Oaxaca: Me Gusta Pero Hasta Luego

It is our last full day in Oaxaca.  Tomorrow we take the bus back to the DF to catch our flight to Costa Rica early the following morning.

We have had days at the language school (I.C.O.) that remind us that we have a lot to learn but mostly our teacher is very good at teaching and positively reinforcing our skills.  I am able to have basic conversations and sometimes stretch into talking about politics and life in the US, I even get a joke from time to time.

In between swotting we have been able to get in some trips and adventures.  A couple of weekends ago we went to our friend Sheila’s house with a group of fellow students and spent the day hanging out, swapping tall stories, cooking, eating and generally having a fun time.  Sheila lives about 20 or 30 minutes by bus from the area wherein lies the school.  In reality it is probably about 3 or 4 miles over and up a bit, great view looking out over the city from her hammock…  The last bus back down the hill leaves sometime between 8 and 9 pm and when we heard it going up the hill to the last stop a few blocks from the house there was a mad scramble even though it was only 8:15pm.  It was very funny and we were lucky since it turned out it was the last bus.

The following day Sheila, Darcie and I went to a town, Mitla, 50km away that has some Zapotec ruins that were not destroyed much by the Spanish although the town church is built on top of the remains of one of the temples.

We took the local buses there and back which were fun, filled with locals coming or going to the market at Tlacolula.

I have a little cold, nothing major but feeling slow.  Slept the afternoon away yesterday after wasting two hours searching for Costa Rican dosh which is not available out here in the provinces.  We have some dollars so that should cover us if necessary until we find an ATM in San Jose. 

We spent the evening last night with our landlady who was having a party with her extended family which was fun, had a few beers which was probably the wrong thing but there you go.  What I should have had was some mezcal - good for what ails you.

Oaxaca is a really great place: vibrant, full of Mezcalarias and chapulines, loads of young people.  On the weekends we ran around and did touristy things like visiting the local Zapotec ruins, Monte Alban and Mitla, which are well preserved/restored and worth seeing or going to the local markets which are thronged with tiny brown old ladies sometimes almost as wide as they are tall, mountains of chiles, chapulines, meat everywhere - mostly identifiable but some things not even for me, snacks, quesillo, mole, mole and more mole. 

I learned to make several moles from scratch - the easy ones where a blender is all you need.  The complicated ones require a grinder to the job justice and while those are available here not so in the US.  Oaxacan chocolate I can take or leave, it has way too much sugar in it. 

Local food is somewhat bereft of veggies, but plenty of stodge so I have gained a few pounds despite my best efforts. 

Took salsa classes for a couple of hours a day for a couple of weeks - that was a lot of fun.  I need a lot more practice and more lessons.  The cooking class was fun but pretty low key for me.  The rest of group got a lot out of it it seemed since most of them didn't really cook that much at home.  Thanks to Juanito I can cook most of the dishes that we prepared or have a fair idea how to.

We went for a fantastic two day hike in the nearby mountains, 20ish miles at 8500ft plus (the highest climb was 10,500ft right at the start).  Stellar views, good digs in the villages, the guides were really knowledgeable about the local plants and customs and such, amazing scenery, views for days - the locals may be cash poor but their souls are rich.

You all need to come to Oaxaca.  Life is great, lots of things to do, the bar/restaurant scene is fun - you can easily meet locals, the mezcal is off the hook (I like a good tequila, but just about any mezcal is good and cheap), the weather is idyllic and well what can I say, you just have to come and experience for yourselves.

Oaxaca: Pueblos Mancomunados

Last weekend Darcie and I went on a fabulous two-day hike in the local mountains.  The hike was organized through our language school which takes a lot of legwork out going on a trip in the Sierra Norte such as getting to the starting point, organizing the mandatory guide and setting up the various stops along the way.  You can do it pretty much without all this but then you would be missing out.

The hike for us started at Cuajimoloyas which we were told literally translated to “congealed mole in the pot” from Zapotec to English. Mole (pronounced Moh Leh and rhymes with the well-known bull fighter’s epithet Ole!) is sauce or gravy for the uninitiated made with nuts and herbs and spices and sometimes chocolate.  The recipes can be simple or highly complex.  How one comes to name ones village after the fiesta leftovers is beyond me since one has to drink an awful lot of pulque before inebriation kicks in. 

Anyway, I digress, the village is located at 3200m above sea level or roughly 10,500ft.  A bit of a lung buster even if you have been at 5200ft for a time already (the elevation of Oaxaca mas o menos).  To make sure we weren’t panty waists our intrepid leader, Toby, had us huff up the nearby peak to enjoy the view.  Quickly followed by lunch back down in the village (very yummy) and then, after leaving one member behind on her own recognizance (she decided the distance and altitude would be too much), we hot footed it down the trail to our next village, La Tuvi which was twelve miles hence.

I think it is safe to say that none of the led had any idea how amazingly beautiful the Sierra Norte is.The mountains roll and sweep, dipping into shady valleys and lifting up to narrow ridges glowing in the sun.  The flora in many ways is similar to Northern California, pines, bay-laurel, oaks, manzanita, madrone, lupines… But then there are forests where every tree has one or more epiphytic colony clinging and flowering profusely.  There were multiple varieties of orchid, many in bloom.  I saw at least four different types of salvia blooming and of course there were numerous varieties of cactus to remind you that while it looked and felt like Northern California you were a long way from home Toto.

This first day started off with a gentle down grade/rolling terrain through dappled sunlight on a combination of fire roads and single tracks.  I want to come back so I can ride these trails on a mountain bike – perfectly legal, no rangers or outraged hikers or equestrians and for the most part tranquil solitude.  We walked by some agaves in full bloom which were amazing, came across a trout farm in the middle of a clearing, vistas for daze, flowers in profusion, abandoned adobe house from a century or more ago and finally after four hours or so a steep three or so mile decent down into a narrow valley with another trout farm, some friendly dogs and a chance for some snacks and a refreshing drink (of water)

The final couple of miles were uphill climbing up to about 8500ft to La Tuvi where we stayed in some really nice cabins terraced into the hillside for a spectacular view of the sunset/sunrise.  The meal was filling, tasty and washed down with some beer and the local mezcal.

The following day after a hearty breakfast and copious cups of coffee and some stretching we sauntered off back down into the valley and then along a rambling, winding, lifting trail, passing corn fields being harvested, a man plowing using two oxen and a wood plow, several streams the water of which was cold and deliciously refreshing (it has been a week and no adverse effects yet), several altars and not a soul in sight except for our fellow hikers.  I frequently dropped behind to enjoy the solitude.

We reached our final village, Lachatao at about 4pm after a five and a bit hour hike with several breaks in between.  The distance was about 6 miles but with more up and down, less shade and considerable warmth.  We ate another really tasty meal, hopped into our waiting minivan and after an hour and a half driving through the lovely sunset light arrived stiff and perhaps a little foot sore back in Oaxaca.

If you are ever in Oaxaca and want an off the normal tourist path adventure this is a must.  We spent 1250 pesos for the trip per person including four meals, a good room, guides and a great time.  We went through our school I.C.O. (http://www.icomexico.com) and they would be happy to take strangers off the street or a trip can be arranged directly with http://www.sierranorte.org.mx/

Oaxaca: InvesTours

Two weekends ago we went to a village, Teotitlan, which is one of the local weaving centers as part of a tour led by a group called InvesTours.  InvesTours is a local organization that organizes tours to local villages and uses 100% of the tour fees to make interest-free micro finance loans to groups of three women in a village.  InvesTours helps the women organize themselves into groups and focus on goals for their enterprises (weaving in this instance).  The tour takes you to two groups and afterwards the tour participants decide which group needs the money more or is better able to pay it back and so on.

The tour takes you directly to the homes/businesses of each of the women and they explain their business and what they plan to use the loan for.  The loan system is set up so that each group gets an initial relatively small loan of 1350pesos to each woman.  This is then paid back within the time frame decided upon by the group and InvesTours at which time the group is eligible for a second loan which is 1000pesos larger than the first and so on until they have built up their business and reached the goal they set. 

Typically the goals take a couple of years to achieve since the income from the weaving is relatively small.  For example one of the trou participants bought a rug for 600 pesos, 200 pesos of which was the wool leaving only 400 pesos for income.  There is also a cost to dye the wool (say 50 pesos) leaving a net income of 350 pesos for 40 hours worth of weaving time.  Now to be fair my supposition is that in this particular instance the rug was sold for less than it was worth to help encourage us to loan this group the money as opposed to the other group.

It was a fun trip, nice to get close up to the actual weavers instead of going to a big shop packed with rugs where the bulk of the money goes to the middle men and not the weavers.

The previous pictures, in order, show the weaving process, making dye from cochineal and some dyed wool ready for the loom. 

In general the looms cost around 10,000 pesos which at the current exchange rate is about $850 and will last a lifetime if well maintained.  There are a variety of sizes of loom used to make wider or narrower rugs (tapetes in Spanish).  Besides rugs the weavers are also producing bags (such as handbags) of various sizes, table runners, placemats and so on.

The wool comes as undyed yarn direct from the villages in the mountains that raise the sheep as opposed to the old way wherein the weavers actually carded and spun the wool (see first photo for a demonstration).  The villages in the mountains nearby have organized and bought themselves machines to mechanize the carding/spinning processes (thanks to government loans/grants).

A lot of the dyeing these days is done with synthetic dyes as they are cheaper, more controllable and overall take less time than traditional dyeing methods.  There is a move to get the weavers to use traditional dyeing methods to raise the cachet of the local weavers but the prices will need to go up for this to be viable.

If you are visiting the Oaxaca area this is a fun tour to take (http://www.investours.org) and helps the local populations directly.

Oaxaca: The Day Can Only Get Better…I Hope

We are coming to the end of our month long stay in Oaxaca and we are speaking better (or is that more betterer?) and understanding more when spoken to however it doesn’t take much from a native speaker before we are totally lost.  I am worried that our upcoming time in Costa Rica will negate the advances we have made in Oaxaca.

Darcie and I have been in school all day every day except weekends making a hearty effort to get functional with our Spanish.  There are days where we seem to advance and days when we seem to regress: there is no logic that I can see to the advance/regress relationship.

We get about 2 hours of homework every day and 4 on the weekends.  Sometimes the work is a help and sometimes it is demoralizing as you realize how little you know.  For instance this weekend we were assigned a two page (8.5”x11”) or so short story which had so many words that weren’t in our dictionaries or did not make sense when translated literally that our heads were spinning. 

Darcie took 3 hours or so with the help of a friend who is substantially further along the path than we are and even then there were words left untouched!  I gave up after 30 minutes with the first paragraph as every third word needed the dictionary or several online sources to glean the meaning.  I admit that some of the following paragraphs were easier but I was so frustrated that I had no interest in beating myself up.  And it was only two pages!!!

Despite this we are having fun every day and have met a lot of wonderful people in our classes.  We have not met many locals which is unfortunate but inevitable given our schedule.

We move on to Costa Rica on Feb 2, leaving from Mexico City at 6:45am.  We are currently intending to spend two months in CR before flying down to Peru. 

Oaxaca: Day 21 Glug, Glug, Glug

That is the sound of brain slipping under the ocean of Spanish.  We have been working really hard every day from 9am till 6pm which some days is simply overwhelming but most days goes really well.  We have met many fun people from school, some in our classes and some in others.  Several of our friends have apartments which is nice since it allows me to fool around in the kitchen. 

Two weekends ago we went to Monte Alban which are the local Toltec/Mixtec ruins.  Surprisingly the Spanish did not tear down the temples particularly, presumably in large part because the “ruins” are out of town at the top of a mountain with no water source.

The tour was fun although it was a windy and chilly day, our guide was very funny and easy to understand in Spanish which was a delight.  Unfortunately three people joined the tour after it had started and they did not speak Spanish thus the tour got presented in both Spanish and English.  I found that it was fairly straight forward to under stand the Spanish but as soon as the tour was presented on both languages I started struggling with the Spanish.

We finished the day with a trip to the local market, 20 de Noviembre, for a delish Oaxacan tamale (a little masa, chicken and mole negro) which is wrapped in a banana leaf as opposed to corn husks.  The flavors are terrific.  We also shared a chicken mole because of course I can’t get enough mole (I have tried mole negro, colorado, poblano, verde and enfojado).

The day before the Monte Alban trip had started out very wet with a good solid, unseasonal, we were told, storm.  We dug out our waterproof gear and shuffled off through the town to find the Mercadao del Abasto which is the biggest market in town which gets even bigger on Saturdays.  The market was fairly lightly traveled presumably since the weather was so dismal. 

Despite the lack of life which our Spanish teacher, Belen, said was a blessing, the market was fun, a visual and olfactory treat.  There were stalls selling heaps and heaps and heaps of chiles of all sorts.  There were heaps of the local high protein source of food known as chapulines which are grasshoppers fried with chile, salt and lime.  They come in various sizes and are quite tasty particularly with a mezcal or two.

   Which of course brings me to mezcal.  Mezcal is the unsung hero of tequila, it is the local variant produced in quantity here in the state of Oaxaca and can be found for sale on most of the main roads very similar to wine in the Napa Valley.  As with tequila there are three version:

• plata or blanco which is clear, possibly freshly distilled and generally a little harsh similar to tequila
• reposado which literally means rested and is mezcal that has been sitting in a wood barrel for a while and has taken on a lovely light brown color and has developed a softness and a depth of character missing in the plata variant.
• The final form is anejo which is reposado that has been aged as the name implies.  Usually this is darker in color and more complex in taste than the reposado and of course the prices reflect this.

I had my first sip with some school friends after a particularly grueling day mid-week the first week and immediately was smitten.  It tasted similar to a good single malt: there were complex flavors, smokiness, a lingering peppery aftertaste and a soft fire in the belly.  Delicious!  If you find it, try it.  I buy it direct from a producer at the organic farmers market nearby for 60 pesos a liter!

Oaxaca Day 1: Wow!

Well, we almost missed the bus…we were the last on board, they had already shut the cargo and passenger doors! But 9:30am hadn’t quite rolled around so they hadn’t pushed back, luckily for us as we rushed up from our Millennium Falcon of a taxi ride.  Not quite sure how we frittered away the morning but of course partly it was a quest for decent cup of coffee at 7am that did it.  We wound up at Sanborn’s, a Mexican Denny’s sort of where the coffee was at least made fresh from beans, coffee beans, as opposed to the Nescafe we were served the several days earlier at the hotel.

Anyway, we made it so here we are in Oaxaca. Just in case your short term memory doesn’t work to well that is pronounced “wah hah kah”.

The bus ride down was great: another lovely bus in Mexico, it really is the only way to go.  We actually stepped down a notch to a first class bus!! simply because a) the luxury bus left at 8:30am and we figured we would be hard pressed to make it in time and b) it was 200 pesos more per ticket (we are on a budget you know).

The bus was on an Scottish movie theme with Made of Honor which was in part set in Scotland followed by Water Horse (I think that was the title) about a boy who lives on the shore of a now well known lake who discovers some strange rock that hatches into, yes you guessed it the Loch Ness Monster.  After a brief interlude of a Discovery Channel program we were regaled by Hot Balls of Fire an exceptionally daft movie mixing international intrigue and ping pong.  Darcie said it was the silliest movie she had ever watched!!?

I read a chunk of Setting the Desert on Fire, a book about the British/French/Ottoman/Arab mess during the late 1st World War which in large part is to blame for the mess in the Middle East now. I also stared out the window a lot. 

The countryside through which we drove was great: rugged, rolling, rocky, mountainous, sometimes farmed and sometimes just a plunging cliff to nowhere.  I saw three eagles or big hawks surfing the thermals off one such cliff.  We passed through an area that looked like a forest fire had swept through only because the forest was a forest of cactus so all you had were trunks.  Truly amazing to see thousands upon thousands of cacti growing up these steep rocky mountains in such profusion.  As we got closer to Oaxaca the countryside became strongly reminiscent of Northern California, rolling hills covered in waving golden grasses, mixed forests, did I mention the rolling hills…?

The bus station was five blocks or so from our hotel so we finally used our packs as packs and walked, shock horror, to our current residence the Hotel Las Mariposas which is a further ten blocks or so from Oaxaca’s Zocalo.

After checking in we wandered off to check out the scene and immediately fell in love.  Oaxaca is amazing, art everywhere, musicians everywhere, loads of young people (we met a couple today from the DF that said that Oaxaca has the largest proportion of young people of any part of Mexico), the Zocalo is packed all day with strolling families and friends.  We met a young woman and what we took to be her Dad who had recently been in San Miguel who remembered seeing us!  Then while wandering around the local cultural museum we met a woman from our yoga class in Oakland!

The cultural museum is great, filled with cool pottery some dating back to 10000 BC!!!  The museum is located in the former Dominican convent which has been beautifully restored and contains a well presented collection of art representing the cultural heritage of the state of Oaxaca.  Fantastic!

We also spent four plus hours wandering around three separate markets the first of which sold various foods, clothes, chocolate, stuff and so on and is in most respects a typical market made untypical by the mezcal dealers located on just about every aisle and the chapuline sellers.  Chapulines are grass hoppers (chapultepecs) which are fried with chile and lime.  Having resisted my friend Juan’s offer of grass hoppers 10 years ago but having had some very strange things at our Vietnamese neighbor’s house in the intervening time I decided to give the chapulines a go.  10 pesos is a lot of grass hoppers which turned out to be crunchy (who’ld a thunk) and zesty and quite tasty.  I think I need a bottle of mezcal to go with to really do them justice.

The second market was entirely dedicated to food, cooked food.  By now we were both hungry, having walked around the other market and at least in my case salivating like mad at the mounds of mole of all sorts, long strings of dark chorizo, the slabs of beef, the tasty Oaxacan stringy cheese that tastes nothing like the pallid crap sold everywhere else as Oaxacan stringy cheese…

As it seemed a little early to eat we continued on, wandering through a quieter area before stumbling on a market dedicated to selling the local handicrafts.  This was a small market mostly selling clothing and while interesting not nearly as much fun as the first two markets.  So off to lunch we went.

I had the best tamale I have ever had, a thin masa shell wrapped around chicken and mole and then wrapped in a banana leaf and boiled.  Darcie had a chicken soup which was tasty particularly when set off with squeeze of lime and a splash of chile sauce.  We also had a chorizo quesadilla which was good but not a patch on the other two dishes.

After wandering through the cultural museum we wound up back at the Zocalo with a gelato each (the best ‘scream so far) and people-watched for an hour or more before wandering around some more and taking a front row seat at a restaurant for a light snack and a drink.  A great three piece guitar band came along and serenaded the crowd for over an hour which was quite delightful. Which reminds me that we had also listened to a 30+ member brass band earlier in the day playing Tchaikovsky and so on.

As the camera was out of juice I have no photos.

ttfn, Nick and Darcie.

Dia 60 a 64: Feliz Ano En El D.F.

After the usual delightfully relaxed ETN luxury bus ride from San Miguel to Mexico City we checked into our hotel, Hotel Isabel, which has elements of former loveliness marred by the usual attrition of time and lack of maintenance coupled in this case with a certain low-rent decor (heavy-duty dark colored carpets, dark colored vinyl wall coverings, bright fluorescent lighting not making the color schemes any more appealing, a certain essence of sewer and so on).  In all fairness this was not unexpected since we were of course only paying 390 pesos ($33) a night for the two of us for a hotel about four blocks from the Zocalo.

Checking in was easy and we quickly made our way up to the Zocalo itself to see what was happening.  We had heard from our friend Yaya that there was an outdoor ice skating rink to avail ourselves of.  Sure enough there was indeed a rink, a snow ball fight area (kids only and you had to wear a helmet and a face shield sort of like shock troops since the snow was a little rough and lumpy), a snow man making area (Munecos de Hielo which literally translates to snow dolls, again for kids only) a snow mobile course (kids only), an inner-tube slide for all ages and an ice sculpture “museum” and on the night we arrived an outdoor ice-carving carve-off.

The snow ball fight area seemed a little daft although the kids were certainly having a lot of fun.  The ground was made up of those rubber mats you see in restaurant kitchens with holes in them for drainage etc.  There was no snow on the ground, you were given a bucket at the start filled with snow, the kids were divided into two groups by a screen a lot like an opaque tennis net, a whistle was blown as soon as the snow men had left the kill zone and the kids proceeded to hurl the icy lumps at each other.  At first I was surprised by the protective head gear, so un-Mexican, but after seeing the impacts of the snow balls I could quite see why it was necessary – the snow was mostly ice!

The snow man making area was really great, mainly populated with 3 to 6 or so year olds and a parent or sibling.  The snow was piled on the tables in front of each nino who then proceeded to pack the snow into a mold.  Once the mold was full it was separated and voila, a snow man.  the kids then adorned their work with eyes, a carrot nose and little twig arms (all plastic of course), flopped a wooly hat on and finally twirled a scarf around the neck.  There was so much joy on their faces, it was really sweet to see (getting old and soft I am).

The snowmobile area, Motos de Nieve, was hilarious since the 50cc snow mobiles really struggled with the “snow”  and the kids really struggled with the snowmobiles, many crashes occurred on every run.  There were mobile-wrastlers at each of the two corners to try to get the kids to turn and failing that to shove them as they flew past in the frequently vain hope that the shove would get the moto turning, fat chance!  We watched more than one helper get run down by errant moto-wielding 8yr old hooligans!  

The toboggan/inner tube run was very popular, running all day long but a run is a run and not much more can be said.

As we wandered around, we noticed a couple of occasions where a ring of people would form to watch a large group of dancers perform to a mix of music.  At some point during the routine, they would unzip their jackets to expose Pepsi T-shirts.  Clearly the makings of a Pepsi commercial and another way for them to promote themselves.  There were Pepsi adds everywhere since they seemed to be the main sponsor of the event.  For the the first two performances were were only able to see arms/hands flailing in the air since we couldn’t see over the crowd.  We were successful in watching the full performance later that afternoon when we’d decided to sit in one of the bars looking over the Zocalo to do more people watching.  Here’s the best we could do with the camera.

The ice skating rink was very popular and highly regulated.  You stood in line early in the morning at a booth (one in each corner of the Zocalo) and shuffled along to pick up an arm band and register your name with the officials who then gave you a time slot.  Some time before your time slot rolled around you stood in another line, eventually getting your arm band checked by something like five different people before finally getting into the area where you traded your shoes for skates (and disposable booties).  Then you got about 30 minutes on the ice give or take.  The day we watched all this it was sooo warm that the ice was more of a lake

Note the clear reflections off Lake Zocalo…  Other than trying to keep an outdoor rink frozen in 25C (75-80F) weather the rest of the system was terrific, lots of ice guards to help and a good range of skates, although the idea of a sharp edge was so remote you would have had a hard time cutting butter with them.  Darcie and I skated on New Year’s Day at the end of the day when the ice was ice and not a lake.  I got busted for taking photos (a well published no-no which I of course ignored) so we only have two somewhat scary looking ones:

The night before our skating adventure (30 minutes of skating, five hours in various lines – Hey! we skated in Mexico City, outdoors, on NYD!!) we went to Paseo de la Reforma for New Year’s Eve.  The Paseo was shut to traffic, many barricades had been set up along with a jumbo screen every 100 meters or so. There were also many little bottle necks between sections, only a few exits out to side streets or cross-overs from one side of a section to another, hundreds of police stationed up and down inside Stalag 15 and riot police on the side streets just in case. 

I suppose Mexico has a history of excitement or maybe the government just wanted to make damn sure there would be no wild behavior on New Year’s, this is a Catholic Country Damn It…etc, who knows (I suspect the government was making sure the drug cartels would not try to do anything foolish).  Anyway, despite the setup the event itself was very laid back with lots of families (from swaddled babies to ancient grand parents), no alcohol or obvious drunkenness, no drugs that I could see, some good music, some tedious music (what is the fascination with Mariachis?) and some great fireworks.  The scaffolding we had seen when we were last in town at the beginning of November had turned into a spectacular 150ft tall “Christmas tree”

Needless to say we got to bed after 2am.

Feliz Ano Todo