Jocotepec Festival and Friends

Shortly after arriving home from our month long road trip through the Yucatan Peninsula, we had some visitors at our home in Ajijic/Chapala.

Our friend, Jeffrey, and her beautiful daughter Rosetta, visited us from Buscerias, where they were spending a few months this winter. Jeffrey is co-owner to the most delicious Thai food restaurant in Skagway, Alaska (our former home)!  Her daughter is the same age as our Maiya, so they had a great time reconnecting for the first time in over 2 years!

The two of them came on the last weekend of La Fiesta Patronal de el Señor del Monte. Basically, the lakeside town of Jocotepec has two “protectors”, Señor del Monte (the man of the mountain) and the Señor del Guaje (don’t know the translation of that one). The more important one is the first, and so they have a two week celebration each January to honor him. This translates into one big community party in the plaza for two weeks, complete with street vendors, yummy foods, and carnival rides.

So, we parked in the side streets of Jocotepec, and were excited to participate in the festivities on a Saturday afternoon. We were surprised when we arrived that it was lifeless. Apparently the party doesn’t really begin until dark!

We went to kill some time at the Jocotepec malecon, in the meantime!

This area still hasn’t officially become a splash pad, although it is definitely designed for it. Where is the water, peeps?!

Yes, it looks Asian to me, too. Are we in Mexico?

When we were done there, Jeffrey treated us to a yummy dinner, and we made a bee line back to the Festival! I cracked up to see these jicama “popsicles” being sold. As the picture in front shows, they dip them in candy, chili, or any “delicious” flavors they can think of. Yup, the kids go nuts over raw jicama on a stick!

Jeffrey also had to try pure cane juice, squeeze fresh right in front of us!  Not bad…but it was kinda just like drinking sugar water, with a lot more natural, nutritious properties 🙂

These Mexican paintings always crack me up.

One of my favorite indulgences at Mexican Fiestas are the Gorditas de Nata, pancake-like patties that are made with Sweetened Condensed Milk (I told you it was an indulgence)! They are sweet and oh-so-delicious!  They are usually tiny–fitting within the palm of your hand–and cost about $1.50 cents for 5.

The carnival-type rides are not cheap, like they were three years ago when we first came to Mexico. But we let the girls go on a few each.

We had a great time with Jeffrey, and were so happy to be spoiled by a visit from her cute family!!