Oaxaca

A few weeks ago our BCA director Rob organized an optional weekend trip to Oaxaca….so of course I went because who would give up a free trip anywhere in Mexico?

We left on Thursday night at midnight and drove for 9 hours until we reached Oaxaca in the morning. None of us slept much because the bus didn’t have heat and it was just too cold. In the morning we moved our backpacks into the hotel rooms ate breakfast in the hotel and went on a tour of the city center. The city is really pretty, very colonial and not very commercialized despite the number of visitors it receives. Lots of flowers and brightly painted buildings.

We were given the tour by a friend of Rob’s, a woman from the US who was studying anthropology in Oaxaca. We went to a small market place with home made honeys and herbal medicines, and another market with hand made clothing and jewelry. We also visited the 2 large churches in town and walked through the zocalo (big square with a band stand in the center of most cities). Rob’s friend explained to us the unrest that had been present in Oaxaca in 2006, and how the government had sent in the army to deal with protesting teachers.

Later we went back to the hotel and took naps, we were all exhausted. In the night I went out with 3 other girls to the zocalo for dinner, we ate well and bought necklaces from the street children. My friend Liz is really good with little ones and had made about 5 new friends by the end of the night. Unfortunately they all wanted her to buy something and she returned to the hotel with lots of new necklaces and out of change.

On Saturday we went on a trip to the near by archeological site of Monte Alban. This site was home to the Zapotecas, a pre-Hispanic civilization that was around between 500BC and 500AD. The city was a violent one, taking over all near by settlements, there are paintings on the walls of the temples of the people who were captured and killed at Monte Alban. One of the richest tombs of Mesoamerica was also found at Monte Alban, and was believe to be the grave of an important king. Another interesting building at the site is a large building in the center of the site thought to be for astrological observations.

After visiting Monte Alban we got back onto the bus and went to back into down town Oaxaca for a few hours of shopping in the markets. It was here that I bought myself some hand made pants and a traditional white blouse with embroidered flowers. Finally we began out 9 hour journey back home to Xalapa around 6pm. We all sat together in the back of the bus and watched a movie that someone had bought at the market earlier and slept close to keep warm.

Xico

Near to Xalapa there is a small town called Xico, it’s in the quiet hills of Veracruz and a bit smaller than Bellefonte, PA. Xico is known for its beautiful views and waterfalls and fruit wines, and so a few weeks ago I went to check it out with my friends, Liz, Cody and Arturo.

We arrived, parked the car and walked about 100 meters down to footpath into the woods. After turning a few corners we came across a cliff and horse shoe ridge that encircled a small lake being filled by a huge waterfall off the edge of the ridge.

We followed the path further, across an old bridge and found more lookouts over the large waterfall…..along the path was the occasional indigenous person selling home made wines, or jewelry. And eventually we reached the river that lead to the waterfall. We also found the next waterfall of the series upstream that flowed into the river. We put on our bathing suits and went wading for awhile around the bottom of the waterfall but not really swimming since it wasn’t deep.

After about 15 minutes of enjoying the water, Cody’s camera, which had been sitting with his jeans on a rock, slid between 2 rocks into the water. L So we spent about half an hour trying to get his camera back from the stagnant water between the rocks. We poked about with sticks, even lowered Liz between the rocks….and finally made a hook out of a stick, a hair tie, and a hair clip. We hooked the camera and found that the memory stick was good! So all the photos were saved! And here they are….