Día de los Muertos

Like visiting the North Pole at Christmas, travelling to Oaxaca for Día de los Muertos was a once in a lifetime cultural experience.

Skeleton figure ringed with marigolds with skull and marigold-lined pillars behind
Lauren wearing a marigold headpiece looking off to the left, behind blurred marigolds in the foreground
Marigold-adorned cactus against a split blue and pink wall
Painted skull toy sitting in a drawer near other painted animal toys
Overhead display of concentric skeleton rings surrounded by thousands of brightly-coloured papers
V-shaped orner display of flowers and peanuts arranged in patterns
Night time crowded fair with vendors, games, and rides
Skull and marigold-adorned ofrenda (altar)
Racks of hats along a brightly-coloured wall adorned with marigolds
Overhead papel picados running from brightly-coloured building to building above a cobblestone street
Hand-held fireworks in a cemetery at night
Cobblestone street lined with colorful buildings under a blue sky with strings of hundreds of orange pom poms overhead
Orange-hued glow against a graveyard memorial sculpture cast by a dozen or so candles
Multi-coloured papel picado strung from the top of a building casting crisp shadows against the side of it. Photo is taken looking almost straight up toward a deep blue sky
Withering marigolds in varying states of dehydration attached to a wall with chicken wire
Multi-coloured papel picado over a street looking toward the nearby Oaxacan mountains
Brightly-coloured mural painted on a doorway depicting a human face, half-painted in the calavera style and surrounded by marigolds. A blue plaster wall cracked away to reveal the red bricks underneath frames it in the foreground
Elaborate shop entrance display decorated with skeleton sculptures and multi-hued flowers
Tapete de arena, or temporary Oaxacan sand painting for Día de los Muertos
Ornate yellow door frame on a dusty pink wall arranged with marigolds, branches, and skulls.
Elaborate street corner display of marigolds and vegetables strung up together
Concentric-ringed overhead papel picados with hanging ornamentation, skeletons, and a large crowd wandering the plaza below
Gate decorated with marigolds and nance fruit
Marigold display taking over a window set in a purple wall

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