Christmas Eve on the island of Mexcaltitan in the State of Nayarit; what an experience! Evidence is beginning to indicate that this is the island where the Aztecs originated and from which, in1116, they started their 200year migration to Tenochtitlan. Needless to say, we all know how that ended. In the little local museum on the island, they have a codex detailing the story of that migration; allow yourself a couple of hours if you're going to try to follow the history depicted there, it's quite interesting but takes patience. Part of the uniqueness of this place, is the absence of traffic, no vehicles, no way for them to get there, and no way they could be utilized if they could get there. The roads were built for foot traffic during the dry season and boat traffic during the rainy season. The island floods at that time, thus they like to call themselves the "Venice" of Mexico, although, I must say that Venice has a bit more art, architecture and culture than Mexcaltitan, but then, who's com-paring?There's a Catholic church in the village on the plaza, just as there should be in a proper Mexican town. The church seats under a hundred people, so Christmas Eve they held services one right after the other until everyone was able to get in to attend their Christmas Mass. Since Mexico has a scarcity of priests, we wondered about the availability of priests in such a remote little village, but that night there were three priests serving mass!! There was a crèche on the altar, and during the mass, a doll representing the Baby Jesus was carried in and installed in the crib; naturally, this had to be undone and redone for each mass, accompanied by the worst childrens' choir that I've ever ex-perienced. But, never mind, the whole thing was so interesting that I would not have missed it for anything, mournful singing and all.
