Gretchen posted on November 02, 2013
Last year I didn't say much about the actual Halloween holiday here in Cancun. As a general rule, the closer you are to the US border, the more Halloween you get. The further south you go, the more Dia de Muertos you get. In Mexico City it was a nice mix of the two holidays. If anything, Mexican kids took our holiday and made it even better, by racheting up the spook factor (ofrendas or altars to the dead), and extending the trick-or-treating to several nights instead of just one. And the weather is better here. I remember trick-or-treating as a kid in central Illinois, it was invariably 35 degrees and raining.
In Cancun you definitely get more Halloween than Dia de Muertos. Not many people do ofrendas, but all the kids dress up and go door-to-door. Not many people give out candy though, so the kids have to work harder to get a good stash. When the kids come to your door, they don't say "Trick or treat!" they say "Queremos Halloween!" (we want Halloween), sometimes over and over in a rhythm if you don't get to the door fast enough. Here, the word "Halloween" is synonymous with candy.
On Halloween this year we dressed Isaac up as a fireman and took him around at my office, where he was a big hit. Adam donned his usual costume as Hawkeye from MASH. I wore a black dress and witches' hat (sorry folks, that's as good as it gets right now). It rained a little bit that night, and we didn't get any trick or treaters at the house. The next night, which is the actual Dia de Muertos, we went to Lucy's house where they had a block party and trick or treaters. I'm sorry I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures. They had contests, games, treats, and some enterprising neighbors were even selling cookies and mojitos. Emilio, Itzel and their kids came over (dressed as a ghost and a pirate), and they went door to door for candy. Emma was dressed as Minnie Mouse. It was definitely the first Halloween where I'm wearing a sleeveless top and sweat is dripping down my face! It was a hot one.
In other news, Isaac has taken to some games on the iPad like Peekaboo Barn, where he touches the barn and the doors open to a different animal each time, the animal makes his sound and then it says the name of the animal. We also have the same game for the different food items in the fridge.
On another occasion, I was in the kitchen and Isaac was in the living room, when I realized it was way too quiet over there. When I went over to check on him, I found him holding the computer mouse up to his ear like a telephone!
We've had some rainy weather here, but the last few days have been beautiful. We're almost out of hurricane season (Nov 30), and luckily for us and the Cancun tourism industry, we've had absolutely no hurricanes or tropical storms this year.