OAXACA - Mexico

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Wednesday 22nd September

After a mammoth overnight bus journey lasting 12 hours we arrived in the city of Oaxaca. (pop 265,000). Oaxaca is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name (Oaxaca). There had been Zapotec and Mixtec settlements in valley of Oaxaca for thousands of years in connection with the important ancient centers of Monte Albán and Mitla. We will be visiting Mitla amoungst other sites this week and we're looking forward to it.

Its only 9am when we arrive at Hostel Don Nino and our room isnt ready for us until 10pm so we dumped the bags and went for a stroll around town. The hostel is located right beside the Parque Benito Juarez which is a park dedicated to a president and local hero from the 19th Century of the same name. Its a nice area with fountains, statues and plenty of greenery.
I must say this isnt what i expected. Oaxaca is lovely! Its very colonial and its colourful buildings are further amplified with the large number of historical churches and cathedrals that can be seen in almost every street.
The city was declared a Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO, because of its architecture, its cultural traditions, its cuisine and its climate.

We stopped for a well deserved breakfast of fruit, pancakes and hot cocoa and it boosted our energy so we walked further into the city centre admiring the views and almost forgetting our way home in the process!!

Once back in the room we zonked out as we were feeling the effects of a ropey bus journey by now and just needed a bit of shut eye. The room we have is nice and very clean and we have a nice view out to the garden through 3 large windows, plus the shower was excellent with high pressure and hot water.
I slept most of the day and night whereas Jill went out for a snack for dinner and on her way back she booked us on our tour for tomorrow which sounds exciting as we have a full day of activity!! By our standards we've had a quiet week recently so its good to get back out exploring again!!

Thursday 23rd September

We've got a busy day today so we start off with a good healthy breakfast and our shuttle bus arrives at 9am to take us to our first stop which is the famous El Árbol del Tule ( "the Tule Tree").

The tree is located in the church grounds in the town center of Santa María del Tule and is the most symbolic tree in Mexico due to its size and age.
It has the stoutest trunk of any tree in the world. In 2001 it was placed on a UNESCO tentative list of World Heritage Sites.
The circumference is 120ft which means it has roughly a 31ft diameter. The age of the tree is debated but its roughly 1600 years old and weighs a whopping 600 tons!!
We took some photo's on our short stay here and then boarded a different bus to our next stop in Teotitlán del Valle where we visit an artisan´s house to see the process of making a rug.

Jill's a been a bit under the weather today for some strange reason. I think it was the egg's at breakfast looking back.

We were originally were meant to be visiting the petrified waterfall up the mountain but floods had blocked the road and the tour guide made the change to Teotitlán del Valle instead. It was actually a very interesting stop as we gathered round this old man who was of Zapotec origin. The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca and still reside here retaining some of the old traditional methods and cultures.

So we are all sat in front of this gentleman who proceeded to give a demonstration on stretching the wool with wire brushes and then fluffing it up so it could be spun. He also explained that they use a cactus root as soap to clean the wool before stretching it into string like fabric on the spinner. The next ten minutes he explained all the different natural colourings they use to dye the wool. Mixing wood with water and wool and letting sit for 24 hours dyed the wool a cream colour, left for 48 hours the colour became darker and for three days saoked in this mixture you got brown colour.
The same method is used with yellow flower petals from the cactus which give a light yellow colour after 24 hours and bright yellow after 3 days soaking.
For pinks, purple and red colours the same process is done in different time scales as above using Cochineal insects. Blue colours were achieved using minerals from crushed volcanic rocks which are abundant in this area. Baking soda is used with the crushed rock to give at least 4 or 5 different shades of blue into purple. Finally he showed us how they used charcoal for the greys and black colours for the fabrics.

We sat there in amazement as we hadn't really appreciated the fact that the colours used in the fabrics for rugs and bags were 100% natural. All around us we could see piles and piles of colourful woven fabrics hanging up ready to be woven when needed.
The old man then took us to the other side of the room and began a demonstration on the weaving loom showing us the various methods of joining colours together etc. Its quite inspiring to watch, especially as whilst he's weaving away he's explaining that he and his wife and their three elderly children all have looms each and they weave together rugs, bags, hammocks and clothes 7 days a week!!
The shop in the front of their house was adourned with lots of lovely stuff and we wished we had room to buy stuff but instead we left a donation as we really enjoyed our hours stay here.

As usual its very hot and humid and its not long before we arrive at a Mezcal factory. Mezcal, or mescal, is a distilled alcoholic beverage (40/50%!a(MISSING)lc) made from the maguey plant which is a cactus plant also called Agave which is native to Mexico. In Mexico, mezcal is generally drunk straight and has a strong smoky flavour. Its similar to Tequilla but has its own distinctive taste as we would soon find out. 😊
We were shown an Agave plant which was cut down to its heart (pina) and then its chucked into a large hole in the ground which was a large stone cooker basically. Its then covered up with a heatproof lining then sand to seal in the heat and left for about 3 days depending on the outside weather and temperature.
Once removed its then mashed up and left to ferment for another 24 hours and then its distilled using fire and cold water in a similar fashion to our whiskey back in Scotland.
There are four grades of Mezcal depending on the stage its extracted and bottled. There is a special bottle which uses a mezcal worm as flavouring and i asked to try one at the disgust to the rest of the tour group. I'd heard of the famous mezcal worm having psychedelic properties if you ate it and wanted to prove the myth wrong!! Crunch went the worm in my mouth and i'm glad Jill only took a before photo rather than after the worm photo!!
4 different shots of mezcal later and we were all in agreement that the darker the mezcal the nicer the taste. They mix it with various fruits to give another 12 or so flavours and some are fine whereas some are minging!!
There are smiles all round on the bus after that stop i can tell you...my belly has that wriggly worm feeling in it for some strange reason but thankfully i'm not seeing flying pink elephants!! Mind you the Mezcal has sorted Jill's stomach out a wee bit!!

It's only 12pm and we're on our way to San Pablo Villa de Mitla, our next stop. Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, and the most important of the Zapotec culture.
Mitla is one of many well-preserved archeological sites of the Oaxaca Valley, where the dry climate has conserved sites as old as 10,000 years.

This valley was settled by the Zapotecs who over the centuries developed a hierarchical society governed by kings and nobles. By the time the Spanish arrived, the Zapotec state has a population of over 500,000, sophisticated construction techniques, a writing system, two calendar systems and agriculture that included the growing of maize, beans, squash, chili peppers, using irrigation and terraces in the mountains to grow food for a mostly urban population.

Im now realising that the Mayans and Zapotecs are different tribes living around the same time. As well as Zapotecs and mayans it worth noting that other tribes such as aztecs and mixtecs and a few other tribes also lived around the post classic era of 400ad - 1500ad.

Confused? yeah, we are a little bit too. I think its down to geography and time scales as to where and when these tribes existed and ruled, but the most important thing to remember is when the Spanish invaded Mexico and most of central America in 1519 and conquered the whole land in 1521, that was the end of all Mexican tribes!! Hence the reason Mexicans speak Spanish and don't like Spanish people. Its like a Scotland England thing in a funny sort of way!!

We walked around Mitla observing the many temples here called the church groups and the column groups. The mosiac stonework is amazing and well preserved on the largest temple which is also the only one left standing. Earthquakes through the years have caused the buildings to crumble and also when the spanish arrived here they tore down most buildings to use the stones to build a catholic church nearby.
The main building is called the Palace or the Grand Hall of Columns. It measures 120 by 21 feet and has six columns of volcanic stone that once supported the roof. After passing through a small corridor we entered the courtyard, which is intricately decorated in mosaic fretwork and geometric designs. Pretty cool to see and amazing at how intact it all is.

We toured around for another hour and took some nice photos and moved onto our lunch stop at a nearby Mexican bufffet type restaurant. The food was ok but Jill didnt eat much as she is feeling unwell and just coping and no more. Poor quine!!

We took a quick stop in a small town called Tlacolula de Matamoros.
It's here the Church of Capilla del Señor de Tlacolula is. It consists of the main church and the Chapel of the Señor del Tlacolula. Its a Beautiful church and very historic.
I've copied the following paragraph from the church leaflet as the tour guide babbled it all off and it was too much to digest in one go.
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The chapel is now meant as the home for the crucifix, which was created in the 18th century, but what makes the chapel notable is its ornate decoration, which covers almost all the wall and ceiling space, as well as the unusual way many of the saints are depicted. Many of the saints are martyrs, who are depicted based on how they died. Upon entering the chapel from the main church, one passes two decapitated martyrs, Saint Andrew, dressed as a bishop with his head on the ground and John the Baptist, depicted with a sheep and holding his own head. On one side, there is a depiction of Calvary, which contains John the Baptist, again headless and on his knees being bathed in the blood coming from Christ’s body. Near this is a scene with Christ in a coffin with Saint James, Saint Andrew and Lawrence of Rome among others. Another striking image is that of Saint Peter, dresses as a Dominican with a knife in his chest and an ax in his head. Not all the depictions are of blood. There is also one of Anthony of Padua taking a child by the hand. He is curiously dressed as a Franciscan monk with tonsure. Another image is of the Trinity in a medieval style. There is also a painting depicting Palm Sunday, with Jesus on a donkey entering Jerusalem. There are side altars dedicated to Jesus the Nazarene and the Virgin of the Assumption.

The chapel was designed this way for evangelization purposes, when it was first built in the 16th century. It was successful enough that it has maintained a strong devoted following since it was built. This devotion prompted Pope Pius VII to issue an indulgence stating that priests officiating at this altar can have the sins of one who has recently died completely forgiven. The chapel is still favored to pray for the souls of the departed, especially those in purgatory. The church is a regional pilgrimage site, as the Señor de Tlacolula has had many miracles ascribed to him.

- Church leaflet 2008

I hope the photo's do it justice.

I knew this was going to be a long blog!!! i hope your not bored yet as we still have one more stop before we finish our day tour and hopefully get Jill some Imodium!! 😊

Last stop, Yagul!

Yagul is an archaeological site and former city-state associated with the Zapotec civilization and had a population of more than 6000 people. The site was declared one of the country's four Natural Monuments in 1998.
Yagul was first occupied around 500-100 BC. Around 500-700 AD, residential, civic and ceremonial structures were built at the site. Most of the visible remains date to 1250-1521 AD, when the site functioned as the capital of a Postclassic city-state.
The site is set around a hill, and divided into three areas such as The fortress, the ceremonial center and the residential areas. There is also a ballcourt, patios and tombs to explore and the views from atop the hill are awesome. I could break down each building and give a brief account of what was explained but honestly my head turned to mush by the time we arrived here as i had information overload on the brain!!

All in all Yagul was very interesting and as you can see by the photo's its well worth a visit.

Well shock horror, on the way home an Artic lorry had blocked both sides of the road in another protest about something and we got rerouted 2 hours around the hills on farmtracks and backroads barely fit for vehicles!!! What a day we've had and this was the last thing we needed!! We got back around 8pm and counted our blessings as apparently the lorry was still blocking the road well into the night.

Jills gone to bed and im typing up what i can remember on the laptop before i forget what we've done today!!

Friday 24th September

Jills been up all night not well so ive gone to the shop for some fruit juice and some food to see if she'll eat as she isnt well enough to get out of bed. Poor thing! We had a visit planned for Monte Alban today but I cancelled much to the annoyance of Jill who said i shouldve just went myself. Im thankful for the break after yesterday to be honest!!

Its market day out in the nearby park so i left jill to sleep and went for a wander myself around the stalls and then grabbed some lunch in the city center. When i got back Jill had a bit of colour back in her and was up and about so we went out later on and went for dinner at a nice wee place around the corner.

Fine to have a quietish day after yesterday's brainstormer!!
We leave for Puebla tomorrow and we hope there's no drama on the 4 hour bus trip as we've not had much luck with buses in Mexico!!😊

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