Earthquake in Oaxaca, Puebla and Adios Mexico!

Oaxaca

Oaxaca

We arrived in Oaxaca in the evening and headed out to see some of the town before it got dark, stopping for a beer in a cool little bar when the heavens opened, which meant we were stuck there, dammit. When the rain finally abated a bit, we jumped in a cab for the hotel. The hotel was full of 14 year old girls who looked like they’d been playing football, and when they finally stopped shouting around midnight, we were able to get some sleep. Around 1am we were awakened by the bed shaking violently. 

Earthquake

EARTHQUAKE! A bit disoriented we couldn’t work out what we should do, so we stayed put. After a couple of minutes, the tremors stopped and we immediately checked the internet to find out details. The earthquake was Mexico’s biggest since 1984 coming in at 8.1 on the Richter scale. It turned out that the epicentre was in the sea between the 2 states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, but much closer to San Cristóbal de las Casas than we were in Oaxaca City, although more people died or were injured in Oaxaca state.    

Museum closed due to earthquake

We walked into town the next day to have a coffee at the zocalo (main plaza) in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption and everyone was talking about the earthquake obviously. We were extremely lucky in the city, being far enough from the sea and the buildings didn’t look like they had suffered much damage.

Cathedral in Oaxaca

Around the zocalo were several tour guides selling trips, and we arranged one for the following day for 280 pesos for 2 of us. The tour included a visit to the Mitla ruins, and a trip to see El Tule, allegedly the biggest tree in the world, which is more than 2000 years old, 42m in height, has a diameter of 14.05m, and weighs 636.107 tons. (How do you weigh a living tree??). 

El Tule

The Mitla ruins was a Zapotec city, and we walked around the palace, courtyards, ceremonial areas and altars, and tombs. The buildings, especially the palace showcased the amazing geometrical design and architecture, such as the huge blocks of stone used for construction (similar to the Egyptian pyramids, no one really knows how they managed to produce and then lift these blocks into place).

Hot pools at Hierve el Agua

We stopped at an artisan Mezcal brewery to learn how this potent spirit is made and to taste a few different ones. Mezcal is similar to the better-known Tequila and comes from the agave plant as does Tequila, but it can be made by several different sub-species of agave rather than just the one type. We also stopped at an artisan rug-making place to learn about how the rugs and the dyes are made.

In the afternoon and suitably lubricated on free Mezcal samples, we drove onto Hierve el Agua, the petrified waterfalls. This is a beautiful place with stunning views in the middle of nowhere, where water has calcified on the rocks and the result is what looks like a couple of huge waterfalls. There is no water cascading, but there are a few hot pools bubbling away around the falls, hence the name meaning ‘boil the water’. 

Petrified waterfall - Hierve el Agua

We had one more full day in Oaxaca so we took a taxi from town to the nearby Monte Alban. This is a UNESCO world heritage site only about 6km from the centre. It was the largest pre-Hispanic city in the Oaxaca region, with a continuous occupation of more than 13 centuries, from 500 BC to 800 AD and it was the first planned urban area on the American continent.

Mitla ruins

The Zapotecs living in Monte Alban made use of plants for healing, to make textiles, for construction, to eat, and to communicate with the gods by ingesting fermented juices of plants like tobacco, mushroom, marijuana.

Monte Alban

At the site were carved stones depicting nude men, which have been interpreted as rulers from nearby towns who were captured, castrated and offered as sacrifices. The castration, blood collection and sacrifice may symbolise offerings to the gods or for fertility rituals.

Turquoise skull

We were back in town for about lunchtime, so we headed straight for the Museo de las Culturas which we’d tried to visit the day before but which was closed because of the earthquake. The museum is quite well-known for its display of a human skull which was excavated from Monte Alban. This skull is particularly interesting because it has a mosaic of turquoise pieces covering about a third of it.

The museum was great, the building was lovely and had several different rooms displaying different aspects of Mexican (particularly Oaxacan) culture and history. We finished just in time for my tattoo appointment across the road.

Our final evening, and we decided to pop into a Mezcal bar for a quick drink. That soon got a bit messy when we were surrounded by several Mexicans who wanted to party with the gringos. Admittedly not as messy as the fateful night in Cancun but still, one of us ended up asleep on the bathroom floor and it wasn’t me. 

Mezcal bar

Oaxaca is well worth a visit, it is a lively, friendly, pretty city with lots to see and do. We actually stayed a day longer than we had planned to and we could have stayed longer.

Puebla

Puebla

Back on another bus, this time to Puebla, a couple of hours east of Mexico City. Puebla is yet another UNESCO site, awarded for its historic centre. The city’s artistic quarter represents its longstanding artistic traditions, famous for pottery, cast and wrought iron, crystal, furniture, religious icons, soaps, gold, fragrances, sculpture and paintings. Many of the buildings are decorated with tiles, which although we have seen this elsewhere in Mexico, we’d not seen as much as in Puebla.

Much of the famous battle of May 5, 1862 against French invasion led by Napoleon, was fought on Puebla’s soil, as was the start of the armed movement of the Mexican revolution in 1910.

Puebla

One of the more interesting things we discovered about Puebla was ‘the Secrets of Puebla’. Mexican myth has it that many towns and cities across the country have a series of tunnels running underneath them. This has been verified by many people who have stated that their grandparents had passed down stories about the tunnels to them during their childhood. Although everyone had heard of these tunnels, there was not actually any evidence of them until a few years ago, when they were discovered in Puebla. They were only opened to the public in 2016. 

Secret tunnels in Puebla

In the tunnels they found old guns, horse shoes, children toys such as marbles - all manner of items. They dated them from 1531 which indicated that the tunnels were used around the time of the Spanish conquest. The horseshoes and other equestrian items, and the size of the tunnels indicated that the townsfolk probably used horses in the tunnels. 

On exiting the tunnels, we crossed the road to visit Fuertes de Loreto. This old fort was never used in combat and is now a museum highlighting the revolution and the battle of 5 May.

Cathedral in Puebla

 
We strolled on through the park to the cable car, and our guide pointed out various landmarks in the city, including the planetarium, the football stadium and the twin towers of the cathedral in the old town. We also got a great view of the four volcanoes surrounding the town, one of which was smoking.

Volcano in Puebla

Back in the historical centre we popped into the Museo del Tecnológico de Monterrey, which is a tiny little museum where we learned about microscopes and then looked at some local art. Free to get in, and a good way to while away 30 minutes, even if it was a bit of an odd exhibition.

If anyone visits Puebla and fancies a pizza, I can highly recommend a restaurant called Arugula. Delish.

Mexico City

Back to our new favourite city, and we had one day and one night to see a bit more of it. The area we stayed in this time was near Doctores and the hotel was great if the area was a bit sketchy. Roma Norte was much nicer although the hotel was worse there. 

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

We headed north of the city to the, a revered (wonky) Basilica de Guadalupe, next to a huge, much newer church Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In the older Basilica we were kind of pushed into a line and we ended up getting blessed by the priest, but when in Rome and all that. 

New Basilica

We jumped into a cab to go to the Tequila and Mezcal Museum which we’d noticed on our way to the Basilica, and the entry price included 2 free shots – one of Tequila and one of Mezcal. We soon jumped out of the cab - he was running the meter and within about a minute it was over £1, so be very wary of the cab drivers round there! The metro is 5 pesos and is less than a 5 minute walk from the Basilica.

Tequila and Mezcal

At the museum, we learned how the 2 spirits were made, and on display were hundreds of crazy bottle designs. Finally we found out about the history of Mariachis music, which is the typical Latino music you associate with Mexico. 

Cool Tequila bottles

I had wanted to buy a bright Mexican blanket and as it was our last day I dragged Baby D to La Cuidadela, a handicraft market a couple of km from the museum. It was also not too far from Amperes in Zona Rosa, a busy area full of gay clubs and bars where we had dinner, and just round the corner was the city’s iconic statue, the Angel of Independence, which we hadn’t managed to see on our previous trip. 

Angel of Independence

I know I have said it on many of my other posts but we felt gutted to leave Mexico. We’d both been before but we saw a completely different side to the country and apart from the scrapes and the hangovers, there was absolutely nothing we didn’t love about Mexico. Adios amigos.                                                                              

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#angelofindependence #montealban #secretsofpuebla