Destinations
Celebrate Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende
The festivities take place each year at the end of October to the beginning of November. From quiet candlelit cemeteries to experience the ancestral tradition to big parades and concerts, there are many intriguing things to do for Day of the Dead.
In 2008, UNESCO recognized the importance of Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) by adding the holiday to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As practiced by the indigenous communities of Mexico, el Día de los Muertos commemorates the transitory return to Earth of deceased relatives and loved ones.
The festivities take place each year at the end of October to the beginning of November. From quiet candlelit cemeteries to experience the ancestral tradition to big parades and concerts, there are many intriguing things to do for Day of the Dead.
Here are some ways to celebrate this festive holiday throughout Mexico including a Dia de Los Muertos women-only group trip in Mexico City to a special Dia de Los Muertos tarot card reading dinner in San Miguel de Allende and more. And if you can’t make the festivities this year, it’s never too early to plan ahead for 2020!
Mexico City
The Day of the Dead festivities begin in Mexico City on the Saturday before Dia de Los Muertos as the parade rolls through the capital. The night of October 31st kicks off a 3-day string of Day of the Dead activities in Mexico City.
Though you can catch the party in Zocalo, you’ll find a far more authentic celebration southeast of the city center, in San Andrew Mixquic. The ex-convent and church bedecks its main cemetery with thousands of candles and marigolds, and midnight processions bring thousands of capitalinos to the altar-lined streets. The Day of the Dead parade on November 2nd in Mexico City is actually a relatively new tradition, as it began in 2016. The parade is said to have been inspired by the 2015 James Bond film, Spectre. In the movie, the opening scene shows Daniel Craig as James Bond at a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City.
Where to Stay
Stay in the beloved Colonia Roma neighborhood at Ignacia Guest House, a trendy eco-friendly bed and breakfast. Featuring just five unique suites, the hotel’s namesake is Ignacia, the housekeeper who took care of this 1913 colonial mansion for more than 70 years. In celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, the chef will bake the traditional holiday bread for breakfast that week – Pan de Muertos or “bread of the dead”, a slightly sweet, brioche-like bread covered with orange blossom water and anise seeds. A beautiful marigold altar will be put up in honor of Ignacia.
A “calaverita” (skull shaped candy) will be waiting for guests in their suites who check-in on October 31s, November 1st and 2nd. Guests can enjoy calabaza en tacha, a typical Dia de los Muertos candied pumpkin. For the daily cocktail hour in the garden, the chef will create cocktails with the flavors of this festive holiday, including anise and pumpkin.
What to Eat
Foodies will love Eat Like a Local Mexico City’s special Dia de Los Muertos food tour where founder and sustainable tourism expert Rocio Vazquez Landeta shares her personal approach to the celebration. Start the day with coffee, sweet bread, and street tacos with a visit to the flower market to enjoy delicious food while shopping for candy skulls, flowers, candles, colorful papers, and more. Visit Rocio’s home, a late 1800 house in Roma Norte to celebrate with mezcal cocktails and snacks while setting up the altar on the rooftop. Sharing childhood memories and the meaning of each item at the altar, Rocio invites guests to join her celebration to honor the dead.
Eat Like a Local’s Immersive Day of the Dead Experience is offered from October 26th through November 1st, 2019. The five-hour tour starts at 10am daily and costs $150USD per person. For more information, visit www.eatlikealocal.com.mx or email info@eatlikealocal.com.mx.
What to Do
Join Wild Terrains Mexico City Experience and support female entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses in Mexico City. Wild Terrains curates women-only small group trips that meet, support and learn about the local female-owned businesses within a destination. Wild Terrains leads an awesome Dia de Los Muertos group trip and they’ve recently announced their 2020 Dia de Los Muertos trip set for October 28-November 1, 2020 and sign-ups are available now.
Focusing on vibrant and culturally rich destinations for the creative-minded, Wild Terrains is the only travel company leading women-only group trips that support female entrepreneurs in Mexico City and Portugal. All trip itineraries include accommodations at female-owned hotels, meals prepared by up-and-coming female chefs, and experiences that connect travelers with local women entrepreneurs, artists, and designers. Wild Terrains’ popular Mexico City itineraries features stays at the super chic Ignacia Guest House, a five-suite boutique hideaway in Colonia Roma, an insider tour of Mexico City’s sprawling street food scene with sustainable tourism expert Rocio Vazquez Landeta with Eat Like a Local and so much more.
San Miguel de Allende
While most towns have at least a few processions for Day of the Dead, San Miguel de Allende hosts the colorful 5-day La Calaca Festival. The main attraction is the annual Catrinas Parade which draws crowds from near and far.
The highlight of the parade is the towering Catrina and Catrine puppets. But it doesn’t stop there. Professional makeup artists are plentiful and can be hired beforehand to paint your face into a beautiful skull, and feel free to get decked out from head to toe as there will be a costume contest. La Calaca Festival is a participatory arts festival that brings together interactive arts installations, local businesses, individuals and arts organizations and visitors from Mexico and around the world come together to witness art and creativity inspired by Dia de Los Muertos in a town rich in culture, heritage and art.
Where to Stay
Opened in April 2019, Casa Delphine is one of San Miguel de Allende’s newest hotels – a thoughtfully curated five-suite boutique hotel set on a quiet cobblestone street just minutes from the main plaza in the heart of this charming town. Owned and beautifully designed by Los Angeles designer Amanda Keidan, the spacious suites feature cantera fireplaces, hand designed furniture from local artists, warm accents, eclectic textures and colors and balconies that overlook the private courtyard and more. With its great room, dining room, private courtyards and herb garden, Casa Delphine is the perfect setting for private dinners, mezcal and wine tastings, celebrations and guests can take over the entire hotel for bigger events.
For Dia de Los Muertos, Casa Delphine is hosting a special tarot card reading dinner themed “As You Were”. On October 29th at 7pm, come dressed as you were in a past life for a four-course dinner, delicious themed starter with cocktails and wine and mini-reading by tarot card historian Miguel Canseco.
An altar for deceased relatives of staff and guests will be displayed at the hotel and a make-up artist will offer Calaca make-up for guests on Saturday as part of the festivities.
Destinations
Eating out in Cebu in one place via Pusô Village
Checking out #Cebu’s all-in-one dining location, the Pusô Village that may simplify eating out but seems to forget our desire to see diverse #foodie hubs.
In the past, if you wanted to grab some of the food associated with Cebu, you headed to – among others – Larsian, this place not too far from Fuente Osmeña Circle. It wasn’t necessarily popular with the locals who saw (and still see) it as unhygienic, but it’s this easy-to-access BBQ place that’s open 24/7.
Starting 2025, however, a new place was opened to serve as the one-stop culinary and cultural hub of Cebu City: the Pusô Village.
@outragemag Checking out #Cebu's all-in-one dining location, the Pusô Village (#pusovillage) that may simplify eating out but seems to forget our desire to see diverse #foodie ♬ original sound – Outrage Magazine
Una, developed by Cebu2World/Megawide as part of the Carbon Market modernization, this place’s name drew inspiration from the pusô rice cake that’s served when you have meals in Cebu. There are, therefore, design elements that’d remind you of the pusô – e.g. those octahedral shapes on the entrance. Inside, there are attempts to beautify by borrowing elements from Bahay na bato Philippine architectural style; most are fake, though, such as those painted-on verandahs you’d see when you look up.
Ikalawa, there are over 100 food stalls and retail outlets here… though more of the former than the latter. They’ve been “properly” structured, so that the lechon vendors are on one side, seafood sellers on another side, and so on.
Ikatlo, we tried some of the offerings to ascertain how good they are.
The unlimited lechon is popular, providing an opportunity particularly for non-locals to cheaply enjoy this Cebuano treat. Taste-wise, the lechons vary little, some saltier than the others. The “approach” in serving is similar, though. You get an okay portion when first served, and the portion gets smaller the more you return. Noticeably, by the third refill, the vendors become grumpier when serving you, some even ignoring you, or stuffing fatty parts on your plate. Business greed in action.
Though cooked the same way (i.e. buttered), the seafood platters are inconsistent. You could get some shrimps or crabs now and then, though most times, you’d just get mussels.
Then there’s the tuslob-buwa, pig’s brain cooked under maximum heat to then become dip for pusô. We’d say this is acquired taste… but there’s not much to taste. So this is a costly to-try food.
Only open until 10.00PM, Pusô Village offers those in Cebu a venue to try as many of the local goods as possible. For that, alone, this is a must-check. You are sure to find a few stuffs you’d like.
But the city still has a lot of venues offering local culinary and cultural goods, and they deserve to be also checked. And so off we go for more LGBTQIA+ rampa…
Pusô Village is located at M.L Quezon Blvd., Sto. Nino, Cebu City.
Destinations
Going Chinese in Pulilan, Bulacan
Craving for #chinesefood in #Bulacan? We tried the offerings of Lee Foo Panciteria #Pulilan, and we’re on the fence here (yes if no choice, no if you can go elsewhere).
We happened to be in Pulilan in Bulacan, and I had pancit craving. As if on cue, we passed by Lee Foo Panciteria Pulilan, which – after we Google-checked – is supposedly one of the more frequently-visited Chinese restos in these parts of the province, so… of course we checked.
@outragemag Craving for #chinesefood in #Bulacan? We tried the offerings of Lee Foo Panciteria #Pulilan ♬ original sound – Outrage Magazine
Una, this place is really, REALLY easy to find. Located along the Pulilan Regional Road in Barangay Cut-cot in Pulilan, this is right in the middle of the municipality.
Ikalawa, the resto is actually divided into three parts: one side is for those with reservations, another part is for walk-in diners, and another part is for events. If/when the resto isn’t full, only the main part (middle one) is kept open.
No, this isn’t some fancy resto. More like an airconditioned karinderya, complete with wooden tables and plastic chairs. Look-wise, it wasn’t dirty naman when we were there, so that’s a plus.
Ikatlo, the workers were friendly naman… and they moved fast – e.g. while waiting for our orders, we were given must-check peanuts, and since we finished what we got fast, our waitress was more than happy to accommodate us.
Ika-apat, now… how was the food?
The house specialty, the Lee Foo Chicken (₱265 for half, ₱495 for whole), looked like fried chicken with ketchup. Okay… the breading was okay since it didn’t overpower the meat. The chicken, too, was properly cooked, and it wasn’t dry. But it was tasteless overall; so the ketchup taste is what stays with you.
The Pancit Canton Bihon (₱255) had thin pancit noodles, almost as thin as the bihon. It didn’t have lots of sahog; instead, you’d notice the extenders (like kikiam, and so on). I like good pancit, I swear… but this isn’t one of them, sorry.
The weirdly-wrapped Hakaw (₱155) was small, so it was bitin.
And then there’s the Siomai Steam (₱155), which was, in a word, weird. The size was good, similar to those ₱10 siomais. But the way this was prepared was weird for us – e.g. like the meat was overwatered, and having a hard time staying solid, so that it was smudgy, and disintegrated in the mouth even without chewing. I suppose that, at least, it wasn’t disgusting taste-wise.
Lee Foo Panciteria Pulilan is, we believe, popular. Like President in Chinatown, or a branch of David’s in some mall. To each his or her own nga naman. But for us, we’re off to look for other Chinese restos na muna as we head out in search of more lafangan venues.
Lee Foo Panciteria Pulilan is located at 159 Barangay Cut-cot, Pulilan, 3005 Bulacan Province. For more information, contact 0925 800 0168, or email leefoopanciteria@yahoo.com.
Travel
Treacherous beauty: Hiking at South Stack Lighthouse in Wales
#Lighthouse fever in #Holyhead, #anglesey via the #SouthStackLighthouse, as checked during this #LGBT trip to #Wales.
Yes, tech has made many lighthouses redundant. Not that they’re no longer relevant. But navigation-wise, we know we have more advanced solutions. Which, perhaps not surprisingly, led to the reconfiguration of many of them.
In Holyhead, Anglesey in Wales, introducing the South Stack Lighthouse.
@outragemag #Lighthouse fever in #Holyhead, #anglesey via the #SouthStackLighthouse, as checked during this #LGBT trip to #Wales ♬ original sound – Outrage Magazine
Una, you’d need a ride to be there. Some use private cars, as we did; others join tours; and others cycle to the place.
Ikalawa, what’s there?
The lighthouse itself is located on a small, rocky island off Holyhead. From afar, it looks like someone’s grand home; mansion-like. Accessible siya after you descend down 400 steep steps.
What will you see while there?
- the former lighthouse engine room
- the top of the lighthouse
- South Stack is also home to breeding seabirds including guillemots, razorbills and puffins
Here’s an FYI: seasonal lang siya bukas.
This is a must-check for lighthouse lovers, of course. Historic, it was built in 1809 by Trinity House from the design of Daniel Alexander. 91-foot tall, it used to allow safe passage for ships on the Dublin–Holyhead–Liverpool sea route.
Another FYI: It is allegedly haunted, and has been visited by a team from “Most Haunted”.
The area housing the lighthouse is, itself, worth checking. There are trails for hikers or joggers or cyclists; though the same could be enjoyed by those who are there only to look for good shots.
Check when you’re in the area… even if you just pass by. Nice siya, promise.
But off we go for more LGBTQIA+ rampa…
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