Total price for all this chicken and four coffees...about $6. 

After lunch it was time for a little exercise, so we walked up the steep trail to the town overlook. Of course, there was the ubiquitous statue of Jesus at the top and the view was quite nice. 

More scenes of Zongolica...

Country mouse, city mouse

ISitting here in bliss on a warm sunny (!) midday, because we are back  in one of our very favorite small cities ever in Mexico, Orizaba, and we still like it!  Even though Lonely Planet told us we wouldn't. 

Orizaba is beautiful, lots of parks lots of colonial and French-era architecture. , 

And, now as I start thinking/writing about our last days adventure spanning these two towns, We are enjoying crepes with "rajas" (strips of chile poblano) and mushrooms, with really good coffee -- local and also Kenyan and Haitian, at the Gran Cafe Orizaba on the terrace of the fabulous steel city hall by Gustavo Eiffel (yes, that Eiffel). 

 And we are enjoying the great contrast from yesterday, which we spent in the small, self sufficient, can-do but touristically limited town of Cosco, a very pleasant ranching/farming town 

that just happens to sit under the most picturesque volcano in the New World, Orizaba.   Orizaba is as beautiful as Mt.  Fuji, it is that beautiful,  when you can see it that is, which is practically never.  Thus time of year, Tropical rain, tropical mist, snowstorms,whatever, constantly hide El Pico de Orizaba. 

Orizaba just might be in this next picture! Definitely some mountain is! But you'd never know?

Orizaba might actually be in this picture!  

Even though we liked Cosco... Why are we slightly laughing/marveling at Lonely Planet? Well, we like untouristed places, and Cosco was our dream to visit because of ia gushing Lonely Planet review.  LP seemed sure Cosco was tourist Mecca, AND  Lonely Planet disses Orizaba.   Honestly, what drugs was that writer on?  Ha! According to lonely planet, the ok Hotel Emperador that we stayed in last night in Cosco, is'possibly the best hotel in the state' in an enchanting town, Cosco, which is rife with opportunities to mountain bike, rock climb, do some spa time, and zip line at a moments notice. 

We certainly enjoyed Cosco! Here are some scenes,  excellent little place! 

 But... compared to the towns we've just been in, Coatepec and Xico, Cosco is, well, quite the backwater.  Terrific but like the girl next door!   Cosco is enchanting kinda the way Kansas and Oklhoma are charming.   People are busy with their own lives and the town is busy boosting Cosco as the happening place to be.  People don't eat out so there's not a lot of places  for a visitor to sit and relax...  The main industry is creating and then beautifully  tooling saddles for the showy Mexucan Rodeo riders -- charros if male, escaramuzas if a lady.  Which were very cool to see made: 

Otherwise, it's  A sleepy just us folks no tourism town, with a very pretty location when not obscured by the elements.  They do have great goat cheese and grass fed steaks!  

Here are some pretty pictures of this 'the simple life for me' town 

But---  Orizaba.  What a fabulous town.  Has everything... Tranquility, beauty, sophistication, history. And buildings made in Belgium and shipped over here! And the sun has finally come out, strongly. 

Just a SLIVER or Orizaba above. Here is one of our favorite parks

And the strolls along the river where you can see animals too... Ostriches, spider monkeys, deer, crocodiles just to name a few.   Though these pictures might look a little grubby, it's great. 

It's very romantic!