Hierve el Agua - Frozen Water

Well not really frozen but they are white from all the minerals in the water. They also call it boiling water but really it is carbon dioxide - soda water. This must be the original infinity pool. Photos of the site were first published to the outside world in 1989 and the photographer took them while on a remote mule trek in the mountains searching for remote native culture. It is still quite remote. The ride to the site was up about 4000feet and then over a ridge and down about 3000 feet all on a one lane gravel road. On parts of it I was thinking of possible headlines in Canadian papers - Ok just kidding - barely. We met some very nice people on this tour and hope to tell you more of them sometime in the future.

Santo Domingo Church - Oaxaca

This Dominican Order church and monastery was built between 1570 and 1608 and like all the churches on Oaxaca have thick stone walls – some being in excess of thirty feet according to my estimate. The exterior is fairly austere but the interior cloister and throughout the monastery we start to get hints of the glorious sanctuary of the church itself. Deb and I were wandering around marveling at the paintings and all the gold when we stumbled upon a string trio of musicians standing in a small alcove. We continued wandering around the Alter and a priest came out from behind it and started setting up for a mass. We moved discreetly away just as the trio started playing the wedding march and as the wedding party began their procession. Really quite nice! Note that we are pretty much in the tallest structure in the city. Most buildings are only one or two stories high – wise considering Oaxaca gets over 200 earthquakes per year. Apparently we were there during a 5.2 quake but we were entertaining some friends in the RV at the time and never noticed the shaker.

Monte Alban - Oaxaca

This is the first ruins we have visited on this Mexican tour and it is interesting that this site is quite different than others we will encounter. Monte Alban – White Mountain -was first occupied by the Zapotecs around 500BC, however most of what we see is from the years 300 to 700AD. The population on the surrounding terraces was estimated to be around 25,000 people. The site itself was largely ceremonial with regular festivals for education and showcasing music and dance. It is surmised that this location was a sort of teaching hospital given the large numbers of stone carvings illustrating hundreds of illnesses and afflictions. Some sort of written text accompanies the illustrations that to this date has not been deciphered. It is also believed that sophisticated operations on the brain were done due to the recovery of skulls with precision cuts precisely where modern medicine enters the brain cavity. This site is unique as well in that over its entire history no human sacrifices were ever made. While what we see now shows stepped construction it was actually smoothly covered in white stucco and decorated with colorful frescos. The whole site was part of an astronomical observatory with one five sided building being the key element. What you see in the pictures is the commanding view the location has looking into three valleys and controls the entire region (no wonder that Cortez wanted this area for himself). The main plaza would be for music, dance and oratory competition and celebration while the ball court was used for recreation and conflict resolution. Think of this game like tennis without the racket – you struck the hair filled leather ball with foot, hip shoulder or elbow - the side sloping areas were in play – and spectators sat at either end cheering on the players, one side against the other although nobody died at the end unlike other pre-hispanic ball games.
Note the breeched birth in this stone carving – writing accompanies the tablet but is undeciphered. The somewhat dull building here is the observatory and it highlights the summer and winter solstice with light passing through the building. That we were here on the site for winter solstice is either good luck or good planning, I won’t disclose which.

More Taxco

Taxco - Steep and Narrow Roads

Taxco was founded around 1530 and is an old silver mining city and Colonial gem. It was placed on the list of World Heritage sites about twenty years ago. We had a guide tour us arounf for a day so we could get the general lay of the city. The ride around town in the volkswagon bug was very cool a kind of rollercoaster ride. There are thousands of "bugs" in the city one of the few vehicles able to negatiate the narrow roads. When it looks like a one lane street it is actually two and if it looks like a walkway it's a one way. Glad we found a place to leave the RV at the edge of town.

Taxco - So its is Possible

Taxco is the Mexican silver city with hundred of workshops. There are no Rv campgrounds within 3 hours of the city so we had to get creative. We researched every hotel/motel looking for one out of town and with a parking lot. Our room had a huge tiled bath sitting room and views from the balcony were simply awesome if somewhat virtigo inducing. At $46 per night on a busy pre-Chritmas weekend just after the silver fair we feel we chose wisely....

Festival of the Virgin of Health - Patzcuaro

The local festival honors the Virgin of Health and She is revered by the local indiginous people. On the eighth of each month pigrims make penitental offerings (ie crawling across the plaza and to the alter) and on December eight the whole parish and town joins in. It is one Mass after another in the Church and outside it is a big fair complete with midway and fireworks. Thousands of people press into the narrow streets for a fun party. The sounds are hard to desribe purhaps simply describing it a cacaphony of sound - I now know exactly what that word means.

El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary

Many people have heard about the amazing lifecycle and migration of the Monarch Butterfly from the Great Lakes region of North America to its winters in the mountains of Michoacan in Central Mexico. The amazing thing is this annual cycle takes five generations of the butterfly so there is no direct connection to the wintering grounds in Mexico. Deb and I hired a guide to take us to them. Altitude 3300 meters - temperature that night 2C. It was frosty but the hike up definately put a sweat on our brow. We hung out with the butterflys for a couple of hours and took tons of pix and video. The thing that is difficult to fathom from these pix is that the area is huge with hundreds and thousands of trees covered just like these. A final note, President Calderon of Mexico has budgeted some 35 million dollars toward the protection of this species and its environment. Ironically the butterflies greatest threat is the irradication of common milkweed throughout Canada and the States as this is the butterflies main food source during its migration.

Dance of the Old Men - Patzcuaro

This dance called Dance of the Old Men is a Purpecha dance hundreds of years old. Today the Purpecha people perform it with modern instruments bass, guitar and fiddle (sometimes mandolin). The dancers are boys and young men usually from the same family. They wear masks and costume and special clapping wood shoes. The dancers perform with great vigor leaping about and in all is extremely funny. There is some kind of message here as well in that the elderly still have life and spirit in them. This is but one sample of folk dances from around Lake Patzcuaro in the Michoacan highlands of central Mexico.

Patzcuaro - San Francisco Friday Market

Patzcuaro is a lovely town with winding cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings with orchre trim and lively markets. The main market is huge comprising several streets and buildings and hundreds if not thousands of small stalls. On Fridays in the San Francisco Plaza a small outdoor market is held highlighting prodominately inexpensive ceramics and small handcrafted items. We noticed that most of the people using the market were older than the general population. Here is but a small sample of the people of this town.