Semana Santa with Matthew and Yvonne

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, began with a procession from Santo Domingo Church through the streets of Oaxaca.  Churches had altars with a Jesus figure depicting an event of Holy Week, from a figure riding a donkey, to a bound and blind-folded figure and then a crucified figure being carried  

through the streets in a "silent procession"on Good Friday.

 

Matthew and Yvonne arrived on Palm Sunday night and spent the week with us observing the Semana Santa celebrations.  On two days we went out of town.  We had met a tour guide, Eric Ramirez, and hired him for a day to visit indigenous communities and the archaeological site of Mitla.   Eric, whom we highly recommend, took us to Xaaga where we saw the remains of a Spanish hacienda and met a family who are weavers and a man and his grandson took us on a hike to a site of pre-Columbian pictographs.  We toured Mitla and visited a mezcal distillery.  Mezcal is a symbol of Oaxaca since the agave plant is native to Oaxaca.  There are dozens of distilleries, a few are big operations but many are family operations and their mezcals are sold in clear plastic bottles on the streets of Oaxaca.  Tequila is a well known Mexican liquor in America but mezcal is slowly gaining recognition in the US and a mezcal margarita is very, very tasty.  

On another day we visited the community of Zaachila to see a weekly market and an archaeological site where Matthew and Yvonne took up the Easter message of rising from a tomb, a Zapotec one.  Sue, on the other hand, was pursued by the devil.

We arrived home a day after Easter and it was nice to see daffodils blooming, hear frogs peeping in the woods and catch sight of wood ducks flying up from our pond.
Ahh, spring.    

A week of Oaxaca entertainment

While walking through Oaxaca's Juarez Park, Sue spotted an outstanding bird sitting on a tree branch.  It's bright red color is eye-catching, the vermilion flycatcher. 

The people of Oaxaca are eye-catching and their facial characteristics and expressions are captivating.  These photographs display the indigenous beauty and charm of a people.

And always, there are clowns.

We have had a week of entertainment, an international dance festival with both traditional folkloric and contemporary dance, also jazz piano at San Pablo.  We tried to get to all the performances, but exhausted ourselves running here and there, gave up on Saturday and went to the Teatro Macedonia Alcala where we rested while watching the live stream of the NY Metropolitan Opera performance of La Dama del Lago.

It's quieter this week bur the international film festival is still going on and many restaurants are offering special comidas/meals as part of a "Taste of Oaxaca".

Oaxaca Friends and Street Art

It has been such a delight to be with friends here.  Bob and RoseAnna were here and they introduced us to new friends, Clark and Carolyn.  We hope they will become Oaxacaphiles and we will see them here in future years!  Our apartment neighbors and friends, Rick and Joy, have been good company and they are regulars, so we know we can count on future conversations,  stories of adventures, Oaxaca tips and margaritas with mezcal.

There is street art everywhere: murals, music, sculpture, flowering plants, even carved tree trunks.  The strong, beautiful women I see, mostly street vendors, are also for me a form of art.

 

 House wrens keep us company all day.  They flit back and forth outside our apartment, always busy, social, with complicated songs and chatter.  There is also a northern pygmy owl in the laurel tree nearby which keeps us up at night with its incessant call.  We have seen hummingbirds, warblers,  mockingbirds and the Great Kisskadee, among others.  I hear other songs I can't identify.

We've both enjoyed cooking more this year, making dishes with our favorite chili, pasilla oaxacanea.