Day 9 - Around the Countryside

Today's adventures took us to many interesting places, encompassing the whole gamut from indigenous rugs to ancient ruins. Let's make this blog a swimming pool and dive right in! Goggles on...let's go!
- I set off on a tour set up through Becari at around 10 this morning with the rest of my group. On the agenda were trips to the widest tree in the world, a Zapotec rug making shop, the ancient ruins of Mitla, a traditional Sunday market in Tlacolula, and a Mezcal factory on the way back to Oaxaca. The trip was supposed to be a "short" one, but still managed to last around 8 hours. It was definitely a long day, but so worth it for the experiences we had. First stop was El Árbol del Tule, just outside of Oaxaca. There was a nice park with some very neatly trimmed hedges and gardens. The tree itself was quite the sight, with a perimeter of some 57 meters around its trunk! At over 2000 years old, the tree was definitely a cool thing to take in. Here it is, in all its glory:

El Árbol del Tule, also known as Big Gertha. The trunk has a perimeter of approximately 57m!

- Next was an indigenous rug making shop. The Zapotecs are one of 14 (I think) indigenous groups present in Oaxaca. They are very much traditional in their culture and way of life. The family we visited was 48 in number, and was one of five families to still use all natural ingredients for their pigments. We watched a really cool presentation on how the rugs were made, starting with the lana (wool) and then progressing to pigment making and weaving. It was so, so interesting, and the final products were absolutely incredible! It was amazing to hear how long some of the rugs took to make. Depending upon the size and pattern to be placed on the rug, rugs can take anywhere from a few hours to 6 months or more. They showed us a rather large rug that was custom ordered by a family in Guatemala. It had taken 5.5 months to make and cost around 55,000 pesos ($5,000 US, give or take). Here are some examples of the sights from the Zapotec shop:

The all natural ingredients (in the bowls) used to make the pigments. A few of the colors of wool can be seen here. Below to the left is the weaving machine. It is incredible that all the threads are thrown through this machine to make the beautiful rugs as seen below to the right!

 

 

 

- It was then off to some ancient ruins in Mitla. They were very cool, and offered a glimpse into the life and customs of the indigenous tribes of Mexico before the Spanish influences arrived from Spain. Many of the buildings were about 1200 years old and had no mortar between the large stones of the walls. A true engineering marvel for an early 1st century civilization. Additionally, metal had not yet been introduced to them, so all of the intricate stonework was done using other stone...talk about dedication! It was a very cool history lesson to take in on a beautiful afternoon.

- We stopped at a buffet for a quick bite to eat before heading off to a traditional market in Tlacolula. Many of the markets within Oaxaca are artisanal markets. This market was more traditional, with a much larger selection of food items to choose from (including live chickens!). We walked around the market for about a half hour, and also had a chance to visit a local church. It was marvelous inside, with tons of gold painted accents and even a solid silver railing separating the pews from the altar. Splendid!

- Our last stop of the day was a mezcal factory. Mezcal is to tequila as moonshine is to whiskey, sort of. Tequila is basically the industrialized production of mezcal. Tequila can only be produced from blue agave, but mezcal can be made from any of the 31 types of agave. We learned about the process, from the harvesting of the agave "heart" to the final distillation and flavoring processes. At the end, we could sample all the mezcal we pleased! They had a lot of really good ones, so it was tough to make a decision. Luckily, they had a promotion going on where you could basically buy three for the price of two. So Lauren, Genevieve, and I each picked our favorite flavor to buy. I choose the extremely tasty Crema de Maguey Maracuya (passion fruit).

- I tried my first tamale today, and it was phenomenal! It was a pollo con mole negro wrapped in hoja de plataño. Let's just say this food is taste-bud approved! ¡Es todo por ahora, hasta luego!