Tlacolula Market

After visiting Mitla we stopped at Tlacolula's Sunday Market. This is outside and only held on Sundays in this smallish hill town east of Oaxaca.

Fruit in Mexico is excellent and cheap. We don't buy the cut stuff, but prefer to buy and cut up our own assuming that we will be more careful about clean knives and washing the fruit.

Everything is sold in the market. It is the same in small towns in Guatemala and when we were still on Coot and staying in the Rio Dulce of Guatemala, I could have half the town watch me choose a bra.

Chocolate is a big commodity and this fellow is adding sugar to the previously ground cocoa beans.


Traditional meets stylish. Again it is the older women who keep to traditional dress--not as colorful as in San Cristobal de las Casas or in Merida. It seems an odd place to wear one's reboza, but it should keep the sun from bleaching her hair. Maybe it's not as hot to wear on the head as on the shoulders as long as one doesn't have a baby to tote.

Mitla

Sunday, we took a drive out of town with another couple from our apartment complex, Canadians, as are most of the English speaking people here. We first went to Mitla, another ancient ruin, but rather than Mayan this was Mixtec.

This country seems like home to me--high desert. The plants aren't the same, but the sky is the same deep blue and the air is astringent. All the mold from Merida is nearly gone.

The stone work is amazing at this site. You'll need to enlarge the photo below to have any idea of the intricacy of it and it would be better to google Mitla if you are interested. Each small stone is separately carved and placed.

There is even some extant fresco work

I DO like cactus.

The photo below is taken from the ruins site, but looking into a neighboring, private yard. The bottles are stuck on rebar that was left in place after the first floor was built. It has always been in Mexico that whoever is building believes that someday he will have a second floor and so the rebar inside the concrete pillars that reinforce the concrete block or red brick that comprise most of the buildings is left standing proud and not cut off or capped. Kent finds this a charming optimism in Mexicans.

Churches and Markets

Santo Domingo is one of the old churches in Oaxaca. It has become something of a cultural, rather than a religious center, and there are museums and gardens. We have yet to go to the botanical garden in the back of the church, but the first three photos are from the front of the church at one of the side buildings. They were just planting these when we were here about 10 years ago and the botanical garden, which also features desert plants, was just under construction.

It seems impossible, but there are more churches in Oaxaca than there were in Merida and Merida is four times bigger.

Oaxaca Scenes

Here, as in Merida, I walk with the camera at the end of my arm. The following are some of the things that attracted me.

The bougainvillea are for Ken F. Here they have mixed three colors.

The red and white-shirted boys were doing jumps from the lower level of concrete up onto the short wall. They were good.

I cannot resist photographing the wall art.

I think this stencil is of Benito Juarez and that the reference is to the bad odor of politics in Oaxaca State today. Benito Juarez is one of the heroes of Mexico and before he was president of the country he was governor of Oaxaca State from 1847 to 1853. The present governor (Ulises Ruiz, seen on the banner in a previous posting) is so unpopular that I'm told he lives in Mexico City rather than here in Oaxaca, the capital of Oaxaca. Juarez finds what is happening in his state so bad that he must wear a gas mask to endure.

The Kedls' Apartment in Oaxaca

In about four days, we should be moving to a bigger apartment. This is servicable, but it's small and once some tenants move, we'll be able to get into a larger place.

That's Kent entering the door upstairs in our studio.

I'll be glad not to have to cook here any more. To the right is the bathroom.

The bed. Just to the left is an open, concrete cupboard. And that's all folks.

Demonstration in the Zocolo

In 2006, Oaxaca was the scene of much unrest, initially begun by a teacher's strike and then joined by other dissatisfied groups, mainly people from the surrounding pueblos. It has been quiet lately, but there were demonstrations in the main park (Zocolo) on Friday. We told ourselves that we would leave if we found ourselves in the midst of any demonstrations, but we were swept into the park by the crowds and I did get some pictures.

These are APPO people speechifying on the bandstand. I am ill-informed about much of Mexico's politics and problems and I hesitate to say very much. If you are interested in more, I suggest you google them. It was exciting--raised fists, chanting, and the singing of the Marseillaise.

Oaxaca--the first days

The drive from San Cristobal was mostly through mountains and it was gorgeous, although mined with topes and double semi trucks toiling up and down the mountains. We passed through the lowlands of the Tehuantepec Pennisula and discovered what they meant by the Tehuantepeckers--winds which begin in the Caribbean and accelerate until they are nearly gales when they pass into the Pacific. Below is a quick stitch of an overview.

The gate to our apartment complex. It's quite nice inside, but Mexicans rarely want to show much of what's inside the gates. In a day or two I will get pictures of the inside of our apartment and the grounds inside the gates. Tagging is even more prevalent in Oaxaca than it was in San Cristobal de las Casas.

I think Kent and I will have to find a better paleteria (popsicle shop).

This is a typical street between our apartment and Centro. Ah, mountains within sight. Oaxaca will be hotter than San Cristobal, but it won't be anything like Merida and we hope that we will be comfortable. We're something over 5000 feet above sea level here.

A complicated stem.

The cathedral. The parks near the cathedral were the places of the deadly demonstrations and riots in 2006. Everything is much calmer now and the parks have been restored, but Friday, we too found ourselves in the midst of a demonstration in the zocolo. I'll post those pictures tomorrow.

One side of the zocolo.

Wall art.