Oaxaca

Another of those lightning tours coming up; this time Oaxaca.... All this amid the falling euro as I watch on the sidelines as my savings are being wiped out by world events , unable to do very much except feel lucky that I had some in the first place, although they are dwindling.....
The bus ride from Puebla to Oaxaca was through dramatic and arid mountains, making one grudgingly admire the guts and persistence of Cortes, even though he was responsible for a terrible atrocity that decimated the locals here.
Our first meal in Oaxaca, by the colourful and noisy Zocalo. Buskers would set up opposite the tables and then come round with a hat afterwards. Some were unmentionably atrocious and were quite aggrieved when I wouldn't give them anything. The dish above was shared by 3 of us, can't rember the name of it, but it is typically Oaxacan, including cheese, meats, chicken, chillies, avocado a token sald garnish anf a heap of chilled fried grasshoppers called chapulines
Kat eating her grasshoppers with relish....... She couldn't get enough of them. one mouthful was enough for me.
A quiet Sunday street
Beautiful graffiti on a streetside power box
The South Korean couple who insisted on photographing me wherever/whenever they saw me. I was photographed by them in Mx city, Puebla and Oaxaca, so much so that I felt like the garden gnome out of Amelie. So I got them back and photographed them. It got so they'd throw their arms round me like long lost friends. "We like your sound" (endless arpeggios and exercises)

One of the Busto murals in the old Governor's palace, now a museum, featuring Benito Juarez, the local hero, the only indigenous President Mexico has ever had... The most amazing rags to pinnacle story. A young boy orphaned at 4, sent to live with his grandparents in the rural parts where I was hiking (see last blog), they died, so went to live with his uncle and was an illiterate goatherd. Unable to face his uncle when an animal went missing, he ran way to town (several days walk on the mountain path) and arrived at the house where his sister was a cook. The master's family took him in as a general servant, saw he had promise and apprenticed him to a bookbinder. The best hope for an education was to be ordained in those days and although he started with that intention, he gave up on that, qualified as a lawyer, became a magistrate, then councillor and eventually was elected governor. Intriguingly he married the daughter of his original master, the relationship endured exile and hardship and they went on to have many children, of which few survived.

Exiled for refusing refuge to a disgraced president (Santa Ana) he wound up in New Orleans, where he joined a clique of progressive Mexican intellectuals, very much enamoured of the ideals of the French Revolution. On their return to Mexico, he was made minister of justice, and he promulgated laws privatising church property and forcing the sale of idle communal lands, on the grounds that this led to patronage and corruption. It was ironic that an indigenous would privatise communal land. I'm not certain but I think he was also responsible for drafting a new constitution for the republic (shown in the Busto mural). Even with the proceeds of this sale, Mexico was unable to repay its international debt and Juarez defaulted., leading to an invasion of the then major world powers and the eventual impositon of a Hapsburg emperor, for 3 years. Ironically Emperor Maximilian was a liberal and sympathised with the Mexican plight and wanted to abdicate, but his mother wouldn't let him (as Hapsburgs don't quit), so after a bitter civil war, he was executed by firing squad. His last request was to hear his favourite bit of music. A recent TV account of all of this garnered huge popular support here, for this romantic tragic figure. As can be imagined there was a huge backlash from the church as well as other vested interests. Eventually he was elected President and for many years even this was contentious and his government had to roam around the country in a carriage to avoid betrayal. He was in government for no less than 3 civil wars, and ruled here for a long period (14 years?). He died in office a much adored national legend. The kitchen where Juarez's sister worked
The beautiful light at Santo Domingo's church, originally a monastery and now the magnificent cultural museum, with botanical garden. Many ancient artifacts and tomb jewelry is displayed along with artifacts from the conquest and displays of the cultural resistance of the indians. In the first 100 years of the conquest, only 10% of the original indian population survived, decimated by disease and forced labour.
Chapel of Virgen de Soledad, showing white jaguar faces at the top. Something like 3 years ago a jaguar was trapped on plantation, having killed quite a few of the farmer's cattle. Rather than kill it, it was airlifted to the local zoo and local artists were invited to paint/draw it, and when the proceeds from the art sale matched the farmer's losses, the jaguar was released into the wild. That's the story I was told....
In front of Soledad
Th flambouyants in front of Santo Domingo