Mexican independence day is celebrated every September 16th.  It was on September 16 in 1810 that a “cry of independence” marked the beginning of a revolt against the Spaniards. Mexicans really celebrate well and big, demonstrating their Mexican pride by hanging flags every where – on their cars, houses, places of work – and banners and streamers in red, white and green flutter everywhere!   This is the Parish of St. Francis of Asisi in the main plaza of Valle de Bravo, a town about 2 hours west of Mexico City, where we spent the Independence Day weekend.

The flag completely done in flowers and plants adorning the main entrance to the church.

Even businesses get in on the fun!

We plan to use the allotted school holiday times to go exploring – the Independence Day break allowed us a four day weekend.  So we headed to a lakeside community (something kind of special here in the interior of the country) called Valle de Bravo.   It is a town built around a man-made lake initially designed and used for hydro power generation.  Now it is the main water reservoir for Mexico City – that’s a very important body of water!

Yes, that’s our Hudson skillfully skippering the boat one-handed!!  He had a bad sprain that the doctor figured he had better fully cast, as he’s such an active kid!  The cast was actually pretty cool, as it could be fully submerged.

What a treat to spend a few days at and on the water – we miss it so much!  The air was so fresh and the scenery just lovely.  We rented a J-24 sailboat from a gentleman who is part of one of 55 marinas and aquatic clubs that surround the lake.

The hotel we stayed at  – Mision Grand Valle de Bravo – was lovely and in the most beautiful natural setting.  The restaurant overlooked a gorgeous waterfall and by mid-morning when the sun warmed the area the butterflies were out eating from the prettiest orange flowers that grow down the rock face beside the waterfall.  Being at the tail-end of rainy season, all the vegetation is just so lush and green.

Four leaf clovers!

We tried Chiles en Nogado (Chiles with walnut, translated directly).

This is the quintessential Mexican dish served specifically at this time of the year, as it contains the colours of the flag – red, white and green.  It consists of a green poblano pepper stuffed with a mixture of pork and beef meat, nuts, raisins and then covered in a white walnut based sauce and red pomegranate.  We tried it at the hotel, a special menu item, as we were there for the actual night of Independence Day.  Our expectations for this dish were sky-high, as every Mexican we’ve mentioned it to just raves about it.  Most surprising to us was the fact that it is served cold!  Caleigh was amazed by how quickly our meal arrived after ordering, and when we took that first bite, we knew why!  It was definitely prepared in advance and kept in the fridge… very surprising!!

A pretty heavy duty fireworks display being prepared in the main plaza for the night of Sept 16.  We were advised to do our sightseeing during the day for safety and because it was going to be super busy that night!  Honestly, fireworks are set off daily here for various reasons – we always tease that they love to blow things up!  But seriously, they are always celebrating something – a holiday,  a saint or announcing their arrival when on pilgrimage.  We had been warned that they really pull out all the stops for Independence Day.  We were getting a taste of this three weeks prior; every Saturday morning we would wake (not because we were ready to) around 8 am to a rehearsal for the Independence Day parade.  There is a long road behind our community that they marched up and down on for hours, practicing…they use a lot of trumpets… and fleets of drummers….

Despite spending a wonderful weekend together, I’m still feeling a bit lukewarm about this place, to be really honest, and often found myself observing from a distance the celebrations happening all around me… searching for reasons to appreciate where I was.

A couple of things happened that may have softened my heart slightly.

1. We met Jorge.  This is the gentleman from whom we rented the sailboat.  Each email I send has an automatic signature with a “check out my blog” invitation, so when we were emailing back and forth he said he took a look at the blog – I understand why, he needed to know a bit more about us as he initially thought we were scamming him when we asked for his banking info to do an e-transfer of the deposit we owed for the boat – everyone, even those who have lived most of their lives here, are very cautious. That said, when we spoke on the phone to confirm our reservation for the boat, and to arrange for his courier to pick up the money directly from us,  he chuckled over the brief look he took at the blog.  He said that he enjoyed it, but felt terrible that we were having such a hard time with his country.  He was most gracious in offering to tour us around the town of Valle de Bravo – he is something of an “expert” having been a part of the community for more than 45 years, and we were happy to accept.  We met at the church in the plaza at the centre of town and walked up and down many busy, decorated streets in this “Pueblo Magico” ( “Magical Town” – a government initiative to promote tourism in the country).

We went through the market and sampled some yummy typical meats and cheeses, as well as tamarind sweets, which are very unique.

This elder is one of many from the Mazahua (Mass-a-wah) peoples who still live in the area, and wear the traditional dress and continue to speak the Mazahua language.

We went for ice cream and then said our goodbyes and continued our tour walking the main street with many great shops to see all the way down to the lake.  It was very generous of Jorge to give us that time and to share some lovely aspects of this town with us.  We are grateful.

(helado – ice cream made with cream;  nieve (literally ‘snow’) is sorbet – we learned that you must specify as most flavours are available in both preparations)

2. We were welcomed (and blessed!).  On our last day in Valle we walked some more around the town after visiting Los Pericos for lunch.  It was a beautiful day and we stopped once more for a little bit of ice cream (we had more new flavours to try!!) and a rest in the plaza before hiking back up many hills to the van.  We ordered our treat and walked across the street to the plaza, searching for a shady spot to sit to enjoy it.  We all felt the weight of every eye glancing our way or more conspicuously, staring directly at us. We once again became very insular, turning in to one another.  Every so often I would look up and around to stay alert to what was happening around us.  I noticed a man getting his shoes shined across the walkway from us.  I thought nothing of it.  A few minutes later that same man made his way over to us and began to speak to us.  This elderly man welcomed us to Valle and congratulated us for taking the time to get to know his country.  We were each blessed many times.  He shared with us that he has 13 grandchildren, obviously very proud of his family.  He wished us well and went on his way.  Both Aaron and I were shocked, as we were convinced that he was approaching us for money, as has happened to us many times before.  We were bracing ourselves for this, and were pleasantly surprised when we were genuinely welcomed.

Will have to return to Valle de Bravo area in January/February for the Monarch Butterflies Festival – apparently thousands of butterflies meet back in this area after their long trek back from Canada.  Valle de Bravo lies on the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly and east of the town is a butterfly sanctuary.

I just loved this – actually asked Aaron to do an extra loop to go back to snap a picture.  I know that there is a lot of poverty in this country, but time and time again I see examples of people of all means making sanctuaries where they are.  There were buckets and tins covering every square inch, growing something.