Dances with pineapples and adios Oaxaca

Sampling the delights of wonderful Oaxaca in our last week

                                 

No photos!  An incense burner in the Casa de la Culturas

This is a fantastic museum - a must-see in Oaxaca.  We spent hours there and Alan is not one for museums.  It's well worth getting an audio guide in English.  

  

Another amazing artefact from the Museo de las Culturas - is it just me, or does he look a bit jaded? (sorry)

And, soon, goodbye to our home for the past month

                                

The original door, graffiti and all, on our La Calera apartment.  'Cal' means limestone (very tame graffiti!).  We love the birds

  

Wall art in the Barrio Marquesado, where we lived.  We met this man!  It's a great likeness

   

More Marquesado wall art

                                 

We love these little hole in the wall shops - this one, near the church in Marquesado, sells only pickled fruits (sadly, the black bow above the door means that someone in the family has recently passed away)

Our last day of Spanish classes dawned and for a while we felt that we were worse than before, but gradually we realised that we can now understand loads and, on a good day, we can speak a bit, too.  What we do know is that we are now able to communicate much better with local Spanish speaking people, which was our aim, so......FANTASTICO!

We went out one night in our last week with the other students from Oaxaca Spanish Magic School, to a little restaurant we were taken to by Flor, the directora.  There we ate delicious molletes, usually filled with potato and chorizo, but in this case with a veg and potato mix, in a batter and deep fried.  They tasted a bit like a Mexican samosa.... yum.  But, unfortunately, we have been unable to find a veggie version since.  During that evening, a recipe arose, well, kind of.... indulge us on this one...   One of the group asked the partner of a woman who had lots of tattoos if he liked them.  Seeing his decidedly awkward expression and the way he squirmed in his seat, another of the group declared that asking someone if they like their partner's tats when they are in the room is a recipe for disaster.  Don't do it!

On the  Monday of the the week leading up to Guelaguetza, we'd arrived home to La Calera after school, to the sight of young musicians arriving and filing into the workshop, carrying their instruments.  Very soon, the sound of an orchestra tuning up boomed, trilled, strummed and parped, followed by the playing of what sounded like traditional Mexican tunes, the difficult bits played over and over.  Luis Jesus appeared, looking buoyant and explained to us that these were musicians from all over the state who would be playing in a special event on this Friday and who needed a place to practise.  Great, we said, thinking it was just the one evening.  However, we returned home every afternoon or evening to hear the musicians practising, at volume.  One day we brought Margaret home with us, to see La Calera and to join us for lunch.  As usual that week the musicians began tuning up, together with a woman who had been singing with them.  Margaret's jaw hit the floor when she saw her: 'Do you know who that is?!' she whispered loudly, peering through our cactus fence at the elegant woman.  We were clueless.  'It's Susana Harp!'  she cried, aghast at our blank expressions.  Apparently, her uncle is a very rich man and owns most of Oaxaca.  Susana is a famous singer and has also set up various charities, including one which works to help street children.  We tried for a while to chat above the orchestra and in the end just listened.  We were getting to know all the tunes by now and Margaret knew them all already, being an adopted daughter of Oaxaca.  After Margaret had returned to her apartment in town, Susana sashayed past and peered between 2 cacti to invite us to the performance on Friday evening.  We couldn't wait to tell Margaret!  

We haven't included a real, foody recipe for a while, so here's Alan's beetroot hummus (or 'humus de betabel' in espanol!), which he prepared for our lunch starter when Margaret visited:

Ingredients

4 small beetroots (each about the size of a satsuma) cooked until just soft

small can white refried beans (or cannelini beans)

2 teaspoons natural yogurt

1 teaspoon olive oil

pinch each of salt and black pepper

clove of garlic, chopped very fine or pureed

juice of a quarter of a lime

For the garnish: natural yogurt, to taste, plus some mint leaves

Method:

Crush the beetroot using the back of a fork.  Do not put into a blender - you need some texture

Mix all the ingredients together - it's as simple as that

Garnish with yogurt and mint

  

Concocting a riquisimo lunch

   

At the Plaza de la Danza - The free, open-air concert we'd heard in rehearsal so many times we knew every tune,  Torrential rain did not deter the audience as we waited an hour for it to subside, many sporting silver plastic ponchos purchased  for 10 pesos (about 50 pence) from opportunist vendors (we had ours already, of course, modelled by Alan in a previous blog)

In the week before Guelaguetza there was an air of anticipation as stalls and entire marketplaces were set up, selling food, sweets, local delicacies such as pickled fruits, traditional clothes, also sneaky fairground favourites such as hook the duck, throw the coin into the square etc, designed to part optimists from their money.  The food stalls were run by women from the villages and the food, oh my palabra,  the food.........  Needless to say, we had to try lots of them for quality control purposes!

                                       

This was our favourite stall - huge empanadas fresh as they come, accompanied by a glass of cool 'jamaica', hibiscus tea/juice - yum.  That jar of innocent looking green salsa on the counter.... picantisimo!!

One day, just before leaving for school in our final week at La Calera, Nacho, the site manager, told us that they'd had to take Tonita to the vet, as she'd been scratching and rubbing her teats.  The vet said that it was due to irritation from the lime and the kittens had to be removed from it, as it was harmful to both the mother and kittens.  A concerted effort by the workers resulted in the discovery and removal of the kittens to a place of safety...... the cleaning cupboard!   There she was, in a box lined with a towel, with 5 beautiful kittens.  Now it's going to be even more difficult to leave La Calera.

  

Tonita and the kittens, safe and sound (and beautiful) phew

We looked in on her whenever we could in our last week and watched the kittens grow stronger and bigger and develop personalities.  We bathed the eyes of the smallest one (on the left of the pic above) as they were sticky and still closed.   By the time we left she was much bigger, blue eyes open, and really feisty.

That weekend, we returned to Tlacoloula market, and, as promised, Alan's huaraches, a grandisimo Mexican size 9, were waiting for him.  We also visited the gorgeous Hierve el Agua (meaning in Spanish 'the water boils'): natural rock formations which resemble cascading water.  It was a bit of a palaver to get there from Oaxaca City, but well worth it;  by collectivo, then a pickup, then another truck, which left us a few hundred metres from the site, due to a dispute about who owns the road.  Apparently this is common in Mexico, and, to prove it, we returned on a completely different, very windy dirt track, in the back of a truck.  Where's the dramamine?!  Still, talking music and popular British TV shows on US TV with a group of young travellers from the US (Midsomer Murders, Keeping Up Appearances, One Foot in the Grave etc, beloved, as we are finding on our trip, of so many and diverse US travellers) and spotting that a Mexican woman was sporting an Arsenal t-shirt (it turns out that her friend worked in the UK and brought it back for her) kept our minds of the nausea-inducing bends.

  

On the road to Hierve el Agua

                                   

Amazing rock formations 

   

Natural infinity pool at Hierve el Agua

We swam until we pickled, chatting to people from all over Mexico, plus tourists from loads of other countries - then the sky turned black and we hurtled up the hill to the little stalls at the entrance to shelter and drink coffee, watching the deluge and drenched folks scrambling up the hill to shelter in the tiny cafes.  

    

It's still rainy season, lest we forget

At last.....Guelaguetza!

     

We'd been wondering how to spend Guelaguetza.  The big events at the purpose built, aptly, if obviously named Guelaguetza Stadium on the edge of town, are apparently glitzy, slick affairs and, amazingly, tickets cost the equivalent of 48 of our British pounds!!  There are some free tickets available, for which people queue from 3am on the day, which, by all accounts, is an event in itself.  Having seen and enjoyed loads of calendas in the streets, we decided that we'd prefer to experience a low key, local celebration and everyone says that they are to be found in the villages.  But which villages?  It was our great fortune to be asked by our friend, Margaret, if we would like to spend Guelaguetza with her and her Oaxacan family and friends in their village.  That's exactly what we did....and it was fantastic!          

                                    

   

The beautiful setting where we spent Guelaguetza, in Santiaguito, a village near Etla

                                     

Dancers in traditional dress of the region

Acres of fabric

Some of the dancers are from a group called 'Edad del Oro' - golden age - members are 50 years and over and dance incredibly energetically

                                

She means business

    

Our absolute favourite dance of all the regional dances in Guelaguetza - Flor de Pina, the Pineapple Dance from Tuxtepec - it's pure joy

 Each region of Oaxaca state has an individual dance and an individual traje, or traditional dress.  Some of the dances are slow and sedate, others are wild and comical, or even warlike.

                                    

After the festivities the family invited us back to their lovely adobe house, which they built themselves.  They have a smallholding, on which they grow corn, avocados, chillies, peaches, carrots, onions, herbs and several other crops.  They also grow castor oil plants, which they sell for 8 pesos per kilo to the aviation industry, for processing into fuel for aeroplanes.  They raise goats, too.  Being a city girl, I asked if one of the goats was pregnant (she was heavy with milk).  When the dad of the family replied that this isn't possible as the female goats have no husband, he looked mischievously at Alan's beard and suggested that he might be suitable for the job ......  Oh, and they have a very friendly donkey, Andrea.  Their lifestyle seemed idyllic.  Three of the boys have joined the family plumbing/kitchen fitting/electrician business, working with their father, the youngest boy is at university, as is the only girl, who is studying to be a dentist.  Their mum made us a very tasty lunch, after which the boys entertained us, totally unselfconsciously singing along to guitar and double bass.  When they played a sentimental, melodramatic song we had learned when the orchestra played at La Calera, we joined in, much to their amusement: 'quisiera llorar, quisiera morir ....de sentimiento'.  It was a great day.

       

With the lovely family in their house in the village near where we spent Guelaguetza

We had to move from our lovely apartment in La Calera to another one upstairs for the last, extra night, so after coming back from the village we made the most of the gorgeous new apartment for just one night. We had decided that there was too much more to do in Oaxaca to leave, so, La Calera being fully booked, we rented an apartment in town for a week, determined to make the most of the city.  We were so sad to leave the apartment, the people, the cats, the neighbourhood, but looking forward to being able to stay in town late at night, not worrying about having to catch the last bus or taxi back.

                         

Our posh tree house

And next day, our move into town.... adios, La Calera, Tonita, kits et al.... very sad

       

Coffee shop in Jalatlaco

We stayed in an Airbnb apartment in the barrio of Jalatlaco, a Zapotec area, with coffee shops and a lovely tree shaded church.  Our previous apartment had spoilt us - the new one was grubby and generally unloved, but at least we were withiin walking distance of the centre of town and the action.

                                        

He knew long shorts would become trendy again eventually........

                                         

Bad ghost dog....... the sequel to 'I spit on your grave'?

The tiniest lizard in the world, Gonzo, above the curtain rail in our apartment

       

A huipile, traditional women's blouse, which takes months to complete, in the wonderful textile museum

                                   

A courtyard inside the textile museum

Beautiful hand-woven textiles

Close-up of another huipile

In the stamp museum, much more exciting and interesting than it sounds!  Well worth visiting, and a beautiful building

                                

There are some very unusual stamps

      

..... and some interesting artwork from a project with children from Mexico City - we liked this one of Santa Domingo and the ethnobotanical gardens

Plus some very touching letters from Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera, some signed with Frida's red lipstick kiss imprinted.  Images of Frida are everywhere in Oaxaca:

                              

 Frida's and the pig's expressions are very similar, don't you think?

                                

This rather scary wall art depicts Maria Sabina, a curandera (healer) who lived in southern Mexico. Her practice was based on the use of the various species of native psilocybe mushrooms.  There are many such healers today in and around Oaxaca.

Hanging out in the coffee shops for which Oaxaca is renowned

                                   

This amazing balloon is made of paper!  It's huge

On our final Sunday in Oaxaca we went to a paper balloon festival in a village outside the city with some new Mexican friends, Enrique and Elvia, and their lovely nieces, in an ancient VW campervan.   Most of the balloons were more modest than this one.  It was agonising to see many of them burst into flames before they were airborne.... all that work and, in some cases, cost, to make them.  Some, however, soared until they were tiny dots in the sky.

We were aware that we had not yet visited any of the many artisans' villages around Oaxaca City and we did not have much more time in which to do it.  We'd heard of several tours which visit three or four villages in a day, but we wanted to avoid those which rush you around and take you to only a few selected artisans, where you are strongly encouraged to buy.  Searching the internet, we came across an organisation called enVia, a microfinance organisation who work to reduce poverty in and around Oaxaca and to educate travellers.  They work with groups of women in a few villages, offering them interest free loans, to start or expand businesses.  The women come forward with their proposals.   We arranged to join a tour with enVia and were not disappointed.  You don't know where you will be visiting until you meet the tour guides before the tour, who, like most of the staff, are volunteers.  We visited three villages in a small group, by minivan:  Teotitlan del Valle, a weaving village; Tomaltepec and Abasolo.

                                  

San Sebastian Abasolo, Zapotec village church

Zapotec carved stones in the church wall

As with many churches in Mexico, the original indigenous place of worship was demolished by the Spanish conquistadors and rebuilt, adding insult to injury, using some of the original stones, as seen here.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the taqueria owned and run by two of the borrowers.  They were 2 sisters who run one of the 7 such establishments in the small village.  Before they applied for their first loan, they were not making a profit.  They have used their loans and knowledge gained from their business classes, provided free by enVia, to improve their profit margin by buying tables and chairs (the customers used to stand while eating their food), bought a new hot plate and installed a bathroom, the only taqueria in town with these facilities, and have therefore been able to raise the cost of each taco by 1 peso, which does not seem much when you think that one peso is a twenty-fourth of a British pound.  They had already been charging a peso more than the other taquerias due to their unique, tasty, and secret, recipe.  Plus, they sell literally thousands of tacos daily.  We particularly liked the way that we tourists were able to ask questions and the women could ask questions of us.  They wanted to know which countries we were from and one of the sisters asked if Alan and I were married.  She then wanted to know if we were on our honeymoon!  Cheeky! We asked what they want to do next, to which they replied that they want to install a big television, so the men can watch the big football games, raising them yet another notch above the competition.  

                                

In the taqueria, the 2 sisters at the rear in front of the new bathroom

One of the requirements is that 3 women must apply for a loan, so that there is some backup and support from the other 2, should any of the women be unable to repay their loan, which is payable weekly.  We next visited the 3rd, older sister, who used her part of the loan to expand her small grocery store in the village.

                                 

The little general store

She sells essential items and a small selection of fruit and veg in her little shop, but is grateful that she 

has been able to stock a larger quantity since becoming involved with enVia.  After asking us all where we were from, she asked if any of us wanted to adopt her.  Her life seemed incredibly hard, working over12 hours a day, 7 days a week, in the small, dark store, travelling one day a week to buy stock in the market in Oaxaca, some 11 miles distant.

We then visited 2 weaving businesses, where the women make the most beautiful rugs, table runners, bags and mananitas (little ponchos to wear in the chilly mornings).  

The first was a mother and daughter and they are involved in the whole process, from collecting the roots and flowers to make the dyes, washing, carding and spinning the wool ready to dye, then weaving the wool, using the traditional wooden looms.  They had used their loans to have a new loom made by a local carpenter and have the old one repaired.  It was sobering to realise that the total cost was 2500 pesos, just over 100 pounds.

Alan watching the weaver spin completely evenly. He had a try and did pretty well

                                       

Carding the wool - Anna had a try and it necessitated mucho muscle power!

                                      

Mother and daughter, Theresa, with some rugs and items used in the weaving process

                                   

They produce some wonderful rugs and there was one, indigo with flashes of colour, which I (Anna) particularly liked.  It was incredibly reasonably priced, especially given the amount of work involved from start to finished product.  However, we are travelling with just carry-on luggage, we have no home at the moment to which to send items for later use, so I just had to smile encouragingly as another member of our tour group bought my rug (I was pleased for her, honest......grrr).

     

Newly washed wool hanging up to dry at our next stop

                                     

Eugenia explaining the symbolism in her rug designs

Our last borrower was Eugenia, who lives in a beautiful location in the hills.  She is a phenomenon in that she is unmarried and has her own business and land, which is very unusual for a woman in Mexico.  She was the daughter who cared for her parents, so remained single, and inherited the family's land.  Eugenia has attended English classes and is able to speak to her English speaking customers about her rugs and use greetings etc.  She is a brilliant businesswoman and has sold some of her family's unique traditional designs, which she makes with natural, undyed wool and are very contemporary looking, to the US.  A real inspiration, as were all the women we met on the tour.  We especially liked that the women drive the programme, it is not imposed.  For example, when the borrowers were asked what education sessions they'd like, the volunteers did not expect their request for Zumba classes and education about the menopause....

                                  

Eugenia used her loans to build a workshop

        

A completed rug in natural colours

It was a fantastic tour, enVia seems to be a great organisation, which is currently expanding to include more villages.  All the money from the cost of the tours is ploughed back into loans, so it was great to know that our contribution was already earmarked for loans to be made the very next week.  We would not hesitate to recommend them.  Have a look at their website and blog:

www.envia.org/theproject.html 

Back in Oaxaca City the Guelaguetza celebrations continued - some images from our last few  days in this amazing place

                                      

        

                                            

                                             

                                             

                                              

           Uncle Bulgaria

                                              

Put that jaguar down!

       

Hmm, interesting pairing of the bonnet and the machete... 

    

Oh yes......we finally tied the knot... we may have left it a little late?  (Only joking!)

       

Near the arcos in a favourite street - Garcia Vigil

The teachers' issue in Oaxaca

We cannot finish a blog about Oaxaca without mentioning the teachers' issue, if only briefly, as it is so complex and we know next to nothing about what's been going on for the past 20 or so years.   In our last few days, helicopters circled in numbers above the city.  From the terrace of our apartment we spotted 9, so low that we could see the pilots.  That last week, the local and federal governments had joined forces to dissolve the State Public Education Institute of Oaxaca (IEEPO), which has regulated public education for years.  They seek to regain control over public education policies in Oaxaca.  There have been teachers' strikes, occupation of the zocalo (main plaza), blockades and demonstration for years in Oaxaca and the teachers' union is not popular with the local people, as far as we can make out.  One issue is that it seems that teachers' positions can be bought and sold, instead of being earned on merit, but everyone we asked had a different opinion on the issue.  We don't begin to pretend to understand it. 

Outside Oaxaca, in wider Mexico, what we do know is that last year 43 male student teachers were kidnapped on their way to a demonstration in Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, and remain missing, presumed murdered. There have been numerous demonstrations, particularly in Mexico City and Guerrero, and international condemnation of the Mexican government's failure to take decisive action against the narcotics trade, with which the kidnappings are assumed to be associated, and is rife in Mexico, particularly in the north of the country.   We saw many posters, adverts for events and meetings and art exhibitions concerning the 43 during our time in Oaxaca and the campaign to put pressure on the government to find them continues.

In Oaxaca City, in our last few days there, hundreds of police, complete with riot shields, looking bored, scanning their mobile phones and eating quesadillas, were present in the streets, outside the 2 radio stations and in the air.  There was apparently a demonstration on the outskirts of town, but nothing like the response that was obviously expected.  From what we read in the news, the teachers are now retaliating.

Final farewell

On our very last day, before taking the night bus to San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, we made the familiar bus journey to La Calera.  Tonita rushed up to us when we arrived and was very relaxed when we took a look at her much bigger kittens, fast outgrowing their box, and very lively.  We said goodbye to Tonita and the gang at La Calera.  We'll miss them, but Luis Jesus has promised to send bulletins.

So......adios, Oaxaca and hola San Cristobal!