San Jose del Pacifico....

Hola a todos!

Well, I just returned from an amazing 6 days in San Jose del Pacifico and Mazunte, two very incredible places in Oaxaca. Since there are many pictures to show, I'll keep this post to San Jose del Pacifico (SJP).

Anyway, after giving a presentation at the Oaxaca Lending Library on what it's like to be an archaeology student in the 21st century working in Oaxaca to a bunch of folks, I packed up to go to SJP with my dear friend Chuck who had kindly agreed to accompany me on this trip. Actually, what with some of the drama that had been going on in the house we were both ready to get the heck out of dodge and relax a bit.

So after settling this kitten I had rescued the night before in with a generous vet, we set off on our adventure to find a suburban to take us to SJP, the first leg of our journey. Thankfully, after wandering around for almost forever we found the place, bought our tickets, drank a caguama, and got on the suburban.

View from our first cabaña.

Now, SJP is the halfway point between Oaxaca City and the beach. Known along the various hippie social networks for having some of the best mushrooms outside of Thailand, SJP is an amazing place, with or without taking hongos magicos. Its a picturesque setting with mountains, pine trees, and yes "agaves in the mist" as Chuck and I joked often.

Speaking of agaves, our first full day in SJP we took a trip along a hiking trail and discovered these gigantic agaves. They were so frickin cool and prehistoric. It was like being in the late Cretaceous period or something.

Me and one fairly gigantic agave.

Chuck and another gigantic agave.

After our hike and a caguama at this Italian restaurant, we went back to our hippie retreat and, embarking on another viaje, watched the clouds roll in. Being 9,000 ft above sea level, we were above the clouds so it was amazing. Just look at the photos below to see what I mean.

View from out cabaña door.

Watching the clouds roll in.

Another view from the same cabaña door.

Sunset arrives.

The next day, we moved to a different cabaña, La Famosa Cabaña Dos. This cabaña sits right at the edge of a mountain, so the view is spectacular. Watching the clouds roll in this time was different and interesting, because we were right at the level of the clouds. So as they rolled in we were enveloped in clouds, which meant rain but also the sensation of being wrapped up in fuzzy. It was amazing.

Watching the clouds roll in....

....like being in a fuzzy, condensed water vapor blanket.

The best thing about the whole journey, other than the temazcal or ritual sweat bath we did, was Pup-pup, our spirit guide and doggy guardian. She followed us everywhere, passed several loyalty-tests, and stayed outside our cabaña doors for the entire cold night. At the end, when we were boarding the suburban to go to Pochutla, she actually jumped on board and snuggled under a seat. I had to drag her off the vehicle, and watch as she attempted to chase our suburban down as it was leaving. Sigh. ¡Qué triste!, but how glad I am to have met her all the same.

Pup-pup, our spirit guide and companion animal.

Next up, Mazunte!

Cheers!

Omigosh, so much fun!

Hola a todos!

Well so its been sometime since I last posted, with a promise of adventures to come. Come they did, and it was an especially good time. Since then I have been working and having more adventures. If I have not mentioned it previously, last semester was quite the busy and stressful one, and a vacation was much needed. Anyway, on to the good stuff.

Wednesday, July 14, I went with my friends Chuck and Oscar to the palanque out in Santiago Matatlan where the mezcal they import to the US and around the world is produced. The fabrica is called Don Tacho, after the owner, and he is a lovely man. We got there around nine, and were immediately offered mezcals. Heh. After a lovely and much needed breakfast, we walked around back to where the mezcal is roasted and fermented. After it is roasted, the maguey is pounded with a huge stone pulled by a horse.

Then the liquid is air-fermented and stored in huge plastic barrels.  In this picture you can see the person taking out the mash after the fermenting process.

 The meeting itself was interesting, as there were these two chavos from Guadalajara were trying to convince the mezqueleros that they needed to modernize, for whatever reason. They were trying to sell this whole mechanized process and admitted within the first two minutes that the process would change the taste of the mezcal. Eck. And of course, with a mechanized process, it stops being mezcal and just becomes tequila, which no one likes nor wants. Objections were raised of course, but who knows what will happen? Hopefully, the history we witnessed that day was resistance to modernization and a preservation of tradition rather then the conversion of mezcal to shitty tequila. Because, above everything else, if they mechanize the production process, the horse pulling the stone and the man taking out the mash will lose their jobs.

Anyway, the next day Chuck, Carolina and I traveled to Mitla to meet with Don Richard for a lecture on Oaxacan archaeology. After a lovely meal at the palapa, from which you can get an excellent view of the cave of Guila Nequitz where they found some of the earliest domestic cultigens, we went to the ruins of Mitla. And got in for free! Excellent.

Unfortunately, it began to pour so we had to jet. At least we got see the best parts of the site. Once the rain had ceased, I took Chuck--Carolina had left to get back to Oaxaca during a lull in the rain--to see other monticulos that weren't part of the formal archaeological zone of Mitla. Most tourists only see the ruins up the hill, the more famous ones, but the modern town of Mitla is actually much smaller than the archaeological town. And the best part? These other structures can be seen for free. So we checked out Patio G, and then my favorite El Magote which is where Megh and I used to go drink beers and watch the storms over the mountains. It was pretty cool. From the top of El Magote you have a view of the entire Mitla valley subarm. Chido.

The next day, after I interviewed the guantero who makes the gloves for pelota mixteca, I went to the Feria de Mezcal, which is a 12 day festival where people get to try mezcal marcas from all over the state. Chuck and Oscar, along with Don Tacho's family, had a stand at the Feria. Chuck, another woman named Blanca, and I got to participate in the calenda which opened the festival. Starting at the Almada de Leon, we walked in the calenda and gave out mezcal to people. It was a good time.

Ok, so that was those 3 days. I promise to post more, including some of the ballgame stuff I have been up to. This weekend, we go to San Jose del Pacifico up in the mountains and then onto the beach. Yeah!

Another week, another short post

Hi...ok another short post. But not for lack of time...really a lack of well interesting things that I have been up to since I last posted. A lot of reading, a lot of reading, and a lot of reading. Hanging out. Watching movies. Friday night we had a really nice barbecue at the house on Cerro Fortín. Our resident chef Chuck cooked up an awesome meal. Hamburgers with foi grais in the middle--can you believe that? It was so decadent, so rich, so awesomely tasty that Carolina and I chewed our hamburgers forever trying to savor every bite.

Saturday I went to the despedida of my friends Vero and Toño. It was sad to say good-bye to them, especially since I hadn't been able to hang out with them that much at all since I got down here. But we had a good time--drank beer, ate some good meat brought down from Chihuahua, and even took a couple of whacks at a piñata. Good times in all.

On Sunday, since the pelota mixteca game I was supposed to go to canceled, Carolina and I went to the zócalo to watch the final of the World Cup. I was wearing an orange reboso in support of Holanda, mi patria and madre patria, as they say. Unfortunately, the Dutch did not bring their A-game, and lost out to España. Boo. Later that night had a nice indulgent dinner with Chuck, where we basically ordered a whole bunch of stuff off the menu at Temple (one of my favorite fresa restaurants that does a modern spin on Oaxacan food) since the kitchen was about to close and they were only able to offer salads and cold plates. Dropped some money but sometime you have to indulge.

Did I say this was going to be a short post. Ha. Guess not. Anyway, Monday I was off to Cuilapam de Guerro, going to the Ex-Convento to meet with Dr. Marcus Winter, an archaeologist who has been working and living in Oaxaca for years. The Ex-Convento is an old Dominican church that was renovated and they did quite the job. The place is beautiful. Check it out.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to a palanca where they raise the maguey to make mescal to eat some good food and drink some of that fine mescal artesanal. Thursday Carolina, Chuck and I are off to Mitla to see Don Richard who is going to give us personal guided tour of the ruins there. Sweet. So I'll have a lot more to post soon.

Cheers!

El Arbol de Tule

Hola everyone! This is going to be a short post (sorry!) and I promise to have more in a day or two. But i wanted to just quickly post about the really awesome Arbol de Tule, which is--as you may have guessed--is a tree. But its not just any tree, its the biggest tree in all of the Americas, and is over 2,000 years old!

Trying to get this thing into a photo so that you can appreciate the massiveness of it is a little difficult. Even the pics I have posted here don't quite do it justice. In this photo, the tree looks skinny and unimpressive, but that's just because its a fairly angular (not round) tree, and from this angle it looks smaller than it actually is. Most of the photos I could only squeeze in a part of the tree at a time.

Actually, its a series of trees really that have grown together to become one over the millennium. But somehow I think that makes the tree even cooler. These different trees are now one, living and breathing and growing together (yes, the tree is still growing!) There's a lot of symbolism in there for whatever you can think of--human society, the household (our basic unit of life), a marriage. Nations. Groups. Biotic communities. Etc.

Also on this tree are some really interesting tree growths. This one looks like a lion, and if you approach it from another angle, there's a lion's face in the lion's face. Heh.

 Anyway, I really recommend, if you are ever out by Oaxaca way, to make a trip to St. María de Tule to go see the gigantic tree. $9.00 pesos for a round-trip bus ride and $5.00 pesos to get in--in total, about $1 US to commune with a ginourmous, ancient and symbiotic living creature. What more could you ask for? Oh, and the prices of the tourist goods in the local market are to die for!

Cheers!

Boil the water...

Hola everyone!

Wow, you think with all the time I have I would be posting more. Well, that's what I thought at least. In Mitla I was a blogging machine--but then, I had ab-so-lute-ly nothing to do with my evenings back then. No articles to write, no books to read. Ah, it certainly feels like the days of innocence sometimes. Back then, my only cares were making it up the hill in the morning, and hoping to run into that one dude I was seeing for a bit back then. Oh well. I'm still having a ton of fun now.

Anyway, as I promised in my last post, here are pictures from our adventures in Hierve el Agua. Carolina (one of my roommates in the house on Cerro Fortín) and I met with Hilary at her hostel. Poor girl wasn't feeling too hot but put on a brave face and came out with us anyway. We walked to the Estación de Autobuses Segunda Clase (2nd Class Bus Station) and hopped on the bus to Mitla.

When we got to Mitla and off the bus, we were approached by this young woman and a guy who turned out to be close to my and Carolina's age (we're both 27). Turns out the driver was going to charge them a lot of money unless they could get more people. Of course we agreed to share a camioneta with them. However, the driver still wanted to charge a lot of money, but thankfully these 3 Oaxacan kids showed up and off we went, with the 8(!) of us squeezing into the back.

Now, I've posted on Hierve el Agua before so I won't be posting a ton of pictures from the hike (but here's one anyway!)

However, the biggest difference between this time and last was while Megh and I swam under a strong sun, Adam, Sophie, Hilary, Carolina and I were hit by rain. In fact, fearing rain and a slippery trail I jetted up the trail, blizting ahead of the others. Needless to say everyone got soaked.

While it was raining, we decided to have lunch and wait it out. When the sky began to clear I packed up my tlayuda even though I wasn't done it and we jetted down to the pools, changing into our clothes in record time. Getting into the pools was so nice...the water was a bit chilly, and it certainly would have been better with sun, but nevertheless we still had a great time and took a ton of fun photos.

One of my favorites is this rather National Geographic-looking shot.  

Anyway, it was a great time and we had a lot of fun with Sophie and Adam, even though we had just met them. In fact, later that night they came over for dinner, and the next night we went to their hostel where they cooked us a lovely meal. They're both gone now, off to parts unknown, but I will always have these pictures, the memories, and their friendship on facebook.

I love Hierve el Agua! Tomorrow, El Arbol de Tule!

Cheers.

Hola from my terraza!

Hi everyone,

 

I'm sitting on my beautiful terraza working or at least attempting to work (as you can see from the lovely photo above). Hah. When I last wrote, I was waiting to move in a friend of mine's house, but that ended up falling through. Since I had a hint of what was going to happen, I called la Sra. Virgen to see if she had a room available. I rented a room with Virgen last year when I had to vacate the place in Cinco Señores for a month. Thankfully she had a room for room--and funny enough, it is the same room as the one I stayed in last year. How sweet!

So what have I been up to? Well, settling in to my new place. Picking up food for the house so I can eat. Met with Ron Spores on Thursday and chatted with him. Yesterday Hilary, Allan and I went to Ocotlán so I could pick up a machete for Taylor. Our first stop was at the taller of a knife and sword maker in the town. He makes the blades from old recycle tire parts. Allan had wanted a new knife, a switchblade, un poco mas chiquito y ligero (a little smaller and lighter) and I helped him place the order.   

Then after placing the order and looking over the Señor's wares he gave us some shots of mezcal, cedrón flavor, which was pretty cool.

After our visit to Ocotlán, Hilary and I went to Sto. Tomás Jaltipec to buy some woven belts and other goodies. On our way we saw this funny sign:

 The purses and belts are really pretty here in Sto. Tomás, and the weaving is exceptional. Very fino, mucho trabajo as all the women say. The best part was all the women laughing at me because I was a guera armed with a machete. Always glad to be a source of amusement for las Zapotecas. After spending a ton of money we headed back to Oaxaca and the both of us passed out for a nap.

So as you can tell, a very good time. On Monday Hilary and I got to Hierve el Agua. Should be fun. Will tell you guys all about it!

Settling into mi vida Oaxaqueña

Hello everyone! Slowly I am settling into my life here in Oaxaca. I'm still at Allan and Teri's but soon estoy en marcha (I'm on my way) to another house. I will be staying with my friend and colleague Dante. Chido, should be good. Today I went with another colleague Dante and an girl I knew from my first season at El Palmillo, Hilary. She came out with me yesterday from Mitla and we went out to el Centro to see an exhibition by a friend of mine.

Anyway, Memo was up to eat Thai food when suddenly he got a call. Apparently they had found some bones on a milpa or corn field where they had recently went across it with a tractor. When he went to go check it out, Hilary and I went with him. It was a pretty neat opportunity as we got to go to places the public does not have access to, such as the milpa, which was simply covered in telcapetes or ceramic fragments. Some of them were pretty frickin big! Another thing we got to do was enter a part of the site which is open to the public but where certain sections are restricted access, included this awesome tomb pictured below.

So that was pretty cool. I really liked the fact that we got to see this up close and personal, like only a few feet away! Not many people get to do this.

Anyway, as I promised in the last post, here are some pictures from my bus trip desde Puebla a Oaxaca. Hope you think they are as gorgeous as I do!

Cheers.