Los Festejos Charro Taurinos de Villa de Alvarez - Rodeos and Bull Fighting

Last week the Cabalgata arrived to Colima - this is the annual festival which sees the town's streets filled with cowboys showing off their abilities, and inabilities, to lasso the raging bull.

The venue is 'La Petatera' in Villa de Alvarez, which is an awesome theatre-like construction, consisting purely of wood and some kind of traditional twine, used for binding the wooden posts together. The Petatera is erected at the beginning of January each year, in preparation for the arrival of the 'Charro Taurinos', which comes at the beginning of February, and is dismantled by the end of the month. It is a really precious thing to see. There are some great photos on the government website - http://www.petatera.col.gob.mx/fotogaleria.htm


It is a really open structure, with 'tarpetas' or hessian mat-type things as a 'roof', which half covers the areas in which the audience sits. It can hold 4,500 people, (which's pretty impressive when you remember that not a single nail is used to hold it together) and when we were there for the sunday afternoon rodeo it was full to the brim.



After some pre-rodeo clown entertainment, the bull is released from behind the heavy iron gate, where it has been taunted with several cowboys' boots in the face, as well as an electric stun gun. The cowboys watch on, lassos in hand, as the rodeo begins.

The matador eyes up his competitor. These guys are amazing, and make it look incredibly easy to play games with this bull. But it was easy to see what skill is involved when, towards the end of the rodeo, fueled by cerveza, several Mexicans decided to try their hand in the ring - and probably won't do so again.
Finally, normally after many failed attempts, two newly-proud cowboys lasso the bull, pulling it to the floor, and then leading it back out of the ring. Who knows what happens next? We had some very tasty bistec tacos after the show...


Souvenir cowboys were on sale afterwards....

Boxing Day

Boxing Day was spent recovering from all that food in a little town called Comala (yes, the name is very similar to Colima, which is where we live). Comala is on route to the volcano, and being higher up offers a slightly more bearable climate (although you still don't want to walk anywhere other than in the shade). It is also famous for its eateries - which play host to mariachi bands daily - where you can pass the day away with your mandatory bottle of tequila...

'Don Camalon' is an awesome place, frequented by every generation of the family, from Granny to newborn granddaughter. Dancing is actively encouraged .
As long as there's tequila on the table, the tasty Mexican treats keep on flowing.

El día de la Navidad

We managed to play the bi-cultural game to our advantage - two Christmas dinners. The first took place at Nick (John's boss) and Any's house, on the 24th. We feasted on four full courses (and we're talking four main courses here) of delicious Mexican fayre, from firey tomato and chilli soup, to chicken marinaded in mole, a tradicional blend of 60+ spices and often made with chocolate, giving it an incredible depth and richness. We were also greeted by one very cute 'reno' - reindeer.



The following morning, as the rest of Mexico was recovering from it's Christmas dinner, we were up early, after the arrival of a certain elf-like creature...
The kitchen was a hive of activity - a full roast was created, with all the tasty trimmings that we could source...



Whilst the turkey was cooking, we went for a wander around the jardín in the centre of town, a two-minute stroll from the house. There, we found Mary and Joseph, Baby Jesus (which was good to see, as we'd already spend the last few weeks pondering as to why there were an abundance of empty manegers - it seems tradition has it here that Baby Jesus only gets added after the 24th), and five sombrero-ed gúerittos.


Then followed present-time, of course. Jen, Catherine and David had between them carted Santa's very full sack half way around the world.
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without eating a chocolate orange for breakfast now, would it?


We had a beautiful and delicious Christmas dinner on the roof of our house, overlooking the volcano.



Then after a day of throughly British tradition, we strung up a Mexican 'pinata', and proceeded to destroy it... Tasty rewards lay within, you see...

Guanajuato

As part of our Christmas whistle-stop tour of Colima's neighbouring states, we went to Guanajuato, a vibrant little student town some miles from ours.




We spent New Year here, first setting ourselves up for the night with 'pollo feliz' - 'happy chicken' - and a bottle of tequila in one of the towns' coveted fountains, then following a walking theatre production by an infamous group of students, and seeing the New Year in whilst dancing salsa in a Cuban bar.



The architecture had an uncharacteristic, but beautiful, European feel. The steps to the University were perhaps my favourite site.











We also toured around the city's various markets which, like marketplaces the world over, were lively buzzing places, good for people watching.


The city also offered a slightly less appetising, but equally interesting peek into the world of the Momias - Mummies. This typically (see Día de los Muertos post above) grim themed museum is in the honor of the numerous mummified bodies which have been exhumed (because their families can't afford to keep up the 'grave rent') and have been preserved by the awesomely mineral rich soil. The council of Guanajuato have been digging up such bodies for around a century - which's handy, given that only a few percent of bodies are 'display quality' specimens.
There's a pregnant mummy, the world's youngest mummy, oldest, burried-alive...