Whoops!
Anyways, Friday Dan and I decided to make the 5 hour trip to Oaxaca, the epicenter of cultural Mexican Halloween and Day of the Dead and where several other groups we knew would be going.
After some poor bus planning, we arrived at about 2 in the morning and after a quick walk around the Zocalo found a decent but cheap hotel.
Saturday morning we both got up early with Dan heading off to play rugby for the UDLA team in a tournament in Oaxaca and me planning to go for a tour of the town and surrounding sites with three Canadian girls who were in town that we knew.
They told me to be up by 8 so I was and while waiting for them decided to go for a little walk around town. 3 hours, 246 cobblestoned streets,
6 awesome churches (San Domingo for the first two incredible interior of gold and the monstrous Oaxaca cathedral second),
several beautiful ofrendas (altars to a dead family member, 1 is usually built at the grave and another in the house each year for this weekend),
and some strange skeleton sand sculptures later the girls called and were ready to go.
We met up and walked through a bustling crafts and food market to a tourism office where we hopped on a bus for our first stop, Monte Alban.
Monte Alban is an ancient city about 10 km outside the city of Oaxaca.
Founded around 500 B.C. it was the first urban center in the Americas and represented the hub of the Zapotec empire for over a thousand years.
It was built upon the top of a mountain so along with the ruins you get amazing views of all of the Oaxaca valley and also a very pleasant complete silence and solitude.
Fortunately this marked a very special day for me since it was the first weekend trip I had been on with Jess since Catemaco when as luck would have it, we had a small wedding. Never being one to shun tradition I ordained that we would have a repeat performance and might I say the ceremony, complete with my random best man was lovely.
From here we got back on the bus and went back to town with plans to visit Tule home of the world's largest tree next. On the way we had a typical Mexico taxi experience when one driver pulled up and offered us a ride there for 300 pesos, the next for 150 pesos, and the third for 40 pesos.
Arriving in Tule, we were all rather hungry and went to eat at this restaurant which officially serves my favorite dish, the enormous tortilla covered in beans, lettuce, aguacate, steak, cheese, onions, and salsa better known as the Tlauyuda.
After this feast we walked across the street to visit this little park area called Tule complete with a tiny church and an enormous tree.
The Tule Tree or Árbol de Tule is estimated to be between 1600 and 3000 years old and has a whopping 38.1 foot diameter. It weighs over 636 tons and was absolutely mind blowing to see and walk around.
After this behemoth we headed back to town for some strolling through the streets (packed with people in town for the weekend) and spent some time in the bustling markets which sell just about anything a person could ever want and quite a few things I can't imagine a person ever needing.
After a bit I broke off from the group to return to the hotel where Danny was napping after a rough day (nasty shoulder injury had left him in a sling for the second and third games of the tournament, but somehow the team found a way to win the whole tournament without the Sensation from Down Under).
We showered up and hit the town for some prosciutto and melons at an outdoor restaurant in the absolutely bustling Zocalo (activities ranging from ofrenda competitions to concerts to Day of the Dead skits to costume shows).
After this we went to a restaurant I had spotted earlier in the day. It was full at the time but we got an 11 o'clock reservation and caught a taxi out to the Pantheon Xoxo the largest and most festive of the local cemeteries.
In Mexican tradition, each day beginning the 27th I believe has special significance up until the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. On this particular night (Oct. 31st) all the families of the town go to the cemetery where their loved ones are buried and make incredibly ornate ofrendas on each tomb stone in anticipation of the next day which commemorates the deaths of the children.
They have a very different view of the death process and think of this night as a time to lure the dead back with a celebration and as a result music is played, special incense is burned, and food and drinks abound (including the locally produced mezcal which makes tequila taste like kool aid).
It was very different from anything I was used to and felt a bit strange to be walking through a cemetery on Halloween with thousands of others taking pictures, drinking, and enjoying the music, but alas "cuando en Mexico."
Getting home was an absolute circus and I ended up getting my first ride in this 3 wheeled golf cart on steroids which Dan referred to as a Took Took from his southeast Asia ventures.
Once back we made our reservation and found the restaurant to be a very dimly lit romantic feeling courtyard with low hanging star ornaments, a string quartet softly playing, and candles at our table for two. Needless to say we were the only table without a female member and got a couple interesting glances.
Regardless it was a lovely date and after some very good chicken and steak topped off with a sampling of Oaxaca's famous mole sauces we headed out for a bar where some ladies we had met earlier were going.
Apparently guys in costumes get in free at this establishment so after we convinced the bouncer that Dan was dressed as a Ship Captain and I was the first mate we headed in and found our group waiting for us.
We decided to get an early start on Sunday since we had a big day in front of us.
Since once can't go to Oaxaca without seeing the biggest tree in the world we went to Tule first so Dan could be another witness.
From there we got a taxi out to Mitla, another ruins site. Mitla was constructed around 200 AD and kind of took over for Monte Albán as a major city of the Zapotec Empire. It has been built on ever since including before and after the arrival of the Spanish and as a result there is a normal little town built up all around the ancient buildings.
It is especially famous for its wall mosaics within the palaces and each wall supposedly consists of over 100,000 pieces of stone.
After Mitla we managed to find a pick up truck converted to passenger van and after being offered a squeezed in spot in the trailer bed we somehow managed to secure a spot in the cab to the chagrine of the rest of the passengers.
25 pesos and an hour long beautiful ride up one side of the mountain, over the top, and down the other side (where we took about 50 turns on the needle thin road I thought for sure would be our last)we arrived at the Hierve el Agua.
The Hierve is actually an enormous rock structure formed by small pools of very salty water which bubble out of the ground, form in pools on top of the rock surface and then spill over the side depositing their salt and forming the "rock waterfalls".
This spot nestled in the middle of an enormous mountain range was absolutely beautiful with amazing views of the cloud blanketed mountains which stretched as far as we could see, an enormous cactus, and then 2 pools full of the water in which we could swim.
After a good look around we began the 1.5 hour trek back to Oaxaca and after a variety of transports (and another and treacherous drive through the mountains) arrived at the Zocalo and picked up our tickets from home.
After another miraculous Tlayuda in the Zocalo we raced to bus station and 5 hours later were back in Puebla.
It was another great weekend offering tastes of Mexico's beautiful landscapes, rich history, and diverse culture. This weekend I will be heading home for a presentation in Charleston Friday and then head up to Chapel Hill for homecoming weekend. While this time probably won't offer quite as much rich history or diverse culture, I am nonetheless very excited to get back for a bit and see everyone.
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