The Adventures of Alohaman, Tasha & The Beast

Welcome > Oct. 2007 > 10/20 + - Zacatecas

10/20 + - Zacatecas

10/20 - Zacatecas, MX

Zacatecas is as beautiful and charming as I had remembered. Many of the tourist books refer to Zacatecas as the "unknown gem" of all the colonial towns, and they are correct. Checked in once again at the Hotel Del Bosque, which sits high above the town with a stupendous view and only a few steps to the teleferico (tram) which takes you to a high hill on the other side of the town. There are six RV spaces right in the parking lot. Electricity, water, no sewer hookups. Clean bathrooms/showers with hot water. I was disappointed but not surprised to find the "Little Larry" I had placed here last year was no more to be seen. Can only hope it was brought home by a loving parent employed by the hotel and now resides among some child's treasured playthings...

As soon as we settled in Tasha and I walked the winding steep mile into the Centro and found the place buzzing with activity. Turns out we arrived on the final night of their annual Teatro de Calle (street theatre) festival. Incongruous to find the square filled with people watching young Mexican girls belly dancing to mideastern music... followed by a Mexican version of commedia ... but the capper to the evening was the finale which was so bizarre and beyond belief I find it difficult to describe (but I'll try)...

Having been unable to find any place to reasonably view the earlier performances, me and Tasha plunked ourselves down at 18:30 (that's 6:30 P.M. to you northern folks) waiting for the finale... of course we didn't realize that the finale didn't start until 20:30 and spent two enthralled hours on those stone stairs watching the local culture in action and listening to a boring loop of electronic "music" repeated ad infinitum. One thing we observed with regularity was how much the Mexicans like to snack. They have vendors walking around selling potato chips with hot sauce and limes, a cheetos derivative with same topping, cotton candy, candied apples, popcorn balls, nuts of all kinds, many unknown and strange confections, but... no hot dogs or beer. There were also many vendors selling baloons and small toys for the kids.

By the time 8:30 arrived, the seating section (really stairs) were packed. Then some official "house manager" type came around and spoke a lot of spanish we didn't understand and, all of a sudden, half the crowd leaves. We were to find out later that we could have arrived at the last moment and still seen this show, because almost all of it was above the crowd's heads.

At exactly 8:30 three guys with flashlights and flares repelled down from the teleferico basket outside of town. The crowd was reasonably impressed but not overwhelmed. Then came a full 30 minutes of waiting for we knew not what. By that time our already tired butts were numb from sitting on those stone stairs and Tasha had a bad case of having to pee. Too bad... we weren't going to leave for anything after waiting all that time and Tasha's bladder capacity never ceases to amaze me.

At 9:00 the whole square was filled to capacity. I have no idea where all of those people were before then, but they seemed to know what was going to happen. The real show began. Some guy came riding in on a spectacularly big black horse (don't forget I'm from Hawaii where we do not have spectacularly big horses), carrying a soft prod to move the crowd out of the way. Then, overhead, came this guy in a contraption with a church bell and fireworks. He was carried in by a crane we had seen earlier. Simultaneous to this two other contraptions with even more bizarre paraphernalia and fireworks were rolled in. Intermittently the overhead contraption would be lowered to meet the other contraptions.... why wasn't too clear. Then the overhead was brought to the ground and the crane ball went away. The three contraptions were then joined by what appeared to be an enormous whale skeleton contraption (about 20' long) with rolling eyes, fireworks, and spewing steam. After a much too long performance by the contraptions, the whale skeleton was opened up to reveal a metal "pegasus" which was brought out and attached to the crane. Some guy then climbed aboard and the pegasus was flown over the crowd... at times spewing fireworks from its wings and dropping sparks directly onto the crowd.

Eventually the pegasus flew into the darkness and disappeared, whereupon we were treated to a spectacular display of fireworks coming from the rooftops of two different churches. The crowd, which had already been delirious from the Pegasus, went berserk over the fireworks. (They were definitely better than anything we do in Hilo.) At the end of the whole spectacle, the operators appeared on a balcony where they received resounding multiple ovations. And then it was all over... just like that. Everyone walked out and we made the arduous climb back to the RV.

I had forgotten that there is a disco directly behind our RV. Tasha spent a rather sleepless night listening to techno music (lasted until 3:00 am). Once again I was rescued by Ambien and was only occasionally awakened by the booming beat of the bass. Today I gave Tasha a pair of ear plugs... hopefully she'll rest better tonight.

10/21 - Zacatecas

Today Tasha and I took the telferico across the valley and walked down the hill into town. Walked the town like the tourists we are and once again trudged up the hill to our new home. I was one tired boy when we got back. Did I mention Zacatecas is at 8000' and I haven't adjusted to the altitude? Tasha, the young Colorado whippersnapper just keeps on trucking up and down those hills. In fact she complains about not getting enough exercise.

On the teleferico we found out a lot more about last nights "spectacular" performance. Turns out the group is from France and they tour this particular show to numerous festivals throughout Mexico. Now that I know it was European in origin the whole thing makes a little more sense... buscars at their height (pun intended). The teleferico guy was the "driver" while those guys repelled down last night. He gave us a hard time about our lack of Spanish. Told him we were going to study Spanish and be in the country for three months. He laughed and asked if we thought we'd know any Spanish by then. When we answered in the affirmative he laughed even harder and said the most we could probably hope for in that period of time was to be able to order a Corona with lime. Little does he know I can already order a Corona with lime. Not only that, I can ask for another and, when I've had enough, where the bathroom is. Anything above and beyond this basic language knowledge will make life down here a little more comfortable, but probably isn't completely necessary.

Sundays in Zacatecas (and most Mexican towns) are pretty laid back. Many of the shops are closed. There was another version of Mexican commedia in one of the squares... these folks didn't wear the masks but used stylized movement, makeup, and props instead. Tasha became mesmerized with the religious devotion most Mexicans display. We sat in front of two different Catholic churches (the historic ones) and watched the cars. In over 70% of the cars and buses driving by at least one person (usually all) would cross themselves as they passed by the church; including machismo men, young teenage boys, and motorcycle riders.

Here are some photos of Zacatecas Tasha took today.

View From The Teleferico

Church Entrance

Detail of Another Church

They tell you it's only a mile back to La Beasta... but what a mile it is.

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