Puzzle Pyramids - built without any mortar

This was an important Zapoteca place of worship. A distinguishing feature of these pyramids is that they were built without any mortar. Pieces of the pyramid were stacked and fitted together in such a way that no type of cement was needed - this is the such archeological site in Mexico I believe. The small pieces of stones were fitted together to form these pretty patterns (the cement seen in the pictures was added as part of the restoration process, but you can clearly see most stones have no cement between them).

Oldest and biggest tree (in the world?)

The tule tree in Oaxaca is quite impressive. I had my doubts about going to visit it, but I'm glad I saw this colossal tree that is over 2000 years old and has a trunk diameter of 15 m! When I asked what the entry fee of 10 pesos was for, they said it was to contribute towards the 14 kilos of water they need to feed it each day! Here's a tree-selfie, some of the people on the left can give you an idea of the size of the tree.

I would expect such a huge tree to be in the jungle, but less than 10 meters away, its neighbour is none other than this pretty church (the leaves on the top left corner of the picture belong to the tule tree).

Monte Alban - oldest city in mesoamerica

A zapoteca city built in 500 BC and very little is known about how they lived at that time. Our guide kept emphasising that all things that had been told about the place were all speculations - he more or less said that our guess was as good as his.

The ball game is a curious ritual/sport that was played by many civilisations - although it's not clear how similar the game played in this early zapoteca court is to the mayan or aztec game. The overall rules are that a rubber ball was hit mostly using hips and in some cases the players were sacrificed to the gods at the end. Some say it was the winner that was sacrificed, as they wanted to send the most powerful one to the gods. Here you can see one of these courts. 

Oaxaca and it's teachers

Malu Lajous (consultant, civil servant and micro financer) tells us about the situation of the teacher's protest in Oaxaca against some (as many people said, much needed) government reforms. It has been going on for months, when we visited they had been camping in the zocalo for a while. On the second day of the new academic year (19th of August) they closed down the school opposite Malu's house, so the parents started protesting. It was interesting to see these local politics - it felt a bit like being back home in France ;).

 

Picture of the parents protesting outside the school - I didn't want to get too close, seems like journalism photography isn't my forte.

Emma on the comfy 5h ADO bus from Puebla to Oaxaca.

Part of Malu's beautiful garden, instead of a cement wall she has a wall of cactus separating the garage from the garden.

 

 

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My first Zumba class

Despite the many opportunities I got in Oxford, I never managed to go to a single Zumba class. So as we were walking in Puebla's Zocalo (City centre) at 9am, a couple of hours before our bus to Oaxaca, we saw an open air Zumba class that I couldn't resist joining. It was my first and hopefully not last class.

 

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Murals in Chapultepec

Murals are everywhere in Mexico. They are big, beautiful, vibrant, colourful and depict important historical events or legends. We found some in each municipal palace in the villages of Puebla which reminded me of the ones we saw in the Chapultepec castle. They depict Mexico's complicated history and many battles.

Ceiling mural of the niños héroes story (painted by Gabriel Flores completed in 1970). The legend says that the teenage boy soldiers preferred to jump off the cliff than surrender to the Americans during the battle in 1847. The soldier is wrapped in the Mexican flag and the outline of the Mexican eagle is depicted above him.

Mural of the victory of Francisco Madera over Porfirio Diaz, the castle of Chapultepec is in the back drop (painted by Juan O'Gorman in 1969)

Obviously the Diego Riviera murals are missing here, I hope to upload some of them later.

 

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Cholula - 7 pyramids and a church

Another one of the magical towns in Puebla. 7 pyramids built on top of each other by different Mexican civilisations. The theory is they didn't destroy the previous temple because they were afraid the gods would get angry. From the church you get a beautiful view of the town and the volcano Popo.

 

 

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