Alex gave me a great gift for my birthday - a solo 2.5 week trip to Oaxaca to work on my Spanish. My friend from Colgate was born here and raved about how amazing it is, so when my Antarctica trip got cancelled a few months ago, I chose Oaxaca.
I'm taking classes at the
Spanish Immersion School - the full on 8 hours per day 1:1 with a teacher. There are no classrooms - you can go wherever you want with your teacher. This works great with my learning style because my teachers (I have 3 of them for 2.5-3 hours each per day) and I wander Oaxaca together - through the markets, parks, churches, and graffiti.
Video summary of the trip:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1jB2K7AG4qGnhWfi2VKgOu02b5fOrnHWP
This is the Santo Domingo church. Inside the church is real gold on the walls.
Oaxaca is named after huajes, which is a type of tree with an edible pod below.
Monte Alban (500 BC) was one of the last stands for the Mexicans before the Spanish took over. My teacher and I had a debate about whether La Malinche, the Aztec girl who helped translate for the conquistadors was a traitor. She was pivotal for the Spanish to be able to travel with their small group and guns and take over Mexico. After Cortez took over (around 1400), the Zapotec rule ended (around 1521 - other groups included the Aztecs, Mixtecs), there was quite a lot of slavery, independence from Spain (1800), revolution (1910).
Skeletons from people who died naturally - and sometimes from people who were sacrified to the gods.
The Zapotecs would take over other tribes and then show their triumph by putting their pictures on large stones with their genitals cut off.
Old temples where the priests and high class lived. Connected together by underground tunnels.
This was used as a clock to tell time based on the sun.
Grafitti (or art) is everywhere in Oaxaca. Oaxaca is where they filmed Coco, and you'll notice lots of beautiful art that is included in the film. This is in memory of the people who died in the 2017 earthquake.
One of the original Christian churches built. Notice that there aren't any priests decorating the building. To convert the Mexicans, the Spanish would decorate the church with things that the natives could relate to - like flowers.
My lunch spot.
Vegetarian tlayuda with squash, avocado, tomatoes, cheese - it's like a Mexican pizza.
Random dog hugging the sides of a building.
Oaxacan city below.
Chapullines. Grasshoppers. While not technically vegetarian, I had a bag of them and justified them as protein. They are kind of like salt and vinegar chips with lemon. Yum!
I took a tour with Envia, a foundation which supports native women to start businesses of their own through small loans called microfinance.
https://www.envia.org/
A few things I learned:
- Interest rates for these loans average 35% and in Mexico 75%. Envia uses the tours (sustainable tourism) to give 0% interest.
- They serve 250 women in 6 communities. On this day we visited san Miguel de Valle and Teotilan.
- They only loan to women because they are more likely to repay. The women are required to form groups of 3 - by choosing these women themselves, this is an additional filter to ensure quality the women pay back.
- Each woman is required to attend 8 business courses where they learn about how to calculate profits and create a business plan.
- Loans start at 1,500 ($75) per person and they pay back in 10 or 15 weeks. This loan amount can increase by 1,000 pesos each week as long as it is paid back on time.
- Payback rate is 99%.
This is the first woman we met who sold carpets she made by hand (one carpet which would take her about 2 days was about $25).
They put their pigeons in cages?
This woman made her own aprons.
Check out this mountain for the profile of a sleeping woman.
The most delicious mole enchiladas (cheese) ever!
We visited San Miguelle de Valle and then Teotilan de Valle where we saw this church.
Handmade carpets using this machine. A huge room rug which took her 5 days to make costs $100!
This woman made her own mescal and chocolate.
We checked out a print gallery for a party. Oaxaca has an incredible culture.
Map of the city. There are tons of museums, cafés, restaurants, markets, parks, schools, cultural events, things to do.
This is where the school is located.
Inside Santo Domingo.
They even have organic markets. This was my first meal.
This dog is called a Xolo cinquele. You might recognize him for the Coco movie.
This is the
Foundation for Horse Therapy in Oaxaca. They offer therapy to people who don't have money. It's proven to be very effective because kids love the experience. They tend to be autistic or have muscular issues. By being on the horse, they have fun and relax, and then the therapists can teach them lessons (counting, singing, alphabet) while working on their muscles and strengthening them.
I spent the day playing "My Little Pony" - washing, combing, feeding, and grooming the horses - and also cleaning out their stalls (yuck!)
This dude is a volunteer who brought his 3D printer to make toys for the kids to play with. He is hoping to create casts or other types of tools to help the children position their bodies properly.
We got to visit the famous Tulle tree.
Oaxacans love their parties. This one was an anniversary.
One of my teachers told me about a school for street children. That one ended up being closed so we went to this one instead.
There are about 500 children who go to school there with 300 of them living at the school. They have pigs and cows and other animals (we ran into a snake), and the school teaches them careers such as veterinarian, taking care of crops, etc.
Piglets!
We met an English teacher named Peter who introduced us to the kids. I was surprised when he asked them to give me a round of applause - because I was going to be their English teacher for the next two weeks!
The school is set in a beautiful farm with gorgeous mountain views and sunsets.
Pedro introduced me to his family. They are about 6 of them in a 2 bedroom house. They introduced me to the water of the Gods - beer with lime and spice.
There are always so much music and decoration and shows going on. Apparently, there will be a free ice skating rink that will open soon.
Puppies!
Looks gross but actually tastes pretty good. Grasshoppers!
This is Rogelio. He is 13 and pretty short. He doesn't have any family, but he loves the school. He showed me his locker - he has 2 shirts and 2 pants (including the outfit he is wearing in this picture).
There are about 70 beds in one of these bunkers. The kids seem to be either in class or working outside and cleaning. Really sweet and good kids.
Pedro's family celebrated my birthday with me. I liked the question mark candle. I've gotten to the age where I'm not sharing that info :)
Pedro's wife had me try on her very fancy handmade clothes. I really liked this top.
Mezcal is quite popular in Oaxaca. It's made with fire and actually tastes like fire. This bartender made me an amazing drink.
The art scene in Oaxaca is amazing. There are a bunch of graphic printers around the city.
At one of the parties I went to, they had this instrument - a burro jaw which makes a really fun sound. It was fun getting to play it!
Stephanie and Gwen, two other Americans in the program and both therapists.
Gwen and I signed up to go to a Tezmezcal. Basically, putting people into an oven and using mezcal (yes, the alcohol mentioned above) to burn people alive. In the first 5 minutes of sitting down and having the door locked, I regretted my, "Yeah, let's do it!" personality and was reminded of how I had said the same thing when I had signed up (voluntarily!) to do a colonoscopy with a friend. Being in this Tezmezcal with a few friends did help, but I quickly moved places from right next to the fire to closer to the door. Our guide gave us cucumber juice, banana juice, honey, and a bunch of other stuff to smear ourselves with - as well as branches to beat ourselves with. We did some breathing and meditating. And at the end of the 1.5 hours, I was relieved to make it out alive.
Oaxaca has amazing libraries. Two of them are dedicated to just kids. This one below had some cool artwork and the library opens up into the outdoors.
Apparently, Filipinas means chef suit in Mexico.
Oaxaca has beautiful winding, clean streets with cute arches like this one.
We celebrated December 12, which is the Virgen de Guadalupe's birthday. One of the reasons she is special because she was one of the first religious women with brown skin. There were lots of parades, bands, fireworks, and processions for her.
Another gorgeous library - this time for adults.
We visited a museum of textiles.
I wanted to buy a blouse, and one of the teachers recommended visiting Mitla. It was only supposed to be a 45 minute ride, but it ended up being almost 1.5 hours. We had 15 minutes to visit the town and the ruins (I ended up scrapping the shopping).
Mitla is known as the City of the Dead because this is where the tombs were to bury the most important people.
Another children's library. This one has cool architecture where none of the trees were cut down. So the building curves around and opens up into the garden.
This library was really into recycling.
Oaxacan food is so delicious with lots of street food everywhere. Here I am getting an elote, which is basically corn in a cup with lots of cheese, mayonnaise, and sauce. Yum!
