Best Pictures, Post #3

Just one post today, unfortunately. More tomorrow.


A list of nieve flavors at the Benito Juarez market, near the Zocalo. From top to bottom, starting with the left side it reads (with my comments in parenthesis): Lime, Tuna (cactus tuna), Mango, Tamarind (unsweetened), Guanabana, Peach, Angel's Kiss (made with mixed, dried fruit), Pina Colada, Burnt Milk, Sorbet, Walnut, Strawberry, Roses (not sure what that is), Cheese (yes, it really tastes like real cheese; not cheese cake type stuff), Mamey (not sure what the English name is), Corn (judging by the taste of the cheese flavored one this probably really tastes like corn), Peanut, Chocolate, Mezcal (similar to tequila), and Coconut.

Two kids sitting on a cross outside the Catholic church in Teotitlan.

Santo Domingo in the late afternoon.

Inti Raimi, the Andean band that played on the Zocalo.

A lookout point at Huatulco.

On the flight to Oaxaca.

The bridge that separates the states of Oaxaca and Puebla.

A baseball game.

A spinning wheel in Teotitlan.

A fruit stand in the Abastos market.

Best Pictures, Post #2

Well, I'm back from CHIC. It was an awesome experience! More on that later. To start off, I'll just do this one post today. Tomorrow hopefully I can post at least two or three things.


A yellow hibiscus near the house we used to live in.

A purple flower up at Benito Juarez.

An orange flower in our yard in Mexico.

Assorted flowers in the Abastos market in Oaxaca city.

A red flower in our yard in Mexico. (If you haven't figured it out yet, I just take pictures of flowers; I haven't a clue what their names are. :) :)

A white flower up at Benito Juarez.
Lupine (maybe?) up at Benito Juarez.

A blue version of the white flower above. Again, at Benito Juarez.

These red flowers were very prevalent up at Benito Juarez. It seemed like there were clumps of them everywhere.

Yet another beautiful flower from Benito Juarez. The Psalms say it all...
Psalm 19:1 (NIV) The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

CHIC

Okay, I don't know how many of you reading this are with the Covenant church, but there is a big retreat/conference called CHIC (Covenant HIgh Congress)that the Covenant denomination sponsors for all of their high school kids. I'm going to that today, and I'll get back next Saturday (I think). Anyway, I was planning on bringing my computer, but I believe it would be better if I did not, so I won't be able to post any pictures for a week. That being said, if you check back next Sunday, I will begin posting the rest of my best pictures and maybe a few other things, too.

Thanks for reading my blog, have a good week, and I hope you'll come back and check my blog in a week. :)

Video Post - - Inti Raimi

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Last Saturday we ate down at the Zocalo one last time. Before and afterwards there was a band nearby called Inti Raimi playing traditional Andean music. I sat and listened to them for almost an hour! They have three CDs out, and I have the first one from when we lived in Oaxaca. Personally, I really like this kind of music. :) :)

Best Pictures, Post #1

Over the next week or so I'll be posting around 50 of the pictures that I like best that I took in Oaxaca. Many/most will have already been posted on my blog, but there will be some new ones. Also, I will be putting together a cd of my best pictures (50-75 pictures). If anyone is interested in getting a copy I would be glad to send you one. Just send me an email and we can work something out.


The village of Huautla, near where I stayed in the mountains.

Entrega Bay, Huatulco, Mexico.

Chile peppers for sale; downtown Oaxaca.

A dog relaxing in the village in the mountains where I stayed.

A waterfall near the village in the mountains where I stayed.

The Zocalo before the teachers took it over.

A rug in progress in Teotitlan.

The local meat shop near where I stayed for my first seven weeks in Oaxaca.

The cathedral of Santo Domingo.

Inside a Mayordomo chocolate shop. The stuff on the left is warm, and you can mold it into almost any shape you want to.

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Benito Juarez

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2Some of the mountains and valleys all around the village of Benito Juarez.

4There are lots of donkeys in this small, rustic village; some actually working, and some just standing around, modeling for my pictures. :)
5The lookout point is usually very moist since it's in the clouds so much. This cool, wet environment makes a great place for moss, flowers, and other plants to grow.
6Two fiery red flowers looking guard over the valley.
7A lonely field near the top of the mountain, inhabited only by a few sheep.
8Looking back on Benito Juarez from the lookout you can see how small it really is.
9A small group of houses a short walk from the main part of the village. If you're there at the right time of year all the roofs are covered with different colored ears of corn drying in the sun.
10A nice grouping of daisies and cactus.
11At the turn-off from the main, paved road to the dirt road leading to Benito Juarez, a field of blue flowers dotted with some red flowers overlooks a big valley.

12The dirt road that leads most of the way up to the lookout; once you get close to the lookout you have to hike the last few minutes up a steep path to the top of a rocky cliff.
13A tall red flower on the way up to the lookout.
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Teacher Strike

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Okay, I thought that I should post a longer update of the teacher strike here in Oaxaca. I have to admit that it is really irritating me; the teachers (and the people who have taken advantage of them to promote their own cause) have really messed up the city. They've blocked roads in the city, blocked highways to/from the city, gone on at least four huge marches (the biggest one allegedly having 400,000 people; compared to that, what's a protest in Mexico City with just 100,000 people?), blocked off the center of town, sprayed graffiti everywhere, and seriously hurt the economy by making fewer tourists come (by my estimate, tourism is the second biggest source of income for the state, after money sent back from relatives in the US). Honestly, the only good thing I think they've done is rip out the new parking meters downtown!


Originally the teachers just wanted a better salary. Then they wanted the governor to step down. Then they wanted people to vote only for the PRD (communist, leftist political party) in the presidential election. Who knows where it will go next. Unfortunately, I think that it progressed beyond a simple salary strike because of the influence of other people who wanted to further their own causes. It's sad, though, because I think the teachers are being taken advantage of and they don't even realize it. Even with all that they've done against the government, they're still getting paid. And yes, they are paid by the government. On a Thorn Tree thread I found a good explanation of this given by VOS. "Teachers are paid by state per contract agreements with the union. Therefore State must pay wages to striking teachers or they have broken a legally binding contact with the union. Same as with teachers, they must strike or they are breaking the contract that they have signed with their union and could loose their job as teachers with the state. Also, the teachers are docked pay and can lose benefits provided by the government per contract with union if missing a day of strike against the state."

Now the teachers are planning on going back to school tomorrow so they can finish the school year by the 22nd, adding an hour each day as well as teaching on Saturdays. But, they are planning on returning and blocking the biggest tourist draw of the year: the Guelaguetza. The Guelaguetza is a huge performance of traditional dances from the seven regions of Oaxaca. It occurs on the 17th and the 24th and draws the most tourists (and income form tourists) of the whole year. The teachers are planning on holding their own version of it and are planning on blocking the construction of the new road going to the outdoor amphitheater where the real version is held. Since tourism is so big in Oaxaca, if they go through with boycotting and blocking it many people will take a big financial hit. I've heard from several people already that say there have been a lot fewer tourists (and income) because of the teachers. I guess the teachers don't care, though, since pay comes from the government, not from tourists...

First pic: Look on the hill above the red building; that big gray thing is the top two (of four) sections that make up the amphitheater where the main part of the Guelaguetza is held.
Second pic: Can you get any more obvious than that? I believe that this (as well as the posters with the portraits of Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and Engels) was brought in by extremists using the teachers strike to their own advantage. None of them have been taken down, though, so the teachers obviously have strong leftist sentiments.
Third pic: The whole Zocalo is covered in tarps, both those of the teachers and those of the vendors (you have to watch your head to make sure you don't hang yourself on one of the many cords holding them up). Since the teachers occupied the Zocalo, many vendors have set up there, too, making it almost a festive atmosphere. Until you look at poster in the second picture posted here, that is.

Coming to "The End"

Unfortunately, my time here in Oaxaca is just about over. I've spent nearly nine weeks here, and it's been just as good as I imagined it would be. I've explored the city, a remote Mazatec village in the mountains, a village in the mountains close by, a rug weaving town, and the beach. I've had a blast taking pictures and writing in this blog. But I guess it had to end sometime. Tomorrow I fly out with my family early in the morning. On Friday I'm going to Tennessee to attend CHIC, our Covenant high school retreat/conference, with my church's youth group. So I'll be busy settling back into life in the US and then heading off again.

Still, today will not be the last day I'll post something. For the next week I will continue to post some things, mostly pictures. After that I might continue to use this blog as a place to post a monthly update on life in the US and how things are going. Then, next summer, if I can work out a way to come back here, I'll use this blog as a place to post more of my ramblings from Oaxaca.

Clips from Teotitlan

Here are two clips from out in Teotitlan. Both are of the men doing the feather dance. I think they been doing it for around three hours, non-stop, but they still seem to be doing great.

11111New Media --- Streaming Video!


Me and a friend setting off a small firework like the kind that are used in almost all parties and can be heard most nights.

Elections, coffee, and a "bazaar sale"

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1First a quick update on the elections. It appears that the official results came out today showing that Felipe Calderon, the conservative candidate, won. Unfortunately for those who don't lean heavily toward the left, he won by a percentage point of .57% (about 200,000 votes out of a total of 41 million). His main opponent, Lopez Obrador, said that there are still "irregularities" in the results and that he will appeal to the electoral court. Thankfully they do have a deadline to clear everything up. By law, the electoral court has to declare a winner by September 6. Their decision then is irrevocable. If Obrador doesn't win, he might call on his followers to protest nationwide, and who knows where that could go...

Here in Mexico, the kind of garage/moving sale we're having is called a venta de bazar (bazaar sale). Today we just opened it up to the greater expatriate community only. Unfortunately the teachers decided today would also be a good day for them to block main roads in town, so we didn't have as many people as we had hoped to have. Tomorrow we're going to put a sign up down the street where lots of people go by and we'll open up the cochera (open-air garage thing), entry way, and front yard so anyone who wants to can come in and buy stuff. Hopefully we'll sell almost everything so we can do something fun on Saturday.

You would think that I would have stuck around the house for the sale today, being the good, responsible person that I am, right? Wrong. Before the sale my mom and I went out to the Italian Coffee Company by the Santo Domingo church to relax for a while. My mom left a couple of hours later to go back and help with the sale, but I stayed on for several more hours to avoid the people coming to our house. I did manage to restrain myself, though, and only consume two Cappuccino frappes. :) :) When I left I was planning on hanging out downtown taking pictures, but it started to rain so I was forced to walk home early. Maybe tomorrow can be my picture taking day, instead!

First pic: Two kids sitting on/in front of a cross in the courtyard of the Catholic church in Teotitlan.
Second pic: Forget about Starbucks; ya gotta love the Italian Coffee Company! (This one was actually at a gas station somewhere, and not by Santo Domingo.)
Third pic: Hard to see, but it's most of our American group that was up in the village together (half just stayed a couple of days). They all are holding at least one glass pop bottle filled with the right amount of water to make a different note on the musical scale. They did quite well playing a couple of simple tunes!

Weekly set of pictures

Dyed wool waiting to be woven into a rug in progress at Teotitlan.

I can never get enough of the beauty of the mountains in Oaxaca!

A night time picture of the gazebo in the Zocalo. The whole Zocalo is covered in signs like the one in the picture. There were even signs with the pictures of Stalin, Lenin, and Marx on them. Way too strong an influence from the left for my liking. On a lighter note, a band the teachers put together was playing some nice traditional music in the gazebo (between short political speeches, of course.)

Early morning sun shining down the coast toawards us in Huatulco.

In Teotitlan they make rugs with designs as well as ones with pictures on them based on archeology and other art forms besides rugmaking.

11The Best Western we stayed at in Huatulco.

2Me and my friend Enrique out at Zaachila.

3Me with a tamale at my friend's place in Teotitlan.

4What an interesting looking VW! Nothing like I've ever seen before. :)

5A jet ski at Huatulco.