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. 
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.
