This morning was market day in Cuetzalan, a beautiful hillside town high up in the semitropical rainforest that drains far down into the gulf of Mexico. It's an amazingly beautiful town even today when low rain clouds obscure the views. The local geology is mostly limestone (with a few grubby "meteorites" being peddled by the local kids) so there are some steep cliffs with luxurious waterfalls not far from town, maybe a fifteen minute combi ride, and some pyramid ruins built of blocks of the limestone down in a valley about twenty five minutes the other way.
The town itself is very pleasant because it mixes a lot of nice things. A lot of coffee is grown nearby, so tasty coffee is everywhere, whether it's the sweet pot boiled "cafe de olla" that the local street vendor gives you to drink with her freshly made tlayoyos, which are silver dollar sized freshly fried corn patties with black bean filling, topped with red or green savory sauce and a sprinkling of fresh local cheese, or it's a cappuccino with high foam from a relaxing cafe accompanied by a coffee cheesecake loaded with pecans or walnuts. The food is also amazingly good. There is a local black chocolate mole that is shiny with chocolate and has dark smoky chile flavor and spice. it comes with a piece of chicken leg in it and glossy black beans and rice with small pieces of tomato. There are two sauces made from pipian, a huge flat local pumpkin seed, the green one is spicier, with some green herbs mixed in. There are the most amazing dishes with fresh wild mushrooms. It's kind of like an oyster mushroom, we had it cooked in a chipotle (smoked chile) sauce, we had it cooked in a garlic sauce, it also comes as a soup, or in a quesadilla.
One of the best things about Cuetzalan, is the relative preservation of an older culture under the modern culture. People in surrounding villages are part of the modern world but they still prefer to speak the old language, Nahuatl, over Spanish, and they have adapted traditional,clothing to modern materials. So for a Sunday market day, the women tend to wear skirts, with a bright colorful hand,loomed waistband, a white blouse with a square neck framed by (now machine made) embroidery with geometric designs, swans and flowers, and they use a front lacy whitr draping triangular scarf that hangs to the waist, with a little embroidery on the low point of the triangle. Babies might still be carried in a little v shaped basketry cradle on the back, or in a rebozo, and even though it has been raining a lot off the two days we have been here, many of the women are walking around barefoot in town. In fact their feet are broad, it seems after a lifetime, modern shoes wouldnt easily fit. More women have switched to pants but they might still use a variant on the embroidered top if they don't prefer newer styles. And some of the older ladies still coil their hair up on thir heads, then fold their lacy white scarf up in a flat stack on top of that. It's nice. At first the only people we saw dressing so traditionally, were trying to sell all us tourists -- who are 99% frommexico -- their local products of embroidery, home woven scarfs or cinnamon or napkin holders; but as market day got rolling the out of towners arrive by combi and older dress styles became common.
The local villagers love white for everyday. The men wear a white carribean style shirt over baggy white trousers that are cinched in at the calf or ankle. The women often have both white embroidered tops, and white skirts. The men often wear a very simple unusual huarache like half a flipflop in front, with a roman style strap around the ankle and usually the sole is an old tire.
Everyone is really pretty short. Midday, we saw a pair of European looking men, bald tall twins, who knew everyone, well those men really towered. After seeing them we realized, everyone in town knows who craig and I are, we can't hide. And they clearly think we look and dress pretty funny.
Yesterday Craig was pretty sure he had not been detected, photographing a woman and her son wildly chasing a large clean pig around town. Who knew. Today the same lady called out to us, Next to her now dead clean pig, on the market table, she said, don't you know it's me? Let's see the pictures! We all had a good laugh together of her chasing her pig. And she offered to pose for us again, with mr or miss pig. We realized, everyone sees us, may as just relax and have fun.
And that's why this entry, is titled The Combi Passes. Combis are our way, of getting to sit around with locals, and coming into their territory, to the world where you'd never dream of getting your own taxi, where waiting patiently til the van fills up every seat AND two more in the front seat AND several people standing clutching the bars in the ceiling. People are kind, and chat, and make sure you get on, because after all you are a welcome stranger and they can study you, right up close.
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