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Oaxaca, Mexico
December, 2007
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Caption: The eight of us drove all night long in a borrowed 1994 Chevy Suburban. We planned the trip to leave Cuitzeo about 8 or 9 PM in order to go thru Mexico City in the middle of the night to have less traffic there. This worked out well. The whole trip from Cuitzeo, Michoacan to Oaxaca, Oaxaca, took 10 hours, mostly on toll roads, and was about 500 miles.
We arrive, early morning
Caption: After breakfast with Briget's brother's family, we walked down the street to visit another brother.
Walking in Oaxaca
Walking in Oaxaca
Caption: The canopy shading this patio is made from one granada vine trained on a wooden structure. David said it all grew in one year. We plucked fruit (not quite ripe - see Juan's face after trying one in the next picture of him !)
Visiting David & Sofia in Oaxaca
Caption: This Granada variety was not the most edible, and not quite ripe besides. They kind of dared us to eat one, and Juan and Sarah agreed to try.
Sarah with a Granada
Juan with a Granada
Caption: Unripe granada is SOUR!
Juan with a Granada
Juan with a Granada
Juan with a Granada
Caption: One of the brother's homes. This is right on the edge of Oaxaca City, as you can see, another block or two and there are bare hills. Even so, there is regular bus and taxi service right to their door.
Oaxaca
Caption: One of the market venders who didn't have enough produce to make it worth renting a booth in the official market, so she set up a mini stand outside, next to the street.
Selling Oranges
Caption: The Oaxaca Market is huge, people come in from all the surrounding towns, both to buy and to sell. There is very little traffic control, and the city center is quite compact, so it gets more than a little nutty here.
To Market
Caption: These are all over Oaxaca City, and I've not seen them anywhere else in Mexico. They are essentially a three wheeled motorcycle, and there is a union, and a central dispatcher.
Mini Radio Moto Taxi
Caption: Not far out of Oaxaca we just turned onto a dirt road, and then kept on going for 3 hours, the track getting steeper and narower as we went. Once in a while there will be a fork, and another road might split off towards another section of villages on another mountain. We headed for San Mateo Tepantepec, where our friend Brigida grew up.
Starting up the road to San Mateo
Caption: Trees, mostly pine, are cut, some quite far from any road. The logs are milled into boards right where they are felled, using a chainsaw mill, which they call a "cama", or bed. Then the boards are carried or dragged out to a road wirh burros.
Logging with Burros
Caption: San Pablo was one of the larger pueblos we went through on the way to San Mateo, but one sees many little pueblos dotting these dramatic mountains.
San Pablo Church
Caption: We pretty frequently came upon people and burros walking along the road, but not too many vehicles, luckily, because in most of the upper parts, nearer to San Mateo, there is not room for 2 cars to meet. Then a pullout spot is needed, often meaning one of the vehles has to back up some distance. The bus from Oaxaca to San Mateo runs once a day, and cost 32 pesos for one way, about $3 USD.
On the Road
Caption: This is the porch in front of the little store (tienda) owned by Briget's father, the only store in the town. They sell beer, soda, snacks, and a few groceries, such as canned tunafish. Also toilet paper, candy, firecrackers, and other assorted stuff, but not too much else. The entire store is about 8 x 8 feet. The other part of the building is a bedroom and sitting room. The building, like most here, is built from adobe brick.
Destination
Caption: This adobe building is coated with stucco. The rancho, or family compound, includes numerous buildings housing 2 kitchens, a dining room, the store, a bathing room/outhouse, and several bedrooms. Most buildings have just one or two rooms.
Kitchen and Dining room
Caption: The water is piped in from a spring a long way away, thru plastic pipe. There is the one faucet for this family compound. Dishes and hands are washed here. Buckets and jugs are filled here to take into the kitchen, or wherever needed.
The water faucet
Bench by the Tienda
View from the tienda with terraced corn fields
View from the Tienda
More San Mateo views
More San Mateo views
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