We are heading back to Mexico, to the area south of Mexico City. This is a land of many contrasts; geographic and cultural. It is a land of giant smoking volcanoes, of different indigenous peoples, of ancient ruins, of fantastic cuisine and of many festivals. In fact, we will be there during a good time for festivals. The 1st and 2nd of November is Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, one of our favorite holidays in Mexico. There will also be a festival dedicated to 'goat hip soup'. Yes, you heard that right, goat hip soup, called mole de caderas. This is a two week festival in the city of Tehuacan celebrating a very old tradition of the slaughter of the goats. More on this later. We will also go to a state fair where they have a Mexican rodeo and also men who fly through the air around a giant pole. At this fair, every evening, there is something that is called Torneo de Gallos. Google translates this to…and I am not making this up..."Tournament of Cocks". Yes, cock fighting. Not too sure we will make that one, but you never know.
The food here is some of the best in Mexico, in the world, in fact. Besides mole de caderas, also called huaxmole, the city of Puebla is most famous for Mole Poblano. This is the Mexican sauce that has chocolate in it. Well, chocolate is one of about 25 ingredients in this amazing concoction. Another of our favorite meals here is Chiles en Nogada. This is a large pepper, or chile, stuffed with different meats, nuts and dried fruits and covered with a sauce made from walnuts. We will be eating in some very nice restaurants and also in the markets. For me, the markets are my favorite place to eat a meal as that is where you see the every day life. Plus, it's cheap in the markets. Cheap and delicious!
The Mixteca is also a land of great historic interest, as it was here that Hernando Cortez came through with his Conquistadors on his way to the great city of Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). He fought many local people and eventually befriended some of them, in particular, the people of Tlaxcala. It was these allies who would help him and his group of 500 men conquer one of the great civilizations of the New World.
Traveling with us this time will be our very good friends from Maui, Laurie and Jake Rohrer. We were married at their house almost 10 years ago. They are great travelers and we are looking forward to exploring this fantastic area of Mexico together.
Mole de Caderas…
Chiles en Nogada…
Dio de los Muertos, 2012
The city of Puebla...
1500 year old mural at Cacaxtla…
Voladores…
Popocatepetl…
Cherreada…
The town of Tepoztlan…
So, as always, you are invited to come along with us. This time to the Land of the Mixteca, where we will be in search of the strange, colorful, tasty, cultural, ancient and just plain fun!
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