A Visit to the Panteon

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

Today was Sunday, and Sunday around here is birria day.  Abuela was not having birria at her casa today because she will be at the Panteon serving it up to everyone coming to visit the graves of their ancestors.  Dia de Muertos is actually a week long celebration with the last day for visiting the graves of loved ones.  They bring many flowers and food to the graves and sometimes have a family feast there. Anyway, we went to have taco's with Abuela.

After some yummy taco's, we asked if we could see Abuela's husbands grave.  Rapheal passed away a couple years before we started coming to Mexico so we never met him.  We were given a tour up to his grave.  The Panteon is built on the side of a hill so there is a lot of climbing to do.

This site is made in such a way that there can be numerous bodies buried on top of each other.  I think she said this site can have 6 people buried here.  I think only Abuela's husband is buried here.

People go to great lengths to make the graves very nice.  This site had a couch and table and was 2 floors.  It was spotless inside.  The family gave us a tour and told us about their family history that was buried there.  The floor lifts up and the tombs are under the floor.

Then there are some sites that are just holes in the ground waiting for someone to use them.  Normally there is room for 3 or 4 bodies below ground and a couple above ground in each site.

Flowers are everywhere as the families arrive and bring them.  Colour is important in the Mexican culture.

It was fun to learn some more of the local culture.  After a long day at the Panteon, the people head down town to eat and drink and have fun.  I went down to Kenia's but she was very busy so I didn't get a chance to visit with her.

We did almost witness a sunset today, but at the last minute some clouds moved in front of the sun.  It was a good day.  Good Nite!!

Thanks Blue Jays!!

WHERE ARE WE? La Penita, Nayarit, Mexico

Today is the actual opening day of the big RV park up on the hill so we are going up to have breakfast at Ceci's restaurant.  Ceci is Kenia's aunt and is one of the first local people we met when we first came to La Penita 7 years ago.  She does a good job of creating meals for the park residents and I think breakfast is one of her best.  Jeff, Fany, Max, Kenia, Bryan, and Oscar all joined us for a good visit.

Oscar

Kenia, Fany, Sue, Jeff, Bryan, Oscar

Ceci's outdoor cooking area in the background.

French toast

Bacon, sausage, scrambled, hashbrowns, pancakes.  Canadian breakfast.

It was hot and humid out today, but we did manage to get a few things done.  We brought some chairs from the back and set them where we could wash them down.  Things tend to get quite mildewy and moldy here in the summer with all the rain and humidity, so everything needs a good scrub down.

a bit of black mold

all scrubbed down

good for another season

And like every other Canadian in the world, we watched Game 7 of the World series.  We got the TV set up outside on a beautiful evening. 

What a game it was.  No one played badly and there has to be a winner, and we came up just short.

One of the things this world series did was make us all feel a little bit united as Canadians for a couple weeks.  We all felt a little bit of pride in being Canadian because of a sport, unlike the feelings we have had for our political Canada!!!  The poor old tattered flag held together long enough for us to cheer as one nation even in defeat.  Now I'm afraid to say, we will go back to being not so proud of our country in shambles.

It was a beautiful evening here, but once again there was no sunset pictures because the clouds rolled in for an hour or so around sunset.  This picture says it all.