Photos

Sorry, the software at the beach villa didn’t let me add the photos. It’s now Saturday. We’re back in Oaxaca city. Here are the coastal shots plus one from the airplane and 2 from the amazing Zapotec archaeological site called Monte Alban. More on that on an update coming up.No editing software but here's an attempt at posting raw photos.

Chilling in Puerto Escondido

For the past two days we've been doing nothing here at the Villas Carazalillo. This consists of having a quiet breakfast, going for a swim, relaxing at the terrace overlooking the bay, reading in the hammock, lunch, afternoon siestas, more swimming and hammock time - it's really tiring (not)! Yesterday, Chris went to the market and bought fish which he cooked up last night in an incredibly delicious dinner. Chris is going to post a few pics. Early tomorrow we are off to Oaxaca City again. Apparently instead of a 6 hour windy ride on a van that goes too fast, the flight back only takes 25 minutes, or 40 minutes depending on who you ask.

Laguna Manialtepec

Monday after lunch and we've just returned from our boat tour of Manialtepec Lagoon. Alex was a great guide and Sergio did the helmsman job. For the most part the birds have not yet left for the north so we saw thousands. 3 or 4 types of herons, several types of egrets many many different ducks, 3 or 4 types of hawks and ospreys, storks, kingfishers, it just went on and on. The most amazing sight was a whole area of palm trees filled with Storks nests complete with growing baby storks in the nests. The babies were crying for food and the parents were struggling just to keep making the nest larger as the babies were getting pretty big. We were positioned no more than 30 feet from the nests. We ended up on a huge ocean beach with nothing but a thatch shelter on it. There was one other couple there (from B.C.) and a local woman baking sopas. She showed us a bucket full of newly-hatched baby leatherback turtles. Apparently she collects the babies hatched each morning and keeps them for a few days training them to walk on the sand. After a few days, she releases them to the ocean. This makes for a much better survival rate.

Yesterday we just chilled out at Villa Carrazalillo where we're staying. It's a place overlooking a small beach thats maybe 2 or 3 km from the main downtown beach where we stayed the first couple of days in Puerto Escondido. Our villa is very nice with two separate bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, covered courtyard, garden, and a dining and hammock area in the courtyard. The birds here are pretty wonderful as well including one really agressive hummingbird of some sort.

It's a tough life. We have to rest and stay out of the sun this afternoon but later we'll go down to the beach for a swim then watch the sunset from the terrace overlooking the Pacific.

A couple more phots:

Jacaranda (?) trre in Oaxaca city.
2 views from the rooftop terraza in Purto Escondido

A few photos

Just a couple of photos
The 1,00 year old ceramic figures are soooo expressive
Norah spinning wool at Teotitlan

On to Puerto Escondido

It took six hours to travel the 270 or so kms from Oaxaca to the coast by Van (well half way between a van and a bus). The first hour was through the central valley and then 5 hours of twisting up and down through about 3 separate ranges of the Sierra Madre Sur mountains. Left and right, up and down, locals getting on and off at little villages. Not to be missed but I think we'll fly back.
We're now at the Hotel Flora del Maria on the beach that is central to Puerto Escondido. Charmng place with murals all over the stucco walls, a central courtyard and a rooftop terrace looking over the Bahia and the Playa.
Needless to say it's sunny, hot (30?) and tropical, again

Day 3 in Oaxaca City

Hi, it's Chris this time. We spent the day doing things around downtown today. First was an artesans craft shop with all sorts of clothing, embroidering etc, wood carvings, leather work. It was a collective shop. We're trying to be more polictically correct than shopping at the streetside vendors all over the place.
Then on to a tour of the botanical garden. It was part the grounds of a very large monestery and church that is now the major cultural museum. Guided tour of the graden before lunch then a great meal at one of the many upscale restaurtants around the museum and then the museum in the afternoon. All of it was great.
I can't quite find the words for it all other than great and fun. The garden has many of the plants that have beenused for food, fibre and herbs for centuries. Corn, squash, pepprers, more peppers, then some hot peppers then the agave plant for making mezcal and fibres, The museum was a combination of touring a huge monastery, looking through artefacts from the entire history of Oaxaca, and listening to a handheld phone speaker that told the story of Oaxaca, Stone age to today.

Touring The Eastern Valle Central

With Donna's help, we hired a driving tour guide today - Benito Herniendez - to show us the Easterm part of the Central Valley. Our first stop was a very large tree in the town of Santa Marie del Tule. This tree is located in a fenced-in municipal park, is at least 200 years old, possibly as much as 5000 years old, is 42 metres in diameter, and is purported to be the largest in the world. School children take turns giving an English language tour pointing out the shapes of elephants, lions, crocodiles, and turkeys in the formations in the trunk. It is a way for the children to learn other languages and also make a few pesos in the process.

Next stop was the site of ancient Zapotec ruins in Mitla. There is a town even today all around the ruins made up of mostly Zapotecs. Geometric forms related to the power of the sun and cycles of life are found everywhere in this architecture. And by transference to the builders and occupiers of these structures. A church was built right on top of it and the church itself has similare aspects to its structure. Lots of nice tourist type stalls all around selling brightly coloured toys and embroidered white cotton clothing.

Next we took a tour of a village famous for its rug weaving, Teotitlan del Valle. We were entertained in two different studios, learned a fair amount about natural wool and dyes, then bought rugs. They are beautiful in design and quality. The designs are reminiscent of the ancient civilization architecture and art. The dyes are an art in themselves. Reds from the cochineal(sp?) insect, yellows from plants, and blues from the indigo dye process. All very involved processes.

Another great lunch, this time a buffet. So far the food in Mexico has been wonderful. For me, today's highlight was a cream puff in the shape of a tiny (not really any calories) swan.

Host luego!

Oaxaca City

After three different but smooth sailing flights via Toronto and Mexico City, we arrived here at the Hotel Azucenas in Oaxaca City. This is a beautiful part of the world with relatively clean air, lovely temperatures, and lots of arts and culture. This weekend just happens to be a local festival 4-day weekend. There is a constant supply of music and dancing in the town square - really great music! We could have done a Global Village submission - OK maybe not us, but someone talented in that direction like Chris Lambie.

The hotel is small and charming. The central feature is a courtyard that leads upstairs to the roof garden. Many blossoms including jacaranda, amarillis, clematis, ... The rooms, especially the showers are great. One of the former owners was a Canadian plumber. No trouble at all sleeping in between various seranades from bands, wandering musicians, trucks with musical brakes, the town dog symphony, ...

We saw the pre-Hispanic Museum of Art today with artifacts from 1250 AD to 750 BC, representing the art of such peoples as the Mayas and many others as found in Oaxaca and other areas of Mexico, like Veracruz. There were many ceramic figures of people, gods, goddesses, priests, and just regular people. Also dogs, jaguars, turkeys, vultures, and more dogs. There were stone carvings and some alabaster. It kept us busy for a few hours. We loved it.

We've also been trying out different restaurants. La Red last night served up amazing fish, marinated in lemon and garlic and shrimp. Today we stopped at a very nice vegetarian restaurant near the hotel. It was great as well and the waitress helped me with a Spanish lesson :)

It's off to see some ruins and rug weaving establishments tomorrow.

Adios.