(Post 22 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

For today, I was all set to go to the huge “local” market in the nearby town of Tlacolula that people from the mountains travel hours to get to on Sunday. I’d done my research, knew how to get there, and was looking forward to it. But… I felt off about it in a way I could not ignore. It might be that I was so tired. Or that everyone I talked to here in the last few days about going there warned me about the increase in pickpocketing of tourists. Or that “something else” was going to happen. I don’t know. But when I made the decision last night that I was not going to Tlacolula, I felt a lot better.

So I gave myself a slow Sunday morning. Still woke up early, but lazed in bed with coffee and my iPad, steadily plugging away at the last job in my queue. Upload speeds here being so slow, I got some pictures uploading to the blog so I could catch you all up on my adventures. I finally headed out late morning, with my destination being… church.

On the way there, my friends watching B called to say that they are heeding the Government of Canada’s call for Canadians abroad to come home ASAP as there is talk of closing the border. So they are on the first flight home this week. Thankfully, they are leaving Wednesday AM, but, unfortunately, that’s a few hours after I arrive, so we won’t get to say our goodbyes. 🙁 I understand their urgency to get home, of course. These are insane times we live in. It feels surreal to me to be here having a good time on holidays when the world is shutting down. Mérida is on lock down right now, so who knows what I am going to go home too. But I can’t get a flight till my scheduled one on Wednesday, so I might as well stay calm and carry on.

So my destination was Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the exterior of which we saw on Thursday.

Little did you know then what lies inside… Oh my world… So much gold!

I left a small donation and headed out in search of breakfast. There were tons of touts in front of the church mostly selling the same thing (“cocktail sticks”), but an earring vendor caught my attention, of course. She makes all her earrings from corn husk with natural dyes. I prefer dangly earrings, but hers were all too long, so I bought these studs for 50 pesos.

(Post 21 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

Our final stop was Coyotepec.

Coyotepec is known for its black clay pottery. Again, something I’ve seen but never appreciated.

We got a really great demonstration of how a typical water jug is made. I mean, he started from a lump of clay and went right up to showing us how the high polish is achieved using a quartz stone. It was incredible to see him use water and leather tools to shape the container, including the iconic mouth of the jug. Unfortunately, the room was packed and I never managed to for long get a clear view, so I don’t have as many photos as I wish I had showing the process. I felt bad for the English speakers there as this was only in Spanish.

Once the clay is sculpted, it is polished with a piece of quartz. That’s all that is necessary to achieve the high shine — there’s no sealant. The black colour is achieved by firing the pieces only 10 hours at a low temperature. These are the decorative pieces that are fragile and porous. The tools of daily life, like cookware, are fired for about 12 hours at a much higher temperature. They turn out dark grey and are much less fragile and not porous.

There was a huge gallery of pieces, from vases to little animal figures. I couldn’t believe how affordable everything seemed to be.

I saw this striking piece and thought that it would look great as a pencil holder on my desk. Look at the detail of that scallop pattern! This was only 100 pesos, to give you an idea of how affordable it was to shop there and support local artisans.

We arrived back at the Zócalo right on time at 6PM. I went straight home to shower and get back to work. Around 8:00, I ventured out in search of tacos. Unfortunately, the stand by the apartment was only just setting up. I went “around the block” and found a restaurant… just around the corner from me. I’ll be glad to know it’s there tomorrow night!

Well, this was a first — finding myself at a place with all the… unusual taco fillings, like snout, heart, and stomach. I’m not that adventurous yet, so I decided to try cabeza (head) and chamorro (described as being part of the leg) — both of pig.

I’d never had tacos al vapor (steamed) before and am a fan! The rather gristly and fatty meat was offset by a good schmear of guacamole, with onions and cilantro. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to dip my tacos in salsa or open them up and add sauce, so I tried both ways and preferred the latter. I’m now convinced there is no such thing as anything but very hot salsa in Oaxaca!

Four tacos, a mango water, and a beer (they had beer, yay!) came to only 101 pesos, a perfect end to my night. I found ice cream at the store across the street and came in to read (work) for a few hours before I passed out!

(Post 20 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

The drive from Arrazola to Cuilapan de Guerreo felt long as it was very twisty and bumpy. I was glad to see what the state looks like outside of the capital city. We finally pulled into a restaurant near our next stop.

There, we were greeted with a shot of mezcal, my first! I found it quite good — more to my taste than is tequila. The restaurant was open air, but with a roof, with dozens of tables to accommodate several tour groups. I sat with two ladies from my group. There were plenty of servers and we were quickly served our beverages. I really wanted a beer but knew it would put me to sleep, so I went with a horchata.

Lunch was awesome! It was a buffet with dozens of choices and everything from beets (!!!) to all manner of stews. Everything had just been brought out, with all the hot dishes on burners and the cold dishes on ice. I had no idea what anything was, so I loaded up on a bit of several dishes, not coming close to sampling everything. I tried a variety of stews, some with chicken and some with pork, with the sauce colours in ranges of yellows, reds, greens, and browns. I was so glad that I’m not a picky eater and was able to let my tastebuds go on an adventure. By the way, lunch was only $150, and I paid an additional $40 for my horchata and a bottle of water. Incredibly reasonable for the quality and quantity of food offered!

Unfortunately, I only got a blurry picture of my first course, so you’ll have to take my word for it that everything looked — and was — very yummy!

I went back for a few more things, and came to the conclusion that I’m not a fan of tamales. I find them dry and pretty tasteless, but am willing to have that opinion challenged if someone’s Mexican abuela is reading this and is feeling offended. 🙂

I missed that there was dessert, but one of my tablemates had me try a piece of her gelatine and maize-based dessert, basically atole in Jello-form. I was not a fan. But somehow, I got wind that there were green mangos in vinegar and that piqued my curiosity, so I went in search of them. A lady at the table tried to discourage me, making a face and saying that they are super bitter. I like bitter things (hello, fan of black coffee and grapefruit juice — together!), so I was not daunted.

I did not find the mango bitter (or sour) at all. In fact, it barely had any non-mangoey flavour. It just wasn’t sweet as the mango wasn’t ripe before going through the “pickling” process. The texture was unusual, too. I really enjoyed my mango and it was the perfect end to a great lunch.

We continued on to the Dominican monastery ruins, which date to the mid-1500s. Who needs to go to Europe, huh?! By the way, some say Cuilapan, some say Cuilapam…

This was a centre of evangelisation in the area. The architectural style is really interesting, combining Roman arches with Greek Corinthian columns and Moorish towers!

Today, the site is used as offices for the INAH (National institute for anthropology and history), where it does research and holds workshops.

I picked up a shawl from a vendor outside the convent, for $150. I think it’s probably mass-produced, but it’s soft and the colours are pretty. I have a blanket in those colours on one sofa, so when I don’t need to wear this shawl, I can display it on the other sofa

Unbelievably, we had one stop left to make!

(Post 19 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

From Monte Albán, we headed down sandy, twisty roads past many houses made of wood (!) to the community of Arrazola, home of Alebrijes, wooden painted decorative objects.

There, we got a brief demonstration of how the wood is shaped using a machete (sorry for the blur).

Then we saw how every piece is hand painted and, thus, unique. I have seen so much of this stuff in the city and never appreciated it!

The paleta vendor was doing brisk business. I went with passionfruit!

I fell in love hard with this one. Thankfully, it was too expensive and difficult to get on a plane. 🙂

Ah, more in my budget at 250 pesos (still a lot for me for a purely decorative object). It was the decision of the decade which one of these two to adopt. Can you guess which one is coming home with me?

These reminded me of the earrings I picked up on my, appropriately enough, Mexican themed day in Belgrade.

Yes, this was a shopping stop, but not in a way I found offensive. We got a really good demonstration about this art form, there were no pushy vendors, and the prices were reasonable for the quality of the workmanship — I even got $25 off at the till for paying cash. I’m really glad that I came out here on a tour as I think would have been a lot of work to get myself out here otherwise and not really worth the time to do just that stop unless I was really there to shop, so to visit many studios.

Next stop was going to be lunch. We were all curious about where we would end up!

(Post 18 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

For Saturday, I had booked a tour with Lani Tours. It’s a good thing I didn’t read any reviews ahead of time because I don’t have a single negative comment to make about my experience. $200 pesos for transport and a guide to four sites (plus lunch) was a bargain and the guide was excellent! This was a tour for Mexicans, not foreigners. We did have some foreigners, but they were with a Mexican host family. The guide did have enough English for them, but I had a much easier time following him in Spanish.

I had to be at the tour office at 9:50, so I decided to have breakfast on the Zócalo as not much was open at 8:30ish on a Saturday morning. I was impressed by what I got for my 126 pesos in a prime location, although I could have done without the touts.

My second favourite Mexican food, mole negro!

I thought that my meal was just going to be the coffee and main, so when I was offered fruit or juice as well as really good bolillos (rolls), the meal stopped feeling expensive. I knew I was going to have a really active morning and that it would be quite some time to lunch, so took my time and got through most of the food.

I had a little time to kill after, so I went off in search of earrings as I’d forgotten to put some on that morning. Such a task is easy in Mexico and I found these hand-painted earrings for 25 pesos. They are of the traditional embroidery pattern, and I believe they are half of a palm seed.

I signed in with the tour, followed the guide to my mini bus, and set off on my day of adventure. I was delighted to learn that the bus was secure, so we could leave our belongings on it. I had packed a big heavy bag with water, another pair of shoes, and plenty of space for souvenirs, but also my new little purse. So I was able to just have that on me while I was out exploring.

The drive to our first stop, the ruins of Monte Albán reminded me of driving through parts of Sonora and Sinaloa — very dry, very run down, and very graffiti-ridden, with little evidence of pride of community, very surprising for a community on a tourist route.

We made it to Monte Albán in about 30 minutes, where we had to pay 80 pesos to enter. This is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site that was the pre-eminent Zapotec socio-political and economic centre for about one thousand years. Learn all about Monte Albán on Wikipedia if you’re curious. 🙂

The site is very near Oaxaca, up in the mountains. The views were spectacular.

I accidentally perfectly coordinated, which is easy when you have a palette. 🙂

I couldn’t believe it — pinecones!

Only a very small part of the site has been excavated.

This is where they played a ball game, similar to what we see in Yucatán. But this was purely ceremonial.

This is Oaxaca City. You can see the tent-like roof of the sports stadium on the west side of the city. From there, it’s quite easy to orientate yourself.

This was a funerary urn. I was a little cross that statues like these and beautiful jaguar heads were passed around as items meant to be purchased by guests without that being said upfront.

Cistern, where they collected water during the rainy season. It would then be distributed to dwellings. Yup, indoor plumbing — it’s not just the Romans who had it!

The guide was really good at laying out the context for the ruins. He explained that they used to be covered with a red “paint” made from mercury (!). I wish I could remember everything he told us, but, alas, the memories are already fading.

We got a whole hour on our own to explore the ruins and visit the little museum. It was plenty of time considering the sun beating down on us (but a breeze made it quite comfortable for my Yucatecan-self!).

These represent figures with deformities. The guide mentioned something caused deformities and that the resultant “mutants” were not marginalised at all.

Time to head up! There were very few places where you could to that.

Going down was “fun.”

Mont Albán was incredible! There are several other such sites in Mexico I need to visit, including Palenque and, of course, Chichen Itza. I still cannot believe my schooling that told me that there was no “civilisation” in North America worth mentioning pre-Columbus.

There were, of course, lots of vendors in the parking lot. I spotted a turquoise necklace that would match “turquoise” earrings I bought in Mérida a while back. I also really liked an amethyst necklace the girl was saying. “They’re 35 pesos each,” she said. “But if you can’t decide, you can have both for 50 pesos.” Clever girl. 🙂 I think these are amazing — the turquoise one especially looks so much more expensive than it was.

Full of the sights and tales of Monte Albán, my rag-tag band of fellow adventurers and I piled back into our mini van and set off on a dusty, windy journey to our next destination.