Flour carpets--not for my house

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to a pueblo magico called Huamantla. Mexico has various little towns with this designation; usually they have a unique cultural aspect that is very colonial or pre-Hispanic. In Huamantla, they have a long tradition of a festival called La Noche Que Nadie Duerme, or basically the Night Where Nobody Sleeps. I only went during the day (since I had no hotel reservations, I would have had to sleep on the streets, if I slept at all), but I got to check out some of the festivities.

This festival involves building these giant, long "carpets" made of colored sawdust, flour, and flowers throughout all of the major streets (bigger versions of the one two pics shown below). Early in the morning is a parade of the Virgen, which passes over these carpets. Here you can see these guys marking out the carpets near the Zocalo...once they start, you can't even cross the street!



There was also a competition for kids to build a little block of carpet. Here is one of my favorites, because it makes a good cover-picture for La Noche.



During the entire month of August, the town also is hosting its annual feria, or county fair. They had a ton of rides and stands, though things didn't pick up until the evening. There were some very odd looking Disney-themed trash bins, too...

Weekend trip to southern Puebla, Cheese Fair!!

So a very abbreviated account of an awesome weekend:

A fellow volunteer was visiting with a couple of people from his office. I was invited to spend the weekend with them (and I happened to know all of them from before). We spent Friday exploring Puebla and saw several things that I haven't had the chance to visit! One was this house that housed someone during the 1910 Revolution (I have to brush up on the details), and was attacked and shot up. Bullet holes are still present!



We then went down to Acatlan, a decent-sized city in the mountains in southern Puebla state. We stayed with the family of one of the Mexicans in their really nice house. It was the first house that I've seen with lots of big wood supports, etc., which was cool to see. They had these giant moths (as big as my hand!) that they said always show up when it rains.



Saturday we went up to the family's ranch with a ton of their friends (local and from Mexico City). We hiked up a riverbed to try and find a swimming hole, but it was just too dry. Along the way we found a pregnant cow, recently dead, who had tried to push her baby out unsuccessfully. I'll spare the pictures, but the rancher and some of the guys managed to pull the (dead) baby cow out...

Saturday evening we had basically a barbecue at the house with lots of music and eating. It was good times! Some of the hand-made ice cream that we had (melon flavor).



Sunday after returning to my site, the fellow vol and one of the guys from his office went with me to a local fair in my town. Even though it was late, the last day of the fair, and people were closing up their stalls, it was packed!! I had never seen so many people in my little town!