Hiking in Ajijic

Yesterday (January 28), we joined the Ajijic Hiking Group for a 2 hour hike.  This is an amazing group of people, dedicated to hiking and to others going along for the ride (so to speak).  Every week they hike on Tuesdays and Saturdays, beginning at 8:45 at a location not too far from our abode.  They set up multiple hikes each hiking day:  3 short hikes (usually about 2 to 2.5 hours), a couple of intermediate hikes (3 to 4 hours), and a couple of longer hikes (more than 5 hours).   Yes, lots of hikers!

We chose the shortest and easiest hike, but easy isn’t really an appropriate term.  The path was narrow and rocky and the climb was about 500 feet, not too bad, except that we are already at 5000 feet above sea level.  I was puffing, but the view was spectacular, especially from the top.  Our group had a leader and six people (including us): one from Cleveland, his granddaughter, a woman from DC, and two people from Canada (lots of Canadians in the overall group).

We talked about many things, including good restaurants, where people were living, how so many Americans came after the dot.com crash, how the Canadians started coming after that, and then when Trump was elected, there was another influx of Americans. . . .

Unfortunately, on the way down, I bent over to grab a tree branch to step down a particularly steep “step,” and I twisted my back.  I didn’t slip or do anything unusual, from what I could tell, but oh la la — what a backache.  For awhile I thought it might be a trip-ending injury.  I am doing a bit better today (meaning I can sort of walk around our house).  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.  Damn.

But here are a few pictures from the hike, previous to the back issue.

Some of the large group when instructions were being given and people were deciding which hike to go on

Harold, getting ready to hike

Our group — the “chapel hike”

The way up

The chapel at the top

We made it!

We met this guy on the way down.  He was knocking some red bean-like things off a tree.  You open the pod and there are oval-shaped “peas” in the middle.  He gave us each one of them.  They were good, sort of like edamame.

All was good until my back twisted :-(.  Grrr.  Hiss.  We probably won’t be able to hike with them again. 

Orozco mural in Government Palace in Guadalajara

We had traced some of art and murals of both Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco on a previous trip to Mexico City (and even before then), so we were excited to see the Orozco murals done in Guadalajara.  When he painted these murals, he was quite elderly and could barely see, so it was hard to imagine how the painted them when his face had to be so close to the wall.  The paintings are immense and scale up both sides of a large stairwell with a curved ceiling.  It’s hard to imagine. . . .

The dominant image of this huge mural — entitled “The People and It’s Leader” — in the Government Palace is the white-haired Miguel Hidalgo brandishing a flaming torch which seems to move as you move from one side of the painting to the other.  His eyes also follow you.  Well, some people claimed his eyes followed the.  I couldn’t really see it myself. . . .  Hidalgo was the individual who ignited the independence movement in Mexico, so the symbolism of his brandishing the torch is not lost on viewers.  His intent seemed to be two-fold: to liberate the down-trodden from the forces of religion and politics.

The work is divided into five parts, moving from left to right as one views the mural from the top of the stairs: the dark forces, fratricidal struggles, Hidalgo, the victims, and the contemporary circus. 

This picture gives you a sense of the ceiling work as you descend the staircase. 

The view to the right — contemporary circus

This is the scene beneath Hidalgo — the victims

A second Orozco mural can be seen in the government palace.  It is again a scene with Hildago, but this time he has a pen in his hand and is signing the document giving independence to Mexico, but he is writing in red blood, signifying all who died during the struggle for independence. 

Orozco is made somewhat immortal because his statue appears in the Plaza de la Rotunda which includes statues of many of the heroes of Mexico and Jalisco, including people who distinguished themselves in arts, science, education, human rights, law, and politics.  Orozco’s statue is one of 24 statues.