Wild Late Night Fireworks in Oaxaca

On our way home from the evening out with Rocio and her family, we happened across a public celebration hosted by a church the likes of which we had never seen. So we parked nearby and went to see what was happening. Apparently, in Mexico, the churches often host public nighttime celebrations with music, dancing, and fireworks to commemorate their founding.

This particular church was just a few blocks from our hotel, in the center of Oaxaca. It started out in a charming, low-key way with some beautiful, oversized dancing twirling puppets. Things then started get a little wild with fireworks attached to smaller paper mache puppets running around the street, and climaxed with a 'castillo', a large scaffolded structure 70 feet tall, that exploded into a strange Mexican mix of illuminated christian and indigenous symbols.

First, the puppets, dancing, twirling, to live music that was being played by a band outside the church behind us.

The puppets seemed to multiply over time; at one point there were nearly a dozen.

Jeremiah got into the action and wore one of the smaller puppets and, rather out of character, danced around the street with the other puppets for a few minutes.

And Liesl did too.

Then the toro hit the scene - exploding and popping and sending sparks flying (and much of the crowd running) in all directions while the puppeteer ran around and a torero waved a flag in his direction. Suffice to say, this was not an OSHA-approved activity.

More from the one of the several exploding bulls.

Here you see the toro and the mona - the woman puppet that, like the toro, ran and danced around the street shooting fireworks in all directions. It was a riot.

Here is a shot of the castillo, probably 70 feet high, surrounded by several hundred people in the street, began to explode and spin and smoke, illuminating images of Christ, angels, and images of the pre-hispanic sun.

Here the Christ face is being replaced by the sun.

The Sun.

This is the show's climax, including large and I think uncontrolled explosions at the top of the castillo. At one point, one of the spinning angels at the very top exploded and went flying high into the air, eventually landing on a nearby roof (better than on top of the crowd!), still fully in flames. Wow!

Pre-hispanic Stone Soup in Oaxaca

There are a few restaurants in Oaxaca that specialize in a traditional, prehispanic 'caldo' or soup. The name of the place where we ate was 'Caldo de Piedra' - Stone Soup. They make it the old way, by using hot stones to cook the soup in about 4 minutes - with vegetables and or fish.

It is cooked and served in a gourd-like bowl that comes from a local tree. Each bowl of soup requires three red-hot stones. The first warms up the soup, the second boils it for a minute or two, and the third continues the cooking process and accompanies the soup when it is served.

It was excellent!

We went with Rocio and her family - all SUPER-nice - who Amy met in Oaxaca during her first month here in March.

Here are a few photos of our meal.

JB, Jeremiah, Joce, and Israel waiting at the counter for the soup to be cooked.

Here the bowls of cold, uncooked soup await red hot stones.

The cook has pulled out the first round of stones, and in the process of putting in the second set.

He used a long, wetted, simple bamboo tool to pull rocks out of the fire and place in the soup bowls.

The Bogaards with Rocio's family left to right: Liesl, Israel Sr., Jeremiah, Israel Jr. Joce, Andrea, Amy, and Rocio.

Final Views of San Cristobal De Las Casas

After our return to San Cristobal De Las Casas, we spent a couple of days there before climbing on an overnight bus to Oaxaca. As I said earlier, San Cristobal is a very unique, cosmopolitan city in the mountains of Chiapas. Why it exists where it does was puzzling to us. I think that we figured out a big part of the answer when we visited Na Bolom (on our friend Kathryn's suggestion), a museum/library/hotel/intellectual center/non-profit that was founded in 1951 by a couple - Danish Archaeologist and explorer Frans Blom and the Swiss conservationist and photographer Gertrude Duby. The center served as a base for their work to explore eastern Chiapas and discover and protect ancient Mayan historical resources (like Palenque and Yaxchilan), to advocate for the indigenous people in the area, like the Lacandon, and to protect the areas' environment, rivers, forests, etc.

Franz and Gertrude were hard-driving visionaries with big personalities this center has served as an intellectual magnet for over 60 years - attracting academics, artists, the rich and famous, and even world leaders. This center seems to have played a big role in putting San Cristobal on the map for people outside of Chiapas. Combine this with the mountain setting, the cultural history of the area, the region's environment, peoples, languages, etc, and San Cristobal is indeed a very unique place.

Here a few final photographs of our days in the city... 

These women selling textiles in the market, probably come from a village from outside San Cristobal. They are wearing a traditional outfit - a thick black wool shirt held up by a colorful woven belt, and a colorful hand-woven blouse that is representative of their particular village. Their first language is probably Tzotzil - an original Mayan language, and then Spanish.

Another woman selling in the market,wearing a scarf on her head to keep the sun off.

This young woman is wearing different clothes that represent a different village.

The market in the center of town is one of constant motion, very colorful, and has really beautiful clothes and materials, fruits, tacos, etc.

These are these amazing weavings and shawls and throws that I think come from the jungle areas to the east.

There are lots of different skills on display in San Cristobal, in an effort to make a living. For a dollar, this man would carve a blank key with your name and some really amazing little picture of your choice. Liesl and Jeremiah both ordered keys...

This is the entrance to La Iglesia de Santo Domingo, the church that was constructed by the early bishop/good friend of the indigenous people, Bartholomew De Las Casas. It was begun in the 16th century and features almost baroque stucco/sculpture that includes lots of flowers, vines, and even a few jaguars...

Detail from Santo Domingo, including the jaguars..

Columns from Santo Domingo.

People gathering in the city center, the zocalo. There are lots of people selling food, clothes, etc.

Itching and Scratching Our Way Through Mexico...

Mexico is home to lots of creepy crawly things, some of which we have in the states, some off which we don't. Lots of insects, mosquitoes, biting flies, and other biting bugs. And scorpions, of course.

We pretty much have itched our way, especially our ankles, through Mexico.

Recently, while we were still in the rain forest, J got some kind of super-irritating rash growing around his eye. We weren't sure if it was a rash, or a mite living in his skin, or what…

We went to doctor, who diagnosed it as a rash, and prescribed a couple of pretty gentle topical treatments. The doctor cost $25. The prescriptions $10.

J's face is slowly, steadily, clearing up. Here are some photos of the patient. He has been a trooper. The rash has been itchy and a little gooey. Yum!

Remember those scary photos from your high school "health education" class?

Mexico's National Elections - July 1

Mexico will hold it's elections on Sunday, July 1. This seems to be all offices, at all levels - President, federal senators and representatives, and state and local offices too. Here is my quick, poorly informed take on Mexican politics in 2012.

Our whole time in Mexico has been 'blessed' with lots of roadside banners, painted walls, and VW bugs with large, low quality speakers mounted on the rack blasting the virtues of one candidate or another. Because not everyone reads the paper (can read the paper) or has access to television, lots of campaigning happens here on the streets: signs, speakers, billboards, etc. This public space communication is far more prevalent (and thus more annoying…) than in the states.

This is a big election cycle because a new President will be elected. This only happens every six years. A president in Mexico can only serve one term.

The state and evolution of Mexico's democracy is very much a topic of discussion in the media - that it has made strides in recent decades, but that it also has a long ways to go. What is interesting for me is that the state of democracy in Mexico is an explicit discussion - with prescriptions for what is still needed, and what still imperils it. (This is hardly a discussion in big media the United States, but so very necessary today, in my humble opinion...).

Since the Mexican Revolution nearly 100 years ago, until the 1990s, Mexico's "democracy" has stretched the limits of the definition of the word. It has been one-party rule by PRI - Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Other parties did not exist or were irrelevant. Reforms in the 1980s laid the groundwork for the evolution of multiple competing parties. Vicente Fox's election in 2000 was considered historic, since PRI (I think that he was with PAN) lost for the first time since its inception 70+ years prior.

Mexico still has a ways to go. One example: A number of different people independently have described to us how the votes of people who fail to vote in an election get assigned to PRI candidates. This sounds completely ridiculous, but several different people have described this, saying that it is thus really important that everyone vote, or your vote will be used by others.

My impression is that while the economy seems pretty stable here, without extreme swings up or down (nor is it growing or accessible to many), most people have little faith that politics can improve their lives. The last Presidential election is considered by many to be fraudulent (a large number of votes disappeared and reappeared with a different, ultimately winning candidate (Calderon) in the lead), and there is little faith that the people's choice will actually win, or much change will occur. In this final week before the election, lots of papers and media are urging people to stand by election outcomes, apparently anticipating dissatisfaction. Interestingly, though there seems to be less calls for election transparency and integrity.

There are four Presidential candidates competing in the election:

Enrique Pena Nieto: PRI (leading in the polls according to the media), described by many as a return to the old days; would rollback progressive reforms from the last 2 decades. Good-looking and telegenic. Interestingly, the Green Party has aligned itself with Pena Nieto. Not sure of their strength here in Mexico, or their platform.
Manuel Lopez Obrador: Many consider him the legitimate winner of the previous election. He represents the Left, PRD.
Josefina Mota: She represents the party of the current President, PAN. super-conservative. People are not happy with current Adminstration (Calderon) so she seems an unlikely candidate to win. TO note, she is the first female Presidential candidate in Mexico.
Quadri: the far left candidate, I think, polling in single digits. Not competitive.

Looks like Pena Nieto will win. Many people we talk to distrust the polls that show him in the lead, that the polls/media are setting up for a fraudulent outcome before election day.

Tight media control, and the media's collaboration with powerful parties and interests is a big concern of many people in Mexico. Think of two Fox News stations collaborating with the Republicans in the United States, and no other significant national media presence. It indeed appears a serious problem. The internet as a source of independent information is really critical, but still inaccessible to many, many people in Mexico.

Anyways, that's my quick take. On July 1, we'll know more. It will certainly be interesting to be here for the election. Some people are anticipating unrest. I think that it unlikely, but what do I know...?

Below are some photos from a rally in the zocalo in San Cristobal the evening that we left.

Manuel Velasco - just 32 years old; never held elective office; is running for governor of the state of Chiapas representing the PRI. He obviously has the backing of big money, since his picture is ALL over Chiapas. Amy and I thought his banner photos were a little creepy, frankly, but that's just us...

Agua Azul and the Zapatista Territory

On our final day with the little Mexican rental car, we left Misol Ha, drove through Zapatista country to visit El Parque de Agua Azul, and return to San Cristobal.

Agua Azul featured a long walk next to a river with a series of beautiful cascades and pools. Almost the entire walk was accompanied by little restaurants, and booths selling souvenirs, sliced fruits, textiles, etc. Not exactly a wilderness experience... And because of the recent rains, the agua was not azul - but more of a murky brown-green.

Some will remember the Zapatista Uprising that began on January 1, 1994 in Chiapas. Commandante Marcos was the movement's charismatic, media-savvy spokesperson who helped garner international attention for months. The goals of the armed uprising by mostly indigenous Mayan people here in the mountains of Chiapas was the pursuit of basic human rights: food, housing, land, heath care, increased political autonomy and access the economic pie; ultimately a re-making of democracy in Mexico by establishing a new civil society where all the people of Mexico were active, empowered participants, not the heavily entrenched parties. The movement's leaders hoped their activities would trigger similar uprisings all over Mexico. While there was significant popular support for the Zapatista's goals and there was/is broad discontent with the political and economic system in Mexico, the uprising did not spread. There was no national appetite for armed revolution.

The 1994 uprising took over San Cristobal and a number of other smaller communities. The conflict drew international attention (something the Mexican elite are very sensitive to) and created a dialogue for many months, but the government did a good job of defusing the situation by making promises and starting "talks" with the Zapatistas. As talks replaced the armed uprising, media attention faded, and in the end, very little appears to have changed. I have not quite been able to figure out exactly where Marcos is today.

When one visits Chiapas, it is easy to see why this movement originated here. There is indeed tremendous poverty and inequality. Today, I have the impression that Zapatista organizing and activities continue, though it is not particularly visible or impactful at this point.

The main falls of Agua Azul.

The family at the falls. Liesl scratching bug bites on her legs - lots of scratching bug bites in Mexico.

We walked the trail until it ended; there was a defunct cable crossing structure on the bank of the river. The cart is behind the cement base.

This was a roadside sign on our way back to San Cristobal. "You are in Zapatista territory in rebellion. Here, the local community is in control. The government obeys."

Mountainous tropical landscape.

One of the key demands of the Zapatistas was land redistribution. Land resources have been dominated by people of Spanish/European descent (and their ancestors) since the Conquest 500 years ago. The original inhabitants have very little access to land. Over the last century or so, very small land redistributions have occurred, and some recently, in response to the Zapatista demands. These new communities and lands given to indigenous people are often called 'ejidos'. We saw a number of these signs in travels through Chiapas. From what I understand, these lands are often small in size, in the mountainous areas, not prime growing lands, and far from markets. Better than nothing, perhaps, but it is hard to see how this could address the larger set of issues...

Palenque!

We drove from Misol Ha thirty minutes to Palenque. We started in the museum, then we went to the ruins themselves, after, of course, some delicious, cheap, roadside tacos, mango, and tamales. We hired another great guide, Edgar, and shared him for two hours with a couple from Australia.

Here are some quick facts about Palenque:

***It was a Mayan city-state that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 226 BC to its fall around 1123 AD.

***Palenque is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copan, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayans produced.

***Historians now have a long sequence of the ruling dynasty of Palenque in the 5th century and extensive knowledge of the city-state's rivalry with other states such as Calakmul and Tonina.

***The discovered area covers just 1 sq. mile, but it is estimated that less than 5% of the total area of the city is explored, leaving more than one thousand structures still covered by jungle!

***An ancient name for the central core of the city currently consolidated was Lakam Ha, which translates as "Big Water", for the numerous springs and wide cascades that are found within the site.

***One of the main figures responsible for rebuilding Palenque and for a renaissance in the city's art and architecture is also one of the best-known Maya leaders - Pakal, who ruled from 603 to 683. At the time Alberto Ruz Lhuillier excavated Pakal's tomb it was the richest and best preserved of any scientifically excavated burial then known from the ancient Americas.

Liesl and Jeremiah in Palenque museum.

Everything in the museum was found on the grounds of Palenque. This was a fearsome representation of a Mayan God, in a sitting (meditation?) position.

J is in front of a model of the main palace that we would soon visit.

These are reproductions of Mayan hieroglyphs - part symbol, part word or part of word (syllable) that could be read (I think) left to right, top to bottom. Mayans filled their palaces,stellae (large, public stone monuments), etc with these hieroglyphs to record history. The elites in many of these big city states created huge books, codices, that recorded their histories: leadership, religion, astronomy, warfare, etc. Only a very few of these codices remain, as everything else was destroyed by the Europeans. What is amazing is that these hierglyphs have been slowly deciphered over time. Today, virtually all these glyphs can be read, and this has deepened profoundly our understanding of the Maya and history and development.

They are pictures, complicated pictures that represent words, ideas, and/or syllables.

Pictures of leaders engaged in specific activities are often coupled with glyphs to explain what is happening and when (in accordance with the Maya calendar, of course). Based on our understanding of these symbols, we know, for example, on what day and year specific elites were born, ascended the throne, succeeded in warfare, married, died, etc.

This is a perfect replica of King Pakal's sarcophagus. Made of solid stone, it measures roughly 2 meters by 4 meters. The top and bottom together weigh roughly 30 tons. The tomb of Pakal, Palenque's grandest leader, was only discovered in the last several decades, deep inside a pyramid tomb that he modestly built for himself before he died. This sarcophagus is covered with symbols of agricultural gods - for maize, corn, avocado, nance, and others. It was intended as an offering to the agricultural gods, to encourage their blessings. For the leaders of settlements like Palenque, the line between humans and gods was blurred. These leaders were physical manifestations of gods on earth.

This shows Edgar, explaining the Palace of the Skull. Palenque was abandoned in the 12th Century. Locals knew of it, and showed the Spaniards in the 16th century, but they were not impressed - no gold! It was "rediscovered" in the 1920s, when locals led Franz Blom, a European explorer and archeologist to the area.

The skull, in the palace of the skull.

J in front of Pakal's tomb on the left. On the right, under tarps, is a brand new operation that began just two weeks ago, with the discovery of a new tomb. We weren't allowed to get close.

In front of Pakal's tomb.

More from Edgar, with the main palace in the background. Hard to imagine how this would have looked at its apogee: the main plaza where we are standing was pure stucco - no dirt, to trees. Perhaps it was painted red with cinnabar, a mercury-based mineral that prevented growth of moss, plants, etc. The palace was also covered in stucco, bright red, with lots of paintings and images designed to intimidate, awe, and inspire.

Inside the palace meditation chamber. The king, at the start of the planting season, would meditate in the dark, apparently in yoga-like positions, for 9 days - the same amount of time that it would take just-planted maize seeds to break the earth with green shoots. The king's job meditating was to encourage a full, rich crop.

This is graffiti on the palace walls from Spanish explorers - Augusto I. D. Channey?

Placido Gomez...

This is dragon on the palace wall that looks strangely similar to Chinese dragons. Pre-European trade is well documented between Asians and First Nations of the Americas. Is this a Chinese-inspired sculpture?

The aqueduct serving the elite of Palenque. Water still runs through it. It had been covered. Mayans brought water up to the Palace from the aqueduct by using progressively smaller pipes...

This tower in the palace leans several degrees to the south. At first, it was thought to have been poorly constructed or had settled over time. Then it was discovered that the lean was intentional. This tower was built specifically so that on the equinoces (March 21 and Sept 21),  a beam of sunlight would penetrate a hole in the roof that would shoot straight down the tower and hit a central spot on the tower's floor. And, with the exact lean, with the sun at its zenith on these two days, it would cast no shadow. Pretty sophisticated stuff.

A small plaza inside the palace. You can see the tower in the back. See the slight lean?

More curious howler monkeys - saraguato.

Iguanas.

And plants with some very big leaves.