November 2, 2014

Coyoacan used to be an outlying area far away from Mexico city. But now it’s just a metro ride and a short walk. It’s basically a market area with lots of vendors and stalls and plenty of Dia de Los Muertos ofrendas and celebrations. But the first thing to greet us as we got off of the elevated train was… clowns. Lots of them.

They seemed to be just hanging around apparently getting ready to raise some money for (I think) the organization, Doctors without Borders.

After clowning around with them a bit (and making a donation!) we began walking toward the market area. Karen was fascinated (a little unhealthily in my opinion) with the advertisements put up by a local lawyer

as well as by a local monument to tequila, mad from the agave plant.

We walked past another highly decorated wall of skulls

and finally made it to the market where we encountered the world’s largest skull made entirely of sugar.

Catrinas were common, (even a restaurant bears her name with a waitress to match)

as were ofrendas, including one with a fidder! (And more skulls!)

Lots of people, old and young dress for the weekend

and this weekend the market sported a mime who gathered quite a crowd.








 We had lunch at a hole in the wall place with another waiter who also dressed for the occasion.

               Even the animals are included in the costumery.

This is a good time to mention that all of Mexico has been focusing attention on the 43 students who disappeared about a month ago. Known as the Normalistas for the University they attended, the public outrage over their disappearance has been strong. Their presence was palpable throughout Dia de Los Muertos  and we saw many ofrendas and signs referring to them.

Other posted signs referred to entertainment opportunities and we’d been keeping our eyes open particularly for theater. We noticed one poster advertising a Teatro Coyoacan production of Moliere’s Tartuffe. But regrettably the show dates weren’t ones that we could attend. Imagine our surprise, when a woman stepped out in front of us as we made our way down the narrow sidewalks and invited to come to the production of Tartuffe we thought we were going to be unable to see.

And it was free! Were we interested? Por supuesto! Off we went to the theater, a charming and rather worn auditorium with a proscenium stage. As we were sitting down I noticed on the program that it described the play as Moliere’s classic “al desnudo”. I’m not sure what they were referring to because all of the characters in the play were more than adequately clothed. It was a hilarious production and it seemed a fitting end to a day that began with clowns.