Oaxaca - Bugs & Rugs
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 Oaxaca City near sunset.  
 Egg shells filled with confetti.  Grilled meat anyone? 
  Santo Domingo Church  
 Hundreds of pounds of gold leaf went into this place.  CHAPULINES! 
  A monastery in ruins in Cuilapan  
 The ruins at Monte Albán   
 Dona Rosa's son in San Bartolo Coyotepec    Making friends in Teotitlán    
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We left very early in the morning, the day after Mexico's big Independence Day celebration...while everyone was sleeping. The drive south started uneventfully enough. Jan is an excellent navigator and I'm pretty fearless when driving before my first cup of coffee. The ride into the mountains that surround Mexico City is always nice. About three hours into our journey, we were feeling pretty confident. We hadn't hit any traffic and hadn't even gotten lost, (both are pretty much the norm).
Then, in the mountains, we encountered our first small patch of fog. The fog increased until we could barely see the road. In front of us we saw two flashing lights, as we approached, we found ourselves behind a semi truck pulling a double trailer filled with gasoline. I suddenly didn't miss my coffee anymore, as we slowly wound through the hills. I panicked when I saw that the idiot coming up in my rear view mirror wasn't going to stop, and instead would pass us AND the double-trailer. He disappeared into the fog ahead of us shortly before we came to a small detour. A tunnel was being cut through the mountain, and we had to take the old mountain road around the construction. I'm not sure if the fog helped us by obscuring what was beyond the guardrail-free edge, or not.
The Spaniards established Oaxaca City in 1529. It sits in one of three valleys that come together in the northern part of the state. This city has a beautiful square and many old buildings carved from the local "mint-y green" stone. It's big enough to have a bus system yet small enough that many streets are quiet pedestrian-only escapes just waiting to be discovered. Since we arrived after the night's Independence Day celebration, we pretty much had the streets to ourselves. Some families were putting their children on the carnival rides, but clearly, the party the night before had taken its toll on the population's energy level. Not that we minded at all.
Oaxacan cuisine revolves around "mole" (mole-ay) sauces. Mole is a ground combination of many spices, creating a very complex flavor. The most popular mole is also found in Puebla, called "mole poblano." It contains nearly 30 ingredients; the most important (to me) of course, is chocolate! Other moles are known simply by their color, red, green, yellow, or black. In all, there are six types in Oaxaca. Jan & I tried four of them.
Oaxacan's also like bugs! Actually, all of Mexico likes to eat bugs. Mexico claims to have the highest per capita insect consumption of anywhere in the world. (What a claim to fame, I know). For days before we left on vacation, my Mexican friends kept asking me if I was going to try "Chapulines" in Oaxaca. You would know them as grasshoppers. These little guys are caught, fried, salted and spiced, then sold everywhere on the streets at a handful for five pesos (50 cents).
The day finally came, when it had to be done. I did my best to block it out of my mind, but this opportunity wasn't going to present itself again. We were at a folk dance performance that included dinner, and as I perused the buffet table, I saw the telltale tiny red carcasses chopped and sprinkled across a potato casserole. Unlike the grasshoppers on the street, these had recently been in a hot oven, so they should be relatively germ free. I told myself that they were just like the crispy onions my Mom sprinkles across her green bean casseroles during the holidays. However, these onions had little legs.
I added a scoop of red-legged potatoes to my plate and moved down the line. Some tourists were either shocked at the site, or like me, suddenly taking playground-double-dog-dare pride in what we were about to do. I quickly finished my drink and ordered a second after joining Jan at our table. She wouldn't look at my prized plate, which only added to the playground pride. Halfway through my second drink, I scooped up some potatoes, as casually as possible, but my fork abruptly stopped before the mission was accomplished. "Who was I kidding? These are BUGS for Pete's sake!" the mature portion of my brain screamed out. Lucky for me, I rarely listen to that portion of my psyche. I chewed quickly and swallowed, finishing my drink. "Crispy" I thought. Like a spicy version of my Mom's dish. Suddenly I was smiling, feeling like the big man of the playground again, some 34 years late.
Then, as the evening progressed and we enjoyed the performance, something dawned on me. I leaned over to Jan, smiled, and then asked, "Honey, do I have any little legs stuck between my teeth?"
Archaeological Sites
There are so many ruins in the state of Oaxaca that, to date, the National Institute of Anthropology and History has discovered 4,000 different archaeological sites. The origins of the Mixtec and Zapotec cultures that still populate Oaxaca can be traced to the ruins that were once the grand cities of Monte Albán and Mitla.
Monte Albán was the capital city of the Zapotec nation, which nearly filled the entire state during its peak. Founded in approximately 500 BC, and flourishing until 750 AD, Monte Albán sits on a hill overlooking modern day Oaxaca City.
We arrived early in the morning as the site opened, to witness a wonderfully mysterious fog slowly drift across the northern portion of the site from our perch at the top of a temple. It made for the start of a terrific day of playing Indiana Jones, as we explored the acres and acres of ruins that cover this mountain top.
The ruins at Yagul and Mitla have tombs you can crawl down into to explore. Talk about fun! You'll have to see the video.
Pottery
Handcrafted pottery has been made in San Bartolo Coyotepec from the local black clay for hundreds of years. About forty years ago, a woman named Dona Rosa developed a polishing technique using a small quartz stone, which put a luster on her pottery, and changed the local economy of San Bartolo forever.
Dona Rosa's son demonstrated his mother's technique of using two plates stacked on top of each other as a potter's wheel, when we visited their "factory." On their wall was a picture of Jimmy Carter standing next to him. I couldn't help but wonder, "how the heck did a former president get all the way out here? Where does a guy like that sleep or eat?"
Teotitlán del Valle
Towards the end of our trip, we moved away from the hustle and bustle of Oaxaca City, to Teotitlán del Valle where nearly everyone is a pedestrian and the only noise comes from the animals the residents keep in their yards. Regretfully, this noise starts at around 5:00 in the morning, with burros and roosters competing in some operatic decibel contest.
We arrived in Teotitlán on a nearly empty gas tank. We asked the man who appeared to be managing the three-room "hotel" we were staying at where the nearest station was. He told us it was a little confusing and offered to ride with us. As we bounced down the cobblestone streets, he announced "aqui!" (here!). I stopped in front of a tiny shop run out of a family's former living room. We asked to buy five liters of gasoline, and were surprised when they carried it from some back room in their house, to our car, in a bucket! After a quick siphoning into the tank, we were on our way.
Weaving in Oaxaca goes back to pre-Columbian times. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they brought with them a broad loom for making cloth and more importantly rugs. These looms are everywhere in Teotitlán; on front porches, sidewalks, in homes, everywhere. Teotitlán is so small that they don't have a restaurant open that stays open late enough for dinner. Normally tour busses come through town during the day. Tourists eat and buy rugs, then leave. We were the odd couple looking for a meal after sunset.
While inquiring if one of the local restaurants could make us some dinner, Jan noticed a gorgeous rug hanging over a balcony. It turns out (surprise) that this family also sells rugs, and of course, that one is for sale. Luckily, I had measured our dining room table and found that this rug would be a little short. So, we are having the same exact rug made about 14 feet long, with a small "Filipiak 2004" woven into a corner. (It won't be ready until January.)
To my delight, the rodeo came to town one evening. This traveling rodeo set up in a farmer's field one day. We followed the freshly made dirt path with Jan's little SUV, to discover that anyone from the audience can ride a live bull! Yes, they collected the local bulls, and the locals, and well, after a couple of tequilas, these guys were being shot out of the big metal gates into the ring, on their neighbor's bull! Everyone was cheering while the announcer made fun of the occasional passive beast, which merely wandered around the ring with some crazed cowboy on its back.
Hierve el Agua
Thanks to the volcanic activity that made the mountains in this region, there are several natural hot springs. The mineral laden waters at Hierve el Agua have been flowing over these cliffs for eons, creating mineral stalactites that look like a frozen waterfall. That was the good part. The bad part was taking the unmarked dirt trail for miles through the mountains to get there. When we finally arrived, after passing farm fields still being plowed by teams of oxen, and families riding burros, in true Mexican fashion, there is nothing preventing you from sliding right off the edge of this slippery cliff!
El Arbol de Tule
The world's oldest tree is in the microscopic town of Tule, about a half hour outside of Oaxaca City. At over 2,000 years old, this cypress is one hundred and sixty four feet around! Many people claim that this is also the widest tree on Earth.
Chocolate!
There is nothing like walking down "Chocolate Street" in Oaxaca City. The scent of freshly ground cacao beans being made into chocolate is intoxicating. This is where it all started. Chocolate started here, in this part of the world. The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make the spicy, frothy drink we know today as hot chocolate.
In over 2,000 years, that hasn't changed. What has changed is that now, you can walk into any shop on Chocolate Street and sip a flavored mescal (tequila), while sampling their selection chocolate made not 10 feet from where you are standing. Yes, there is a heaven, I've seen it on Chocolate Street!
Mescal
This grandfather of modern tequila comes from the same Agave cactus and is famous for having a worm in the bottle. The process begins by gathering plants that have been growing for 8 or 10 years and weigh more than 80 pounds each, to cook them in an oven made of stones covered with dirt. The process lasts three or four days. The cooked plants are then crushed using a millstone pulled around a circle by a horse. The resulting mush is fermented and sold to tourists from stands alongside the road.
I pulled over in front of a small shack along the dirt road to Hierve el Agua. The mescal "moonshine" they sold was stored in the type of five-gallon jugs normally reserved for kerosene. Like in some surreal hillbilly wine tasting, I was offered a shot of hooch in a cup made from a dried gourd. Jan and I have tried several types of tequila, but nothing prepared me for the smoky flavor of this Mexican moonshine. While sipping the second gourd-full, my tongue went numb. "This is the good stuff" I thought, and plunked down the extra 2 pesos for the reposado (aged) hooch.
As we were heading back to our farm animal "hotel" in Teotitlán, we had to stop the car to let a tarantula cross the road. (I had never seen one out for a walk before.) This was really the culmination of an amazing Mexican holiday!