Mexico City New Year's 2023, Oaxaca, Alibrije Spirit Animals, and a Working Fridge

 

Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City.

New Year's Eve countdown for 2023, Mexico City.

Ever tried traveling internationally by plane and bus with a boxed-up marine refrigerator compressor?  It’s a gnarly device of wires and metal tubes, some might describe it as “bomb-like”.  Or, in Spanish, “Parece bomba.”  You must painstakingly pack it to survive travel without bending the copper pipes or causing a coolant leak, and then painstakingly unpack it at every security checkpoint, in front of a curious audience, after it inevitably sets off their alarms. Then you must painstakingly repack it and repeat this process until you arrive at your presumably far-off destination, such as a marina in Chiapas, Mexico. Don’t forget to SMILE for the cameras.

Our old compressor.

The good news is that the new compressor arrived at my parents’ ranch in OK in time for me to pick it up on my Christmas visit.  I packed it as carefully as I could for transit to Mexico.  Jen and I reunited in Mexico City, where we would spend New Year’s before traveling on to Oaxaca and then to Chiapas and the boat.

The place we met up in Mexico City was an AirBnB with a great location, and so tiny that we had to climb around our luggage to reach the bed.  I felt pretty tired because security had stopped me at the airport and made me unpack the compressor, and have a series of conversations with various uniformed officials while they googled the manufacturer code on their phones.  Anyway, I won’t go into it – you get the picture.  Thank goodness it was New Year's, and we were in Mexico City!  We had a wonderful time checking out the Zocalo, Palacio de Bellas Artes, live music, and festivities all around.  I think we might have even made it on the local Mexico City TV, in the background, unintentionally photo-bombing a broadcaster. 

We started the New Year of 2023 on a bus to Oaxaca.  It ended up great because Oaxaca town was still celebrating New Year's on Jan 1 when we went out wandering.  But everyone knows Oaxaca is about three things: mole, mezcal, and artesania.  And the artesania we were after were alibrijes: spirit and protector animals.

There is really so much to see and do in Oaxaca that it's almost impossible to do it justice.  The workshop of alibrijes was a highlight for sure.  So cool to see them making these amazing, fantastical objects and training new generations in the art of their heritage.

Armadillo with bird mask.

One of the many fascinating aspects of alibrijes is that they often wear masks of other animals.  This is a monkey-dog wearing a wild boar mask.  Click the video down below to see the unmasking of this scoundrel.

Also, the food of Oaxaca is extraordinary.  I've always been a great fan of moles, and when you're shopping for ways to spice up your boat galley cooking, it doesn't get better than this.

On top of all that, there are also ancient ruins to explore.  We explored Monte Alban. These ruins are NOT Aztec.  They are NOT Mayan.  They are from the Zapotec culture, the creators of alibrijes.

Indiana Jen!  At Monte Alban.

When we finally got back to the boat at Marina Chiapas (or should I say, got the refrigerator compressor back to the boat!?), our local marine fridge guys came and got our fridge up and working again! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the skilled marine labor we found in Mexico was truly great. 

I replaced the faulty triducer and the fuel-air separator. The only thing left before departing was for Jen to practice piloting the dinghy on trips to fill our diesel jerry cans. We're Costa Rica-bound!