What I Did on My Christmas Vacation

Day 131 in Mexico

Happy New Year! Happy new decade, for that matter. So far, it’s been a relaxing 2010 for me – sleeping late, staying pretty close to home, and gearing up to head back to work. I feel pretty refreshed after a wonderful Christmas break, which I had just barely begun the last time I wrote. I was feeling kind of bad that I hadn’t had the opportunity to travel much, but this break certainly gave me the opportunity I was waiting for.

I began my travels with my Christmas trip to Toluca with my friend Sara, which I touched on briefly in my last blog post. Some family friends of hers invited us to spend the holidays with them, and they turned out to be the most hospitable, gracious hosts imaginable. They took us, as I also mentioned, to the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Michoacan, and (like I also already mentioned), it was magical. Here are some pictures to give you an idea, though pictures couldn’t really capture the feeling of walking through the forest being surrounded by fluttering butterflies that landed on our hair, jeans, and gladly stepped up onto our outstretched hands. They must have been tired little guys, though, after coming all the way from Canada and the Great Lakes. The trees were so coated with them it looked like they were covered with orange leaves. The butterflies have a couple more months of Mexican hibernation vacation left, before they mate in the spring and then return their long journey back to the U.S. and Canada. Interestingly enough, it’ll be a whole different batch that goes back from the one that arrived; the males die after mating, and the average butterfly only lives about eight months anyway.

The day after our trip to the butterfly reserve was spent in Toluca, preparing for the Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) celebration at our host’s home. In Mexico, it seems that Christmas Eve is actually more important than Christmas Day. Many families get together on this day and night, but Christmas Day is pretty much a day to eat leftovers from the previous evening’s big meal and say goodbyes. Sara and I got to help in the preparation of bacalao, a dish of Norwegian white fish that’s salted, shredded, and then cooked with tomatoes, almonds, celery and spices. The dinner also featured a big ol’ turkey, tostadas, a version of Waldorf salad, and sweet breads for our dessert. We went to Mass in the evening, which was so packed that we didn’t even get a seat; we had to stand in the back. The choir, all festive in red scarves, sang familiar Christmas tunes with Spanish lyrics (Silent Night, Joy to the World), so I just sang along in English anyway. Many people also brought the baby Jesus from their nativity scene so it could be blessed by the priest, which was kind of interesting; so many people carrying around a (usually kind of creepy-looking) baby Jesus in a basket under their arms. After Mass, we went home to play dominoes, and then (finally!) began our dinner just after 11 p.m. In relative terms, this was pretty early; the custom is to have a midnight dinner and Christmas toast, and many families stay up into the early morning. Sara and I were so tired after eating so late, however, that we didn’t make it very long after dinner. Christmas Day began late, with some phone calls home and leftovers from the night before, and then our hosts took us to Mexico City for some more sightseeing; we got to see the largest Christmas tree in the world (so the signs claimed, although it was an artificial tree), the downtown zocalo with the National Palace, cathedral, and the enormous temporary ice skating rink, and then we went to the National History Museum, which is housed in the Chapultepec castle, a building used by past aristocracy; Porfirio Diaz, one of the most notorious dictators in Mexico’s history; and, randomly, also in Baz Luhrmann’s movie Romeo+Juliet. We finished the day with a tasty pizza dinner with cheesecake and then returned home to Toluca. Thankfully, Christmas wasn’t as melancholy as I thought it might be. The anticipation of it was actually harder than the day itself, both because I was so busy and because we were welcomed so warmly by this family. I am so grateful for them for making it a good holiday for us, and grateful also that next year, God willing, I will be back at home, appreciating how good it really is to be with your family at Christmas.

My Christmas travels didn’t stop there. The day after returning to Cuernavaca, I headed off with the four others in our volunteer group to Acapulco! We thought a few days at the beach would be just the thing to de-stress, and we were right. We actually stayed in Pie de la Cuesta, a lovely little seaside town just outside of Acapulco, with fewer crowds, fewer vendors, and a generally more relaxed pace. Our hotel, while simple, was like an oasis, and we had hammocks right outside our room on our balcony to relax in after our long hard days soaking up the sun, ha. The waves on the beach were pretty wicked to allow for swimming, but it was so good to lie on a beach for a few days, doing absolutely nothing (in my case, anyway; another member of our group was very excited to have long stretches of empty beach for her daily runs, a thought which never crossed my lazy self’s mind, ever). And the sunsets were magnificent; Pie de la Cuesta is famous for them.

On our last day we got up the energy to do a little sight seeing and went to see the famous Acapulco cliff divers, who were pretty spectacular. They dove off cliffs about 35 meters high (that’s approaching 100 feet) into a narrow, rocky ocean cove. Fearless. However, there was a lot of praying going on to altars of the Virgin Mary at the top of the cliff before they dove, which I don’t blame them for; I was nervous just watching them. Here's a picture; I don't know if it may be too difficult to see the diver, but he's there.

After our four days in the sun, it was back to Cuernavaca to spend the New Year with Angeles and Fernando. New Years here is celebrated a little differently than in the United States; it’s much more of a family holiday, actually pretty similar to their Christmas celebration. Many people go to Mass on New Years Eve as well, then go home and have a late dinner with their families and a midnight toast. All of Angeles and Fernando’s children and grandchildren were also around to celebrate with them. So, after the church service, we went back to their daughter’s house to eat pozole and tacos. At midnight, all the heads of the family made their toasts, and then we went around giving each other hugs and congratulations for the New Year. It was a quiet holiday, but not any less festive. I only made it till about 2, but a lot of the family stayed up, just hanging out, until 5! I guess I just don’t have what it takes to party with my Mexican family.

Back to work I go tomorrow, but not without feeling satisfied, both with my successful travels and a good start to the decade. Here’s hoping for more good times and travels in the year to come.