Early tomorrow morning, after almost two weeks here, I leave San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, for a few days in Washington, D.C. It has been a very peaceful trip and such a gift to be with family here. To share a sense of what I’ve been experiencing all this time, here is a list of the sounds we’ve been hearing again and again from our rented house on the east end of town:

• tourist drum circles
• roosters, 24 hours
• rapping hammers of construction workers
• blasting ranchera music from one place or another
• children
• dogs barking
• a crying animal that has lost a fight
• the loudspeakers of the water delivery trucks
• engines of cars and trucks and motorcycles of all ages and conditions
• bird tweets
• announcements through unintelligible loudspeakers
• unexplainable loud booms
• noisy chains dragged behind the gas delivery trucks
• church bells (fireworks may be imminent)
• fireworks during holidays, large and small, day and night

I don’t make it seem to sound overly noisy. Look up to the stars at night and everything seems to fall silent. Goodbye, city!