Oaxaca

With a 7AM flight on Thursday January 4^th, we decided to spend the night of the 3^rd near the airport at the Hilton Garden Inn in Aurora. We had a good and fun dinner at Pho 92, where the waiters were young and cheery, and all nephews and nieces of the owner.

The Volcanos near Mexico City.

With at 7 am flight, we were on the 3:45 van to the airport. With priority status on Delta, we got entry in the Delta skyclub, where we ate a light breakfast. Our flight was on Aeromexico, although it was booked through Delta. The flight to Mexico City was routine.  We got quite a view of the major volcanos outside of Mexico City.  Popo was smoking!   We cleared immigration with no difficulty, but got confused and frustrated with baggage. The baggage came on the belt in dribs and drabs. Finally we asked where our bags were, and were told that we did not need to collect them, and we could bypass customs! The Aeromexico skyclub was fairly basic, but comfortable. I took a nap, as I had slept poorly. We headed for our gate, where everything was crowded, perhaps due to the holidays. The airport left a bad taste in Sandi's mouth; she compared it to an airport in the Phillipines in the 1980s!   The flight to Oaxaca was routine, our bags showed up as promised, and we got in a van to our hotel, the Casa Bugambillia B&B. We were more than pleased with the hotel, and crashed, very tired.

On Friday we had breakfast at the B&B, and met some of the other guests. We had signed up for a walking tour of town. There was some confusion because they changed the time from 10 to 11. Our guide was Andrea, who we enjoyed, and had lived in Oaxaca all her life. We visited churches and markets, talked about the city, and had lunch. We learned about mole, a chocolate sauce that comes in many varieties, and is a stable of Oaxacan cooking. The weather was warm, but not bad. After the tour, we went back to our room and rested. We headed out to eat dinner, spoke to an artist that Sandi had admired from the hotel, and then discovered a parade and street party, which was fun. We had a nice dinner at Casa Oaxaca.

We had previously spoken to a weaver from San Pedro Amuzgos, 8 hours west of Oaxaca city. Her village is indigenous, and speaks its own language, Amusgo. We took photos of some of her weavings. Sandi sent photos to her daughters, who selected one of the pieces, which were made to be cut up and put on shirts. After feedback from her daughters, we bought one of her pieces, woven on a backstrap loom.  Sandi will use them on decorative pillows. Sandi saw a walking vendor with bells, and we bought a small bell. The vendor was from another indigenous village near the coast, where they cast the bells from bronze. He was very proud of his Chatino culture and language, and recited the numbers in his own language. There are 16 different indigenous languages spoken in Oaxaca!

Saturday, after breakfast in the B&B, we went to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. This museum included much information about the indigenous groups of Mexico, going back to the Olmecs, about 3000 years ago. It also discussed the Spanish Conquest, and the societal changes after the conquest. The most impressive exhibit was the materials recovered from Tomb 7 at Monte Alban, with a wide range of gold, jewels, a crystal cup, and a skull encrusted with turquoise. The building is the old convent associated with the Santo Domingo Church, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had lunch on the roof, at La Azotea. We continued to see party processions, called Calindas, including folkloric dancers, a band, and giant figures carried by young men. One was for a wedding, one for a quinceanera, a girl turning 15. There are groups which perform for the Calindas, it is a business. We shopped a little, and headed back to the hotel to rest. We went to La Olla restaurant next to the hotel for dinner. We watched the goings on in the square in front of the church, and then went in for mass. 

 We liked the priest; the music came from a lady playing the organ, with her two daughters singing, but it sounded like a larger group. The church is amazing, a UNESCO world heritage site, and perhaps more impressive at night, with the lights shining on the gold leaf.

Sunday we decided to go to the famous market in Tlacolula. We took a cab, and declined his offer to wait for us. The market is huge and crowded, with many indigenous people, selling everything from plastics to fruit to textiles. Sandi bought aprons and a large plastic bag woven by prisoners. We ate at stall on the edge of the market. The crowds were a bit much for Sandi, so we headed back to the street, where we ended up packed into a collective taxi, a small car with three large people in the back seat.

We went to Tule, with the giant tree, reported to be 2000 years old. The town was clean, tidy, and calm, everything that Tlacolula was not. We had lunch across the street, and ended up at a collective table with a family who own a bar in Puerto Escondido. His brother runs a restaurant and deli in Oaxaca. We took a taxi back to the hotel. We had dinner in the brother's restaurant, El Olivo Gastrobar, where we had tapas and a Spanish tortilla, which is a kind of a vegetable omelet.

Monday we went to the textile museum, where we saw an interesting exhibit of Japanese kimonos. We spent some time trying to figure out how the intricate designs were made, and concluded that they used a variety of techniques. After that we discovered the Centro Cultural San Pablo, built in an old convent. There were various exhibits, and a pleasant open area. The most interesting was an exhibit and video showing how they make the traditional clay comals that are used for baking tortillas. We had lunch again in the Zocolo at the Jardin restaurant. Then we went to the Museo Tamayo de Prehispanic art, which was Rufino Tamayo's personal collection of prehispanic pottery and other materials. We tried to get into Los Danzantes restaurant, but we lacked a reservation, so we went back to La Azota Oaxaca, and ate on the rooftop.

Tuesday we went to the World Heritage site ruins of Monte Alban, a mammoth site built over 1300 years. I had been there 35 years before, but did not remember it very well. We walked the circuit of the giant plaza admiring the carvings and just the size of it. We bought van tickets in the Zocolo. We had a big lunch at the Mayordomo restaurant, and went back to the room to rest. We had a light dinner at El Olivo Gastrobar.

We have had breakfast every morning with our fellow guests, mostly people our age, including a group from Minneapolis who were retired from the university. Many of them have been to Oaxaca multiple times.  The colorful table settings changed every day.  

Wednesday we went to the Etla Valley, north of town; not many tourists go in that direction. We flagged down a taxi to take us to the Villa de Etla, where Lulu at the hotel desk said that they had a nice market. The market was mostly fruits and vegetables; we bought some bananas and mardarins. It ws a relatively small and tranquil market, not like the craziness of the Tlacolula market. We negotiated with a collective taxi to take us on a short private trip to the nearby town of San Augustine Etla. The first thing that struck us was water; after hearing so much about drought, and seeing everything so dry, it was striking to be somewhere green, with running water. We went first to the art center, which had a large exhibit of masks. There were explanations in English, and videos as well. The art center was built from an old textile factory. There was also another exhibit, titled “We are all in danger”, with an environmental theme. We stopped briefly at the shop, where they told us how to get to the paper factory down the hill. Both the paper factory and the art center were founded by Francisco Toledo, a famous artist.

In the paper factory, they explained and demonstrated the process, in which they convert fiber to pulp, then using a screen to pick up the wet fiber out of a vat. They put it on the a sheet of aluminum, with a mat of absorbing fabric, and then they compress it. They have a large hydraulic press that they use to squeeze the water out, and then they hang it to dry. Most of the paper is used for art prints. We were very happy with the unplanned tour. Sandi bought earrings with paper in them. We then went to Santa Maria hotel, where we had a very good lunch. We went to the corner to get a collective taxi, which took us to a center for collective taxis, near the 2^nd class bus station in Oaxaca city. No seat belts in the old taxi; Sandi said that the back seat was dirty. From the taxi center, we took a regular taxi to our hotel.  We agreed to avoid collective taxis in the future; Eric told us that transportation there is run by a kind of mafia.  We rested in the afternoon, and then went out to La Restaurante Taniperla. We were surprised to see a Chiapas theme, even including the Tzeltal language on their uniforms. The food was OK, but it was noisy, both the music and street noise; we will not be going back.

Thursday we took an exellent Textile tour with Eric from Oaxaca Culture. Eric is a native Zapotec, university educated, who worked for years with the Textile Museum in Oaxaca in the education department. The tour was for us and one other lady, in Eric's car. We started in Tule, where we visited Alfredo Hernandez Oroszco. He is experimenting with different fibers. His shop is sort of a production shop, with a flying shuttle loom, making fabric to order for clients.

Eric's mother dying yarn

Our next stop was at Fe y Lola workshop, where we met Eric's family. His father was working on a tree of life tapestry, commemerating his recently deceased mother. The work was excellent, of course, but out of our price range. We had lunch in Teotitlan del Valle, then we went to a woman's cooperative; our host there showed us how she installs the leather on purses. Other women weave. At this stop we saw our first of many industrial sewing machines, but we also saw many treadle Singer machines. Our final stop was with a young couple who are raising silkworms and harvesting the silk. She uses strands of 30 cocoons to make one silk fiber. We had dinner at Quince Letras with John and Allison, who split their time between DC and France.

Friday we hired a taxi driver, Salomon, to take us to San Martin Tilcajete, where we visited the Albrije workshop, that employs 300 people making the fanciful animals from wood. There was a formal tour; we bought a turtle made in the student workshop; their work is superb but expensive.

We continued to Santo Thomas Jalieza, where there are many weavers using backstrap looms demonstrating and selling their work. We bought a table runner, some small bags, and a belt, and then went back to our hotel. We had dinner at Casa Oaxaca with John and Allison.

Saturday, we took a microfinance tour with the group En Via, and visited five women who benefited from the microfinance loans. Each woman has to go through business classes, and form a group of three. Initial loans are less than $100, and each woman makes a payment of at least one dollar weekly. If one woman misses a payment, all three women are fined. They claim a payback rate of 99%. We saw weaving, embroidery, and tortilla making; we had lunch at a restaurant run by a woman who benefited from their program. There is a lot of poverty in the villages; the villages use a traditional system of government, which requires each villager to take a “cargo” (service roll), usually every three years. One woman started a microbusiness because her husband took a cargo, and it took him away from his regular work.  Sandy bought an embroidered bag.   

Sunday Richard had an attack of Montezuma's revenge, perhaps from the meal on the microfinance tour. He felt better in the afternoon, so we walked downtown, and ate at Tr3s restaurant, one level up from the zocolo, but with a view of the zocolo. We stopped at the Oaxacan painters museum, but were not attracted to the two artists on display.

On Monday we decided to visit Jalatlaco, a neighborhood just east of where we were staying. It felt quite different than the centro, including murals and more young people than folks our age. We wandered around, stopping to have hot chocolate and baked goods, with lunch at Mooom? Restaurant, and bought some books at the english language bookstore. We had a farewell dinner with John and Alison at Trece Letras, and discussed a 2025 trip to visit them in southern France, where they have a home and a guesthouse.

On Tuesday we got up at 3 to take a 4 AM taxi to the airport. We landed in Mexico City, and visited the Aeromexico club again. Our flight home was routine. We landed with snow on the ground; we had just missed wind chill warnings, but it was still cold. Our cats were happy to see us.

A very good trip.

Bryce Canyon National Park and home

 

Saturday we got up and drove to Bryce Canyon National Park. Neither of us had ever seen Bryce.

We started at the visitor center, where we learned about how hoodoos are formed; You have to have cracks, a layer resistant to erosion, and freeze thaw action. Bryce has the largest concentration of hoodos in the world. This is the 100 year anniversary of Bryce becoming a national monument; it became a National park soon thereafter. Sandi shopped for Christmas gifts, as usual. We took the ranger's advice, and started with the Bristlecone Pine loop; they have a few Bristlecone pines, looking more dead than alive. After that, we tried to visit the historic lodge, but it had closed for the season. We drove to Sunset point, and then walked a mile to Sunrise point. It is really hard to believe that it is real. Perhaps the best response was to sit on a bench at the rim, watching the appearance change with the sun.

We returned to camp, where Sandi cooked another good dinner. We met a family who were taking a year off for a grand tour of the US parks. The boys were 8 and 10 years old. The ten year old was all about showing the survival gear in his cargo pants.

Sunday we drove to the Moss Cave trail, which gave us a look at the hoodoos from the bottom. The trail was rather more difficult than the easy rating that it had. We then drove to Panguich for mass. We had lunch at the flying goat cafe. Mass was at the mission church, with a Polish priest. Red Canyon is impressively red. We came back to camp to get ready to leave. We felt that we had seen everything, and the remaining trails were more difficult than Sandi cared to walk.

Monday we decided to go north on US highway 89, after considering the alternatives, which included going back via Capitol Reef! It was a pretty drive through a rural area, and a part of Utah that we had never seen. We stopped for gas in Richfield, and drove east on I-70. That section of I-70 is fairly spectacular, with many scenic overlooks. At one of the scenic overlooks, we talked to a couple of Navajo ladies selling jewelry; Sandi bought a couple of earrings. We continued to Green River UT, where we had lunch at Ray's, a traditional place to have lunch after paddling or rafting Deso-Gray canyons. Sure enough, there were kayaks on trucks outside. We stopped in Grand Junction for gas and propane, and headed to Island Acres to set up camp in the state park. The park has a quiet feel, although there is some highway noise, and the trains go by.

Tuesday we got on the road early for us, around 8:15 am. We continued east on I-70, helped by a tailwind, and went over Vail Pass and the Eisenhower Tunnel. We bought gas at Costco in Arvada, and had lunch at Wendys on Federal Avenue in Denver. We got home around 3PM. For some reason I had trouble getting the camper positioned to my satisfaction, but it got done. The cats ran into the house.

A good trip, including Bryce Canyon NP, which neither of us had ever seen.

Capitol Reef National Park

Monday October 30th we left the house around 9:15AM. The drive on I-25 and I-70 was uneventful. Our only challenge was in Rifle, where we stopped to buy propane. Google failed us, with phone numbers disconnected or no answer, or places where they do not fill propane tanks. Finally we stopped at the Fire Department, who directed us to Action Shop Services; they primarily sell and repair small engines, such as chainsaws or lawnmowers. They filled the propane tank, telling us that they too have been deceived by Google Maps. We arrived at Island Acres campground after 3 PM; it is a nice campground but with highway sounds, railway sounds, and river sounds.

Tuesday we headed for Clifton, where we knew that there was a City Market. After shopping there, we headed to the Loves at the west end of Grand Junction, where we fueled and bought more propane. We knew that propane would not be available where we were going, and that we would use quite a bit of propane in the cold nights. We stopped at Stan's Burger Shack in Hanksville, where we were surprised to be waited on by a Cuban lady with a strong accent. We drove to the Fruita campground at Capitol Reef, and dropped off the 5^th wheel. We went to the visitor center, where we bought geology books and watched their introductory film about the Waterpocket Fold. We decided to visit the Gifford shop and museum; Fruita was a small Mormon community where they grew fruit. The Gifford family was the last family to live there. There are 19 orchards, growing 50 varieties of fruit. The park is replanting some of the trees, and caring for the orchards. We decided to take the scenic drive, and continued as far as we could. The cliffs were spectacular, with the sun shining on them and blue skies. We saw a herd of deer on the drive.

Obsidian

Wednesday we bought a couple of cinnamon rolls at the Gifford house, and then headed for the Grand Wash road for a hike. We hiked down more that halfway, past the narrows, which are about 15 feet wide. We had lunch at the camper, and went to the Geology talk at 3 PM. Shauna covered 270 million years of history in about 30 minutes. Each layer of strata has its own story, sea bottom, swamp, beach, sand dune,etc. The park protects the Waterpocket Fold, a 100 mile long monocline.

The herd of 17 deer seems to hang around the campground. The campground is quite nice, one of the nicest that we can recall, with good space between campsites. We are having to run the generator quite a bit to keep the battery up in the cold weather; the furnace draws a lot of battery, and the solar is not putting out a lot this time of year.

Thursday morning a tree crew was taking down trees in the campground. We drove to Capitol Gorge for a hike. We went down the trail a couple of miles. Richard hiked up to the “tanks”, natural potholes that hold water. Richard found one tank with water in it; tanks were important for travelers in the desert. In the afternoon we went to see the petroglyphs near the river. The weather was nice, so we just sat outside in the campground soaking up the sun and enjoying the day.

Friday morning we packed up and got on the road. Our first stop was Torrey, where we bought gas and picked up information at the visitor center. Highway 12 is spectacular, and we kept stopping at scenic overlooks. We stopped at Anasazi State Park, where we watched the video and looked at the exhibits. The lady at the desk at the park told us to go have lunch at the Burr Trail Grill in Boulder Utah, which we did. Our waitress raised the lamb that Richard ate! She told us a bit about the life in Boulder UT. the school has 20 students, pre-K to 6^th grade She and her husband are working on a ranch that is in a conservation easement, and they are applying regenerative agriculture principles. She said that the ranch looked much better after 5 years of work. We ate outside, as the weather was no nice.

We stopped to look at where Richard had put in for the Escalante river trip he took in May. The river is tiny; Sandi could hardly believe that Richard and Doug had paddled it. We stopped briefly in the town of Escalante to mail postcards and shop for T-shirts. We stopped at the visitor center in Cannonville, and got a helpful explanation of the Grand Staircase, which runs from the Grand Canyon to Bryce. We got to the campground near Bryce Canyon around 4 PM; Richard was tired. Highway 12 is beautiful, but the driving is not easy, especially in an RV. Then we discovered that there was no AC power getting to the camper. It took Richard a while to tear the power connector apart and get it going again. The campground is in the pines, so somewhat pretty; the water had been turned off due to the cold weather. It is kind of a gas station and campground; our site was tricky to get into. Not a five star campground, but not terrible. The people who run the place are looking forward to the end of the season, especially since they had stayed over last winter.