Mummies and Mines

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Guanajuato

Feb 22

Busses are not allowed in Guanajuato because the streets are so narrow.  That meant we had to be divided between two vans for the tour of the city.  The one I rode in was extremely cramped.  If I sat up straight and pressed my spine against my seat back it would keep my knees from pressing too hard on the seat in front of me.   The city is over 6,000 feet above sea level with very low humidity so even with the temperature in the high 70’s it did not feel too warm.  The van I rode in was not air-conditioned but the windows could be partially opened to allow air to circulate and that was enough.

After the Spanish founded Guanajuato in 1559 it became very wealthy from mining gold and silver.A third of the world’s silver came from this region during the 16^th through the 18^th centuries.  The mine owners became so rich they purchased titles of nobility.  The city’s population is now 159,000 and it remains one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico.

Because of repeated flooding of the city, the Spanish diverted the river, turned the riverbed into tunnels and rebuilt the city above the tunnels.  There are about 5 miles of intersecting tunnels beneath the city that help move the traffic, allowing some of the city streets to be pedestrian only. 

Speaking of streets, I don’t believe there is a straight one in the city.  The city is hilly and the streets are laid out in curves and angles and the buildings are just as irregular.  We got a good view of the city from a scenic overlook called El Pílipa where the multicolored buildings are laid out before you in the valley below.

In the center of the city is a small triangular-shaped plaza, the Jardín Unión, which is lined with closely spaced trees whose foliage has been shaped like a hedge.  As you walk around the plaza the trees shade you from the sun.  If you are much taller than 6 feet you may need to stoop a little to keep your head out of the leaves.

One of our first, and weirdest, stops on the tour was the Mummy Museum.  The mummies were of people that were buried in a Guanajuato cemetery during a cholera outbreak in 1833.  They were dug up between 1865 and 1958 because their relatives did not pay a required tax in order to keep the bodies buried in the cemetery.  The naturally mummified bodies made up only about 2% of all the bodies that were disinterred.  In 1958 the law was changed to prohibit digging up any more mummies.  The mummies were stored until a museum was built, which has become one of the biggest (and by far the most morbid) tourist attractions in Mexico.

We had lunch at a very nice restaurant, Real de la Esperanza, located in what was once a church. It was built by miners as a place to rest and pray before going into the mines.  The restaurant was on a hilltop overlooking the town.  While we were there, a large procession of people carrying religious icons and pictures of Jesus and Mary came down the road in front of the restaurant.  They had a police escort and seemed to be on some kind of pilgrimage (it was Ash Wednesday).

After lunch we “toured” a mine ($20 pesos per person) that is now only used in the training of mining engineers at the University of Guanajuato.  We were led into a mineshaft and shown some old mining equipment.  At the end of this shaft was an old elevator that once took the miners a half-mile straight down into the earth.  Before we started back out of the mine, the “tour guide” took off his hard hat and indicated through our interpreter that we should tip him.  I was afraid that if we didn’t tip him we may never see daylight again so Carol Ann dropped a coin into his hard hat.  I don’t know the denomination of the coin but he did tell someone that whatever they had tossed in was not enough!  You might say that this was the third time we had been experienced a bandito.

The vans dropped us off near the central plaza once we escaped the mine.  While at the plaza we saw the same three rug sellers that had been at the RV park the day before.  We wandered around shopping and taking pictures for about an hour before boarded the vans and heading back to the RV park.  On the way to the park our van was pulled over by the police and we all began wondering if this was going to be another attempted shake down.  It turned out that the police just wanted to check the driver’s papers to make sure he was authorized to haul tourists.

When we returned to the park we were once again greeted by the rug sellers, who had somehow beat us back to the park.  We got out our chairs and drinks but this time the rug sellers remained with their truck and didn't bother us.  Still, some from our group (namely Pat, Kim, Billie, and Gloria – I apologize if I left anyone out) managed to buy a few more rugs.

Tomorrow is a free day and everyone is heading in different directions.  Some are going by car to Delores Hidalgo and San Miguel Allende while another group is hiring one of today’s vans, driver, and guide to visit the same towns.  They will probably be gone most of the day.  Michel and Ellen and Bob and Billie are going back into Guanajuato by cab, which sounded good, so Carol Ann and I are sharing a cab with Bruce and Karen to go Guanajuato’s Hidalgo Mercado (market).  We will shop around, have lunch, and probably be back at the RV park around 2:00 PM in order to rest and get ready for Friday’s 290 mile drive to San Pedro where we will spend our last night in Mexico before day’s another drive of 295 miles to the border.

We are hoping that our car will make it to the border within a day or two of our crossing back into the U.S.  Yesterday we heard that the last part had been obtained and repairs would be completed mañana (Supposedly Spanish for “tomorrow” but it really means “not today”).

Rugs, Ruins, Chocolate, & Mezcal

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Oaxaca

Feb 14

No sound truck this morning so I got a little more sleep.  The bus was here at 9:00 AM and Carol Ann and I were early (a rare occurrence) so got a front row seat on the bus. 

The first stop was the village of Teotitlán del Valle between Oaxaca and Mitla.  This village has over 100 rug weaving families.  We went to “The Bug in the Rug” gallery of Isaac Vásquez Garcia and Jerónimo Vásquez Garcia, master weavers and designers.  Their family was the first family of weavers in the village and are well known (or so I was told).  They use all natural colors to dye the wool and they weave very colorful classic and modern designs.  Their rugs are also color fast and very soft to touch (much softer than rugs we saw by other weavers).  Carol Ann and I bought a small rug ($3,000 pesos – around $250 US) that will be signed by the weaver and delivered to the RV park tomorrow.

Next on the agenda was the village of Mitla where in the 16^th century the Spanish destroyed the Zapotec temple and built a church on the site in an effort to convert the Zapotecs to Christianity.  It was a sort of “my god is better than your god” kind of move.  The remains of the original building contain many designs and symbols, including several fragments of the original red murals on some of the walls.

We ate lunch much earlier today than yesterday (thankfully).  Like yesterday, it was also a buffet with many different Mexican dishes (no Tex-Mex).  La Choza del Chef (near Mitla) was the name of the place.  It was very good and some of the waiters spoke very good English.  I don’t know what the prices are like as this meal was included in the tour package.

It seemed only fitting that after lunch we would visit a chocolate “factory”, La Tradición in Tlacolula.  When we walked in the chocolate aroma was almost overwhelming.  This was a place were you could select the ingredients and amounts of chocolate beans, sugar or Splenda, plus other ingredients such as coffee beans, almonds, and cinnamon for example.  Your “custom” chocolate recipe would then be blended, ground, and packaged for you to take home.  The chocolate is customarily used for beverages but I suppose it could be used in cooking.  Sugar is one of the least expensive ingredients so the sweeter the chocolate, the less expensive it is.  Less sugar means a greater percentage of chocolate, which makes the end product more expensive.  Carol Ann bought several packages of two different blends. 

While in the chocolate shop, Gloria told me that a Telcel store was across the street.  As you know, I have been trying to get my Telcel cellular modem to work for about two weeks now.  I ran across the street to the small walk up counter/store front.  There I met Oscar, an extremely amiable fellow who spoke excellent English.  He asked me where I was from and then went to his computer and Googled Nacogdoches, TX so he could see what it was like.  I told him about my problem and he called Telcel support and then worked some magic and made the thing work so that I now have internet wherever I have a Telcel cell signal (which is all over Mexico)!  Thank you, Oscar.

Now that we had our chocolate fix we headed for Oro de Oaxaca, one of the better Mezcal distillers in the state.  They recently moved their operation closer to the tourist area and built a nice tasting room and shop.  We were shown each step in the production of Mezcal and I now have a much better understanding of Mezcal.  You have to be careful where you buy your Mezcal.  If you stop along the highway at one of the many “home brew” operations you may very well get some bad stuff.  It may even be mixed with some methanol, which is poison (really, it can make you go blind, hence the term “blind drunk”).  These small places have no quality control and their product varies from batch to batch.  The better distilleries have a consistently better, and safer, product.  Oro de Oaxaca uses 100% agave (Maguey). Since I don’t really care that much for Mezcal, Carol Ann purchased a bottle of “FruitiCrem” (cream of the Maguey cactus), which is similar to Bailey’s, except that Mezcal is used instead of Irish Whiskey.  They also had other flavors such as coffee, almond, pecan and others that I was not familiar with.

The day was still far from over.  Next stop was the museum on the second floor of the Santo Domingo church in Oaxaca.  This is where many of the treasures discovered at Monte Alban are on display.  There was jewelry of jade, gold, and silver plus cups and bowls made from translucent stone.  One of the most interesting objects was a human skull that had been decorated with pieces of jade.

On the walk back to the bus we stopped at an ice cream shop where Eugene, our guide, bought everyone ice cream.  I asked for vanilla and the clerk told me that the vanilla had prunes it!  I told her thanks, but no.  Then I saw one that looked like vanilla so I asked her what the flavor was.  It was vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs, which sound a lot better than vanilla with prunes.  Carol Ann and I each had one and it was very good. 

We got back to the RV park about 6:30 PM and our laundry was waiting for us, minus the jeans and a few towels.  Eugene called his wife and asked her to check with the laundry.  He will be back here in the morning with everyone’s rugs (and hopefully the rest of our laundry).

Tomorrow is a free day but since we still have no car I don’t know what we will do.  One thing we must do is find a super market because we are running low on food.  Plus there is a potluck supper tomorrow and we need something to take other than cereal!