Monte Alban, Alebarijes, Black Pottery

 Saturday, July 27, 2024

We actually get to the foot of the stairs to the solarium before 7:30!  Won't be the last ones this time!  Today's offerings include avocado toast and chilaquiles.  Both look great but I got the chilaquiles and, of course, everyone gets fruit as an appetizer. We do get in trouble for moving one of the tables so we can all sit together.  Oh, well.

Breakfast buffet - ish

Ginger disappears down the spiral staircase to the pool!

There is a bit of time before we have to assemble at 8:30 and Ginger let's me use her bathroom so I don't have to hike those stairs again.  Thank you!!  She and I wander out to the bus since no one is in the lobby area and gradually everyone assembles - some more quickly than others - and we're off to the amazing Zapotec ruins of Monte Albán.  If you see only thing in Oaxaca, this is it! 

This is the amphitheater where the dances are being held.  Tickets are $400 each!

Love the mountains!

We made it!

The site is absolutely huge!!  There's a lot of climbing and I do most of it;  but I no longer feel compelled to keep up with the young 'uns and since Ginger has done it all before I don't have to follow her up another million steps!  When I do climb, Juan helps me and sometimes Barbara serves as my portable bannister!!

Here are a million photos of this ancient site, started about 500 years before Christ:

This was a single residence with a tomb in the center.

The mountain goats in a selfie taken by Barbara.

And those with nothing left to prove!

Barbara's photo showing that this site is on the 20 peso bill.

Showing the influence of Teotihuacán

Blossom on the Oaxa tree

Definitely not dancers!

Ball court

There is a museum which houses many of the original steles and other engraved stones and a lovely outdoor restaurant where we had lunch at two tables overlooking the city in the valley.

After lunch we clim back aboard our chariot and head to the place where the most famous alebrijes are created.  This is not an ancient craft, but, instead, resulted from a coma-induced dream had by Pedro Linares, who was born in 1906.  He imagined creatures that were composed of several different animals and he heard the word "alebrijes" in his dream. He had been making animals out of paper, but after awakening from the dream we decided to try creating these creatures out of wood.  Soon they became so popular that others began making them as well.  We visit the house of the most famous creator in this present time.  He actually studied with Linares.

A piece of copal.  They use every part, some even becomes incense.

Thanks, Barbara

First they learn to paint the dots.

This is next

Then this amazingly intricate work!

A work in progress.

We are shown all the steps involved from carving the animals, to letting them dry inside a shop for several months to a year and half, to submerging them in gasoline for a week to kill whatever varmins might be living in the wood, to filling any cracks with shims from the original wood, usually copal, sanding the resulting patch and the entire animal with several grades of sandpaper, ending with 1,000 grit.  Then the piece goes to the painters who painstakingly add the final touches. with acrylic paint  I've never seen such delicate and intricate work.  Each piece is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a lifetime guarantee. The company also plants 5,000 copal trees every year to replace the ones they use in the crafts.

We learn that everyone has two animals, a "tona" which is your protector and is based on the day and month of your birth, and a nahuati, which is your spiritual guide and is based on your birth year.  These are based on the Zapotec calendar which has twenty days in every month. My tona is a frog and my nahuati is an owl.  Of course.  Here's a sampling of the work involved and the breathtaking finished products.  People can also order a creature with specific animals representing their family.

Twenty pesos is roughly one dollar.  You do the math!

The dog who brought the scroll to Santo Domingo!

Next we attempt to visit a research site where they are attempting to preserve and farm cochineal, the tiny insects from which a bright red dye is extracted.  They grow on a particular type of cactus which grows in this region and for many Oaxaca was the world's leader in production of this dye.  Now, Peru and Spain are the leaders and Oaxaca barely produces any.  After bouncing down the unpaved road to the site, we are told by the researcher in residence that they aren't open on the weekends.  Oh, well.

You see the darnedest things!

We cross a major street and go to where the famous black pottery is created.  One lady, Dona Rosa, discovered and refined the ways to work with the black clay to give it it's unique color and shine.

Got my kitty fix!  Thanks, Barbara!

Isaac takes us home where we have about an hour before we go to dinner.  Ginger and Karen walk to the zocolo to see what's going on with the parade, in the drizzle.  They come back and report that the two restaurants they found interesting are across the zocolo and aren't reachable with all the crowds, so we go back to last night's place and have an even better time since everyone is there.  There's a lot of food sharing and drink tasting and after dinner Barbara orders two desserts that make the rounds of the table twice each!  We think we're done but lo and behold there is another mezcal tasting!  Two, in fact!  The one that has cannabis is actually the sweetest and my favorite!

Trick door!

Babara's was so good last night, I needed my own!

Yes, please!

Home again and we have to organize enough to be able to have out luggage by the front door by 8:45 tomorrow morning!!  And it's time for bed (unless you're the idiot who decided to blog this trip!!)