End of Week 19 - The Week Before Christmas: Atoyatempan, Sierra Tentzo

Community Ecotourism Project - Atoyatempan, Puebla

http://ecologicoatoyatempan.blogspot.com/

Sierra Tenzo

Atoyatempan is a small community about two hours southeast of Puebla. There is a community ecotourism project with cabins and trails near the Sierra Tentzo Natural Protected Area that was constructed with money from SEMARNAT last year. We arrived on Friday evening, the week before Christmas, for an office party. After eating a lot of grilled meat and corn tortillas, and drinking some tequila, our co-workers decided it was time for them to go.

The campsite

The cabins were in the middle of nowhere - we couldn't see any other lights on the hills around us - and it was getting cold faster than it was getting dark. After a lot of prodding (from me), Ana and I decided to stay the night, and the owners decided to drive us to the bus in the morning. After all, I spent the first four months in Mexico trying to get out of the city and now that I had arrived I wasn't about to wuss out. Anyways, most volunteers live everyday in places like this.

Giant Cactus

As the sun set, beautiful nighthawks came swooping in over the camp. The untouched desert scrub and chalky white marble soil that surrounded us began to glow in the light of the full moon, almost brighter than when the sun was still up. We sat on top of the tiroleza (zip line) tower and looked out over the valley between us and the mountains. Mist slowly rolled in and crept into the camp, flowing over the cactus and acacia trees.

After accidently locking ourselves out of the cabin - briefly - we fell asleep. Although there was no heat and it was nearly freezing in our open air cabin, we were actually hot all night with all of the blankets that we had.

We woke, at about 3am, to the sound of explosions coming from all around us. Was it miners dynamiting hill sides? If so, why so early? Aren't there noise ordinances in the middle of nowhere in Mexico? I kept hoping that they knew we were there and would avoid blowing us up. The explosions continued to get closer and closer as the hours slowly went by. I started imagining that there was a heated land dispute outside, with gunfire at the heart of the fight, and we were about to be in the middle of the approaching war. As the sun started to rise, the blasts started moving further away from us, at last. We had survived! We discovered later that there was a religious procession that night that went from Puebla to the nearby community. They like to set off loud firecrackers in Mexico during religious processions.

Our guides

The camp owners returned the next morning and brought food with them; tamales, tortillas, atole, and texca, a kind of small insect. We ate everything, grateful to have people around us that weren't trying to dynamite us. Two women from the community decided that we should go for a hike down to the river with them, and led the way after breakfast was over. We soon saw a Lesser Roadrunner bolt through the brush and a Black-vented Oriole perch atop a tree. The cactus along the canyon were tall and straight, nearly 15 meters high. We walked down into a steep river valley with giant cypress trees growing along the edges of a clear mountain stream. Black Phoebe and Blue-grey Gnatcatchers ate insects from the trees. Rock walls lined the sides of the canyon and lush green ferns grew around the springs that poured ancient rainwater into the river. At one point, the river actually flowed back under the mountain, coming out in a wide cave on the other side.

Our guides, the same that cooked us breakfast, walked with us for miles, climbed up and down rock faces, forged through the river, and taught us Nahuat (an indigenous language), never got tired. Amazingly, they refused to accept money for the hike, the stay, or the food.



The giant cypress trees in the middle of the desert




Ferns on the wet cliff sides.



The cave where the river comes out of the mountain

Posadas - Tlaxcala

That night, after returning to Puebla, we went straight to Tlaxcala for a posada at Ana's work counterpart's house. A posada is a Christmas ceremony where every night the statues of Jose (Joseph), Maria (Mary) and El Nino (Jesus) are carried to a new house after everyone eats tamales. Of course, this procession is accompanied by loud firecrackers. We spent two nights here, and the kids in the community had a great time talking to the American. They wanted to know who my favorite wrestler was, and I kept telling them Hulk Hogan. Im really not a wrestling fan, but I didn't want to sound un-cool. I think Hulk Hogan's still alive.

End of Week 17 - The Colors of Oaxaca

Oaxaca - the state, not the city - is an off-limits area, meaning we need to have permission from Peace Corps in order to go there. I don't know much about Oaxaca or why it's off-limits, but I do know that what isn't allowed is usually more exciting than what is. But I'm not about to break any rules that could get me kicked out of Peace Corps, especially after spending so much time trying to get in. So how can I get to Oaxaca?

About two months ago during training I went with the environmental education group to a center for "ecotecnias", permaculture and environmental education in Huixquilucan, near Mexico City. We spent an entire week at the center where we all realized that ecotecnias, like estufas lorenas, are complicated things to build and that Mexico actually does get cold, especially at 3,000 meters. I also learned that the center had a partner center in Oaxaca - the state, not the city - and that was my answer. I could travel to Oaxaca if it was with work. But how do I convince my new work place, SEMARNAT in Puebla, that a six-hour trip - each way - to Oaxaca is worth their time as well as mine?

Apparently, its not as hard as I thought. My counterparts at work, like me, enjoy traveling. And when we started working on the development of a center for training in ecotecnias in Puebla, I suggested we go to the center in Oaxaca for a visit to a model center. My counterparts jumped on the idea and within a week all three of us were on the highway at 6:30am, heading to the center about 60 kilometers from Oaxaca city.  http://www.grupedsac.org/portal/index.php/en/demonstrations-centers/itt.html

Pico de Orizaba

Mountains along the highway.

The road to Oaxaca was fascinating. First we passed Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's tallest mountain. Then we went through the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Biosphere Reserve, one of the most remote and arid places in I've ever seen. We were surrounded by deep canyons, rugged mountain peaks, bare rock faces, and tall cactus forests.

Deep cactus valleys.

Adobe building with natural ochre paint.

The center that we were traveling to, called Tonantzin Tlalli Institute (at least there are no x's in this one), is in a very remote, rural community, where the forested mountains meet the scrub desert below. There is very little water there. The center uses ecotecnias to generate energy, supply water, and support its permaculture gardens. Each building uses a different natural building technique, and all structures were beautifully painted and sculpted, even the outhouses.

The art of a dry toilet.

After our visit, we headed to Oaxaca city to spend the night. Before heading back to Puebla the next day, we spent a little time touring the historic city center. Oaxaca is a beautiful colonial city in the center of a large fertile valley. Its historic architecture was painted with colors that you can only find in warmer climates. It's central zocalo was lined with vendors, selling beautiful ceramic pottery, paintings, and clothing. Oaxaca is famous for its alebrijes, or ceramic figures of creatures with features from multiple animals, some real some fantastic. Its market was crowded early in the morning; meats, fruits and vegetables filled the stalls. I walked by women making blue tortillas, loaves of golden bread, giant pink pigs feet, mounds of white cow stomach, orange chickens piled high, crates of dried chilies in various shades of red and purple, stands with tropical colored fruits, and buckets of mole of all the colors of the rainbow.

Oaxacan hot chocolate.

Crickets, or chapulines, are a local favorite - the little ones taste like whatever they are cooked in, while the big ones taste like, well, sour grasshopper - and I bought some to bring home to Ana and my host family. I also tried Oaxacan chocolate. Oaxacan chocolate is well-known and for good reason (remember the movie Chocolat with Johnny Depp?); it's a mixture of cinnamon and cacao grown in Oaxaca, served for breakfast in hot milk or water with a loaf of sweet bread.






The city isn't all just pretty colors, though. Less than four years ago it was the home to a brutal fight between protesters, anarchists, the state police, and eventually the federal army. During a routine protest by local teachers, the governor ordered the state police to attack, killing several of the protestors. The protestors eventually took the city from the state police and held it for several months before the federal army was sent in to win it back. The city was shut down for nearly a year.

A new governor took office the day before I arrived; it was the first change in political parties in over seven decades. Although political graffiti covers nearly every building, the hotels and restaurants are filled with tourists, and the markets are bustling with shoppers, both local and from abroad. The crickets were alive and well, at least until we arrived. The beautiful colors of Oaxaca have largely returned since the violence ended, but there are still many subtle tones of grey left over from memories of the not too distant dark past.

Ceramics

Fruits and vegetables

Pigs feet

Chicken

Chilies

Fruits and vegetables

Ceramic parachuters