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Early Morning in Valle de Bravo
By Nancy V. Sont - Photos by Scarlett V. Laschinsky

The mist on the lake at Valle de Bravo rose hung just above the still surface. The sun reflected in it, scattering an ethereal hue throughout the valley. Birds I didn't recognize sang from nearby bushes. Ducks floated serenely on the water. That was at El Santuario, a few kilometers out of Valle de Bravo proper. I was staying in town at Hotel Los Arcos.

The sound of bells ringing woke me up. On Monday mornings, they have a flag raising ceremony at all the schools. First, the bells ring at 7:30 for many strokes, then again at eight.  A band playing in the distance follows the 8:00 ringing.  All the schools are raising the flags while the band plays. It's a neat way to wake up.
 
Dogs barked all night in Valle de Bravo. In the morning, I went and stood on the balcony and looked into the backyards of all the neighbors. Clay tiles lined the roofs; here and there, a bit of tin was mixed in.
 
Birds I assumed were sparrows sang and chirped in the trees. Bright yellow lemons hung from the trees, a purple fruit that looked like small eggplants covered another.
 
Birds of paradise, an orange flower in the shape of a bird, stood above a plant that had tall pointing leaves in the backyard. 
 
Water sprinklers were on, changing from one area of a courtyard to another.
 
Tall adobe brick arches stood alongside the pool in our own courtyard. I wondered what they were from.  Perhaps part of an old aqueduct. I'd never heard of an aqueduct way up on a narrow series of arches before. Later I saw one in Morelia, the longest aqueduct in the world that ran alongside the road, angled and crossed it at an intersection and ran for more miles before turning again. The pillars of the arches were about a meter square. A top the arches was flat where the water used to run. I don't know how it got up there or how it got from the aqueduct to the houses. What was interesting was that it was there. It was hundreds of years old and still there. It had probably been restored at one time or another. I really know very little about aqueducts.
 
So there I stood on the balcony in the early morning looking around at the courtyards, listening to the birds and dogs and the band. Trucks in the distance rumbled down the bumpy cobblestone streets.  Horns blared in their high-pitched tone indicative of non-US/ Canadian cities.  Whistles began to toot as police officers directed traffic to keep it moving through the narrow streets and intersections as cars from all directions converged into a single lane or criss-crossed each other in an effort to get to work.
 
Outside on the street, the wooden doors were still all closed, leaving a forbidding feeling as the cement walls bordered the one lane stone street.  Narrow sidewalks bordered it, sometimes as much as a foot above the level of the road.  Not a speck of trash was in the road; the sweepers had done their daily tasks faithfully.
 

When traffic started to flow down the road past Hotel Los Arcos, I realized the cars were all small, many were volkswagons.  Some were new, others a bit older. None were rusty.  Many taxis were light blue with a large black number on the side and back. As the day went on it was common to see seven people squished into a taxi, perhaps a family all using the mode of transportation most practical for them.
 
Children with game boys leaned out of windows in the afternoon, intent on their games.  I wasn't prepared to see them so inundated with the same culture as we have.  I was especially surprised to see an Internet store with a dozen or more new looking computers with people sitting in front of them.  For about $10/hour, you could hook up to the internet.  I didn't have time, or the inclination to do that.
 
On the sides of payphones I sometimes saw, in English, "Phone Home" or something like that, obviously targeting Gringos.  Gringo is the name given to the American army when they were fighting with Mexico. They wore green coats. Unable to pronounce Green Coats, Gringo's was the nickname they were given. 'Go home Gringo' was eventually replaced with "Yankee go home', and has now been transformed into 'Come invest your dollars in Mexico'. Although I stood out, I wasn't an oddity, nor was I swarmed with people asking for money.

Our guide explained that things were priced higher in Valle de Bravo than in some other places we would be visiting. Since it's a resort town for Mexico city dwellers, the weekends are crowded but throughout the week things are pretty calm and slow paced.

Nancy V. Sont - NVS Editorial Services
Website: http://www.travelwriters.com/nancyvsont
E-mail: nancysont@hotmail.com