From the streets of Oaxaca, maguey to mezcal in murals.
And then comes the music, “Dos Botellas de Mezcal” (Two Bottles of Mezcal).
Cheers! ¡Salud! ¡Dixeebe!
Posted in Beverages, Creativity, Culture, Music, Travel & Tourism | Tagged agave, Dos Botellaas De Mezcal (song), Dueto Dos Rosas, La Santa Cecilia, maguey, Mexico, mezcal, murals, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, urban art, wall art | 10 Comments »
The rainy season, which came early this year and has disappeared for the past two weeks, has brought a plethora of purslane (verdolaga en español) to the rooftop garden. Most every planter and pot is filled with this uninvited, but much welcome, herb. And, it always inspires me to be a little more creative in the kitchen.
Purslane is not only versatile and delicious, WebMD sings its praises when it comes to its health benefits.
Posted in Casita Colibrí, Flora, Food, Gardens | Tagged cooking, food porn, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, portulaca oleracea, purslane, rooftop garden, verdolaga, volunteer plants | 2 Comments »
To all the fathers and father figures, I wish you ¡Feliz Día del Padre!
May you find joy in your role and continue to share your wisdom, traditions, and love.
Posted in Celebrations, Children, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Día del Padre, Father's Day, fathers and children, Mexico, Oaxaca, parades, photos, popular travel destinations | 5 Comments »
I realized I haven’t tempted your taste buds with any food porn this year. From fine restaurants to street food, I’ve been eating out a lot and the following are just a small sampling. Actually, they are from the few times I remembered to take out my phone or camera and snap a photo before “digging in.”
While there are no photos from March, I can assure you, I did not starve!
Posted in Food, Travel & Tourism | Tagged dining well, food porn, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, traditional cuisine | 16 Comments »
This spring has brought some wild weather to Oaxaca. It began with the previously blogged about freak hailstorm in April and this past week, besides the usual late afternoon rain, the city experienced two more hailstorms — definitely not normal. They are very localized, with nearby towns remaining dry or receiving only a few showers.
Late yesterday afternoon, while the city continued to bask in sunshine, Teotitlán del Valle only 23 miles away was hit with its first violent hailstorm in many years. One minute all was calm as friends and I sat outside at Restaurante y Galería Tierra Antigua sipping mezcal. However, within minutes, the sky darkened, wind began to blow, and the heavens opened.
Almost without warning, hailstones, some the size of two peso coins, began pelting us. Needless to say, we grabbed our belongings and copitas of mezcal, as quickly as we could, and ran inside the restaurant. Once all the customers were safely inside, staff scrambled to close doors and windows. Then all watched as the force of Cocijo, the Zapotec god of rain and lightening, among other powerful forces, took center stage. It was an awesome 15+ minute performance! And, thankfully, save for some shredded foliage, there didn’t appear to be any damage.
Posted in Flora, Gardens, Restaurants, Travel & Tourism, Weather | Tagged freak hailstorm, hail, Mexico, Oaxaca, popular travel destinations, rain, Restaurante y Galería Tierra Antigua, Teotitlán del Valle, video, wind | 3 Comments »
Early Sunday morning on the rooftop terrace…
Night blooming cereus against the blue wall. By 9:00 AM, its twelve hours of beauty was gone.
Posted in Casita Colibrí, Flora, Gardens | Tagged blue wall, Flower of the Day Challenge (FOTD), flowers, Mexico, Night Blooming Cereus, Oaxaca, photos, rooftop garden | 3 Comments »
The violent storms Oaxaca experienced in mid April brought down 30+ trees in the city, including one of her beloved old Indian laurels in Llano Park. And, when a tree falls in Oaxaca…
Talented artist, Heriberto Castro López, grabbed his chainsaw and chisel and, with the blessings of the powers that be, turned the fallen tree into a public work of art, a language lesson, and a plea for help.
A monkey, a jaguar, an eagle, a rabbit, an iguana, and there’s a snake in there somewhere — all animals iconic to Oaxaca — emerged.
The animals seem appropriate, as Parque el Llano (aka, Paseo Juárez, El Llano de Guadalupe, and Alameda de Nezahualcoyotl) housed a zoo from 1945 to 1971 (dates not verified) — hence the gold painted lions at the four main entrances to the park.
However, this time the animals aren’t confined to cages — they are free and calling on us to save this planet we all call home before it’s too late.
Many thanks to Heriberto Castro López for his “Llamado de Auxilio” gift to Oaxaca.
Posted in Animals, Creativity, Culture, Environment, Flora, Travel & Tourism | Tagged carved animals, Heriberto Castro López, Indian Laurel tree, Llano Park, Mexico, Nahuatl language, Oaxaca, Parque Juarez El Llano, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, tree sculptures, tree trunk art, urban art, wood carving | 9 Comments »
What can I say? The last few mornings, as I checked on my rooftop garden, I started singing, The Telephone Hour song from 1960s musical, Bye Bye Birdie.
What’s the story, morning glory?
What’s the word, hummingbird?
Yes, I’m that old!
Posted in Casita Colibrí, Flora, Gardens | Tagged Bye Bye Birdie, Cee's Flower of the Day (FOTD) challenge, flowers, Mexico, Morning glory flowers, Oaxaca, photos, rooftop garden, The Telephone Hour (song) | 8 Comments »
May 10 is Día de la Madre in Mexico and to honor the mothers, grandmothers, mother figures, and the daughters, whose future is in their hands, some recent murals seen in the city and countryside.
The celebration of Mother’s Day migrated south from the USA in the early 20th century and was embraced and promoted by the Catholic Church AND the anticlerical Revolutionaries. Their reasons being:
around the 1850s the Liberals… were nervous about women’s growing participation in the public sphere. Establishing motherhood as venerable and the home as sanctified… would give women a sphere of their own where they could be boss. Also, it would keep them off the streets and out of the workplace where they had begun to compete with men for jobs. Under their watch, everyday motherhood became an exalted madre-hood…. The twentieth-century Revolutionaries who succeeded them took the idea and ran with it, adding in 1922 a ritual, Mother’s Day. [Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun by Liza Bakewell, p. 84]
As for keeping them out of the workforce, according to a report citing the 2010 census, 33.3% of women work and this doesn’t even include those working in family operated enterprises. However distasteful the reasons behind the establishment of Mother’s Day in Mexico, it does nothing to diminish the need to honor these beautiful, hardworking, formidable, and loving women.
And to the girls and young women, may you be empowered by the strength and love of the maternal figures in your life to reach for the stars, live without fear, and be whatever you choose to be.
Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Día de la Madre, Mexico, Mother's Day, murals, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, street art, urban art, wall art | 7 Comments »
The United Nations declared November 20 as World Children’s Day. However, that is Día de la Revolución in Mexico, thus in 1924, President Álvaro Obregó and Minister of Public Education José Vasconcelos designated April 30 as Día del Niño — the day Mexico celebrates and honors her children. Schools organize parties with games and treats, communities organize special activities, and parents may give their hijas and hijos gifts. However, one of the features of life in Oaxaca that I most appreciate is the way children are included all year round in celebrations.
“… the objective of this [Día del Niño] celebration is to dedicate a moment to understanding the child population, promoting their social inclusion and carrying out activities to promote their well-being and the rights to which they have access as human beings.” (Google translation from this article)
Posted in Celebrations, Children, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism | Tagged celebrations, Children's Day, Día del Nino, festivals, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations | 2 Comments »
And now the April “showers” have brought spring flowers to Casita Colibrí.
Posted in Casita Colibrí, Flora, Gardens | Tagged bougainvillea, Cee's Flower of the Day (FOTD) challenge, Epiphyllum Argus, Epiphyllum hookeri, Flor de mayo, flowers, frangipani, Mexico, Oaxaca, Pachypodium lamerei, photos, popular travel destinations, rooftop garden, spring flowers | 2 Comments »
With thunder, lightening, torrential rain, and a massive hail storm, April “showers” heralded the end of the dry season — in a most spectacular way!
The evening of April 14 the city of Oaxaca and surrounding villages were hit with a freak hailstorm. Needless to say, I closed my doors and windows, unplugged critical electronics, and hunkered down inside until the storm had passed — which seemed like at least two hours. When I eventually ventured out, I found the apartment complex patio five inches deep in water, hail piled outside my rooftop laundry room door, and a garden of plants with shredded leaves.
Then two nights ago another massive thunderstorm hovered over us for hours, turning streets into rivers and sending trees toppling all over the city.
Will these April showers bring May flowers?
Posted in Casita Colibrí, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism, Weather | Tagged Barrio de Jalatlaco, flooding, freak hailstorm, hail, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, rain, thunderstorms, video | 8 Comments »
As Semana Santa approached, Oaxaca’s annual invasion of the Chia Pets began. On altars in churches, homes, and businesses, terracotta animals sprouting Chia appeared.
Before you lament commercialized products from the USA intruding on the sanctity of Holy Week, I can happily report Salvia Hispanica (aka, chia) filled clay animals were symbols of the season long before Joe Pedott ever set foot in Oaxaca in the late 1970s and “discovered” them.
According to an article in MexConnect, “Growing greens remind the viewer of the resurrection and renewal of life.”
Native to Mexico, Salvia hispanica was the third most important food (after corn and beans) of the Aztecs as chia seeds are high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. By the way, the name of the Mexican state of Chiapas comes from Chiapan, an ancient city whose name in Náhuatl means, “the place where the chia sage grows.”
(ps) Sorry about the Chia Pet advertisement ear worm!
Posted in Celebrations, Creativity, Culture, Flora, Religion, Travel & Tourism | Tagged altars, Chia Pet advertisement, Chia Pets, Good Friday, Holy Week, Mexico, Oaxaca, photos, popular travel destinations, religious traditions, Salvia hispanica, Semana Santa, Viernes Santo | 4 Comments »
Purple papel picado (actually, plastic) began appearing above streets a month ago. And, in the past few days, the atrium of Templo San Matías Jalatlaco has been decorated with olive trees, sheaves of wheat, and crosses embellished with flowers woven from the base of Sotol leaves.
Yesterday, Calle de Miguel Hidalgo in front of the church was closed to traffic and the Alfombristas Mexicanos colective from Huamantla, Tlaxcala began creating a beautiful tapete (rug) made of colored stones along the length the block.
Purple decorations can also be seen festooning the fronts of homes and businesses in the neighborhood.
You might ask, why all the purple? According to the Ecclesiastical Sewing website, purple symbolizes “the royalty of Christ, His passion and death for our sins, and the coming of spring.” For more of an explanation, click on the link to their website.
Posted in Celebrations, Churches, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Neighborhoods, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Alfombristas Mexicanos, cross, Easter decorations, Lent, Mexico, Oaxaca, olive trees, papel picado, photos, popular travel destinations, purple, sotol flower art, street art, tapetes de arena, Templo San Matías Jalatlaco, urban art | 11 Comments »
Despite the construction on the Alameda across from the Cathedral, the palm weavers from the Mixteca region of Oaxaca are back to sell intricately woven palm fronds to be blessed and carried on Palm Sunday.
And, like most artisan traditions, it’s a family affair.
Posted in Celebrations, Churches, Creativity, Culture, Holidays, Travel & Tourism | Tagged Domingo de Ramos, Lent, Mexico, Mixteca palm weavers, Oaxaca, palm fronds, Palm Sunday, photos, popular travel destinations, woven palm fronds | 3 Comments »
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