Mezcal Distillery and Rug Factory

On the afternoon of Day 4 of our trip to Oaxaca, we left the town of San Pablo de Mitla to head to a Mezcal factory.  Mezcal is the drink similar to tequila but often with the worm in the bottle.  This place used a different agave plant than the distilleries in Tequila. Instead of blue agave, they used sword agave which is quite similar.

the worms gathered from the agave plant

a display of various kinds of agave plants -- the largest one in the centre of the photo is the type used to make Mezcal at this distillery

agave pinas read to be roasted

The pinas are roasted in pit with a wood fire that is covered in sand for slow and smokey roasting.

mashing the roasted pinas with a stone pulled by a horse

pina mash

the wood-fired still

learning about the different aging of the mezcal

Sprinke the salt on the base of the thumb and lick it. Follow this with a byte if the orange. Then drink the mezcal. It was very smoky flavoured due to the original baking by a wood fire.

A large lily decorating the mantle -- it's not artificial!!!

Our next stop was Teotitlan del Valle to visit a rug factory.  Like the textile factory we visited in the morning, all the rugs were woven on hand-operated looms.  The dyes used to colour the wool were all organic taken from the plants and vegetation in the area.  They used a variety of wool from sheep, alpaca, etc.

colour samples

carding the raw wool aligns the fibers

spinning the wool into yarn

pomegranates for coloring

white indicates area of parasite in cactus

using the parasite to create colour

adding limestone to change colour

resulting colour after limestone added

sample of the 2 colours produced from grinding the parasite

samples of some of the rug patterns

a gallery of rugs for sale

The rugs in this shop were relatively high priced but were in line with the workmanship and quality.

Our final stop on Day 4 was to visit the largest tree in Mexico. El Árbol del Tule (Spanish for The Tree of Tule) is located in the town center of Santa María del Tule.

one of the gnarly formations on the trunk

You definitely can't put your arms around this trunk...it is huge

a close-up of the leaves

 The street leading to the tree was decorated with topiary.

Meep-meep

 

Back to the hotel after a full day of touring!!!

Visiting Mitla

The city of Oaxaca de Juarez is the capital of the state of Oaxaca.  The city has a population of about 265,000 and is located at an elevation of 4,102 ft.

On Day 4 of our journey, we had breakfast at a restaurant on the zocolo (town square) and then drove east of Oaxaca about 24 miles (38k) to the ruins of Mitla which was founded by the Zapotec Indians.  The Spanish arrived in the area in 1521 A.D. Archeologists discovered the site in 1934.  They have dated the original buildings to1300 to 1400 A.D.  The cost to enter the site was 43 pesos each (Less than $4 CAD) plus a  tip for the English speaking guide.

our tour group approaching the ruins

This Spanish church was built on top of the original Zapotec temple,
which was the common practice to wipe out the original religion.

 The geometric designs on the buildings were unusual as they were formed by layering the blocks rather than carving images into the stones. These designs will be found in the rugs and cloth made in the area.

little is left of the stucco cover with pictoral stories originally on the buildings.

Note in this picture and the one above that wall on this building is leaning outward. This was by design to keep the rain water from dripping down the walls and turning them black with mold. As you can see, only the top part of the wall is blackened. Pretty smart engineering!

Outward leaning wall.

Our guide explains the designs on the walls.

The design is made of individual stones, carefully layered.

The construction techniques used by this long past culture were amazingly advanced, No mortar was used and the blocks were tightly fitting. The roofs were made of wood and palm leaves in case of earthquakes, making it safer for the occupants. It is said the area often experiences three quakes per day, mostly just gentle, but often destructive.

crawling into the tomb beneath one of the buildings

the opening was less than 3' tall so we crawled

it was a tight squeeze -- only room for about 5 people at the most once you were at the end of the tunnel

After we finished at the ruins, we ventured into the shops along the streets in the town of San Pablo de Mitla which is known for its textiles..  We toured a factory where the weavers made fine material for table cloths, drapery, blouses, dresses.

3 day drive to the city Oaxaca

In December we booked a 9 day bus trip to Oaxaca with Sergio Tours of  La Penita.

On Monday, February 24th we boarded the bus for the trip which would be more than 2,620 km (1,626 miles).  There were 13 tourists, 2 tour guides and 2 bus drivers on a 40 seater bus. It took us 2 1/2 days to reach Oaxaca.

(On this trip we remembered to bring nose spray and lip balm to counter the effects of the dry air in the high country!)

On Day 1 our destination was Leon.  We left about 7:30 am from Savage RV Park in Lo de Marcos with a stop for breakfast 2 hours later in Ixtlan del Rio.  The restaurant featured a beautiful painting of the Los Toriles ruins with indigenous people in their native costume.

We had visited Los Toriles in January on the first day of our trip to Guanajuato.

On the east side of Guadalajara, we passed the area of Agave Sol.  Our tour guide informed us that the area had been settled by the French so the people in the area are tall, thin and white skinned.

We arrived in Leon shortly after 5 pm. Leon has a population of approx 1.23 million and is located at an elevation 5,955 ft.  The city is known for the sale of inexpensive leather items. We discovered when we went shopping you have to look carefully for the Hecho en Mexico label as many cheap items in the stores were Made in China!

Our accommodations were at the Hotel Real Rez just 2 blocks from the town square so easy walking distance to go out to dinner.  It was a beautiful hotel with continental breakfast included.

On Day 2 we boarded the bus about 8:30 am to drive to Puebla.  About an hour later we passed through an area known for producing strawberries.  At Salamanca we saw the PEMEX renfineries.

While on the Arco Norte (north bypass of Mexico City) there were 2 areas where we reached elevations over 8,800 ft.  The first notable industry as we entered the city of Puebla was the huge Volkswagen plant - it had over 1 km of road frontage.

We arrived in Puebla at 5 pm. Puebla is located at an elevation of  7,005 ft with a population of  5.78 million people.

We booked into the Best Western Real de Puebla for the night.   The hotel rooms are in dire need of renovation so we re-named it Worst Western Real. The maintenance has been neglected. This was evidenced by beeping smoke detectors whose batteries were low. We had to get the one outside our room door replaced or we would never sleep the night. We went for an evening walk around the town.  There were many beautiful old buildings and we wish we could have stayed another day in this city.

Vic clowning around standing on an embedded light

The street lights changed from pink to purple to blue during the evening

Each vendor carried a huge bouquet of balloons

a fountain in the town square

Day 3:  The buffet breakfast at the Real de Puebla the next morning was excellent!

After breakfast we went shopping at the market for a couple of hours.  While there we were given a tour of a local Talavera pottery factory.

Smoothing the tiles

A peek inside the kiln

The ring on the left shows the colour change after 8 hrs of baking at 1100 degrees.  The one on the right is in the raw form before the baking process.

Items baked and waiting to be painted

artist painting a set of tiles

There were 4 painters at this factory

All free hand painting to create this design -- amazing to watch!

Sherry and Louise leaving the factory with their purchases

We left Puebla about noon and spotted this beautiful fountain as we left the city.

We arrived in Oaxaca about 6 pm to book into the Hotel Gala. The hotel was located just 2 buildings from the town square.  We were close to entertainment, dining and the historical area.

After dinner at one of the restaurants at the square, we took an evening walk along the streets.

One of the many churches

The Music campus of the University