Our tour from Oaxaca City

After exhausting ourselves trying to find the "ruin" site and still having a few key things that we were interested in seeing, we decided to spend the extra money and take a day tour that visited several different palces. We were not disappointed! The few extra dollars won`t be remembered. Instead some of the great facts and historical details shared by our guide will be. The group was a diverse mix of English and Spanish speakers all of whom were about our age. So we enjoyed the company of new faces and the stories and perspectives they brought along.



First Stop: El Tule

El Tule is the name of a small village which is home to the largest single biomass in the world. Are you curiuos now? What is with all the big words eh? Translation: a quaint churchyard has the world´s oldest and largest tree in it. It is a cypress tree that is wider than it is high ( 59 mwide by 42 m high.) And it is over 2000 years old. The tree is protected currently by an American environmental group.

Second Stop: The Village of Teotitlan and a Demonstration of Weaving

I think this was the best part of the tour. It was interactive and really fun to learn the age old tradition of waeving. The artisans from this part of the country are renowned for their taperstries. The community has also designed an impressive, totally self sufficient system of living. Meaning that the citizens pay taxes so that the government does not interfere and instead they use a system of heirarchy that relies on the wisdom of the elderly.

The weaving tradtition and technique were shown to us by a young guy, who is one of 25 weavers in a co-operative. His mother demonstrated how the thread is made, starting from preparing the lambs´wool to spinning it to dying it, while the son explained and translated it all. He then demonstrated how the loom is used on a piece of his own work. When we get back you´ll have to see pictures because so few words is not doing this experience any justice! Of course they had finished producs for us to buy, which we did. Something else to add to our collection.

Stop 3: Hierve el Aqua

Aqua what? Though the direct translation is ´the water boils´what we sw were petrified waterfalls. Several mineral springs at the top of cliffs form bathing pools but small amounts of water with huge amounts of minerals make their way over the cliff, making layers upon layers of a "crust" from all the minerals. So there is actually no water flowing over, maybe a few drips. What you see appears to be a "frozen waterfalls." The tour guide took us off the beaten path to get a better view and some great pics.

Stop4: Mitla and The Ruins

We´d contemplated spending a night or two in Mitla but because of our longing to get settled back in Jacomulco the visit with the tour would have to do. And it was great, thought the village would have been a great place to spend a bit more time.

This ruin was built in the 12th century when Monte Alban was becoming less important. It is very small and the patterns in the stones are what makes this ruin unique. The ruins are considered the Zapotecs´(another Indian tribe) main religious center. The cluster of buildings that are present ( many were destroyed and some were recently (1940s) even used as the market place) housed specific people (king, priests, etc...)

The designs in the stones were created by cutting the stone perfectly so that they would fit together just so. The stones were then covered in a paint, which used the cochineal insect. The little bugs would form cocoons on the prickly pear cactus, the plants would later be dried out and the bugs pulled off and ground to form a red powder( which is the same that they use to make red dyes for the weaving.) The powder is mixed with water to make a paste and eventually paint. Today people are trying to speculate what the designs created by the rocks symbolize. It was an amzing form of art.

Stop 5: Mezcal Factory Tour

As soon as you stepped out of the van a distinct sort of bitter smell greeted your nose. Ahhhh alcohol. Mezcal is an alcohol that is made from cactus that look like jumbo sized pineapple tops. Tequilla is a type of Mezcal. The core of the plants are baked in an underground pit and then mashed by a donkey powered wheel. This pulp is then fermentated for about two weeks and distilled over a small fire, so that the alcohol is evaporated, cooled and then collected. You are left with a clear liquid that they do all sorts of things to: colour it, flavour it, add condensed milk to it ( so it is like Bailey´s) and sometimes even a worm is added.

We got to try all sorts of samples. Jay liked the stuff straight and aged ( and most expensive.) I liked the fruity, more melllowed out kinds. In the end not a single person from our group bought anything.