last weeks in Oaxaca

Manuel and Kristi! Manuel I miss you already..

And then there were fireworks for Jesus

More spinning balls of fire for Jesus (this is Easter)

Good Friday silent procession for Jesus (a statue of Jesus is carried out of all the churches around the city)

embroidered landscape art of the church of Santo Domingo

mural in a guitar school

famous old aqueduct arches in Oaxaca by my house (they were in the Jack Black movie Noche Libre)

silk and cotton traditional hupil dresses

silk thread, those brown blobs in the upper right is unbleached cotton

small bracelet looms

on a backstrap loom (these portable thangies came before the Spanish brought the uprights that are mostly used today)

Santo Domingo!

On the walking street, Alacala

silk scarf

yum.

more backstrap, silk backstrap weaving was sort of lost but some villages are working to bring the tradition back

silk worms

toilets.

my intercambio! Romis. with our gelato

my last elote....so sad. grilled corn on a stick with mayo, cheese, lime, salt, and chili

Coffee farms, banana trees, calcified waterfalls

More pictures! We visited my professors peanut and milpa farm, a certified organic/fair trade coffee village that also grew sugarcane and banana, an organization in the city that supports small coffee farmers, a restaurant that is trying to highlight traditional varieties of corn, a visit to some petrified waterfalls, and a festival on Palm Sunday centered on a drink that is native to a village called Huayapam. 

Peanut plant on our professors farm

we saw some crazy looking oxen

milpa: corn, squash, and beans

San Bartolome Loxicha

Israel talking with us on his coffee plot which is literally on the side of a mountain

Sunset view from next to our house of the pueblo, those are banana trees

Puppy and a snapping turtle

Some interesting art..

"eat healthy food"

bananasss

"we want a world with the easy-drug mafia. reject drugs."

coffee plants in the nursery

banarnar tree

school yard

coffee beans with black bugs eating away the bean

healthy beans. there are two beans per "grano" berry

banana leaf

hosing off the bananas so we could eat them

wonderfully awkward picture of me and adrianna eating the best bananas

mural outside Sustainable Harvest

coffee tasting

Restaurant featuring traditional corn types, this drink has corn, chocolate, and cinnamon

murals in the city

we visited a federal 5 yr farming university "Instituto Tecnologico del Valle de Oaxaca"

they had test farms and learning facilities for livestock care, organic practices, etc

my friend Elena's host parents breed puppies to sell

Hierve del Agua, calcified waterfalls, a saturday away from the city

there is a ton more water flowing down the mountainside apparently when its less dry

the water was pretty freezing but a nice break from the sweltering heat that has not let up for a good while...

at the tejate (a pre-hispanic corn drink) festival in Huayapam

some mega cute chia pets for Easter

Beautifully woven palms for Palm Sunday

tamales in corn leaves and banana leaves, also the pink ones are sweet tamales

there was a ridiculous number of people, the entire pueblo center was packed shoulder to shoulder

line waiting to bless the palms

a favorite cafe decked out with decorations and an alter for Easter

me and Codi slurping on some Horchata (rice milk and melon drink)

Love, Amanda