Had a nice potato soup and bean tostadas for dinner. Scott has made two successful batches of salsa - one with Chile de Pasillo (a Oaxacan pepper) and Chiles Moritas. Both were flavorful and hot. The pepper have a nice smokey flavor. He will continue experimenting and buy a supply of peppers to take home.
Today, Kelsey and Abby stayed home for a lazy day and Scott took the kids to Mitla, an outlying village with ruins from the Zapatec era. Click here for more on Mitla. Mitla was having their Gueleguetza today, so they wanted to see that and the ruins. They headed out about 10 am and got a bus to Mitla. It was completely fully and Scott had to stand the whole way. It was not too bad but since the bus was to short for him to stand up fully, was a bit taxing on his back. Upon arriving to Mitla, Scott and the kids walked through town to get to the cathedral and ruins. Since it was about noon when they arrived, lunch was the first order of business - empanadas for Scott and flautas and soda for the kids. After eating, they headed to the church to check it out and found that part of the ruins were right outside the church, so we explored these.
amazing to see the ruins juxtaposed with the church.We then headed up the hill for the Gueleguetza. Mitla has a rag-tag stadium with a make shift wooden dance floor in the middle - basically plywood on the ground. But the location was stunning. It was perched on a hill outside of the village at the base of a much taller mountain. The location afforded great views onto the village and entire surrounding valley with moutains as the back drop.
We got a good spot in the shade and watched several different dances from different regions. They were very similar to the ones we saw last night around the corner from our house. One thing that we may have mentioned is that at the Gueleguetza the dancers throw treats to the audience. Apparently Gueleguetza means offering, so in this tradition, the dancers "offer" things like bread and sweets to the audience. In a big crowd the chances of getting treats is pretty good and the kids scored pretty well. They got 3 bread rolls, a fried tortilla, a small basket, some tiny bags of what we think is coffee, and an apple. The gift thing certainly keeps the kids - and the adults - interested in the dancing, because they know that when it is over they may get treats. Taking cues from the other kids, Kaya unabashedly ran up to the dancers and begged for treats. Judging from the amount she got, she was successful.
After the dancing, they hiked down to the market one last time and got some ice cream, actually it is more like sorbet. We have been wanting to try this and finally did. Scott got tuna and mango flavor. Now I know you are thinking fish, but tuna is a fruit and its deep red color looks great as sorbet. Max got vanilla (sort of cinnamony) and mango, and Kaya got vanilla and nut, which was very good. We also stumbled upon a man selling rambutans. Abby and her family have fond memories of rambutans from their time in Malaysia when Abby was about 2 and Becky was just born. Scott picked up a half pound for Abby.
After that we were ready to grab a mototaxi - another thing we have yet to do - and go home. We walked through the market one last time and stumbled upon the entrance to a bunch more ruins that we had not seen. Scott had to pay $3.50 to get in and the kids were free. Inside there were amazing structures with detailed Mitla motifs. These are common motifs in Oaxaca and adorn clothing, advertising, and products. Below are some examples of this style.
After exploring the runs and the kids playing castle (not a bad location for this), we looked for a mototaxi to head home. Arrived home to a wonderful pot of veggie soup.
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