Wandering the Streets

Here is the final picture of the Giant Agave, completely decorated in the hotel lobby. We checked the prices, which are always posted prominently, and don't find this hotel to our liking. Nor does it fit our budget! $185/night, complete with all the noise of the zocalo. But, they sure do put up a nice Christmas tree...



















I saw this lovely painted doorway this week, across the street from one of our favorite restaurants, La Biznaga (the cactus).





















Would you like legs on your table? It's only a little extra in the price. We followed this very small, old man down the mountain last week, with THREE tables tied onto his back. He walked as fast as we did, unencumbered. When we got beyond Crespo, the main north/south street on the west side of the city, he began calling out that he had tables for sale. If I lived here, I would have bought them all! I hope he sold them that day.

I'm reading a book by Oliver Sacks, a fern-loving neurologist from NYC,  Oaxaca Journal. Published by National Geographic Directions in 2002, it tells of his trip, with a group of fern geeks, to see the wealth of ferns living here. I'm learning lots, not only about plants, but the history of all kinds of things here. For example, even though the Zapotecs, the natives who lived here peacefully, artistically and profitably before the Spanish arrived, didn't have pigs or chickens, they did eat meat. Wild game such as deer and turkeys was plentiful. They also domesticated dogs, but ate dogs, too. I'm happy they now favor pork over dog on the plate these days. 

The Zapotecs had not used a wheel, except for toys.  But, they were master astronomists and mathemeticians.  Monte Alban was founded about 600 AD, about the same time as Rome.  The people leveled a mountain top, no easy feat in a time where no heavy equipment was around to move the stones and dirt.  Equally amazing is that they built a city, providing irrigation, food and sanitation for a population estimated at more than forty thousand.  We can see part of Monte Alban from our rooftop, the ancient buildings still standing guard over the valley.

I also just finished reading a couple of old New Yorker magazines, and made many notes about music. I'll post, when I find time to chase those notes, if I find music to recommend.

Other street notes: One morning, I watched a man pushing a small street food cart, the kind with hot food inside, with much 'help' from his three tiny sons. The ninos were doing the calling out, "tamales, hot tamales"! He was not the only one smiling at the tiny children. I wish I'd bought a tamale from them. Lost opportunities never reappear.

Stuart and I have begun our tradition of listing the nieves eaten. So far we've had cappuchino (the coffee craze has always been here), chocolate, tuna (the red fruit of the cactus), tres leche (three milks), queso (yes, cheese!), and guanabana (a fruit that defies description). A nieve is essentially sorbet. You make a slurry of fruit, add milk or water, and maybe sugar, and freeze. A Oaxacan nieve is made in a big metal tub with a lid. After the mixture is liquified in a blender, it is poured into the tub.  The metal tub is submerged in a slightly larger wooden tub, sort of like a small half wine barrel, which is filled with rock salt and ice.  The metal tubs are spin manually until the mixture freezes.  I've watched young men spin as many as 10 tubs in a booth, pacing the line-up to keep them all going.  Makes me think of my daddy when I was a little girl, sitting on the back steps cranking the ice cream freezer.  Last week, we stopped at a booth in the Benito Juarez mercado.  The woman took our order with a smile, and returned to her conversation with the guitarist sitting close by.  Soon, a friend appeared with a bouquet of herbs in hand, and gave them to our nieve woman.  She wafted the rosemary bundle in front of her nose, smiling appreciatively, and asked me if I like rosemary, too.  I said yes, and told her about the rosemary by my front door(all this took place in spanish, and she understood me!).  She promptly handed me two branches, a gift.  We will be buying all our nieves from her, after such a sweet gift!

I've walked only one time down the shoe aisle in the mercado.  I have a terrible weakness for the hand-made, leather sandals here.  Rustic sandals.  The soles of the shoes always give me hints of the name of the tire company responsible for bottom layer, just a few letters showing.  I feel like another trip to the shoe aisle is in my near future...I love those shoes!