Day 3

 Day 3

Breakfast at the hotel  Eh. Started our tour with private driver, Rodolfo. His English was good.  I asked where he learned English and his reply was " Santa Monica High".

The first stop was Tule to see a 2000 year old tree The Mexican cypress is immense and impressive.

Then we went to an archeological site at Mitla. Before entering the town (Pueblo Magico) of Mitla, there was a checkpoint – we had to get out of the car, the car was sprayed with disinfectant, our temperature was taken and our whole bodies were also sprayed. Mitla is still occupied by Zapotecs and our guide was a Zapotec man.  The 800 year old Zapotec buildings/remains are very impressive.  Large intricate structures built without mortar. It was a ceremonial site to honor the dead. There are tombs of important Zapotec rulers there, but unfortunately they were closed because of the pandemic. We could only visit the outside. There were hardly any tourists there. Rodolfo said that Mitla limits the number of tourists to 200 per day, and Monte Alban to 400 per day.

We then went to  a mescal factory called El Rey de Matatlan where we sampled several different kinds of mezcal. We were shown the different types of agave plants used to make mezcal.  The time before harvest for the various species ranged from 7 years to 50 years. We were given a complete explanation with demo of mezcal production.  Then we sat and sampled 9 different kinds of mescal, and bought a few little bottles to take as souvenirs.

Then we drove to the village of Teotitlan del Valle and went on a wild goose chase to find the house that Bo spent 2 weeks at 15 years ago. No luck in finding it as things changed in 15 years. Bo found the right street and thought one of the houses may be it, but wasn’t sure. We visited some weavers’ workshops and chatted with one of the weavers (Antonio Mendoza) who lived in So Cal for some time and still goes back to do workshops on natural dyes and weaving. He also exhibits at the Sawdust festival in Laguna Beach. It looks like many people here have ties to So Cal. Our driver/guide’s parents live in the LA area still. He told us that he has a little farm and grows corn and beans, and has 300 free range happy chickens. He supplies eggs to some restaurants in Oaxaca, and also chicken meat.

After getting home and resting a bit, we had dinner at Catedral -  a highly rated restaurant.  Appetizer was the best. They are well known for their moles so we had to try them – a 22 ingredient black mole and a yellow mole with almonds.











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