After more than four years I am back in Mazunte, on the site of Itínera Theater, where I took part in an amazing Earthship build during the crazy times of the Covid lockdown. Those were wild times back then, for sure. But what has been going on since? Many things have not changed that much, while others are will never be the same again. For now, all I want to do is focus on my first impressions, before getting ahead of myself. Most importantly:
Sure enough, it is the end of the rainy season, making me realize that I've never ever been here during this time of the year. Not that I didn't know that each year from May to October a good amount of water would descend on the land, turning the dusty dry hillsides into a lush growth of jungle. But seeing it with my own eyes is actually quite different.
Most impressively, it is our green roof that has sprouted a number of ... trees! Not the most ideal type of plants for a roof, so yes, we had to get those out of the way. Otherwise, there is a huge variety of thick, dense, multi-layered vegetation, which we all appreciate. And the best part of it: it has grown each year. Around this season it would get a nice trim with the machete, and the cut plants would add to the soil cover.
Of course, nature never stops, and it's become normal that plants would grow out of the tire wall. Again, not quite ideal, so these tires should really need to be plastered over. If we are lucky, and get all the other, more pressing chores done, we may even get around to doing that this year. Another thing I'm really hopeful about is to finally finish the floor (the other circle in concrete, the inner one in clay). And, if we still have time, energy, material, and the passion, we would like to build a small palapa - a palm-thatched roof over the center hole, so that the building can be accessed from there. After all, it's a building for multiple use of performance! But for now all these things are secondary.
As it is the case every year, at the start of the season the place needs to be cleaned up and made ready and usable. Yurts need to be set up to receive guests. This year it's also high time we'd build a bathroom / shower / wash station. And as always, there are the numerous challenges that are all too normal for Mazunte, but still keep surprising us each time. For example, the electrical wiring needs to be overhauled, even though it was installed to be good for more than a year. Oh well...
So yeah, there's a reason why the main structure of the theater looks like a workshop at the moment. But to keep my hopes high, all I need to do is look at the pics from previous years. There have been plenty of performances, shows, workshops, and events of all kinds. Interestingly, it is the techno parties that the good folks of Mazunte keep asking about, when Itinera Teatro is mentioned. Weather I will get to see any of these shows over the next six weeks or so that I'll be here, I'm not sure. Certain things are already planned of course, such as the anual Jazz Festival of Mazunte in November - more about that later. But here on the site of Itinera, well, let's just see.
