Grasshoppers and flying fuit

Oaxaca

DAY 1

My 2 friends and I from school left Cuernavaca at 10:30pm and enjoyed the 8 hour bus ride to Oaxaca.  We spent the first day exploring a few of the markets, including a couple food markets and artesian market. The hot items in the food market were chapulines, famous oaxacan cheese, mezcal& tequila, and chocolate. We also went to a couple museums and churches, thanks to my lovely travel book.



I ended up buying a necklace and a basket from some cute old Oaxacan ladies who were sitting on the road weaving. Now I just have to figure out how to get it home...

 

Chapulines are grasshoppers that are fried in chilies, salted and served with lime. Maybe next time...

Later that night we went to a restaurant where they performed a "fake"  Guelaguetza dance. The real celebration was the weekend after we had left. 

 The state of Oaxaca is home to 16 different ethnolinguistic groups. 7 regions of Oaxaca are represented in the Guelaguetza, each having its own dance that represents the local culture. At the end of each dance, each delegation presents their own "guelaguetza" to the audience by throwing small fruit, hats, and even coconuts and pineapples. The audience has to be alert so they don't get hit with they flying fruit. We were told that pineapples sting the most

 Oh, and on the way there, our first taxi driver totally ripped us off. We told him the address, and he told us he knew where to go. He drove around for about 5 minutes and told us we were there and that the building was behind us. We paid him and got out with no restaurant in sight. I guess that's what you get for being a tourist. The next taxi driver drove us 15 minutes in the opposite direction and pulled right into the parking lot. Thank you Mexico. 

DAY 2

Saturday we went on an all day tour that took us to see the Arbol de Tule, a fabric factory, a mezcal distillery, and el hierve de agua.

The Tule tree is more than 2,000 years old and has a circumference of over 160 feet at its base.

Next, we headed to a village in Oaxaca that is famous for their handcrafted textiles. We learned how they dye wool and weave it into rugs, clothing, etc. 

In order to make this particular shade of red(below), bugs found in cactus are dried out, ground up, and mixed with water. The mix of their dried blood and water makes the dark red color.

Next stop: Mezcal distillery.

All Tequila is Mezcal, but not all Mezcal is Tequila. —Tequila marketing mantra

It is said that the best Mezcal is made in Oaxaca, Mexico. Although I am not a huge fan of Tequila (or Mezcal for that matter) it was still fun to see how it is made and taste some of the different flavors of Mezcal. Pretty sure our tour group left this stop happier than we left...

 agave plants that Mezcal is made out of

 The process is far too long and complicated to explain via blog, so if you want to check out some interesting tequila facts a good website is http://www.tastings.com/spirits/tequila.html

Next stop: archeological zone of Mitla 

Mitla was the main religious center for the Zapotec people in Oaxaca. The name Mitla is derived from the Nahuatl name "Mictlán", which was the place of the dead or underworld. 

Final destination...

El hierve de agua, which means “the water boils". There are petrified waterfalls and a natural spring pool that is a common hang out for the people of Oaxaca on the weekends. It was about a 45 min ride through the mountains, but well worth the stop.

                                

view of the mountains from on top of el Hierve de agua.

F.Y.I. There are only two such sites in the world, the other one is in Turkey

The water is full of minerals, so as it runs off of the edge of the nearby cliff, calcium carbonate, magnesium, and sulphur create a petrified waterfall.

Locals just chillin'

DAY 3...

The only bus ticket heading back to Cuernavaca was for 11:00pm Monday night- this meant that we unfortunately had an extra day in Oaxaca. We spent Monday walking around the ancient ruins of Monte Alban and later to markets, a coffee shop and a restaurant that served typical Oaxacan meanls. The food was excellent!!

Monte Alban

Mole Negro with chicken stuffed with fried plantains and spinach. Best food since I'v been here. I'm going to need to learn how to make this one for at home. (Might have to cheat with the mole since it has more than 27 ingredients that are not all found in the states and takes hours to prepare.....)

Oaxacan cheesecake. Can't even begin to explain how good it was

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Acapulco: Clear water, sunshine, and relaxing. I couldn't ask for anything more. (Except maybe for a pina colada...)


After debating for several days whether or not to go to Acapulco due to the recent increase of drug-related violence (and because I am running low on funds...), I decided to take a weekend off. It was easily the best decision I have made since I arrived. 

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This past Friday was my last day of school. I finished up all my grammar classes and am focusing on my internship this week. I have been working with the physical therapists, OTs, speech pathologist and am hoping to work with the psychologist sometime this week before I leave. 

Nursing students who are doing their internship at the same time as I am

Physical therapist LuLu

 Estela- I look forward to seeing her every day :)






Ohh the people you'll meet:


Jorge!! Not to single anyone out, but Jorge is an extraordinary therapist at CRIC. He has worked there for four years. Jorge is blind, but most every patient will agree that he is an exceptional therapist. He is also going back to school to study law. He has been very inspiring- he also helps keep me entertained throughout the day.


I met a family whose son got into a motorcycle accident about a year ago and has been coming to CRIC for therapy since then. I talk to the father almost every day, and last week I went to their house to help his 2 daughters with their English. We worked on their homework, ate la comida, went to the hacienda de cortez- another house that Cortez lived in while he was in Mexico- and hung out by a pool and practiced our spanish/ english.


Today I met a 89 year old german woman named Margot who has been working at CRIC for 20 years. She has had the most interesting life. She lived in Germany during the time of Hitler. Her father, mother, brother and herself tried to escape, but everyone but Margot was killed by the Nazis while they were swimming across a river. She spent 7 years in a Jewish refugee camp in Switzerland and later came to the U.S. She met her Cuban soon-to-be husband in Rhode Island and moved to Cuba with him only after knowing him for 2 days. They lived in Cuba until Castro took over and Cuba became too dangerous. They moved to Morelos, Mexico and she has lived here for 50 years. Her husband and only son died long ago, but she would rather stay in Mexico than return to Germany. I am very thankful to have met her- she has shared some very interesting life stories and advice on life.

There are many more interesting people I have met through my experiences through CRIC. I wish I had more time to get to know everyone here, but am glad that I have had the opportunity to get to know them.


Tomorrow we are having a festival with music, dancing, games, crafts, etc. but all based on therapy. Then only one more day!! 


Saturday I am going on an excursion with school to Mexico City, more ruins, and a trout farm. Should be interesting...


Looking forward to Monday night when mom and Lena come!! 


I'll try to get one more blog in before I go. Maybe we can write a group blog next week with mom and Lena :)