Last Sunday we took a drive to Santiago Ixcuintla about 40 miles from San Blas. There is a large settlement of Huichol Indians there and there is supposed to be a Huichol Center for Cultural Survival there. Accourding to the book "There is a center where you can watch Huichol families making their crafts, any money spent there goes directly to the tribe." Sounded like it would make for an interesting day trip.
It was a nice ride through the countryside. Lots of bananas and sugar cane fields here and mango orchards.
Cane Field
Bananas
These were some kind of storage sheds - found near the cane fields
In one area we noticed a lot of trees downed – roots just pulled from the ground - and lots of broken branches – these were the only good picture I got of trees down - but some were huge ones.
the storm that hit Mazatlan a couple of weeks ago came through here with a vengeance. The GPS was working – once I convinced her where we wanted to go and how [the back roads not the toll road] So eventually we found the town – a lot of it sits up on one of the few hills in the area.
Santiago Ixcuintla
Had no clue where the Center was so when we spotted the church towers we headed towards them. This is another town with all one-way streets, but they were a little better marked.
Found the main plaza
Parked by the plaza and set out on foot to explore. The plaza as always had a gazabo - quite a fancy one with figures of women holding up the roof.
We saw a few Huichol theres with little stands selling jewelry.
Then crossed the street to the church – it is a pretty church, couldn’t go in as there was a funeral going on. Surprised me that they would have a funeral Sunday morning.
Note the tiled steps
As we walked around the church to the roads we discovered wondrous mural. It was on both sides of the street – a block long and easily 15 feet high. All mosaic – large and small pieces of tiles etc. It is called Mural Nuestras Raices – Mural of our Roots. It was completed in May of 1995 (don’t know when it was started.)
Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them - enough said - just enjoy
Houses on top of the mural
Magnificent. These are only a small portion of the photos I took. And this made the whole trip worthwhile.
We walked the whole length of it. Then around the block and back to the church.
How'e you like to carry your groceries up there all the time.Down a couple of blocks we came to the central market. It was so busy – could barely walk through it. Stalls selling everything from CDs and movies to chicken feet. As always the produce smelled so good. (no pictures - too crowded.)
Got back into the car and went looking for the Cultural Center – got directions three times – one person told us we were wasting our time. So off we went – driving down the busy streets.
We did see this guy out in front of a Farmacia – he was doing a jig – don’t know how he didn’t pass out from the heat.
Well we’ll never know about wasting our time as we couldn’t find it. Did see a run down building with a sign out front saying “Taxi Parking for Cultural Center” but the building was shut up tight. ???
So back to San Blas we headed. Another adventure in this great country.
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