Much Belated Last Post From Oaxaca....

YAAARRRR! It's me! On the way up into the mountains de La Sierra Norte! ¡Que chido! ¿Ya? Anyway, it was very curvy. Very! However, Mexicans from this region have been driving them since they have been driving. So, they drive fast. I got a little queasy feeling, and that never happens to me. Never. I can go on crazy American (and Mexican) carnival rides and eat all that funnel cake and cotton candy and keep going. So it was curvy.



On the way to Calpulalpan we stopped in Ixtlán de Juárez. Which is the birth place of
Benito Juarez. Benito Juarez was the first president of indigenous blood. He came from a Zapotec family in the rgion of Ixtlan. He was also the father of the reform in Mexico. Kind of a Lincoln of Mexico. Pretty cool dude, considering the rest of Mexican political/military history.
Also, in Oaxaca they LOVE him....well some people. Not everybody.




Went to the museum to Benito Juarez in Ixtlan, very nice. Some good prints and sculpture on Juarez.




"The men of the Reform"




Portrait sculpture of Juarez


Me and the man.


In the summer these Scarabs are everywhere! Especially at a little higher elevation. In the little mountain Pueblos there were thousands of them. Strangely, the majority of them were on their backs as well. But I found a few that weren't. They were big too. Like as long as a silver dollar, or maybe two digits of your finger.



Also, the day that we were traveling was voting day in the State of Oaxaca. They were state elections. Mexican politics are so confusing that I am not even going to comment. I just tried to do some extra research, could not make sense of it, and am going to hold my tongue. But PAN vs. PRI and the history of Oaxacan politics and the teachers strikes etc. are a very interesting thing to study, if you feel so inclined.


They did not like it when I took this picture, I had to leave...



Basket in Calpulalpan



The church there was gorgeous and very old. We had to walk around and find someone to let us into it. Finally a young man let us in to look and take pictures without flash.



Virgen de Guadelupe, beautiful.



I devoured fresh river trout caught and cooked up right there in the mountains. Very good. With mezcal and beer , a very good meal. Straight Oaxacan, really more like Zapotec, but whatev. Delicious, and real.



Then I slept in a hammock in the mountains, and waited till my friends found me. Ha! Excellent day. Thanks for looking!! As always.

-Nicholas Pippins