oh oaxaca

so my friend sus and i were able to meet up while she was visiting Mexico City and visit the Museum of Anthropology together a day last week. She started talking about how she was going to oaxaca and really wanted me to come along. I was hesitant, but I mean I'm leaving Mexico and I don't know if I'll ever have an opportunity to go there again so we planned a weekend trip.

We took the night bus out of Mexico City and arrived at 7ish am. Found ourselves a wonderful hostel ($100 pesos a night-can't beat that...we looked). Then we jumped right in to the sightseeing. We were happy to discover we came at the perfect time for festivals.

We hit up Santa Maria del Tule. It's a tree. But it's 2000 years old. It's said to be the world's single largest biomass. It was huge!

We went to just about every market quickly picking up what Oaxaca is known for:

• Mezcal-a close cousin of tequila (very strong), most bottles had the worm in them, all different kinds, the start of the international mezcal festival was friday so we got to see that parade, i saw A LOT of mezcal farms on the way to mitla
• Mole-all different kinds and flavors, mole festival started saturday so sus was planning to hit that up once I left, so they sell it in the markets in like a paste and you use the paste to prepare it...we met a woman from israel later in the trip asking about the mole and talking about how disgusting it was...she ate the plain paste thinking that's how it should be eaten
• Some bread i've never seen in mexico city, but it was EVERYWHERE...i don't know if it's good with mole or what
• tlayudas-i don't even know how to explain these...they were like huge quesadillas but the shell was harder...almost like a tostada...as another place described it "large, light, crisp, hot tortillas folded over frijoles, quesillo (a stringy goat's cheese from Oaxaca) and your choice of salsa"
• cooked grasshoppers-yes i tried one, father says they're high in protein
• chocolate-they have all different kinds
• of course oaxaca cheese quesillo like string cheese

Mezcal

We went Salsa dancing where I was of course bad (especially compared to sus), but I will give myself credit for being much better than I was a year ago. I wouldn't have even know where to start then.

We headed to the nearby city of Mitla to visit Hiere el Agua-cliff-top natural spring with petrified waterfalls. This was much more interesting than I ever could have anticipated. So we took the city bus there (who needs to pay tour trip prices) to where it stopped and we needed to transfer to a truck to get to Hiere el Agua. The truck was interesting enough in itself-two rows in the front and in the back there were two benches which i'm pretty sure were made for 3 people each and it was covered with a tarp-then we had 10 people in the back. Two men were literally standing on the hatch and holding on to a bar (which moved and came out of the socket) and one guy sat on the floor with his feet dangling out the truck. I was on the end with the metal chain holding up the bench. I thought this was uncomfortable enough as we climbed the mountain and I just held on to the bar too trying not to hit my spine on the back of the truck while we bounced around, trying not to dig my side too hard into the chain and staying in my seat. Sus figured out my side was really in pain so she stood up in the truck so i wouldn't be pushed as hard, which was very thoughtful. The group we were with was visiting from Michoacan and they were on a long trip even hitting up Chiapas and Cancun. This was their first stop. So we keep going and going and I reached the point of repeating in my head that I wasn't the first to take this trip and I definitely wouldn't be the last. Then we started working downhill and all the sudden we were bouncing all around and I look at the two guys standing on the back and their feet are not touching the truck they're bouncing off it. We start to make a left turn so the man on the left is in the air and when he comes down he falls to the ground and is skidding. We all are screaming in the back (at least I think so...I seem to remember hearing something like that). I look to the other man standing on the right and he is bouncing all around I look at his face and see he's decided to jump. So he jumps off and skids and bounces on the ground and we all scream. Then I look at the boy sitting with his legs dangling off the truck and I grab his arm and pull him all the way in. Meanwhile the people sitting closest to the truck window are hitting it yelling to stop...finally we do. The brakes failed.

They walked towards us and I looked at Sus and explained my hatred for blood and she just said "Don't look. It's bad" At the end of the day they seemed ok, but the trip leader (one of the men who fell) dislocated his arm. When Sus told some of the other members of their trip that weren't in the same truck what happened I just watched their faces and listened to Sus repeat over and over while she was telling the story...'but they're ok....but they're ok'

I know we were SO lucky. If the brakes didn't start working we would have all been seriously injured. As well as if they stopped while we were on an incline...she couldn't see out the back window at all.

It's amazing how much your mind can remember from a few seconds. I feel like it just happened a minute ago it seems so clear in my mind. I'd actually like to forget the images as quickly as possible.

The ride was free.

Then we arrive at the Hiere el Agua and I just don't know how to digest what I just saw. Sus gets ready to get in and I decide it's better for me to go on a little hike. As I was switching my shoes one of the women from the truck came up to me and asked me if I wanted a little pill to calm down. I said no I would be fine and just kind-of thought about how much Mexicans like their medicine, but later found out from Sus and our friend from Israel that I actually looked really bad...

So I went for my hike and I think it was just what I needed. It was so beautiful. It was kind of like the Cliffs of Mohar without all the rules.

I made my way back and they told me how much better I looked...who knew stress showed so clearly on my face?

so in the background it's actually not waterfalls it's the rock

Then we had to get back in another truck of the same exact kind to go back. So we get in and of course we tell the other passengers the story to explain our uneasiness. As we drive out of the parking lot one man says you're sure this isn't the same truck? And then a girl throws her recently bought watermelon, which she was planning to enjoy on the ride back out the window so she can hold on with both hands.

We didn't have any problems this time.

We got back in Oaxaca City just in time to try a tlayuda and watch the parade with several representations of the different pueblos in Oaxaca. It was the beginning of the Guelaguetza festival. It was so beautiful! I think my favorite...no I can't pick a favorite. I really liked the bulls people put on their heads and they lit them with fireworks and they spun around. As Sus said, "This would never happen in the states." I mean we were really close to those fireworks and one crazy man even decided to point it at the crowd as he spun around...it was taken away from him. I also really like the dancers with the feather heads. They did a pretty intricate representation of a wedding...it's 4 days long there. I turned to Sus and said I would rather die than have a 4 day wedding. Turns out it was also a political event so we heard a couple speeches too.

it was funny because as we looked around the museum of anthropology tuesday sus kept saying, "you could see this in oaxaca." trying to convince me to come. and i did. and i loved it. overall oaxaca is definitely a back-packer destination. I would love to go back and go hiking and bike riding in the mountains and see ruins there too. It was a great trip, even if I did return exhausted.