Breakfast on the beach.
I could do it every morning. But I don't.
It is a five minute walk to the beach from my house. Fifteen minutes more to the restaurants.
But I don't do it very often. When I do, it reminds me why I chose to move to Melaque. The sun. The sand. The cooling morning breeze. The rhythmic surge of the tide -- as if I had been tucked into some somnolent beast's circulatory system.
It is easy to see how the part-timers are seduced into the paradise myth. I slip into myself now and then.
I stopped at one of the restaurants this morning after tapping the ATM for pesos. And I had Goldilocks timing.
Starting on Friday (which will be of the Good variety this week), the vacant beach you see above will be chockablock with tourists.
But not your pale snowbird tourists. These will be Mexican tourists. For most of them semana santa (Holy Week; Easter Week) begins on Friday and runs through the rest of next week.
When I lived in Greece, no one paid much attention to Christmas. But, Easter? That was a different story. It was the big religious holiday of the year.
The same is true of Easter in Mexico. It is the big event. As long as you ignore the Buffet of Our Lady of the Painted Cape.
And when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. I understand why Christmas makes the northern European theological hit list. The incarnation is an important point. Lacking any deity qualifications, it just isn't going to happen to me, though.
But, resurrection? Now, that is something I can celebrate -- and want a piece of.
Of course, that assumes the Mexican families on their way here have weighty religious thoughts on their mind.
They don't. They will spend Sunday at mass and the rest of the week on the beach indulging in the sins of the sun.
Me? I am going to enjoy my breakfast today -- and the surf's pounding solitude.
36 comments:
Holy Week is important here, too, amigo. Everyone gets out of town to go to the beach. Or do nothing. And i have heard stories from the not so distant past that people driving on Good Friday or Easter Sunday were met with stones in small villages. It's HOLY week, here, too, very soon.
Will you hold Good Friday services? Our small church is now down to a handful of hardy souls who will stick out the beach summer. Our pastor heads north right after Easter services.
Everything about your message said, "Thank God"
It was a good morning.
If I lived on the coast, I would do breakfast at the beach every single day without fail. I promise.
hi steve,
what did you mean about part timers being seduced into the paradise myth? wish i could be there for semana santa. i really enjoyed the one in chacala 3 years ago. wow-it's hard to believe it's been that long.
now tell us, have you made any decisions about where you will spend the summer? if you've already mentioned it, i missed it because we were gone for spring break all last week.
take care,
teresa
I save the beach for a treat. My breakfast role is as a boulevardier at my neighborhood restaurant. We must keep in character.
I hear a lot of visitors refer to Melaque as paradise. It isn't. It is a nice place, but it certainly is not perfect. Like Chacala, it is a dusty little beach town that has much to offer if you are willing to ferret it out. They are the same people who act like jilted lovers when they encounter problems.
As for this summer, I will be spending three weeks in July in San Miguel. But more on that later.
Paradise wont have jejenes.
Just thought I might add that the way religious holidays are celebrated in Coastal Mexico as apposed to Central Mexico are very different.
In my experience, what little I have, is that Central and Coastal Mexico in terms of religion are like night and day. I was rather astonished after having attended a religious holiday in Nayarit that involved men dressed as woman dancing, when in Zacatecas there were men dressed as men dancing in front of the cross (for 3 days).
I think you have inspired a post Señor Algodón.
Laurie M, actually throwing stones?! It's so nice to learn that some places manage to hang on to the old values.
Any idea what they do in a time of plague?
ANM
And not one report of a pistol.
ANM
NW, for those of us who don't speak the lingo, what are "jejenes"?
ANM
Little tiny ANM's
So Good Friday is April 22. Do folks start with Holy Week observances the weekend of Palm Sunday and then continue past Easter?
I certainly hope that is true. But they do not bother me as much as the mosquitoes.
Noseeums. Nasty little biting gnats.
No, they do as Americans do. They start their week vacations on Friday, rather than Saturday.
We on the west coast seem to celebrate holidays a lot differently than folks in the highlands. Day of the Dead is a perfect example. It just doesn;t happen here. At least, not like in Patzcuaro.
No. I am the one who is confused. And I do this almost every year at Easter. I drop a week. I was going to show up at Good Friday services tomorrow afternoon. This is what comes from not keeping any type of calendar.
Semana santa begins the week before Easter. So, the crowds will be heading this way starting tomorrow.
"Buffet of the lady of the painted cape"?
Of course you mean La Guadalupana, but the "buffet" part confounds.
We don't get a lot of call for the Dia de Los Muertos here either.
Good Friday is next week, not this week...
As is in "Feast of." Yeah. I know. Really arcane.
Moerw like Night of the Walking Dead up your way.
I would say I figured it out by now. But who am I to second guess, Jesus?
Every year, I tend to get Easter wrapped around the chronological axle. And I did it again this year. And, of course, semana santa ends with Easter Sunday. It begins with the Friday before Palm Sunday.
Plagues? I don't know. But I do know that many home remedies involve drinking large bottles of Coca Cola. Or eating raw eggs. Or both.
I'll take that as a micro-compliment. ANM
Sounds a good bit like life in Walla Walla to me. ANM
Aren't you LDS frequenting an Anglican mission down there?
Ah. Coca-cola. The cure-all.
Nope. No LDS in this household. The only thing latter is me -- now that I have abandoned watches and calendars. I am Salvation Army. But I do attend a non-denominational church in San Patricio. Does any of that count on the cultural stereotype calculator?
I wouldn't mind having breakfast on the beach a couple days a week! :)
Everyone here is looking forward to Semana Santa (which is the week leading up to Easter) and La Semana de Pascua (the week after Easter Sunday).
I love celebrating the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, but I've noticed that here the emphasis in on Jesus' death and Mary's suffering.
Will you be attending the Via Crucis on Good Friday?
Alright, I will give you Palm Sunday. But that still does not make this Good Friday. I should know...
Jesus
I usually don't plan on attending the holiday rituals, but I often fall into them.
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