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.