They Could See for Miles

Yesterday we took a tour west to the Monte Alban, one of the earliest cities in Mesoamerica, founded around 500 BE. Its amazing because it has a 360 degree view of the surrounding area and so could easily defend itself. It was a political and economic centre for almost 1000 years.

Back then, the floor of the amphitheater was stuccoed red to represent the life forces, blood and fire. These people worked with metal alloys, were amazing astronomers and architects. It's almost impossible to imagine the richly coloured and decorated facades as they would have been then, to imagine the 25 games or so competitors played before an audience of the elite and to remember that as glorious as these sites appear, they were literally built upon the backs of the poor.

In the photos, you'll see women with knees bent and legs spread to represent childbearing. One woman is giving birth to a god. You can see two legs descending from her.

The tree with purple leaves is the Jacaranda tree found in South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

These ancient sites remind me over and over again that as advanced as we are now, people then had functioning domestic, social and political systems. Their water collection and distribution systems were remarkable.

It's a romantic and silly idea to think of wanting to escape the present to live in the past. If I existed then, I'd probably have been a slave of some sort -- serving the wealthy. Yuk.

A Powerful Civilization

I wouldn't want to meet a guy like this in a dark alley somewhere! The Olmecans began as a nomadic people who by around 1150 BCE somehow -- with their knowledge of good agricultural practices had transformed themselves into the civilization that gave rise to the Mayans and the Aztecs.

For whatever reason, they created gigantic heads like the one in the photo below on display in El Museo de Arquelogio in Mexico City. They were a remarkable people because they created the hieroglyphics and a mathematical system based on the number 20 that the Mayans later perfected.

Eventually like almost all civilizations in the past, it fell apart around 900 CE

None of the Olmecan script has survived. But below you can see two of the only surviving Mayan texts. The rest were burned by the Spaniards.

Doors of the Ages

Old doors fascinate me -- new doors too, but especially the old. When we walk through a door into our home, we enter an area of acceptance and familiarity, into a church an area of spirituality, a theatre an area of entertainment, a school an area to educate ourselves, an office to work.

Whether we realize it or not, when we pass through a door we are changed in the instant of passing to become a part of the environment on the other side.

When I see 500 year old doors here, I imagine those who might have passed through them -- the clothes they might have worn over the ages, whether they were wealthy or poor, male or female, happy or not.

The buildings belonging to these doors have had many lives. Many were convents to begin with. Then they became hospitals, then schools or hotels.

The stone door in the photos below is at the lobby entrance of the Camino Real in Puebla.

El Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca

Today is a sultry day. The air heavy and grey. We've found an amazing school not far from our home stay. The school we chose originally was more or less awful. Poor organization and unpleasant environment. We struggled to stay there yesterday morning and luckily hadn't paid.

I'm in a class with six students from Germany, Ireland, the US and Canada. Apparently there's a huge surplus here of Mexican engineers, doctors and lawyers. Just as in Cuba, many are driving taxis. It's surprising that there are so many educated folks here who can't find jobs. Can you imagine that construction workers make only 70 pesos/day or $5.60 day?

In my class today we had a lively discussion about the economy, immigration policies and discrimination. My instructor is an archeologist -- I guess he,too, can't find work in his field.

In the photos you can see the school grounds and patios.

Night in Oaxaca

Here are pics from our restaurant table. What could be more wonderful than dinner with beer and Clamato juice in a restaurant high above the square with musicians playing "The Sounds of Silence" while looking up to the cathedral tower bathed in light!

Mexican Celebrations

These past few days we stumbled into many celebrations for the 95th anniversary of Mexican independence.

Mexico is amazingly Catholic. Yesterday morning the streets in downtown Puebla were filled with a parade of at least a thousand elementary and high school kids carrying banners and balloons in the colours of the regions they represented.

They were singing, laughing and jumping and the many priests were jovial too. After the parade they all entered the massive church to celebrate mass. Church bells filled the air it seemed forever.

Attached are images of the parade and also a presentation in the town square. The military got a lot of attention Don't know why.

Mexico is an amazing country. We've met visitors from so many countries. This morning at breakfast we sat with a botanist from Spain who is conducting research on wheat here and his partner, a documentary film maker from England.

We spent some time with a doctor from Germany and his partner from Poland who is in International studies in Germany and also a real estate lawyer from Virginia who is touring around Mexico because he's more or less out of work in the States. Puts into perspective the results of the housing mess there and the variety of folks affected.

There are very few visitors from North America but many from other Latin American countries. I think the bad press has frightened them all away.

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I still can't figure out how to weave in photos throughout the text in Blogger for iPad. Have done a bunch of research with no luck. Help!

Sim Card Caper

Last Friday I spent two hours buying a Sim card for my ipad. You could never imagine how, in a shiny Telcel facility, buying a card and a GB of data transfer could be so blinking complicated.

The Telcel cellular facility in the heart of Puelba across from the Zocola or main square is impressive -- shiny glass entrance doors and marble floors. I thought Wow -- getting a Sim card for my idpad here will be a snap. I stood in a long line at the entrance -- which I discovered later was to get a piece to paper to stand in another line.

Had I looked more closely at the 40 or so clients in the place then, I would have realized that they were all Mexicans in working clothes paying their cell phone bills.

I was wearing an orange Patagonia jacket, had a camera and purse slung over my shoulder and a bright yellow pack on my back. No one spoke English. The clients around me looked amused. I guess I looked like some kind of exotic bird.

When I finally got to the wicket and explained what I wanted, the fellow, hesitated, did a bunch of research, called his superior over and then asked me for the ipad. He took the card from his own phone and put it into my device to see if it would work. Seemed compatible.

Then he forgot to remove his own chip. He asked for my passport. Good Lord. I'd been in two long lineups already but couldn't get the card or data transfer without my passport?

So back to the hotel with the guy's phone card in my ipad then back to the shiny facility to the entrance lineup for the piece of paper to get into the second lineup. Finally at the wicket I gave my story to a second lucky fellow, showed him the ipad and my passport.

He called the first fellow over and then voila I had two guys looking after me. Together they did more research, checked with few more experts and then the second guy opened the slot to insert a card. "But," I said (in Spanish), "I already have a card." Then the first guy remembered he'd left his in my ipad.

The paying doesn't happen in the same place as the ordering. The pay wicket is conveniently located on the other side of the room. So after paying for the card I had to cross the floor and wait in another line with three signed documents, return to the original wicket, order the GB transfer and repeat the pay process But the second time my Visa wouldn't go through. Gawd.

Finally I left the place with a Sim card and a GB of data transfer. I thanked the fellows but told them that the process had been incredibly complicated. They apologized.

The moral of the story -- if you are from another country and want a card for anything other than your cell phone take your meals and bedroll with you and don't forget your passport!