oaxaca

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Fiona and Hector had Sunday off, so on Saturday night we took a very windy bumpy road right up a mountain to a group of towns called the Pueblas Malcomunados, which means something along the lines of the co-operative (or communal?) towns. They are all working together to create an economy from ecotourism, with lots of hiking trails, zip-lines, horses to ride, etc. Hector talked with someone in one of the villages who told him that everyone must put in a year of volunteer work in the community; our waitresses who served us lunch, for example, were working on a volunteer basis, in order to help out the communities. Very interesting. It is quite nice to have Fiona and Hector here to show me around and to speak spanish with the people we meet - i am learning so much more this way, and getting a deeper understanding of this area. We spent our first night up in the mountains in a cabana in the woods, and it was COLD. we kept a fire going for hours but still i woke up shivering in the night. However once the sun came out it was fairly warm, sort of in a Vancouver summer kind of way; a cold breeze but a hot sun. Took a beautiful hike through the forest, up through a little canyon, into a cave, up to a mirador, where we could see all the way down to the oaxaca valley. Beautiful.

We went back to Oaxaca sunday night, and the next day Fiona and I took a trip to Monte Alban, the biggest archaeological site in this area. quite impressive, with beautiful views. we didn't get going until about 1pm though, so it was quite hot. but we took lots of breaks under the mesquite trees scattered around, where we ate papaya and coconut and pineapple. yum.

Yesterday i took a break from sightseeing, had a nice three hours in a cafe in the morning while fiona worked, read a book about the history of the color red that fiona lent me - all about how the search for the perfect red dye changed history and structured economies and class structures. very interesting, especially reading it in this place where crafts are so alive, old traditions continue in the form of woven rugs, bright green or deep black pottery... and of course mexico is where they eventually found the perfect red in the form of cochineal.

anyways. being somewhere sunny is beyond nice. it does me good. i don't know how we in canada are expected to get through winter after winter after winter of rain, grey skies, cold bones. i guess we do it, but my mood has certainly lifted since arriving in this hot sunny place. but maybe that's also just because i'm on vacation, far far away from all the bureaucratic buzz that's been around lately, what with dealing with an accident, an injury, a student loan that needs to be paid, a school that requires a ridiculous amount of brain power and paperwork just to get accepted and registered. sigh. not going to think about any of that right now.

This afternoon Fiona and I are going to head to a little town called El Tule, where apparently the (supposedly) largest tree in the world (diameter-wise) is growing, and also slowly dying due to decreasing amounts of water around...