Ocatlan market and artist visit

Today's lunch was in a little place upstairs from a street in Ocatlan. We walked in and the two ladies who worked there looked a bit surprised to us. We asked for a table and Zak asked about the food. I can actually ask...Quisiera uno coca light por favor. What I love about foreign languages is you can actually learn these things, and when you get it down, you say things and what you asked for actually appears!!! AND YOU HAVE FUN. There were 3 men in the place who couldn't stop looking at us. But they were friendly, it was not threatening, they were just curious.
Bringing home turkey in Ocatlan is a little different than Brooklyn's Trader Joe's.
OK-I wanted to buy the cilantro, she asked for 3 pesos, I gave her 10 because I have a very soft spot for grandmas. Then Angela asked to take her picture and she said OK. After the pic, she asked for 30 pesos more. I admired her chutzpa.
After lunch we walked a quarter mile to the home of one of Mexico's famous clay artists. The master artist is sitting on a cushion making the clay figures, her son is painting them (note he's watching "House" in Spanish). The grand daughter takes the money. In one corner of this courtyard someone is washing clothes in a huge tub, someone else is making chicken on the grill. A Chihuahua is walking around and a couple of kids are playing. This was their business.

Zak is giving directions to the driver-thank goodness to have a wonderful Spanish teacher in the cab with us...we had to slow down because...can you see oxen are on the side?
This is another master carver forming the Alebrijes (fanciful wooden carved figures, from an Arabic word meaning freeform or misshapen). All these places have the whole family working. The master carver is older, the teenagers are sanding, and a little 7 year old had a small piece to work on with sand paper. When I was watching he sanded, when I walked away he ran off to play. Good for him!
Here's what I bought from the Aguilera abuela (grandma). $220 pesos. (about $16.50US). Can you imagine? Hours to form the clay, hours to paint it. Thank you to Zack (Bklyn teacher), Jake (San Fran. teacher) and Angela (Houston teacher) for a great day!

art and music

Look I made a Codex! Stephanie our fearless leader asked me to come up with a model for teachers to see. Yasmin and I researched for a few hours (over tacos, sodas, chips, guacomole and a pkg of gum for $4US). Next night I painted for a few hours. Bars mean "5" a dot is "1". Starting from the right the pic is "rulers", then "dog" I made up "bus", then "eagles", "monkeys" (couldn't find men or women pics). Then sneaker (made that one up) person with a curl, which means speech, last is the place pictograph for the town of Coixtlahuaca. So this is what it says;

"4 professors took one bus and saw 8 dogs with 7 eagles and 27 monkeys. Two people had to run (they missed the bus) they are saying #*! we missed the bus to Coixtlahuaca!
Using a computer to get Zapotec pictographs to make the codex. How's that for culture contrast.
In the Burgoa Library Restoration lab of Santo Domingo Museum. He is using a template to create new paper so he can patch up old manuscripts.
I found a youth orchestra! No black outfits in Mexico! They are all in pink. Beautiful, strong sound, and the percussionist is a little girl.
Just in case you want to try putting your hair up Oaxacan style. This is how they do it.
The stage behind Santo Domingo, a free performance every night. So far I've seen a Salsa group, a youth marimba group, this group and an "Aztec Warrior" group.
Street art in front of Santo Domingo. Those are not real feet. Love the idea of the "house" especially beacause there is not one house here in Oaxaca designed like that. It is the generic "house" you see drawn by children all over the world.

1,000 year old shards

By now the local bus company must dread our requests, it seems we never drive on paved roads. We drove for several hours out to a town that was thriving up to the 1500's. It had been a community of 25,000 people since 500 BCE. The Aztecs used these Mixtecs for their tribute (giving gold etc.)

We hiked the hills and I created a mosaic from found shards. (That's my prof. Dr. Spores who is in charge of the dig) Probably 1100-1500 because the red on cream was how they designed in that era.

We stopped at a few churches from the 16th c. In one a wedding was about to take place. The people were arriving, with church music that has a definite Mexican beat to it. We sat and listened. We were hoping for someone to show up with the key to the museum...no luck. But it was delightful sitting there watching real life happen.

Yagul and Lambityeco

Yasmin-- a very good sport, came with me to the two lesser known ruins, Yagul and Lambityeco. After the fall of Monte Alban, the Zapotecs moved here. (Post-classic, 900-1519). Lucky for me, she speaks Spanish, unlucky for us, the cab we hired had NO IDEA where these places were, even though they were about 10 minutes from town. The town of Tlacalula. We drove out and back. He asked for directions several times, we had to stop and get more gas. I was determined and so was he. For 300 pesos ($24US) plus a tip, we asked him to drive us, stay with us and bring us back to get the "collectivo" so we could return to Oaxaca.

He told Yasmin he had never been there so he was curious. On the way we stopped at (what we'd call a hot-dog stand) to ask for more directions. They were friends of his so we all bought water and continued.

All of a sudden there was the sign for the ruins. I never doubted him for a second, and we loved the tour of the entire town to get there. Finding things is so much fun!!!

The Sunday Market at Tlalacula

I had a lot of fun organizing a group to the BIGGEST Sunday market, Tlalacula. Like "Alice's Restaurant" you can get anything you want. We took the "Collectivo" for less than a buck each for the half hour ride, some of us had to stand but the scenery was wonderful. Tubs, shoes, machetes...I wanted to look at the food. The lady with the stone griddle is making my lunch. A tortilla filled with squash flowers, queso (cheese) and pollo (chicken). After a cab ( a lot like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride) to the two local ruins Yasmin and I came back for chips. They were made just for me! The lady with the beautiful braids is Zapotec. They are direct descendants from Monte Alban.

The Guelaguetza!!!

I heard the music-Mexican music makes you run out of the house. I left my dinner on the table and ran out with my camera. This is what I saw at the end of my block. It's the Guelaguetza, when all the local dance groups come to perform and outdo each other. They opened with a parade. I ALWAYS dance with my turkey...don't you?

WOW I love this place!

I started the day with a 2nd class bus up to Monte Alban. I decided to go and sketch for a few hours by myself. This 2-way road really only has room for one, so when a bus comes down the hill, we go ALL THE WAY TO THE RIGHT!!. Notice the drop. Not a good bus ride for Yasmine in our group. It was 40 pesos round trip (approx. $3 US). For that you don't get a railing or seat belts. Then see what I saw when I got home!