the bulls of taxco

my weekend away was a nice break from the smoggy, crowded, noisy world that had started to go unnoticed in my daily life in these parts.

i left on saturday morning for taxco on a very fancy-pants bus where they even gave you your choice of soda and a barf bag as you boarded. i had had the foresight to go to the bus station on friday evening to get my ticket, mostly because there didn't appear to be another feasible way to get a reliable bus schedule. i got to choose my seat from a computer screen, but i was confused by which side of the diagram was the front and which was the back... but i chose a seat that was definitely a window seat, regardless of what side of the bus it was on, and would allow me to do some serious daydreaming and window gazing on the 2 1/2 hour bus ride.

when i boarded saturday morning, i was surprised to see two women sitting in my seat and the one next to it. i showed them my ticket, and they realized that they had been confused and moved to the seats on the opposite side of the aisle. it got complicated when the third in their party - a gentleman who must have been approaching 80 - then had to switch to my side. i was just about to settle into my seat when he pointed out that seat 20 (my seat) was in fact on the aisle. i was confused, but i have gotten used to generally being confused - and often wrong - here, so i acquiesced. he also was old and all of that, so i didn't particularly want to put up a fight when i was feeling unsure of myself. i gave it an embarrassing amount of thought on the ride to taxco, and realized there was no way seat 20 was on the aisle, since that would mean that the seats in my row going across were numbered 17-18-20-19. not likely. then he closed the curtains on the window so i couldn't even see out from my distant aisle seat, and went to sleep and - of course - started to snore. by the time we got to taxco i was feeling pretty bitter and determined to get a window seat on the way home. i booked the same seat - 20 - for the ride home simply because i had a point to prove.

with my sunday return to mexico city assured, i went off to find a taxi into town. i was dropped off at the square in the taxco's lively little center and then set off to find a hotel. i checked into a place from my guidebook - the price had doubled since the book was published five years ago - but i was hot and hungry so it was good enough for me. i had a bite to eat and then ventured into the NEVER ENDING silver market. i probably browsed and shopped for close to three hours and i still didn't see close to everything. it was completely insane. my book said that the silver trade employs virtually all of taxco's 10,000 inhabitants. i don't doubt it, and the saturday market must bring in as many folks from outside of taxco to sell their wares because it really did go on and on and on. it was unbelievable. the nice part was that the sellers seemed as overwhelmed and exhausted by it all as the buyers, so they didn't waste their energy pressuring you unless you were seriously interested. so you could browse and browse and never be bothered.

after the endless silver maze, and then resting and recovering at the hotel for a bit, i went out for dinner and then hung around the town square people-watching and enjoying the bright hot sun that we don't get much in mexico city. i chatted with a friendly couple from bombay... the man also works for an NGO so we swapped causes and he told me about their plans to head to acapulco the next morning. i sang the praises of zihuatanejo (where we went for my mom's birthday a few years ago) and they changed their plans, just like that.

i got back to the hotel just before a downpour hit, so that helped to solve any issues i was having in deciding what to do for the evening. i stayed in and read and went to bed early.

sunday morning, i took a cab up to a hotel on a very high cliff that golden girl #1 had recommended for its view more than anything. i had brunch there, but i wasn't feeling bold enough to try most of the hot foods (i almost scooped something resembling chilaquiles onto my plate, but thought better of it and first asked what it was exactly -- pork rinds in green salsa... no gracias. i'm not ready to go there just yet) so i gulped down a lot of fresh squeezed orange juice and had granola and some sweet breads and a bunch of fruit. i took some pics from the restaurant balcony and then headed back down to town on the funicular. i haven't been on a roller coaster in a very long time (well, besides the one at seattle center that pretty much gave me a mild concussion a few years ago) so the funicular was feeling pretty wild and crazy. but i made it down in one piece, and will eventually post the pics from the my little psuedo-swiss alps joy ride.

as i trudged back into town from the funicular station, i came upon some sort of parade. i'm still not exactly sure what it was, but a bunch of different mexican states had contingencies who made their way through taxco's little winding streets in traditional dress, looked pretty, and didn't do much else. well, except for the group from guererro, which had a bunch of men dressed in bull costumes bringing up the rear. their masks were kind of scary, and to make it worse they had long whips that they would slam onto the ground and - just for fun - sometimes whip in the general direction of the crowd. i huddled in the back with the toddlers. when i was at a safe distance, i took some pictures and then made my way up to the town square, following behind the guererro group.

before i knew it, one of the scary bull men had grabbed my hand and pulled me into the procession. it was fun for a minute but then i remembered the whips and got scared and scooted away. when everyone from the parade was gathered on the plaza (with signs about a festival of mexican dance but i never saw a single person dance, so it just confused me more) the bull found me again and this time pulled me over to the guererro group's photo op! so there are all of these beautifully made up women wearing long flowing skirts with their hair in perfect braids and decorated with flowers, and men in elaborate bull masks and furry capes, and a sunburned gringo tourist in sneakers and a t-shirt lumped in there with them... i wonder what all of the tourists who were taking pics and videos will think when they go back and look at the group. the least challenging where's waldo game ever. after the photos i chatted with the bull briefly and he attempted to invite himself to come watch the world cup game with me. well, he did invite himself, but i declined. i didn't get to watch the game anyway, cause the bar i knew of was full. so i spent the afternoon on the square, taking it all in while keeping a low profile to avoid bull and his buddies.

getting on the bus to come back to mexico city, i seized up for a moment when i saw a young boy sitting in my seat. or i should say one of the window seats in my row, which at this point i was sure was seat 20, and i wasn't about to cave to a five year-old. so i politely told him that that was my seat, and his parents had him move. i savored every moment of the scenery on the ride home... traffic was bad so it took an hour longer than it should have, and i was amazed by all of the vendors who wove their way among the slow moving highway traffic, selling everything from slushees to wooden serving bowls. what continues to amaze me both about the informal economy here is that people actually buy the stuff. i have seen businessmen buy pirated CDs on the subway, and mothers buy their kids coloring books. it tempts me to find something to hawk.

the work week is moving right along, and i am looking forward to my family's visit in a couple of weeks. i start my spanish classes tomorrow and have plans to get together with friends of mike bosworth. it is rumored that there will be some college students from california arriving at my house in the next few days, so i am preparing myself to feel old and out of touch. it might be a nice change from feeling woefully anglophonic and out of touch.