Ruins and Markets- Etla

Since it's 50 cents more to all hop in a taxi (albeit more scary), we zoomed up to El Magote yesterday to take a look some ruins and go to the market in nearby Etla.
As soon as we arrived in El Magote, there was a small procession for the Virgin of Guadelupe. About three dozen villagers followed a band up the street, followed by a pickup truck loaded with a shrine of the Virgin. The town is known for some old ruins, specifically a large stone devil head that pre-dates the Zapotec people (see above). As we rested by the museum, a group of four girls and their little toddling niece came right up and sat down with us, wondering if we were from the States. One of the girls (in the green shirt in the pictures), Jeanette, was from San Francisco and comes back to her mother's village every summer to stay with her grandmother. She introduced us to her friends and cousins. The girls were very chatty and wanted to take tons of pictures of Max and Kaya with the cell phones they all had. When we asked them about the red devil, they said they had never even gone into the museum to see it. They laughed sheepishly as they told us how he comes alive at night. They didn't hesitate to follow us into the museum, however. Once in, they didn't seem to be as impressed as we were, and definitely didn't seem spooked. The director of Oaxacan archeology happened to be there taking pictures, so we had a unique opportunity of getting a shot of this statue without the glass enclosure. Kelsey admired the gauge studs the devil wore, which are all the rage with the heavy metal crowd (just like hers!)

The girls came with us to the edge of town (about a 2 minute walk) and suddenly we were on a little mound of a hill, surrounded by old ruins. We followed Fedinanda, Jeanette's friend, up a narrow tunnel of stairs to the top of the ruins (see her picture going up, followed by Kelsey coming through). As we came over the other side, the stone walls stretched out over the entire hill (see with the group exchanging emails). The base stones were huge (see with Kaya picture).

After giving the girls the typical Oaxacan air kisses on the cheek and saying "adios", we took another little taxi to the neighboring town of Etla.




















The aisles of the Etla market (like the one below in the picture) are in layers, descending from a central point on a hill. Fun to just wind our way around, inspecting all the goods and enjoying the smells. Just as in the city market, one entire aisle just for the tamale ladies, steaming, massive pots filled with banana leaf- wrapped mole varieties. Couldn't pass those up. As we picnicked on a small wall in the shade at the base of the market, we befriended a little dulce vendor and shared our sandwiches and tamales. His name was Jonothan Hernandez and prided himself of his penmanship and tweety bird drawings. He had his school notebook with him and the kids all took turns exchanging drawings. Max gave him one of his "special" train track drawings. He told us all about his school and his family and brought over his mother (a couple aisles over) to introduce us.












Kelsey wasn't too keen on "another cathederal" visit so the three of us (below) waited for K and S, people watched at the entrance of the market.