oaxaca
post by allana
We love Oaxaca! After a short flight over the Sierra Madre mountains we landed in hot, dry Oaxaca (Capital of the state of Oaxaca). This city is such welcome relief after the hustle and bustle of Mexico City. Including surrounds there are about 450,000 people here, but the centro where we are is fairly quiet, very safe and the whole town just has a relaxed feel.
Our little pousada is lovely, close to the zocalo and bright yellow & orange. There's a lovely open courtyard and a little rooftop terrace perfect for sundowners.
Our little pousada is lovely, close to the zocalo and bright yellow & orange. There's a lovely open courtyard and a little rooftop terrace perfect for sundowners.
First up we wandered down to the zocalo, always the best place to get a feel for the city. Straight away it was like a breath of fresh air-- it was busy but peaceful, lots of families, lovely trees around the old cathedral. There are restaurants lining the zocalo all with outdoor seating so its perfect to soak up the atmosphere. Balloon vendors are also everywhere and they certaintly add to the simple charm of the place.
Oaxaca is known throughout all of Mexico for its amazing arts and crafts, white stringy cheese and chocolate. At the city markets you can take all these sights and smells in and more, the brightly-dressed local ladies seem to sell almost everything. So that's how we spent our first day here, already slowing down to match the Oaxacan pace of life, enjoying the companionable locals, colourful markets and warm weather. |
One speciality here worth mentioning are the little grasshoppers! When we first saw them in the markets I assumed they were bags of chillies, as they are dried and seasoned with chilli, salt and lime so are red in colour. But on closer inspection we found thousands and thousands of little grasshoppers, from 2-3cm in size down to really tiny.
To be honest they are quite nice, all you can taste is the seasoning. Surprisingly chewy, I think a handful of little grasshoppers would go down great with a cold corona. More updates to come tmrw, we had a big day today (21/03) seeing the mineral springs and petrified waterfall (header photo) so will write about that soon! X Al |
TOUR DAY (21 March)
We dragged ourselves out of bed and just managed to get on the tourbus for a 10am start. Joining us for the day was Sarah the young Belgian who only spoke Spanish; the big Pom who kicked about in white socks and sandals all day (without getting them even slightly dirty somehow..); the dancing mama and some young mexican holidaymakers. First stop, tree.
TREE
Twenty minutes out of town and we came across the tree. Not just any old tree this tree has been given the title "El Arbol" (lit. "The Tree"). Not content to be "a" tree, "The Tree" has been the dominant tree in these parts for more than 2000 years!! It has outlasted the Zapotecs, Teotituachanis, Mayans, Aztecs and now has the fame that most trees can only dream of. In girth it would take a busload of children to encompass its trunk by holding hands around (you can buy this postcard), or in other words 50m circumference. Seriously though, this was a bloody impressive tree. Oh and it's a cyprus.
Zapotec ruinsThese guys (Zapotecs) were around way before the Aztecs, back before Jesus even. Some differences in their civilisations that we learned were that 1) they did not cut out human hearts and feed them to the gods (only animal hearts), and 2) they enjoyed buildings to be straight on the sides rather than pyramid-esque. As usual the Spanish conquistadors were complete jerks and trashed the whole joint, leaving only the base of their temple for us to marvel at.
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Hierves el AGUA
Definately the highlight of the day (after the tree of course), "boil the water" is an amazing natural mineral spring sprouting out of the Sierra Madre mountains around Oaxaca. Apparently there are only two of these in the world - Mexico and Turkey!! So by the end of the trip we will be experts at boiling water. The water is so rich in minerals that it creates a beatiful calcium (i think) based landscape around it including a petrified waterfall!! The Zapotecs figured out if they ran irrigation lines down the mountain and around the place by the time it got down the minerals had leeched out and the water was good to use for their crops. Smart cookies eh? The water was cold, metallic smelling and surprisingly green so we were careful not to ingest any. Allana took special precautions by only getting in up to her knees.
MEZCALOn the way home we stopped by a dinky-die backyard Mezcal distillery - this is 'the other' mexican drink made from smashed up cactus. It looks surprisingly easy too.. You just cook a heap of cactus in a hole in the ground, grind it up with the aid of a donkey and then distill the resulting liquid. The product tastes like rocket fuel initially but after aging a few years its quite nice. Only the bad tasting ones seem to get a worm in the bottle... or is it a chicken - egg situation?
Adios amigos... Scott |
The Bicicleta Fiasco
So today (22 March) we spent preparing for a nice bicycle ride down to Puerto Escondido on the Oaxacan coast. Only problem there is a bloody mountain range in the way!! It's going to take four days and we are leaving tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more on this!!