Flores for Day of the Dead

This afternoon I caught I ride with the collectivo from Chacala into Las Varas, the nearest town with a bank, post office, internet place, doctors, pharmacy, etc etc. It's about five miles, maybe a 15 minute trip. Sometimes there are 16 or 17 people crammed into the van, but today there were only seven on us. Thank God, since it was 94 degrees and humid, humid, humid. Miguel Angel has a very nice singing voice, and he seranaded us, along with a CD, all the way into Las Varas. When we got to town I though Miguel Angel, the driver said he was going right back to Chacala, and would be back in 45 minutes or so. So I went to the bank ATM to pick up a rental deposit someone had sent down from the U.S., and some orther errands.

Although it's not for almost three weeks, the stores in Las Varas are getting ready for The Day of the Dead.It seems to be mainly celebrated in this area by taking fake flowers and wreathes made with fake flowers to the cemetery. There are a half dozen stores suddenly blossoming with fake flowers. I thought they looked pretty neat. Not my kind of thing, but the colorful flowers looked cheerful and friendly all along the main street of town.
This is actually more my style, a lovely bouganvilla up against a wall at the old Casa Azul, now Villa Celeste.
After shopping, I was headed back to the collectivo stop for Chacala people, and there was Miguel Angel, buying a roasted corn-on-the-cob from a street vendor. I felt kind of guilty, since I had been wandering around town for about a half an hour, and I though he had decided to wait for me. But it turned out he was waiting for one of the security guys who guards the gated community. So we all arrived back at the van, and headed home, with a pretty full load, 11 people, two of them babes in arm.