Revisiting Santiago Ixcuintla's Mural and the Central Market

Tuesday morning already
When we got up Sunday morning there wasn’t any whale on the beach so hopefully he is okay and back with his family. But there were lots of people on the beach. Vendors, trucks and cars, lots of laughing kids and music. So we decided to take a road trip to Santiago Ixcuintla.

In one little town we ended up behind this humongous piece of farm machinery.

I don’t know how he managed to make it through town. He had to keep dodging cars and trees and going over topes and around people on bicycles. The street was narrow for us. But guess he was used to it.
We went through lots of tobacco fields. Some with the tobacco hanging on ropes to dry.

Lots of tobacco fields

Just before reaching Santiago Ixcuintla we started seeing some of the Indian men and women walking along the road. Always with the man leading and the woman a couple of steps behind him.

The outfits of the men are works of art.

Once in town we parked and walked along the two block long mural again. See last years trip for more pictures of it. There are a lot of pictures of the mural here  Link 
We stopped and talked to a very knowledgeable gentlemen and learned that the information we’d had about this being a large population of Huichol Indians was wrong. Actually there are more Cora Indian families there now. They are known for their embroidery work.
We also learned more about the Mural. One side of the street represents the history of the state of Nayarit. The other side the history of Mexico. This is just part of the side reflecting Mexico’s history.


History goes from right to left

On the far left of this section of the mural is the only figure that doesn’t represent the history of Mexico. It is the black round circle. When they were building the Mural in 1991 they were to this part of it when on July 11 in the morning there was a complete solar eclipse – so they included it in the mural.

Solar Eclipse

Supposedly next week they are supposed to start some much need repair work on it. I hope so it would be a shame if it was let got to ruin.
We walked around the plaza some. Looking at some of the beaded Huichol jewelry and the gazebo and church

Main Plaza  church in background

Walked around plaza

The imagination of the people here never ceases to amaze me. These are light bulbs hanging from the trees – got to be pretty at night.


Tree lighting

 Across the street is an old concrete building with lots of arches. Can’t really see them but the ceilings are painted a light peach color.

We continued on to the Central Market. I stopped at this houseware section – first because of the colorful display and then noticed the morteros – the stone bowls with the grinding stone and next to them the silver tortilla presses.

A little further down the aisle we saw this box of adorable baby chicks. Again a few of them are colored with food color. The lady selling them really tried to get us to buy a couple. Could you see them running around in Jennie?

So cute

As we got into the grocery section this caught my eye – have never seen anything like it before in all the markets we’ve been in. Even the regular shoppers were looking at it askance. One little girl held her nose as she passed it.

no comment

Leaving there we headed back towards the car. Passed the government palace and I had to go in in search of a mural. At first I thought they didn’t have one! But then I saw it at the top of these tiled stairs.

The mural wasn’t too big but was still impressive. The Indian, the Spanish Conquistadors and the Padres – not sure about the naked women –

Looking up the rest of the stairs to the second floor. Interesting ceiling.

Back outside heading towards the car we passed these interesting families .

Keeping baby close

 As we pulled in to Jennie we noticed Ms Tioga parked down the beach from us.

Ms Tiogo on the playa

And just a few minutes later we had a knock on the door and George had come to visit. Spent an interesting hour or so talking with him.
Just out for a ride.

The beach was still full of families enjoying the surf, sand and sun until the sun went down. A vendor cart heading home in front of the sunset

The end of another fun and interesting day in Mexico.