Guadalupe Victoria

I always thought being serenaded would be more expensive than the cost of a croissant with a side of blueberries. You shouldn’t come to Oaxaca City if you don’t like music. In fact you should go as far away as possible because i’m sure the chords of the serenading mariachi float daily up into the mountains and way across the country to compete with the birds of the Oaxacan bosque (forest). The guitarist busking inside my cafe this morning was requested to play a song for a large table’s celebration, everyone knew the words and not just sang along, but sang to the top of their hearts content. I walked to get here this morning, through one of the most colourful neighbourhoods one earth. Murals line the walls of the cobblestone streets animated with human, dog, and even hummingbird skeletons. They’re shown drinking, dancing, and dining together, as they would have while they were living.The more I learn about the culture of the Dia de los Muertos, the more I realize its not a celebration of death, but one of life. By bringing death into life, the people of Oaxaca are more alive and more awake to enjoy the living moments while we have them. The cemeteries show a great deal of honesty about the deep sadness of the human experience of missing a loved one. A visit to the Panteon General yesterday, just to the north of the city centre, was an eye opening journey through two centuries of history. Urgently opened in 1829 to handle the overflow of bodies from a raging smallpox epidemic that killed a quarter of the population. Five years later, cholera swept through the town, killing hundreds more. Over the next two centuries, the necropolis housed some 11,000 bodies in a diverse array of architecture of tombs, graves, shrines, and commemorative gardens. Each year on November 2nd the dead are brought back into the lives of the living by, amongst other tricks, covering everything everywhere with marigolds - known as the flower of the dead’ - said to attract the souls of the dead back from their resting places. In short, this place is a trip. We keep booking our airbnb for… just one more night… grateful to be here, grateful to be alive.Lue lisää