The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Our first Mexican posada

As with past days here, yesterday morning wasted away without a problem. Then, we received an invite from Luis and Lorena to come over to their RV at another marina as they were having friends over for food that afternoon, and did we want to join them? Yes please!

So Ruth made a big salad to take for everybody and Luis said he would pick us up around 2:00pm.

We got a fun surprise we got when he arrived!

We expected him to come in his car...

Luis, Ruth, and Kevin.

Luis had come with his friend Luis (who took the photo above. Yes, they are both named Luis!) to take us back to their place.

What a fun little boat. An oversized jet ski really, but perfect for zipping around the lake.

Arriving at Luis and Lorena's spot.

Marisa and Lorena tending the grill.

The other Luis, and his wife Marina have a house on the other side of the lake but in the mountains. They moved to California four months ago and will now come back here only to visit a couple of times a year.

Just about everybody speaks quite good English which is not very good for our Spanish practice. However, we still manage to learn a little more each day.

This marina has quite a few RVs parked up, but Luis says most of them are stationary and hardly ever move. It looks a bit crowded in this shot, but there is room for temporary rigs that are just passing through. GPS co-ordinates of the front gate are 19.226018, -100.144631.

Fun get together.

Other friends showed up as well, and their kids. Fun to have lots of children running around...kids aged three to nine. They sure were having a good time!

We wanted to try to get to the posada, so by 6:30pm or so Luis took us back to Sherman, and then we put on a sweater and jacket and walked on over to the local church.

A few people starting to arrive.

We were the only gringos around, so we kind of stood out like a sore thumb. And our friend Chago and family were nowhere to be seen. But several people said good evening to us as they walked by. Eventually, the posada was ready to go and about 100 people walked out of the church following the leaders who were two children dressed as Mary and Joseph looking for accommodation.

We walked with the procession about a half a km up the road. Traffic was stopped for us, and we passed several fires along the road, with the houses at these locations made up with balloons and streamers.

Walking past one of the decorated houses.

Many people carried candles, and on the return trip we made four stops at houses where Mary and Joseph stopped to ask for lodging and of course were turned down. There was some kind of ceremony at each place but we were in the back and couldn't hear very well.

As we were walking, a young boy came up to us and asked if we were staying at the Las Olas del Valle marina. He has been working at the marina part time and recognized us. Jamie is about 13 or 14 years old, we think, and he's a bright and friendly young man. He stayed with us for the rest of the walk and we felt like we fit in a little better with him there. He wants to learn English and had lots of questions for us. Also he's very patient with our Spanish and corrects us when we make mistakes. We like that!

Then, it was back to the church.

Busy at the little church!

They do a pinata for the children, and everybody was given a loot bag...they even insisted that we each take one!


We each got a loot bag with this kind of stuff.

The posadas here last for nine nights, with a different route and different people along those routes taking part. They even had boards up listing who was to take part on each night. So while we weren't on any boards, and we kind of crashed the party, they certainly welcomed us to last night's gathering. Last night was the last posada, and tonight is the celebration of Christmas at the church. We will only go if Chago invites us to go with his family, so we'll see.

Another great day in Mexico!

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27 comments:

  1. What a great time with friends and arrival by boat is really nice! Love the story of the posada. I love religious rituals which seem to be rare in the states. Hope you get to go to the Christmas celebration.

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    1. It was a truly wonderful day.

      We aren't religious people but we want to learn and understand other cultures and how they celebrate different holidays and life in general. We were glad that we went.

      Delete
  2. Glad you have made some new friends and went to the posada. This morning the temp. is 16 but very windy. Tomorrow is a high of 5 in Ottawa!

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    1. We are too! :-)

      I think your weather was warmer than what Alex was going to be getting in Phoenix.

      Delete
  3. Great post and glad you were able to take part in the posada. Wishing you both a very Merry Christmas from across the pond. :)

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    1. Thank you Dianne, we are glad that we joyed in on the posada too!

      Hope you and John had a very Merry Christmas.

      Delete
  4. Sounds like a great way to spend Christmas Merry Christmas

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    1. We think it was! Defenitely no the usual type of Christmas that is for sure.

      Hope you had a very Merry Christmas too!

      Delete
  5. Very neat way to get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully you will be able to practice your spanish on Jamie a bit more - it is on my life list to learn Spanish but haven't had much opportunity. I know about 30 or 40 words only - perhaps later in life.

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    Replies
    1. I forgot to say Merry Christmas to both of you Kevin and Ruth!

      Delete
    2. Yes, it was a very different Christmas. It is always nice to see how other cultures celebrate the holidays compared to the way we are used too do it.

      We are getting lots of Spanish practice in now that our other friends Paco and Oti have arrived, I think our Spanish is better than their English but between the two languages we manage to understand each other and we are having a ton of laughs. We will try practicing our Spanish on Jamie as well but he also wants to learn English. Learning a second language when you are older is certainly a lot harder than when you are younger.

      Thank you for the Christmas greeting and we wish you a Merry Christmas too!

      Delete
  6. Another great way to hang out with the locals.
    Merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. There is always new things to learn about other cultures and we are always wanting to joy in or ask questions. We love it!

      Merry Christmas to you and Suzie!

      Delete
  7. Merry Mexico Christmas. And thank you for writing your blog.

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    Replies
    1. You are most welcome! :-)

      Merry Christmas to you as well.

      Delete
  8. How nice that you got to participate in this tradition. That loot bag looks like the American tradition of "trick or treat" kind of loot.

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    1. We are glad that we joined in as well. Kevin took a picture of the loot bag and sent it to our daughter and she said the same thing, that it looked like we had gone trick-or-treating!

      We are passing the treats on to some of the children around here, it isn't something that we eat.

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  9. Feliz Nochebuena! I am currently boning up on my long-forgotten Spanish using a fun app called Duolingo. Probably not as fun as your 14-old friend though.

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    1. Not sure what Feliz Nochebuena is meant to be though. Translated it means Happy good night. Here in Mexico though a nochebuena is a poinsettia. Learning a second language is definitely hard!

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    2. Nochebuena is what they call Christmas Eve there, and the poinsettia is so named because it is associated with that holiday.

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    3. Maybe the Spanish that you are learning is Spanish from Spain because all the years we have been here in Mexico for Christmas we have never once heard a Mexican call Christmas Eve, Nochebuena. They have always used another name for it which I can't remember at the moment but I will check on that and get back to you with it. :-)

      Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. Yep, we found that out later but at the time it seemed that it was mostly just the children getting them.

      Delete
  11. You had a most enjoyable day! Feliz Navidad to you both! Have a Super Great and Terrific 2016!

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    1. Yes, we did a have an enjoyable day. And thank you for the wonderful Christmas greeting.

      Merry Christmas to the both of you.

      Delete
  12. Seeing your Quartzsite favorite photo at the top brought back a nice memory of our visit with the two of you in Sherman at that very spot! Feliz Navidad... Pete & Frederika (come visit us at Jojoba Hills SKP park if you're in the Southern California area ($5/night boondocking). I remember reading a long while back that you guys keep an eye out for some place you might want to settle when the time comes - we found it here...an amazing place where we can live VERY well for less than we could in Mexico!)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. So glad that we could rekindle those memories. Too bad we couldn't have spent more time together.

      So happy that you have found a spot to settle down in and that you both enjoy. If we are ever out that way we will make a point of stopping in.

      Merry Christmas to you and Frederika and wishing you a great 2016.

      Delete

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