For several nights, we have been hearing what sounded like raucous parties, with fireworks and live bands. The first night, we awoke at 4am to the sound of two explosions loud and close enough to rattle our roof panels. Last night, the festivities were in full swing by 9pm. I went up on the roof and saw that the square in front of a nearby church was full of people. A few minutes later, the group started a procession. Some people were dressed in costumes. One group carried a large box with glass sides, presumably containing the icon of a saint. Others carried large figures. We couldn't see all that well, because it was dark. The procession went to another nearby church, where the band started up again. I presume they went to every church in the village and maybe some other places besides, because the festivities continued until after 2am, with the band striking up and fireworks going off at irregular intervals.
Tonight they started up at 5:30pm. We think these are calendas, and that they are likely to continue at least until the fiesta of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12th, and possibly until after Christmas. Local character to be sure, but I alas am feeling rather short of sleep and out of sorts tonight.
At 2am I went up on the roof to look at the stars for an hour or so. It was quite hazy, but I still had a lovely view of the Orion nebula up near the zenith. With the 35mm eyepiece, I can see a field of view stretching from the point of the sword almost to Orion's belt. That's a big contrast to what I'm used to with my big scope, where only the tip of the sword fits within the field. There is a lot of pretty stuff in the region and it's nice to see it all together.
I looked at Mars, but seeing was so bad I could only see that it was a disc and get occasional glimpses of what might have been the polar ice cap. Jupiter wasn't great, either, but I thought I could see a couple of dark knots in the south equatorial band and the north polar hood extending almost all the way to the north equatorial band. Starry Night says the great red spot was rotating into view as I packed it in; by then, both the moon and Jupiter had moved behind a nearby apartment building.
I spent some time looking at clusters in Canis Major and Puppis, which were relatively free of haze. Pretty, but I don't know what I was looking at and haven't had time to check.
We started Spanish lessons on Monday. Jessica, my teacher, is a 28 year old single mother of a two year old, who said she was happy for the extra work even though she found out at noon on Monday that she would be working three hours extra every afternoon for the rest of the week. Jessica has lived in the same house all her life and never travelled outside Oaxaca. I think she thinks I'm a bit strange.
Mornings here are beautiful. I saw at least a dozen hummingbirds visit the four flowering trees in our yard within a 20 minute period. Other birds come to drink at a pot containing a water lily. It's mostly nice to have wildlife in the yard. Yesterday we dumped the water from the lily pot, along with its mosquito larvae, and replaced it with fresh water. Hopefully that will prevent more nocturnal visits from small, noisy pests.
Tried our hand at making tortillas yesterday. I couldn't make a thin tortilla from the masa, so we ate small fat ones. Probably we didn't have the right amount of water in the mix, but we're not sure whether we need more or less. At least they tasted like tortillas and were pretty good with chicken breasts and guacamole. We now have some idea where to shop, which is nice. We both felt unreasonably triumphant when our morning shopping trip was a success.
I was going to write some other stuff about museums we visited, but I'm tired so that's it for now.
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