Oaxaca, Oaxaca...días 3 y 4

Sunday was Palm Sunday, and we had read in our travel books that there would be all sorts of parades and stuff. But..not so much. We asked around and were told that there would be a procession starting at this one church. When we went there and there wasn't anyone there. Well, there was one guy who asked if we were Catholic. Katharine told him she was Christian, and then he explained to us who Jesus was and that he loves us and died for our sins. The perception of Christianity here is way off.
Because there were no parades, we wandered.
A cute little area that turns into a restaurant at night, with the trees all lit up and music and everything:


The market again. I wanted this dragon.

We ended up going to a Guelaguetza dance show in the Teatro Macedonio Alcalá. The Guelaguetza celebration takes place in Oaxaca every year in July, but this was a performance of the different kinds of dances, all with different meanings and costumes.

Then we walked around a bit more, through some more markets, and then grabbed some lunch. We finally went into Santo Domingo, one of the main churches here. After a quick rest back at the hostel, we climbed the 218 (or something like that) stairs to Cerro del Fortin, which is the lookout point over the city. We met up with Laurel and Frank there. It was super windy and pretty cloudy, but the view was still nice.



We all walked back down to the zócalo and ate dinner. There were a ton of people down there, and in the plazas there are always people selling balloons. During dinner, I saw like three people walk by with balloons in a row, and I thought “oh, it’s like a parade!” turns out it had just started to rain, so they were running for shelter. We were eating outside, but under a roof, and people all crowded underneath to stay dry.

It got pretty chilly once it started raining, which was quite a change from the 80 degree heat during the day.
Monday was the last day in Oaxaca. For 20 pesos (less than $2,) our hostel let us keep our stuff there all day after check out time, and we were even allowed to still use the facilities. We left early in the morning to go to the post office to ship some of our purchases home instead of carrying them around for 2 weeks – unfortunately, here you need to bring your own box to the post office. Oops. So, we ran back to the hostel, put our stuff down, and ran back to el centro for our tour. Of course our tour didn’t leave for another half hour. One tour guide was excited we were from Michigan because he has spent some time there. Our tour guide started talking in Spanish to the people in our van, and then in English told me not to worry because he’d explain it in English too. I told him that we spoke Spanish. That’s always such a good feeling, to be able to tell someone that you speak the language. The people here are so excited when you speak Spanish. So, our first stop was Santa María del Tule, which is home to the Tule tree. The tule tree is the tree with the “stoutest trunk” in the whole world. It is over 2,000 years old and it has a circumference of 119 feet. Apparently there’s all sorts of figures in the trunk, but we were only there like 10 minutes, so we didn't have the chance to have someone point them out to us.



It’s right next to a church and a beautiful plaza with a gazebo and a fountain, not to mention the beautiful view of the mountains.

The next stop was in Teotitlan del Valle, which is a little indigenous village where people make wool rugs. They explained the process and where they get the different colors naturally.
The different colors:

Rug weaving:

The rugs were gorgeous and also quite expensive. Of course I don't blame them for the expensive price after hearing about the whole process.
The next stop was Mitla, which is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca (Monte Alban is the first) and it's the most important archeological site for the Zapotec cuture.
Mitla:

After this site, we went to eat at a buffet, which is the biggest buffet I've ever seen in my life. Outside they were grilling meat and making tortillas, there was one section with salads, one section with appetizers, a huge section with entrees and soups, and another one with a wonderful selection of desserts.
One of the many parts of the buffet:

The next stop was Hierve el agua. This is a petrified waterfall, and I think there are only two spots that have them in the world. This one has two, one that is A small amount of water bubbles up from the springs and goes over the mountain and evaporates, leaving behind rock formations (it's the same process for stalagmites and stalactites in a cave). The water is pooled so the tourists can swim in it. The high salt concentration makes for a turquoise color.
The view from the top:

Side view:


It was actually chillier and windier than any other day we'd had on the trip. I would have gone in anyway (despite the cold temperature of the water,) but we didn't have enough time to swim.
The biggest/most pool-like artificial pool:

The last stop was at a Mezcal factory. They explained the process of making it, but it was quite cold and windy, so I wasn't really paying attention. We then tasted the different flavors. I tried one liquor type, which I didn't really enjoyed. Cream Mezcal is the good stuff...I tried passion fruit, kiwi, cappuccino, mocha, strawberry, and coconut.
the options:

Making my daddy proud:

The view from the Mezcal factory:

We returned to Oaxaca around 7:30, made a few last minute purchases, and went back to the hostel. We showered and got ready and took a taxi to the bus station. It was quite full for 10:30 at night, so apparently the overnight busses are popular. Ours, which left at 11:00, was quite full.
Hostel: It wasn't as nice as the one in Puebla. We were on a tiny street a little ways from the zócalo, but it was still so noisy from the cars speeding by the intersection. It had a nice environment, and the owners were friendly, but the bathrooms were tiny. There were only 2 stalls and 2 showers for the women. The first morning I heard a lot of spanish, the second morning a lot of english, and the third morning a mixture of languages. That was kind of cool. The third morning we talked with a guy from Montana who is going to travel for a year. He started in Arizona and is going to Argentina, or Antarctica if possible.
Food: Tlayuda - a big tortilla shell with beans, cheese, lettuce, avocado, and meat on top. I'm talking huge. It was alright, i think the meat wasn't necessary though, as they didn't have great options for meat. Mezcal was also new for me. Besides what I tried at the factory, I also tried almond, orange, and mocha in some stores. At the buffet, I had a dessert that was new. I don't remember the name, but it had a jello like consistency and it was made from rice and corn.
Pictures of day 3 have been added to my first Oaxaca Album: Oaxaca
Pictures of day 4 are here: Oaxaca