December 24, 2023
Day 12: Valladolid - Day 1
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Although not at all fancy, the hotel San Clemente is a place we look forward to coming back to. The rooms are arranged around a central courtyard, with a garden, pool, and a reasonably priced restaurant with seating in the garden. Also, we we are just off the main square, and across the street from the Cathedral.
We took breakfast in the garden, as we had long planned to do. My huevos estrellados con tocino (fried eggs with bacon) seem to be staying down, although now I have a disturbance of balance and taste. It does seem that some form of illness catches us on visits to Mexico, despite our best precautions.
Our first step was to walk across the street to the cathedral, where we found a service in progress. We took a seat and contributed to the collection. Interestingly, one of the first parts of the service had Bob Dylan's "Blowing in the Wind" played over the loudspeakers, in Spanish. We think this was part of an early in the service appeal for peace in the world and found it's ecumenical nature, drawing from a different original language and culture, touching. However, although we always end up in churches, drawn by architecture, art, music, culture and history, actual services always make me nervous. To see people bowing, crossing themselves, and praying in deference to (to us) purely mythological stories and concepts, and before statues and stuff that were sourced from some kind of church supply wholesale, makes me sad. Oh well - let's get on with the architecture and art:
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We unobtrusively left the church by a side door and headed for the square. The church had a nice nativity scene, and the square had one as well. For some reason there was also a Beauty and the Beast, which we failed to photograph.
The square was filled with Christmas craft stalls, these being of course the colourful Mexican embroidery, carving, and leather work. A lot of this, we read, is actually made here in Valladolid, and shipped to other parts of Mexico.
So colourful:
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The central feature of the square is the statue of "La Mestiza" which represents the fusion of Mexican and Spanish peoples. The lady is wearing the "Terno", the regional standard dress. A large number of the Mayan women around wear this daily. Some are much more elaborately embroidered.
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Our final stop on this walk was the food fair, which features good, small, regional kitchens, and the one that strangely we like a lot - the Chinese one "La Muralla China". We also passed by the one in the corner, that makes fresh pressed fruit juices. We'll be back!
After a bit of a nap, we set off again, this time mainly to see what was going on in the streets surrounding the central square. The buildings in this central area are colonial era, and would have been middle class residences at the time. The intriguing part for us right now was to see the public out crowding the streets, and to note that these were the local people of the town, enjoying their place, and without any preponderance of tourists (like us) diluting the ambience. A lot of people had set up fruit and snack stands along the street, just by sitting on the sidewalk. They were providing peeled and segmented oranges, mandarins, jicoma, as well as rambutan and grapes. All were smiling and pleasant, making it fun to buy their products.
We circled around to our food fair, checking out the first kitchen from the entrance. The man on the right holding the menus has the job of attracting customers, while the one on the left takes the orders, delivers up the plates, and brings the cash back into the heart of the operation, behind.
We ordered the "pollo asada", roast chicken, and I was quite proud to have been able to field the rapid fire questions or statements from the man on the left. "What is your name?" "Is that for take out or eat in?" "You gave me 50 pesos too much." "The forks are over here". And when I came back for some "jugo de naraja", he remembered me "Estevan".
Back over to the square, we joined a line for marquesitas, which are unique crepes usually filled with Nutella and edam cheese. But you can get other additions. Finding that strawberries were out (No Hay Fresa - on the window) we went for banana, Nutella, and edam. Then we went to sit in one of the park's iconic "lovers' seats" where you face each other once seated, and shared our treat.
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An attraction in the square were a pair of traditional dancers, performing to some very fast paced music. They are both dressed in traditional garb, which as I say, is still much seen on the streets of today.
As evening fell, swarms of grackles arrived to take up roosts in the trees of the square. Their squawking is very loud. I shot a brief video to try to capture that, plus the scene at the marquesita line:
That was it for Christmas Eve festivities that we could find. Perhaps there will be a midnight mass at the church, but we will be fast asleep!
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 433 km (269 miles)
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