Encanto Jalatlaco Oaxaca

... that is what people do but they are seen through much richer eyes as being beggars or free loaders trying to jump the border to the states which makes you feel completely different about them, it just depends which side of the fence you are on... its not right but thats the way it goes.

From there on we set off into town to partake in our new favorite pastime whilst being in mexico, that being off eating at the local markets. Now some of the best food that you are going to ...

... narrowly missing the building on the other side!! Big Green pulled us through that one but no wonder we break springs??? Of course, on arrival we found there was a better (unpublished) way to get there!!! The only downside of the place was the barking dogs serenade most of the night - interspersed with roosters crowing at all hours, turkeys gobbling and the odd donkey braying here and there. Not too conducive to sleeping!!!!  Ah well. But views of the city were great from there ...

... t speak spanish, and don't know the bus routes, both taxi and bus were non-options.) I decided to go anyways, and when we were done loading the mattress, dresser (full of clothes), and various other furniture into the truck, I walked over to the School, so I could catch a ride home with Dave when the school day was over. I got to the school about 10:30 AM, and spent the next few hours working on fixing the computer in the 1st and 2nd grade classroom. After I got ...

... evil eyes!! This involved us stripping down so she could spit a fine spray of aguardiente (fire water) over us, bash/rub us all over with a bunch of carefully selected herbs and then rub an alcohol soaked egg all over us to remove any aire(bad stuff) and ojos(evil eyes) - in a more detailed consultation the egg may be cracked and analysed in detail, but she just had a brief look - as well as turning hot when the aire was leaving me, I had the most scrammbled egg - lots of ...

... school tomorrow. (Neal - Well at least I'm trying out my Espanol). Except for Shelley, my fellow students from the first two weeks of class are gone!! It has to be difficult for ICO to adjust classes on a weekly basis given the desire of students who are here for a bit of continuity as over against the back-packing flock that come and go. But all of us are a part of both situations. Anyway, the two of us were put in Neal's class ...

... walls. A housekeeper and an older lady (am I an older lady? YIKES) met us at the door, surprised I think by the amount of luggage. Our hostess does not speak any English! I understand (mostly by intuition) what she says. Neal understands a lot. She offered us a quesadilla. We are making up stories about how she might have gotten hold of dishes from Denny's. I took a warm shower and feel human again . . . Now for a nice sleep!

... see the ancient carvings within them. The largest, 'Stela 18' as it was known, sat at 5.8 metres, was built in 100BC and was used as an astronomical instrument to verify midday by the positioning of the shadow, which Ads in particular found most intriguing and I think he would have taken it home if he could! Climbing the steep steps of the South Platform, we then sat looking across the city, again marvelled by yet another amazing thing we were experiencing on our trip, so ...

... learn much and will probably ask to switch teachers. So the new people are all from New Mexico one from Arizona, they are there to learn Spanish and then they go to learn healing techniques or something for their job. So they are busy all day, I didn't get to talk to them long so hopefully I'll become friends with a few. The one from Arizona was a little rude though, she was older and once I said I was from Texas she was like "yea it is so funny to hear Texas people talk Spanish ...

... to an art school specializing in recycled products used in art. Very interesting. While we were having lunch he was able to contact an artist friend in the area, and when we finished we went off to meet with him. What a truly special treat. Alberto is a paper artist. He makes paper from organic materials and then uses the paper for a host of very different products. He is a combination artist and engineer and all of his work is ...

... few to clamber on , all set around the very large grand plaza ... and we had a pretty good tour guide to explain what was what. Pretty gruesome some of the things the Zapotecs used to do to captured warriors from other tribes (wont go into grim details but its depicted on some old stones at the site). They werent too pleasant to their own tribe at times either - we heard tales of human sacrifice on a regular basis to appease the gods including apparently players ...