Tour Description: This is the most festive Out & About trip of the season. No place in the Valles Centrales has a more outrageous Mardi Gras/Shrove or Fat Tuesday celebration than San Martin Tilcajete.

Fat Tuesday is celebrated as the last time for festivities before the Lenten season of austerity and ritual fasting. In Tilcajete, many dozens of young people dress in costumes and paint their bodies to run through town, whooping and ringing cow bells and generally creating a scene including a mock wedding.

Upon our arrival in Tilcajete we will join the desfila (procession) into the heart of town. The procession has the famed Dance of the Devils, bands, costumes and masks, and a satirical wedding. The festivities revolve around a parody of a traditional village wedding, with a play on the pomp and circumstance. People leave the houses of the principal players to City Hall for the “civil ceremony,” dancing in the plaza, followed by another procession through the streets to another house where the happy “couple” kneel before a “priest” for the religious ceremony. No one is who they seem to be. There are fireworks too! Throughout the town there are stalls selling food and drink, as well as the famous Tilcajete alebrijes. Beer and mezcal flow. Many costumes look like alebrijes come to life. Tourists are welcome, but only residents of Tilcajete take part in costume and paint.

To complete our day and have a more peaceful respite, we will take a short drive to the beautiful Almu an open-air covered restaurant with wood-burning ovens, for a delicious lunch. Almu sits in the midst of lush fields, part of a reforestation project where trees providing the copal wood used for alebrijes are replaced with new plantings.

We are excited to be invited to learn about the ARX project taking place in Teotitlán del Valle. You may recall a few years ago archeologist Ludovic Celle shared his Mitla research with the Oaxaca Lending Library in a talk where he shared their discovery of miles of tunnels underneath the archeological site in Mitla.

Our group would be able to meet the archaeologists and geophysicists, as well as the local authority and community who follow the work currently being done in Teotitlán del Valle.  The work will cover all of the central square of Teotitlan, which means the whole church compound (church, annexes, side terrain and parking), also the Palacio Municipal, the Museum, the vast square in front of the church, and the lower public square. Lots of areas will be "scanned".

Fifteen days ago the group conducted a first set of studies (seismic noise) at Teotitlan, which had to be done earlier than expected for UNAM experts schedule reasons, and we have a video showing how this first work unfolded. This is great insight in how the project works and what it looks like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-VL5dJQ7ns

Ludovic will be our personal guide and we will observe the work taking place on that day and experts will be available to answer questions.

Additional Costs:  Lunch – approximately 250 pesos for food/drink. Alebrijes and other items bought from kiosks throughout the town.

Lunch Stop: Restaurant in Huitzo

This tour will depart on time at 10:00 pm  from Calle Los Libres behind the Grand Fiesta Americana Hotel. Plan to arrive 15 minutes before departure time. Unclaimed seats may be re-sold at boarding time.

If this tour is sold out, you can take a chance that seats may be available and come to the boarding spot 15 minutes before departure. These seats must be paid for in cash.

No Refunds will be available. If you are not able to attend the event, you are welcome to sell your reservation to others. Please notify the library of change of name for reservation.