ugues and Nancy visited Mexico in October/November 1999 for el Dia de los Muertos. We spent the first part of our trip in Mexico City, visiting the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Museum of Anthropology, and several panteones--cemeteries.

Hugues at the Museo de las Mommias, Guanajuato

Nancy beside an antique hearse, Mexico City

he second part of our journey took us to Guanajuato. There we spent hours in the Museo de las Mommias--the Mummy Museum--and the adjacent Municipal cemetery. In the town, Hugues bought a small coffin at one of the local coffin-maker shops. We also bought mummy candies, and a few sugar skulls.

he last part of our adventure took us to Oaxaca for the Day of the Dead. There, we viewed archeological ruins, and in the city of Oaxaca saw many Muertos altars, and visited several cemeteries. Hugues ordered a plate of grasshoppers, a mound of fried insects covered in a red-brown shake-and-bake coating--he ate them all.

his pictorial history will hopefully convey some of what we experienced, the beauty of the darker side of Mexico.