This weekend in Mexico:
Saturday morning was spent purchasing food for the rest of our stay, and for the dinner party/cookout with all of our neighbours. The market was busier than I have seen it. All the indigenous people from the region were there selling their goods. My purchases:
-mangos and a serving bowl for my Paella. I hope I can bring the serving bowl home, but it was only 40 pesos (3.20) so If not, se la vie!
-purchased tomatos and cilantro from one vendor, parsley from another
-coffee and oranges from a little old Mixteca woman
-chorizo sausage from the butcher
-a huge pineapple from a street vendor on the way to the market
-avocados and lime from one of the regular vendors
-freshly shelled peas, a red pepper from one of the regular vendors
- Squash flowers, for soup from an indigenous lady
- finally purchased a rotisserie chicken from the popular chicken guy
The dinner was great, grilled Mahi Mahi, grilled shrimp, my Paella, a tomato salad, almond stuffed prunes wrapped in bacon (!!!), guacamole, brushetta, and on and on.... good company and a few sangrias and beers.
We spent the day at Zicatella, on our way there we came upon a protest. I'm hoping that Vanessa, who works with Adrian can do some translating for us.
Today, Sunday we planned a road trip! According to the guide book there is a really interesting town up in the hills called Nopala. Nopala is famous for it's Aztec stone slabs taken from the ruin close to the town and moved to the Municipal building.
So after breakfast we packed up the VW with some drinks and our guide books and headed up Highway 131, north of PE. The road is the same one we came home from Oaxaca on so we knew the roads were bad, but it is only 47 km to San Gabriel, then another 7-8 past that on another road.
First we passed through San Pedro, about 15 minutes out. We stopped in the town and walked to the local church which was packed and having services. This town also had it's fair share of tuk-tuks!
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San Pedro's Municipal Building
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Next we passed through San Gabriel, which like many of the mountain pass roads has dozens of pay banos (restrooms) along the side of the road. We each paid 3 pesos to use the washrooms here. Then to find the road to Nopala.... There are no signs pointing anything out around this part of Mexico. I'm not sure that this is unique or if it is just part of being in Mexico! However, we used our very marginal spanish and asked a couple of girls if we were on the right road, we were.
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| Asses on the road :) |
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| The cows look really well fed here, not skinny like in many other areas |
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| Collectivo, these look so dangerous, people hang off all sides |
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| More cows without owners on the highway ? |
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| This is what slows you down on the roads in Mexico; speed bumps everywhere |
Once we got to Nopala, we were on the search for the Municipal building, which is it's claim to fame. In the 60's the locals went to their ancestors ancient city and chipped off slabs of site and put them into the walls of the building. Their is talk of building a new Municipal building and they say they will be moving them. Nopala is a very confusing little town, built on a hill and scattered with one way streets and alleys not marked. Unfortunately directions are not always marked so going the wrong way down one ways has been common for us :) But this time we had an even more harrowing experience, we took a road that looked like it headed in the right direction (?) and it did, but it was steep and got narrower and steeper than it was BLOCKED at the top. No way through, luckily Adrian found a nitch to turn around in. We both panicked a bit, but the VW and Adrian came through. We were both a bit shaky after that one....
We found another road to the market and ultimately it was also at the Municipal building to boot. There was a nice policeman who let us into the locked building to take a look around and from the balcony on the building we could see a lot of the town
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| View from the Municipal building |
But the most amazing part was the "frescos" from the Aztec burial site that are imbedded in the walls;
We walked around a bit of the town, it was not that busy, maybe because it is Sunday. After a little exploring we headed back to our car to try to find out way back to the highway, but alas we couldn't find our way out at all. No worries, I have watched the Amazing Race enough to know that a taxi driver will let you follow him to find your way! Our little Tuk Tuk drive did that for us, I gave him 20 pesos for his trouble :)
On our way out of Nopala, Adrian set his arm on the window of VW and unfortunately, there was a bee/wasp there and he got bit. Mexican bees seem to be a bit worse than the Canadian variety, he got quite the bite and it swelled and turned pretty red, here is a picture with the bite at it's worst. I was hoping I wouldn't have to learn to drive the VW if he passed out :(
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| Adrian's bee sting |
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| Bee hives |
Mexicans love their honey (Miel) and I guess with all those hives there is going to be a few bees around. I have purchased some honey here, the proceeds go towards the orphanage, and I have been having it most mornings on my toast and sometimes on my fruit, it is absolutely fantastic tasting! I'm bringing the left overs home!
Tomorrow morning at 6:45 Adrian and I are going Fishing! Wish us luck on the ocean, I just hope not to get seasick.
Bernetta and Adrian
