Trees and Temples

Today on our tour we drove to Arbol del Tule, which is allegedly the oldest tree in Latin America (our guide told us it was 2,000 years old)! We got out of our bus in what appeared to be a normal Mexican street, narrow and packed with a variety of stores, before walking to a beautiful garden in which the tree was located. I have honestly never in my life felt that I have been in such a sacred place. I felt like I was looking at the tree in the movie Avatar. There was something incredibly calming about the green bows of the tree swaying in the wind. It was amazing how much life the tree seemed to support. It housed what sounded like dozens of birds. Looking up you could see their nests in the crevices and nooks of the tree. It is known as being the widest tree in the world, and I believe it. The base was wide and gnarly. It’s honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, I didn’t want to leave, I felt like I would be content just to watch the light dancing off the leaves all day.

However, we still had a full schedule of tours ahead of us. Our next stop was a weaving shop where they make their own thread from wool and use natural dyes. The guy there showed us the process of carding and spinning the wool into yarn. He then showed us some of the natural dye they use there such as pomegranate skin, marigold flowers, and a type of parasite that grows on agave which produces red pigment when crushed.

He also demonstrated how they weave the fabric by hand. He told us that a rug takes around three months to complete.

He spoke to us a little bit in his native language which was Zapoteca. Zapoteca was the civilization in this area of Mexico before the Spanish colonization. In fact, our tour guide told us that 95% of the people in this area have native American ancestry. To this day there are 16 different languages spoken in this region, as well as around 20 different dialects. He explained that he spoke a different dialect of Zapoteca than the man who was doing the weaving and they showed us how words between the two dialects were very similar with a slight contrast. It is really amazing how much history and culture there is in Mexico. Today the ancient cultures are still a part of everyday life, for example tamales and tortillas two common foods here were first invented by ancient pre-Hispanic cultures. The diet in these cultures was based off corn, peppers, and beans which are still core elements of the Mexican diet today. Furthermore, we can thank these cultures for the invention of chocolate, for which I will be eternally grateful. After heading out from the store we saw a huge agave plantation, which was attached to a Mezcal distillery.

Mezcal is a type of alcohol made from agave which is extremely popular here. People love making jokes about Mezcal. I am still in awe of all the ways that they use agave here, it’s really amazing. We then headed to a huge Tiangus, which is the local word for a market which is held once a week. The market was crawling with people, there was barely enough room to walk, brushing shoulders on all sides under the tarp canopy overhead. It was similar to the other markets which we have been to in that they sold absolutely everything there. It was just even more crowded and hot, under tarps which were supposed to provide shade but only seemed to trap heat. Although I always enjoy browsing markets it was quite claustrophobic, bustling with an overwhelming amount of noise and commotion. There was one stand which was selling grubs, which I assume were to eat since some of them looked like they were covered in chili powder or some spice, while others in a neighboring container were still wriggling around unsuspecting of their impending doom. This market had a lot more people particularly women dressed traditionally than the city market which we visited previously. Many women wore bright dresses with white ruffles, had scarves wrapped around their hair or shoulders and woven baskets balanced precariously on their heads. Something I love about Mexico is that it is such a surprising mixture of old and new. Although the market sells a lot of modern things such as phone cases and tools the importance of the traditional culture is also very apparent. Another example of this is that on our way back to town today at the side of a busy highway I saw a farmer tilling his field with a team of oxen. To me it’s crazy to see something like that at the side of a busy highway with modern cars speeding by. Today was our second day of tours for the weekend. On Saturday we visited a historic site called Monte Alban. It is the ruins of a Zapoteca city that sits at the top of a mountain. What we got to climb were predominantly old temples. The city was arranged according to class. The leaders of the civilization lived on top of the mountain while the lower classes lived down the sides of the mountain where they also grew corn. The temples were built at the top of the mountain because they believed that there they were closer to the gods. The river ran at the base of the mountain however, so during the dry season water had to be hauled three miles up the mountain for the rulers to use. Besides the bases of old temples, we also saw what used to be an arena to play some sort of ball game. The ancient ball was made out of rubber from a wild rubber tree which grows near the coast. The goal of the game is unclear but our guide told us that archeologists have speculated that it was the honor of the winner of the game to be sacrificed. Although there is no evidence that they did human sacrifice at Monte Alban most of the other sites in the area believed in these rituals. The whole idea of that is definitely disturbing, but it was still a cool place to see.

At Monte Alban we also got to try something called Nieve, which means snow in spanish. It is like Icecream made out of ice and is absolutely delicious. They sell it just about everywhere here. Mine was chocolate, and coconut raspberry :)

After Monte Alban we took tiny twisting dirt roads down the mountain, they were extremely bumpy and most of us felt pretty car sick. These roads were two way, but it would have been terrifying to come upon another car going the opposite direction because they were so narrow. After driving through what seemed to be a bamboo tunnel we made it to a tiny town where they specialize in wood carving. We went to a store where guys were outside hacking at wood blocks with machetes in order to make gorgeous and amazingly intricate wooden statues. Watching them I was terrified that one of them would make a mistake and cut themselves but they worked with well practiced ease. Women also worked at the shop decorating the statues with incredibly detailed painting. Apart from decorating wooden statues they also painted converse and had a collection of the coolest shoes I have ever seen. Yesterday marked one week since we have arrived at our host families, and as of tomorrow we will have been in Mexico for two weeks. It seems like it has been longer since these weeks have been packed with a ton of new sites, sounds and information. I feel like I am learning a lot though and am really enjoying all of these new experiences.