THE SMELL OF THE TOWN.

THE SMELL OF THE TOWN.

Sometimes you become part of a place that you ended up missing his aroma

There has been three weeks for us in Chiapas in the town of San Cristobal; before coming here I thought it was going to be hard to adapt to a town after living in a city, but it was not like that at all, I had adapted quickly to the rhythm of this town, and it was an easy thing to do because I like most of the things in this place, but something that I never imagined is that I would love the different kind of smells in here. I still remember that some months ago, when me and my aunt Pita were driving to San Miguel de Allende we talked about how reading can stimulate the smelling sense, so I decided to follow her example and write something describing smells and trying that the reader takes a deep breath and get to imagine them.

When you are in Chiapas you can breathe Mexico, it may sound like a commercial of the Mexican government, but it is true; here you can smell the god and the bad things of a country so full of culture, tradition, nature and also full of contrasts. Since we arrived to Chiapas there was a lovely smell of rain, but since we took the road to San Cristobal, nature started sending us an exquisite aroma of  the forest,  the combination of pine and the smell of wet wood gave us a  good welcome  to this magical place. In here it rains a lot, and that is why this lovely smell of forest and humidity becomes such a magical smell for the nose of whoever lives or visits here, even that the most of the people do not take too much notice of those aromas. In some of the houses and restaurants of this town people cook with firewood, this also contribute to the natural perfume; it is also popular to find the “indigenas”  in the main streets selling natural corn cooked with firewood, the smell of corn combined with the firewood becomes a very representative smell of this place.

Incense, copal and the balm of estoraque are products that you can easily find on the market, you burn them to get nicely fragrances and according to the old traditions they help cleaning closed places and putting away bad vibes, it is common that in homes, restaurants, hostels and also churches they burn this products; in the main churches of the town they have small sections for the locals to pray to their saints, when you get into those places, you can smell the  aroma of one of this products being burned combined with the smell of the candles giving some kind of mystical perfume.

Another place full of smells is the food market, the combination of aromas that goes from firewood cooking corn, passing throw the smell of beans and tamales, all the fresh fruits and vegetables, the condiments, the smell of bread at the entrance of the market, the smell of butcher and specially the characteristic smell of fish in the back of the market. If you walk by the side of the market you will find the tacos section, and the lovely smell that comes from there will invite you to sit down  and ask for a plate; if instead of that you go to the back part of the market, you will find the section of candles and mimbre products (mimbre is a kind of a rope used by the locals to make baskets and other products), the big amount of candles combined with the smell of the mimbre give a clean and pure smell that transports you to a really nice place in nature.

But there are some places in the back of the market where the smell is the contrast of all the good smells, because there is a place where they put the gone off fruits and vegetables and also all the trash from the market. And also in some parts of the town sometimes you get a disgusting aroma that contrasts with all the other nice fragrances, so you have to walk fast and not breathe deep, just to reflect how things are in this country, full of nice things but also full of bad things, Mexico a country full of contrasts.

At the end it is fair to talk more about nice aromas because there are so many and so exquisite, that I am sure that next week when I will not be  here, I  would  miss them, but I hope that reading this can help me to  remember those smells that one day made me love this place

Written by David Herrera González.

June 11, 2015.