Friday, January 19, 2007

I think I'm in love...

with Mexico.

Granted, I have only seen a few parts of one city, but boy... the people, the clothing, the entertainment, the traditions and the melodrama of it all. Some people here are completely crazy!
For example, the first thing we looked for today were the "cliff divers". Yep, that's what they do. Dive off cliffs. (Spectacular cliffs! The scenery here is beyond beautiful.) We were totally unable to find out why they jump off cliffs, into the ocean. It may be some kind of traditional spiritual thing. Or it may just be stacks of fun. I'll have to ask the others if anyone knows.

After wandering around for a bit, Noel and the girls and I left the others to go to cultural/artisticy/touristy stuff (actually I have no idea what they did but they looked headed towards a touristy spot in the city) and went to the beach. That lasted a couple of hours until I read in my little tourist guide about the Casa de las Máscaras - a museum of Mexican masks.

We found our way there -okay, a helpful taxi driver found our way there - and it was fascinating. These masks are gorgeous. Some are old traditional ones from all over the country, and some are by modern artists. Wow. I have a couple of masks hanging on my walls at home but nothing like this...

a group of masks. I was amazed by the facial expressions captured on them:



This one's pretty scary. Look at the detail!

A lady at the museum recommended a good place at a nearby market to buy cheap-but-good masks, so we went there and had a look. They weren't that cheap after all (probably because they know they're being recommended to foreign tourists I guess - or maybe cheap for us isn't the same thing as cheap for other people!), but I bought one. It's a human face one but it's red with flowers and patterns all over. I'll see if I can get Noel to take a photo of me modelling it later. :)

Anyway, back on the ship now and it's must be about time for dinner. Better go round up my three kids! tee hee.

Los Angeles next!!!!!! I am so excited!!!!! Though I'm predicting I'm going to want to jump ship and stay there forever once I catch sight of that Hollywood sign...

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