|
|
|
Back to
Home
Page
UNESCO WORLD PATRIMONY
LIFE AS TOURIST
TRANSPORT
WEATHER
FESTIVALS
BEACH RESORTS
GASTRONOMY
ARTCRAFTS
A
BIT OF HISTORY
FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM OAXACA
|
Welcome to Oaxaca!
Oaxaca is Mexico's cultural kaleidoscope as it has a very strong pre-Hispanic heritage, nearly a third of
all the 56 ethnic groups in Mexico are gathered in Oaxaca. Each group has
preserved its own identity and customs (such as music, dance, food,
festivities and craftsmanship),
all which have developed over time to create a collage of tradition and folklore.
UNESCO WORLD PATRIMONY
In 1987 the
archaeological site of Monte Albán and the historical centre of Oaxaca City
were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
Top
LIFE AS TOURIST
Accommodation in Oaxaca
City is plentiful and most hotels and hostals
are within the town centre. They tend to be newly-decorated in colonial
style; they are safe, clean, and reasonably priced. Equally there are many
restaurants serving traditional food.
Tour-operating companies have
scheduled trips to the archaeological sites as well as villages to see the
local craftsmanship. The
Tourism Board keeps a monthly programme of cultural
events such as art exhibitions, music, dance and courses. There are a number
of
Spanish language schools where you can take up
a brief course and plenty
of bars where you can practice your Spanish with the locals.
Top
TRANSPORT FACILITIES
Oaxaca City, Huatulco and Pto. Escondido have
their own
airports. Also
several
bus companies,
1st. and 2nd. class, cover these destinations daily (even from México City)
no matter the weather.
Top
WEATHER
The weather in Oaxaca is mild, warm and dry (spring-like) throughout the
year. The temperatures tend to rise in May, just before the rainy season
begins. These Summer showers consist of heavy afternoon showers that may
last up to an hour but are followed immediately by clear skies.
If you're coming in Winter,
do bring a cosy jacket with you, you'll need it early in the morning and
late in the evening.
Top
FESTIVALS
In Oaxaca our
pre-Hispanic past is present in our everyday living: in the form of
dialects, music, dance, markets, artcrafts, food and in the warmth and
friendliness of the Oaxaqueños, mainly when it's time to celebrate (which is
most of the time).
In Oaxaca as in other parts of the country we are very fond of fiestas, and
we have plenty of material: historic victories and defeats, national heroes,
Catholic deities or some professions, amongst these the most popular ones
are: the taxi-driver's day and the teacher's day. We also get the extended
family together to celebrate births, baptisms, confirmations, sweet-fifteen
parties and weddings (some village weddings last up to a week in terms of
celebrations).
The main festivities of Oaxaca are, the Guelaguetza and the Day of the Dead.
We also celebrate Christmas, New Year and Easter in our own unique way.
The highlights during Easter
are the street processions with bands and the
Samaritan's Days when fruit squash is given free all around the town. All
churches are decorated with flowers, paper decorations and candles. It is a
tradition to visit seven of these during Holy Week.
On Corpus Christi Day, sometime in June, sweet empanadas (filled sweet
pastries) get sold all around the city, at stalls as well as in bakeries.
In
the last weeks of July we celebrate the Guelaguetza, which is a show of
music and dance from all the seven main representative regions of Oaxaca in
their folk costumes. Probably the most important regional celebration. It
lasts up to two weeks.
On the 31st.
August, pets get dressed
to fancy costumes and get taken to the 'Merced Church' to get baptised. We
have seen all kind of tame pets, from parrots to donkeys.
All of Mexico celebrates the anniversary of the independence from Spain on
the night of
15th
September.
Some people organise a party at home, meet in restaurants or
gather around the main square and wait till 11pm when the whole country shouts: '¡Viva
México!' followed by a shower of fireworks. The national consumption of
tequila increases dramatically during this day but so does the demand for
Alka-Seltzer the day after.
The
Day of the Dead
waits
quietly at the
end of
October. We get ready by setting altars for our
deceased relatives. We leave food and drink, which we end up eating ourselves
anyway. Some people even leave cigarettes and alcohol. The living ones
over indulge for nearly a week in Oaxacan hot drinking-chocolate, sweet
bread and mole (a curry-style dish made with almonds, chocolate, chillies
and other exotic spices).
In the
first weeks of
December
the 'Posadas' are already getting too excited
to keep quiet, letting go a cracking fire-work from time to time. The first
of nine continuous 'posadas' start on 16th December and the last is on 24th
of December. Nearly
every neighbourhood in Oaxaca has its own. Posadas are small street
processions where every night children dressed as Joseph and Mary carrying a
baby doll Jesus ask for shelter in already arranged houses with singing of
carols. They get refused in the same fashion, until they get to the last
house where the food and drink is waiting. Local party animals have turned this
tradition into an ongoing party of nine days.
On the
23rd December there is a ridiculously long
queue around the Zocalo just
to get to the stalls of radish sculptures. This is
known as the Night of the Radishes, actually an annual competition. Sculptors grow
their own gigantic radishes for this purpose.
The
locals never tired of queuing year after year, as sculptors come up with
something new every year.
We celebrate Christmas on the night of
24th December and hope to recover in
time for the New Year, which is just a 'Déjà Vu' of
the previous week. There is no standard way of celebrating, it
involves mainly getting the family and friends together to eat and drink a
lot, without falling out with too many, as in other parts of the globe. But
undoubtedly there will be a 'piñata' involved at some point. A piñata is a
big clay pot decorated with colourful paper, which is filled with fruits and
sweets and hung from a rope. Somebody will be pulling the rope so that when
it's somebody's turn to
blow a super strike
with a wooden stick, it gets
pulled up out of reach. In a normal children's party, the other
children will be gathered around (hopefully out of the way of the flying strokes)
so that when it breaks
everybody launches themselves onto the floor to get as many bruised apples
and squashed mandarins as they can, with the typical fight over a dusty lollypop
of course.
In an a grown-up party this is of course, far more fun, especially when the
person who is going to hit the piñata gets blind-folded and has been
drinking a lot.
The morning of 6th
January
is full of joy and children's sighs, since Mexican kids having left a nicely folded
letter inside one of their shoes, rush to the tree to see what the Three
Wise Men have left for them. On the same day, a party is organised where
sponge-cake is given, the one who get figurine in their slice (placed by the
baker) will be hosting a small follow-up party before the next party
of the year. And so on. And no! Mexicans never seem to tire of celebrations.
Top
BEACH RESORTS
The Tourism Board has over the last three decades focused in the development of Oaxaca City and beach resorts.
The 'Bays of Huatulco'
are one of the newest developments, less than 15 years old. Its group
of nine bays of white-sand beaches and warm shores of the Pacific Ocean, go
in hand with a new tourist infrastructure. You'll find numerous hotels of different
standards from the five star complex with an adjacent golf course and
tennis courts, to the more colonial style in the sweet little
town of 'La Crucesita' or by the port. There are all kinds of
tours: by boat, horse, bike, on ATV motorbikes and guided walks which can
last up to a week.
Some of the beaches are very family oriented and have lots of beach
activities such as snorkelling, water-skiing, wind-surfing, rafting and even
banana boat rides.
Most roads are new
inter-connect most of the bays.
There are other beach resorts but without the comfort that Huatulco offers.
'Puerto Escondido' was for years the favourite destination before Huatulco
was established. However it is still 'the place' for surfing.
'Zipolite'
allows nudism, with an atmosphere of love & peace and bonfires by the
sea at night. The
available
accommodation are cheap hostels by the sea. If
for some reason you like
or study turtles then
'Mazunte' might be worth a visit as it hosts the
Mexican Centre of Turtles. It's a natural turtle habitat and year after year
7 out of the 8 species of turtles keep to the shore of Mazunte.
Top
GASTRONOMY
Oaxaca cuisine is mostly ancient and very exotic.
Click here for more information.
Top
ARTCRAFTS
Oaxacan creative expression
is manifested mainly through its craftsmanship. These vary from colourful wood-crafts
to puzzling and
multicoloured rug designs of which you might find a Picasso's replica.
Hand-made ceramics are also popular the most favourite are made of black
clay. The end result is mesmerising to look at: black and shiny. The touch
of it is so... definitely sensual!
Every village specialises in a particular artcraft or food. Each has a
specific market day and this is one of the best opportunities to catch a
glimpse of the truly stereotypical México.
Top
A BIT OF HISTORY
Monte Albán was built by the Zapotecs, reaching its golden age around 300AD.
Around 900AD it was occupied by the Mixtecs. In the 15th century the Aztecs
were collecting tributes from the locals and had a settlement on the Fortin
Hill, which in Oaxaca City.
The Spanish arrived around the 1520's and settled next to the Fortin Hill,
where later the colonial town of Oaxaca City was built, now the capital of
this state. Most of it was built in green limestone in the 16th century, the
main buildings in baroque style and the housing in a simple and pleasing
Spanish colonial style of only two floors (ground and first floors).
In the early 19th century Mexico became independent from Spanish rule, since then, the
whole country has struggled to form one
Mexican identity, which is difficult still to this day as so much of the pre-Hispanic
world managed to survive throughout Spanish rule and the Spanish influence
over nearly 300 years left plenty of roots difficult to disdain, like
Catholicism for many.
Although Oaxaca is so rich in tradition, it
has a national reputation of being one of the poorest
states of Mexico. Agriculture is productive locally, but there are no signs
of industrial development. Hence tourism has become
our major source of income overtime.
Top
FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM OAXACA
Oaxaca is also the home of the Zapotec matriarchy of the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec, their diligent, passionate and warm temperament continues to
counteract machismo if only in the Pacific Coast. The Tehuana’s folk dress
is one of the most beautiful of all the country, the most typical and most
elegant version is the one with
heavily embroidered with colourful flowers on black velvet.
Another pretty folk dress is from Huatla, just like the one that
María
Sabina, the priestess of the hallucinogenic mushrooms, is wearing in most of
her photographs. Once upon a time, she had her consultancy in Huatla at the
heart of the Sierra Mazateca. María Sabina used the mushrooms for shamanic
purposes, as in the ancient method of curing the body and soul. She soon built
up her reputation to an international scale as a tourist guide of the
mushroom field. John Lennon is said have been one of the many pilgrims to
have gone on a trip. In 1985, María Sabina herself went on a one-way trip to
another world, leaving her fellow Mazatec shamans to look after her fun-guy.
It is a hell of a journey to get there though, a five hour drive by car on a
very steep road full of sharp bends.
Apart from spiritual guides Oaxaca has given to Mexico two of the most
important political leaders in national history, irrevocably these are:
Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz. Juárez set in motion the process of political liberalisation from the
Catholic church. Díaz was a brave and clever general who fought against the Americans
and the French during each invasion. He began his political career as a
democrat, but as he reached power he slowly became a dictator held power for (only!) 35
years. His presidency is quite controversial, but modern México owes its
infrastructure to his charming attraction of foreign investment. The railway
system was built. He was also very fond of the arts
and commissioned the magnificent art-deco concert hall of ‘Bellas Artes' in
Mexico City, a national architectural jewel not to be missed from the
inside.
Oaxaca is also the motherland of two of Mexico’s most outstanding painters,
Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo.
The later still alive-and-kicking, you might even catch a glimpse of Maestro
Toledo strolling through the streets of Oaxaca City on the odd day. He
donated his house to the arts, this is now known as
Instituto de
Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca, which on the main pedestrianised street of the
city. He hangs around here a lot but
has a reputation for being very humble, so make sure
to know his face before setting out foot.
Anyway, whatever you do in Oaxaca we really hope you make of it a memorable
experience but please promise to take it easy with the mezcal. Will you?
Well you've been warned!
Enjoy
your holidays!
Back to
Home
Page
|
|
|