The other day I was getting our van washed.  It looked pretty shabby next to thes shiny things that zip up and down our street every day, so it was about time.  While the car wash people were cleaning our van, I walked a little up and down our street, and thought I should tell you a little about our neighbourhood.

Streets in Cuernavaca Photo courtesy of kate at yr own risk

In order to understand where we live, you need to know what the land is like in Cuernavaca.  The city is on a slope, and so if you’re going up you’re probably going north.  Running like long fingers through the city are barrancas or ravines, where there are often few houses and mostly just trees and rocks.  We live in between two of these barrancas.  If you go two or three streets over to the right, you’re looking down into one ravine.  If you go two or three streets over to the left, you’re looking down into another ravine.  We’re in the middle, on a major street.  Not much of a view from the middle, but a short walk will take you to a nice overview of the countryside.

To get to our house, you need to go up.  Up, up, up.  It takes me about ten minutes to drive up our street – or, two “ear-pops”.  That is, my ears sometimes pop twice on the way up or down.  We’re so far up we’re almost right out of the city – or “almost into the forest” as some people have said.  Go a few blocks further up and you start seeing more shady evergreens and other tall trees as you head on your way out of Cuernavaca.  In the warmer spring weather, it will be cooler on the hill and people below will wish they lived up here.  These days, at night, we make good use of the space heater, and for most of the morning it’s only 15-17C (59-62F) in the house.

The street itself is largely residential, but there are many little shops up and down the street.  A couple of blocks away is a party hall (which is busy over the holidays!), a little farther down are some convenience stores, a tennis club, and then everything from a dentist to hairdressers to mechanics.  Up the hill a little is a school.

So if we need something quick like some water or a bag of chips, we can get it on our street.  But to go grocery shopping we go at least to the bottom of the hill, and then further across town for bigger places like WalMart, Home Depot or one of the malls.

Right around us are homes.  To one side of us is the weekend home for a family that lives in Mexico City.  At times on the sides are little gated communities, as well as just individual homes like ours.  Some homes are much poorer than ours, others much richer.

Since it’s a busy street, we don’t usually walk up and down, unless we’re waiting for something – like a van wash.  And our van is now washed, and fits in a little better!  It’s amazing how shiny they can make it look for about CA$4.25 – cleaned inside and out.  Now I need to check out another place for a haircut!  How do you say,”No-stop — that’s waaaaay too short!!” in Spanish?

Looking across a ravine
Photo courtesy of rainy city

Tomorrow is the culmination of a celebration that really began on the 3rd of December.  Things really got going on the 8th, when our landlord informed us there was a big party at the church down the street (the Catholic church down the hill is unusually active, they tell me – many Mexicans rarely make it to a church at all these days).  Tomales, special drinks and everything you need to have a good time.  That was the religious holiday of Immaculate Conception, celebrated in many parts of the world.

But tomorrow is really the big day – in some places the biggest holiday of the year.  It’s the Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, or the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  This is a particularly significant year – 475 years after Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin claimed he first saw his vision on the Hill of Tepeyac of the Virgin Mary.

Tonight the bombas can be heard all around (rockets/noisemakers).  Tomorrow there will be tens of thousands of people who have travelled to the Basillica in Mexico City to honour the virgin, or to ask for miracles.  Some will be crawling on their knees across the cobblestones and up stairs in hopes that a petition will be granted.

If you want to see a video of some of the bombas being set off, check out this view of the Guadalupe Fiesta in San Cristobal.  Also, read some thoughts from our friends down the street, the Harers.