Tuxtla Guiterrez, Chiapas, Mexico
January 17 - 25, 2018
Well, I was approved for the journey and off I went on January 15th. The beauty of this traveling is staying with host families so you get to experience so much more than being in a hotel or Airbnb. I had to fly into Mexico City to meet up with the group and went two days early to acclimatize as the city is 7,382 and I didn't know if the altitude would affect me. I was fine and thankful.
I spent two days touring around on my own and seeing some splendid places. I took a day tour and met a very interesting guy from the country of Georgia. Visited Frida's house that I loved, and toured other places that I later repeated with my Mexico City leg of the trip where we saw all top ten ++ sites. There is still much to see in both cities.
Got to the airport hotel to meet up with group on Feb. 17th. Visited and then had a nice dinner together and spent the night for an early morning flight to Tuxtla-Guiterrez tomorrow. Arrived and we were greeted by our host families. I shared a room with a lady from Iowa named Pat. Our family of six had 4 teenagers and when I had learned that before the trip I was excited as I like teens. The Caro family is beyond description and I fell in love with them. The teens (Cintia, Simon, Jr., Mauricio and Christian) are the best, smartest, most excellent people I've ever met. We got to spend some time with the Dad, Simon, who worked a lot but was able to join us a few times and we got to know him a little.
The parents didn't speak fluent English, but the kids were pretty fluent and we sat many times and had great conversations, discussing differences in our countries, talked about food and life in general It was wonderful and something we don't do often, taking time to do old fashioned talking. I will say Google translate came in handy many times, along with pictures of objects we were trying to explain or determine. We had so many laughs and great fun right at the table. These talks were a treasured part of my trip.
Sylvia, the mom, is a super lady, loving mother and always busy taking care of the kids and house. She will always have a huge place in my heart. She could not do enough to help us, feed us, help us experience new and different food, and all things. If I mentioned I liked something or said I had never tasted something the next day it was there. We had fresh tropical fruit every day for breakfast, along with other wonderful foods. We always had time to talk after breakfast and dinner and that was one of my favorite times of the day. Our last night Cinthia, Simon, Jr. and Christian sang and played guitar for us. It was such a lovely evening.
We went to a parade unlike any other. Held in Chiapa de Corzo, the traditional dancers parade on the streets of the town from January 15 to 23 every year. The festivity takes place in honor of the local patron saints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachico. What an event, one I will never forget.
We got to visit a business that hand makes marimbas. The owner, who has had the generational business handed down to him, talked to us about the history of the instrument and we learned it originated in Africa. They had a band there and played us several songs in different styles and on different instruments. We even got a Beatles medley.
We were treated to welcome and farewell parties which always included a feast, and music. This club went out of their way to treat us like the most special people in the world. I was astounded.
One night we went to Marimba Park where we danced to marimba music, people watched, I ate some cotton candy and just had a wonderful evening. The live band had four marimbas and the music was so happy. There were some good Latin dancers there. I even danced with Enrique, one of the hosts, Simon and the entire group. Fun was had by all.
Each of us, called ambassadors, had to write a journal entry for one day. Here is my day, January 19th,
A typical day in Tuxtla Guiterrez:
The first official full day started with breakfast with our host family. As always, we had coffee, fresh tropical fruit tortillas, beans, cheese and pastries. Always a wonderful morning feast and we appreciated the tropical fruit we had every day. (Every day we had different things Silvia made for us).
After breakfast we met up with the group at the lovely Madero Park. We were treated to a guided tour of the Regional Museum of Anthropology and History of Chiapas . It is the largest museum in Tuxtla Gutiérrez and one of the most important of its kind in Mexico. The museum features history of the Spanish conquest and the Zoque and Maya cultures. The museum pieces were wonderful and we all enjoyed seeing them and learning about the past of Chiapas.
We strolled down the walkway and then visited the Paleontology Museum which was very interesting and contains more than 200 fossils. The museum had great displays with an impressive section on Chiapas amber, much of which is over 25 million years old.. The Spanish conquistadors tell of the Aztec emperor, Montezuma stirring his chocolate with an amber spoon. Many of the displays were interactive and we had an enjoyable visit.
We stopped into a wonderful museum, Direccion Faustino Mirianda, that contained a huge variety of trees, with descriptive information on their uses and the trunks were cut away so one could see how it looked inside. Many pieces of beautiful wood was displayed. Another room to the side had a display of useful and medicinal plants. We saw pictures of the plants and they were labelled to list their common and botanical name and showed the uses for the plants. That was very informative.
Our next stop was the quiet and peaceful The Faustino Miranda Botanical Garden featuring tropical native plants. We had the quick route through the garden since the troops were pooped out and ready for lunch. This was a fun filled day and we returned home with our hosts for lunch and a little rest before the evening festivities.
We had dinner at Las Pinchnchas in downtown Tuxtla. A beautiful restaurant famous for its signature drink "pumpo" -- a frothy vodka/pineapple juice cocktail served from a gourd. When it is served there is celebration and everyone in the place yells "pumpo" Fun. Very nice dinner and we experienced some new foods. During dinner we were treated to mirimba music that kept the spirits high. After the meal we were surprised by a folk ballet with about about 12 dancers. The native clothes, which they changed several times for different dances, were beautiful and the dances were so fun to watch. Our group had such a wonderful evening left left in high spirits.
Another day down, a long one filled with so many new experiences. We're just starting here and hope we can keep up with the fantastic agenda. They do not want us to miss anything and I don't think we will.
Visited several museums featuring textiles from Chiapas. This was a favorite of mine. I thought Chiapas had one type of dress, but I could not have been more mistaken. Their fabrics are so beautiful I could have cried. I was strong and only brought one blouse home. I was very tempted to buy a Chiapas dress, but was practical and resisted. Really, where would I wear it? This dress is really the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
Nelly, owns a restaurant serving traditional regional foods and she also has some old family recipes. She lives and works there in the old Colonial place that used to be a monastery. Some earthquake damage can be seen, but she is having work done to restore the ruined areas. She treated us to a delicious lunch, gave us beautiful gifts and shared some of her life stories with us. She took us over to her home and showed us around and we admired many of her antiques. Nelly offered to let Pat and me wear her beautiful dress so we could pose for photographs. So gracious and I don't know if she knew how much this meant to me. It was a highlight of my trip.
Nelly, a wonderful woman.
Silvia was so generous and gave us amber earrings, bracelet, hand carved wooden earrings. She even bought me a bottle of tequila and sangrita since I said I enjoyed it. The club gave us each a purse, beautiful book, pins. It was overwhelming.
Much more was seen, more experiences had and I'm still overwhelmed. If you were to study the top 10 activities to see while visiting, we were treated to at least 15. We did not miss one thing. We were watched over, fed, entertained and there was such a sharing of love. I will never forget this trip, my experiences and especially my dear family I had to leave. I know we will be friends forever and I hope they can come and visit us. I can't give enough thanks yous.
Here are some photos........not in order as I just have too many and I need to get this done.
First and foremost -- Mi Familia (the best people ever!!!!)
Truly blessed to stay with the Caro family
Mom, always working so hard and taking great care of her family.
Our last night. Simon, Christian and Cintia played their
guitars and sang for us. Brought tears to our eyes.
This family has the best young adults I've ever met.
Beautiful, smart and fun.
Lovely tropical fruit was always on the table.
Christian was sort of roped into being our translator
at one museum and did a wonderful job.
Was so lucky to get to go to a family baby shower.
So different that in the USA, there were probably over 100 people,
men and women, food galore, games, musicians. So fun.
After baby shower went by Sylvia's moms for a double birthday party.
Picture is 3 generations, so sweet. Our friends know how to
have lots of fun and enjoy life to the max.
Simulation of a naval battle with fireworks takes place in the river the night of 21 January,
Chiapas de Corzo, boats on river at night, drum and bugle. Very interesting.
Mexico has some of the best murals, I love them.
Interesting masks
https://www.google.com/search?q=Parachico+masks&rlz=1C1JZAP_enUS698US698&oq=Parachico+masks&aqs=chrome..69i57.4367j1j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Famous for their beautiful hand painted lacquer gourds.
Everyone in our group was given one and it is a treasure.
If you don't like Marimba music, this is
not the place to visit. We all learned so
much about this great instrument.
Each handmade Marimba has the
design of the company that made it.
Marimba Park, center of Tuxtla Guiterrez. We
had so much fun, dancing, being crazy.
Every year they elect a queen of the park. This
lady was the 2017 queen and very proud.
The regional dress clothes are dazzling. It was one of the
highlights for me. So varied and amazingly beautiful.
Beyond beautiful!!!!!!!!!
I could not have been happier than to
be able to pose in this dress.
Museum that had textiles from the region preserved (some very
old) and catalogued. There were flat drawers, probably over 150, maybe more
holding samples of work. It was such a wonderful experience to see this.
I looked at every textile they had. I loved it.
I looked at every textile they had. I loved it.
Best parade I ever attended. Read about
it. Chiapa de Corzo, Great Feast.
https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/men-dress-as-women-for-this-annual-festival
Jose, he was the son of one the FFI members, attending
medical school. A great guy who was so kind
and helpful to all of our group. It was fun to see
him in the parade.
There were several floats.
Indigenous community of Zinacantan. Beautiful
weaving turned into clothes. I bought a blouse here.
Miscellaneous Photos
Delicious, scrambled eggs and string beans
Fresh pine boughs are the portal to the other world. There is afterlife, often reincarnation depending on status. Memory must be kept, attended to. Here is ancestor worship — generations buried in the same space. The pine needles represent infinity, too numerous to count.
I love finding ferris wheels in places I travel.
Interesting church that is a unique blend of Catholic and indigenous beliefs is the result
of 500 years of cultural competition. No pictures allowed. Probably more than a thousands
candles lit. Chickens are sacrificed inside. I did see a chicken inside, but not the sacrifice.
Soleum worship here.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/iglesia-de-san-juan-chamula
Happy face ball that was lost.
This is a taste of Tuxtla-Guiterrez, Chiapas, Mexico. We did and saw so much more. There is much more to the story, the splendor and magic of this area. I've just got to come to a stopping point or I'll never get this done. I'll summarize this:
1. I loved it so much
2. My family was beyond amazing and we're friends forever.
3. It was interesting traveling with a group.
4. I want to go back; and
5. Be sure you go and visit this precious region in Mexico.
