Early tomorrow morning, after almost two weeks here, I leave San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, for a few days in Washington, D.C. It has been a very peaceful trip and such a gift to be with family here. To share a sense of what I’ve been experiencing all this time, here is a list of the sounds we’ve been hearing again and again from our rented house on the east end of town:
- tourist drum circles
- roosters, 24 hours
- rapping hammers of construction workers
- blasting ranchera music from one place or another
- children
- dogs barking
- a crying animal that has lost a fight
- the loudspeakers of the water delivery trucks
- engines of cars and trucks and motorcycles of all ages and conditions
- bird tweets
- announcements through unintelligible loudspeakers
- unexplainable loud booms
- noisy chains dragged behind the gas delivery trucks
- church bells (fireworks may be imminent)
- fireworks during holidays, large and small, day and night
I don’t make it seem to sound overly noisy. Look up to the stars at night and everything seems to fall silent. Goodbye, city!
