Our trip to Xocchel

Ed and I decided to catch the last day of a festival at Xocchel so we drove the 45 mins out to the little town east of our casa.The rain had let up so it was the perfect time. It was only 80 degrees and overcast so it wasn't hot and stuffy.

We got there and it is a quaint little town with nothing at all to show it has entered the 21st century, no walmarts no grande bodegas..few cars...

Unfortunately due to all the rain from tropical storm Alex, they ended the festival early and today they were disassembling their corrida (Bull Ring). We still met lovely people and took some terrific pictures.

They have a beautiful old church. Most of the old Catholic churches in the little towns are around 200 years old.

We then decided to check out a couple neighboring pueblos.

I love the old buildings in the pueblos.. some still have old colonial buildings from the Spanish. This one had beautiful old wooden doors on the windows, adorned with rod iron rails and above each window a delicate womans face in plaster.

Every pueblo and city has incredible cemetaries. The Mexican cuture respect their deceased family members very much. Ed and I will do a pictorial on this during Dia de la Muerte (day of the dead during our Halloween), but here are a few pictures of one for just this tiny pueblo.

OK soooo.. to end our adventure we see a sign for a Hacienda. It was a historical marker sign so we think lets take a look and we turn in.

The road in was narrow and with tremendous growth on either side. We make comments that we will be screwed especially in the land yacht expedition if anything is coming the opposite direction... and we drive on....

The road starts becoming surrounded by jungle.. only occasional peeks of sky above... and yet we drive on....

Now the jungle gets Angry at the Gringos with their large white tank! Branches are beating our car from every angle! Large bugs of every variety are pounding off the windshield (if they arent plastered to it). Dozens of lizards at a time scramble from the now not quite really a road, to avoid being squashed....and yes mi amigos...we drive...on...

And THEN....yes..at last.. the Grande Hacienda!

For those of you who need some translation assistance "Private Property. Passage Prohibited. Ring the Bell. Beware of the Dog"

so we turned around and started back....

And that's when I stopped taking pictures to avoid further irritating the driver (aka Ed), especially when he had to stop and dislodge half a tree stuck under the truck.

tiptoe-ing out now..bye..more later... :)