Kit and Carol on the Road

Monday: We spend our last day shopping at the market. 

Sunday: We visit the cultural museum. This is a view of the botanical garden which we toured earlier in the week. 

Saturday evening: Kirsten and I find a calenda--a parade with bands and dancers and huge puppets.  

Saturday: We visit the weaving village of Santa Ana de Valle and Kirsten tries her hand at weaving. 

Friday: We visit an organic market and try some mescal. 

Thursday: We visit the small village of Arrizola, famous for it's fantastical animals--and see these men walking the streets selling furniture. 

Wednesday: We are impressed with the vastness of Monte Alban.  

Tuesday. Our firest day in Oaxaca was for wandering the streets and marveling at the colors. 

We arrived on Guemes Island this morning. Everything is so green compared to the browns of Mexico in the dry season. We flew back yesterday but had to stay in a motel in town last night as the last Guemes ferry is 6pm and at that time we were picking up our car at Sleep Inn. Our plane travel went smoothly. We especially liked the plane ride from Oaxaco to Houston. The plane has only three seats across (2 on one side and 1 on the other) and more than half of them were empty so it's pretty comfortable. Houston (George Bush) is a rather boring airport in which to spend 3-4 hours. This time we didn't do as much walking as I was already "bushed".

Monday before we left we spent the morning at the markets. We especially loved the handcraft market. Kirsten spent a long time looking for wedding presents and clothes and I bought a lot of small things as well. The people weren't too pushy like they can be in places. (We did later buy some paintings from one of the street sellers) There are many people in the main parts of town selling this and that but you just have to say "no gracias" a lot. In the afternoon we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art which we finally found hiding behind some "restoration". And in the evening we ate at our new favorite neighborhood restaurant. For less than $5 per person you get soup, rice and a chicken dish, a drink, and dessert. We did not have bad food anywhere in the city.

Oaxaca is famous for their mole (chocolate and chiles) sauce. On our way between markets we found a wonderful chocolate shop. Women were sitting waiting while their personal mix of chocolate and spices were being ground. What delicious smells. We sat and had a cup of hot chocolate and watched.

Photos coming soon.

We had such an adventurous day on Saturday that we have had a day of rest on Sunday. We took the taxi to the bus station and the collectivo to the small village of Santa Ana. There are only 2000 people in this village and 500 of them are weavers. We were the only tourists in sight. Kirsten found out about this program, where we paid for a guide for the day to tour the town and the community museum. The "tour" was actually quite a hike up a hill for a view. We learned much about life in a small Oaxacan community. We watched several weavers-- Kirsten says now that she must learn how to weave. She got to try her hand at it. We had lunch in the home of our guide-- chicken with mole (a traditional Oaxacan dish--this is the second time we have had it) Mole is muy delicioso. We also had a drink from the fruit of a cactus. In this area they grow agave or maguey to make mescal. One of the other villages makes mescal. Each village has a certain craft. We left the village at 3:30 and took a bus and a taxi and another taxi to return to our hotel.

But this was not the end of our day. After a siesta Kirsten and I went out to the internet cafe but got sidetracked when a parade came by-- a calenda with big puppets and brass bands and dancers and ladies with flowers on their heads. Everyone followed along and we did too. We came to a church a few blocks away where there was more music and drinks and free tamales. It was a celebration for the graduates of a divinity school. Perhaps this is like Johans PHD party except that everyone is invited. We left this fiesta because we had to meet Kit for yet another fiesta.
The B and B where we were to stay is right next door and they were having a party to celebrate the completion of the work (which is actually still not completed which is why we did not get to be the first guests). At the fiesta there was a priest and some kind of ceremony which involved speeches and prayers and singing. (We got a sheet of songs to sing which reminds us of Darrel´s song sheets at our Guemes church). The priest went around the hotel with the holy water sprinkling. Then there was toasting and excellent music and drinks and tamales. A quite pleasant evening. We ended the day with a walk around Santo Domingo where the young people hang out at night.

The weather here is muy calor (very hot) but every evening the wind begins to blow and the sky turns yellow and the lightning bolts cross the sky and the downpour comes. Usually it is not too long. Will we get home from the internet cafe without rain gear?? Two nights ago there was a very big storm. Instead of rain there was hail. We were in a restaurant, which had to close the doors because of the ferocity of the storm. The hail came in cracks and one went down my neck. It was past an hour before we could leave. In the country this storm did much damage, washing out roads and such. The mountains were covered with hail, like snow, and the children loved it.