Catching y'all up on the last month

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been trying to disconnect from the computer a little bit. So early February we were still doing Spanish class at Solexico Language and cultural school and were finishing up with our Mexican anthropology class. 

Feb 8-13th spent on the beach for spring break. It was great.

came back for a few days of busting out a final paper for anthro. 

Feb 17-22 we went on village stays, also more or less great.

and now I am starting up with my food systems classes which is us going to markets, cooking traditional dishes, and doing recipe recording for some women we did our village stays with an hour south of the city. 

It was a 7 hour van ride down to Puerto Escondido (translates to hidden port) where we were spending spring break. The first picture is from while we were driving in the van through a semi-tropical forest area that was really beautiful especially while the sun set. The coolest part was that we were driving so high in the mountains that we were above the clouds..something I've experienced and thought was magical in a plane but seeing that while still being on the ground was even crazier..
The second picture shows all the beaches. We were staying in a youth hostel right next to Principal (near the center). Zicatela has the dangerous waves that you can really only surf, and Manzanillo seemed to be where most families went. My favorite was Carrizalilo because it was so beautiful and more secluded. The beaches were pretty walkable so we would hit up a couple in a day. Wake up, go to a beach, swim, eat some food, drink some pina coladas, walk to another beach, swim, read, watch the sunset, cook some dinner, check out the bars, sleep, repeat. That was living the life..everything was great except the heat was almost unbearable unless you were at a beach in the shade or in the water. 

Patrick and Reed making some faces as we got our pina coladas. Reed was also waiting on his octopus. 

This is the view of the pool from our hotel window that we stayed at the first night.  At 35 a night it was too pricey for us so we moved out to our $9 a night hostel. We lost the air conditioning and pool but we gained a kitchen we long missed after not being able to cook for ourselves for the past month, some great company (there were a bunch of young European travelers), and hot showers which is more than we can say for what we get in the city. 

some deep fried quesadillas on the beach which were super delicious (I got food poisoning from this same thing in the city two days ago but all is better now..)

at Manzanillo taking a nap under some palm trees

Playa Carazalilo. My favorite because it had less people (not that the beaches were at all crowded to begin with, and the tourists were mostly Mexican if there were any), it had a perfect shot of the sunset, the sand was perfect, it had waves but they were swimable (Principal was verging on dragging you under with some of its undercurrents). And I went surfing! I had a TON of fun..and it was nice to get to chat with my surf instructor who was super patient. He was about to have a baby with his wife and was terrified, it was very sweet. I also got to chat with some people while I was waiting for some waves..one guy who grew up in Puerto and another from France who was traveling beaches for a few months. 

Watching the sunset from my board (una tabla)

Paige, me, Kristi, and Codi. I wanted to steal the board shirt they gave me to use but the surfing dude remembered, dangnabbit.

we also went kayaking and some bird watching in a mangrove forest in Manialtepec Lagoon. I learned what a lagoon is, its semi brackish water that is a shallow estuary off of the sea without much water flow

some mangrove tree root brambles

some birdies...im terrible at remembering bird species but there was this cool one called a tiger heron that makes this strange barking noise

Back in the city, this is the view from the roof of my home stay house. We got back at  6:30am so I went up to take a dewy shot of the city before going back to sleep. And yes there is that much traffic at 6:30am. We live on a major bus route which can get a little noisy at times...

At the Rufino Tamayo Pre-Hispanic art museum. We had some free time so we hit up one of the many art museums. I liked this little guy a lot. 

Village Stay! at Teotitlan de Valle we stayed with a Zapotec (one of the 16 indigenous groups in Oaxaca) women's weaving cooperative called Vida Nueva (New Life).

Taco flautas for comida

Saneida and Teresa showing us how easily dye color can be changed with different reacting agents (the red color comes from an insect called Cochineal)

My mama Isabel bargaining hard for fruta at the market that it seems all the women in Teotitlan go to every morning at 8:30am

Pan dulce, sweet bread. We ate about 3 of these a day with hot chocolate. It got a little out of control haha..

Vida Nueva did some community outreach projects and this was one of them, painting  receptacles to put around the city for garbage and recycling. 

Our host mama Isabel's daughter Reina grinding up a  plum tomato that she just roasted on the stove to make  some salsa for breakfast

Papa turkey and a hen. The rooster took a little getting used to..especially because when one started going off in the morning it would start a chain reaction with all the roosters in the neighborhood..which was quite a few. They also had a mama turkey and a bunch of babies roaming about all the time that they mama was very territorial of and would start squawking if you got anywhere near them. 

chopping squash in the kitchen for comida for some soup

making some chile sauce on the metate

the entrance of the cooperative, really the house of the president of cooperative, Pastora who should be the next president despite the fact that she only has a grade school education

view down the street, everyone in Teotitlan speaks Zapotec which I think is pretty freaking cool...if people know Spanish it is as a second language. While walking to the market one day my host mama and us exchanged some language lessons. Zapotec for English, both of us delighted to learn on either end. 

zac xtili =buenos dias= good morning
zac chi =buenos tardes= good afternoon
sac shini =buenas noches =good night

traditional oaxacan green pottery, this is for hot coco

these are related to avocados, we were mashing them for brown dye for the wool for their rugs (called tapetes)

me and isabel cleaning some black beans for comida

some tapetes in the market

part of comida

shower time..the hardest part was kneeling to keep the cob webs out of your hair while trying to bucket wash it because even me the shortest person in existence is way taller than every Zapotec in Teotitlan. I also kept missing my head.

pomegranate (granada). cuz they grow on trees here..nbd.

the toilet cuz u were curious. you flush it by taking the little purple bucket on the left, getting water from the silver tub on the right and dumping it forcefully into the toilet. Tp goes in the trash box to left just like in the city (the water and sewage systems in Oaxaca are very lacking), I made a cockroach friend one night whilst peeing.

Isabel giving us braids (trensas)! This is my roommate Jess. 

yay!

making the fire in the comal to make some tortillas

can you tell who's tortilla is whose? the hardest part is putting the tortilla on the comal to cook (it sticks to your hands and stretches way too easily)

Isabel making it look really simple to knead the dough with the mega heavy stone

tortilla press

Isabel working the corn masa for the dough

Reina working on her tapete, she finished this one while we were there. They usually do three each on the base white strings.


Ciao for now :) (also photo credz to Jess and Codi for some of these pics)