Keeping warm in Colima

"And everyone dancing"

After the Feria del Libro in Guadalajara, a massive event that I have never mastered, I went on by bus to Colima, one of my favorite places to visit in Mexico. Like Guanajuato, the state and the city share the same name. But there most similarities end..The city is flat and tropical, with three plazas strung out along the main street. One of them has swan fountains spurting at each corner. I was so taken with the swans the first time I visited the city, I wrote a short poem:about people dancing in the plaza at night surrounded by the fountains. When I went back this time on a Sunday evening, there was a CONACULTA dance event happening in front of the handsome city hall with six hundred in the audience.

During the hot  part of the day I walked to the Regional Park with its round swimming pool and shaded picnic area with zoo and nature signs, my favorite park so far in Mexico.

Comala boy and his horse

From Colima, I went uphill to Comala, the place whose name Juan Rulfo borrowed for the ghost town in his acclaimed novel Pedro Paramo.  I don't know how it looked after the Cristero Wars, but nowadays the streets are lined with trim white houses topped by red tile roofs, a uniformity I associate with Purepecha cities like Patzcuaro. I learned that because this is festival time in Comala, weekend visitors from Colima stay away. So first I went across the bridge over the flowing river, then ate in solitary splendor at the splendid restaurant Piccoli Suizo opened five weeks ago by its Swiss chef who recently relocated from el DF at the request of his Colima-born wife.

So does Colima have a down side? Several: hard to get to, three hours or more by bus from an international airport, a siesta almost necessary in the hot and humid climate.

This bowl of onion soup cost more than
I usually pay for a comida in Gto. The buttery
rolls made on site were delicious

I've only touched on a few of
Colima's delights as a place to visit..

Day 13: Astad Deboo's Dance Troupe (India); Comala in the Principal

FIC41 photo/ Claudia Reyes

I didn't know the boss was so agile

 After seeing these Asstad Daboo dancers at their photo op, Jose of the Press Room gave it a try.

A static moment in Comala
FIC41 photo/Claudia Reyes

At six o'clock, in the Principal, the audience saw Clmala, a staged version based on Juan Rulfo's novel.
Pedro Paramo. The work was billed as a staged cantata. In fact, Zohn was a2011 finalist for the music. But for me, the work was notable as physical theatre, enacting the horror of the voices, with the group PUSH doing the honors and Bent Frequency the acting.

As a cast member said afterward, Comala is the kind of work that's hard to classify. So much for the old time genres. Comala is available as a CD. I'd be curious to hear it as a stand alone work, instead of considering the music highlights as I'm accustomed to assume as an avid moviegoer.