sights, sounds and smells of Mexico

[asirimarco]

El Fuerte Pueblo Magico…..It is so hard to describe the place. It’s more to do with your senses then anything else. Everything is so different and so much more vivid – sounds, smells, sights, tastes if you’re daring. From the time the roosters wake you up till the time the music stops and you go to bed there are sounds. The roosters are all over the city, and they crow all day long. Then from over the fence we could hear the donkey braying. Every once in a while something would really set him off. The little restaurant set up on the dirt shoulder of the street played music at the top of their volume control all day. Once you get into town there is music coming from every little store and passing car, the cars with the speakers are driving all over town hawking everything from pure water to mufflers for sale. And laughter – there is always a background of laughter. From the teenage girls walking in tight groups, the small children playing out front of their parents little store

and the cowboys standing around watching the teenage girls. Some one calling to a friend across the street or in a passing car. Horns blowing. Music coming from a group of good looking young men playing in the plaza.
Your nose is continually working to identify something that smells good. Where ever you go there is chicken, beef or pork being cooked on a grill. Or fried in a deep vat of grease. There is a food stand of some kind on every block in the town. Even if its just a grill and two chairs. The delicious smell of churros being fried then while still hot dipped in sugar and cinnamon.

Tortillas cooking and from the produce stands the smell of fresh peppers, tomatoes and fruit.

Fresh fish for sale from the back of a pickup.

Or the smell of new leather as you pass a shop that makes shoes and saddles.

As you walk down the sidewalk and pass homes and small businesses you can smell the soap used to clean everything. Mix all these with the ever present smoke from burning trash, motor exhaust and dust and you have a smell unique to Mexico.
We love to just walk the streets taking in all the sights. The children playing, the old people in their chairs in front of little stores. Most of the time they are asleep enjoying the sun.


The colorful piñatas for sale for Christmas.

A quick glimpse behind a door to the beautiful court yard of an old home. The colorful murals that are in unexpected places.

Peaking through the old door or broken shutters of a newly painted building and seeing – nothing.


A cowboy riding his horse down the cobblestone street and then he pulls his cell phone out of his pocket.

A satellite dish on top of a building that hasn’t been painted in 100 years. The beautiful flowers that everywhere.

The school buildings painted with Disney characters. The children all in their school uniforms. Joseph and Mary and the Three Kings in a Christmas pageant.


Even Zorro!

I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.
More about our time in El Fuerte next time.

[AlmostThere]

Carol, that's exactly the feel of every town we visited in MX. They are a very friendly, colorful, musical people for sure.
It's all very interesting at first but after a while it gets overwhelming. At least for me, and I just needed quiet!

[Redetotry]

Great post Carol, I particularly liked the picture of the man in the red hat by his bicycle. Great composition, have you taken photography classes or do you just have a good eye!?

[BirdbyBird]

Thank you for sharing the pictures and the word pictures that fill in for the other senses.......Yours is a journey that I truly appreciate.....that reflection that life lived well comes in so many different shapes and sizes that we can only imagine, or not.....but it is enough to recognize it when we are in its presence.....and think about the qualities of our lives that take on importance for us.....which are real and which can be peeled away and left behind.....leaving us to travel lighter and more open to the possibilities of the world.....

[Getupngo]

Carol, what a perfectly wonderful, vivid travelogue ... I could hear and smell and see, and marvel at the weaving of the past and present. Thank you for this gift.

And it occurs to me what a perfectly alien place the United States must be when people come here from Mexico ... it's too QUIET. And why when groups of Mexican campers stayed in my loop at the state park they were so boisterous and their music was so, well, LOUD. I'll try to be a little more culturally attuned (as I tell them to turn it DOWN ).

[Echo]

I so love this posting. Your description of the sights, smells and sounds!! Awesome.

It is so unbelievably rough to look out the windows here at the snow and then look at these pictures. I had just come in from taking the dogs out to P when I sat back down and opened this post. What a shock to the eyes!!!

Thank you

[Sparkle]

That was super! We are in Baja Norte, which is really just an exotic version of California. The stores are charging us in dallars, and of course I don't have any! Only Pesos, which luckily they are willing to take. We have noticed the noise level - cars with loudspeakers on top advertising - ? Cars with open windows blasting music, everything is so darned CHEERFUL!

[oregontocal]

That was super! We are in Baja Norte, which is really just an exotic version of California. The stores are charging us in dallars, and of course I don't have any! Only Pesos, which luckily they are willing to take. We have noticed the noise level - cars with loudspeakers on top advertising - ? Cars with open windows blasting music, everything is so darned CHEERFUL!

Aha! The grinch! I LIKE the cheerfulness. Terminal happy, I guess.

Great pictures, Carol. I loved the one of the old guy sitting. Perfect.

[snowball]

loved your pictures and your comments you do so well and totally enjoy it
thanks for sharing that gift with us
sheila

[Pooker]

Thanks for taking me along. Some day they will discover how to send sound along with the pictures! Won't that be grand? But, I could almost hear it. Terrific pictures!

Pooker

[Liz]

Love those pictures and descriptions....I could almost hear the sounds and smell the smells from here. The picture of the old man and his bicycle is one for your wall at home.

[Nasoosie]

Wonderful photos and narrative, Carol. I absolutely LOVE that mural of the warrior carrying the girl inside that door. I would love to have that framed or on a huge wall somewhere. Amazing painting.

[Christine]

wonderful photos... almost felt i was right there smelling the food and hearing the music!!! thanks for sharing your wonderful adventures!!

[carold]

We've come to expect the best from you and we're not disappointed. I will also be heading toward a boisterous experience-6 grandchildren and Christmas Since the oldest three play piano, the oldest learning banjo, son on guitar and 3 youngest with flutes in their stockings, it should also be very musical. Maybe I'll get my tGM to swing me over his shoulder and carry me somewhere exotic carold

[SeeyaGal]

Thanks Carol, I too love Mexico and all it has to offer, we did not mind the music, would rather hear that than the rap they play in the states. The food is always good and the smells get ya everytime when you smell the chicken grilling. It takes some time to get used to looking at yellow chickens in the stores to cook. I LOVED the bakerys!! Our favorite city Guanajuato & San Miguel de Allende, beautiful Historical colonial city.
I love the fact Mexico is not allowed to tear down old buildings, I have been in churches dating back to the 1600's. I loved getting produce from the marcados. Four Avacoados for around $1