After four days in México city we realized that we’re still not big city people and that there’s no way we could stay there long enough to even scratch the surface of all there is to see and do. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy ourselves, just that it was time to leave the city.

Witt wrote the last web update on the hotel’s rooftop terrace. An afternoon thunderstorm cooled things off and cleared out the air, at least for a while.

We visited a children’s museum in the city; it was a big hit with Q.

The water table was a favorite attraction.

Teamwork!

Looking at bugs through a magnifying glass was fun for a few minutes.

The next day we visited the amazing anthropological museum.

It’s world-renowned, with exhibits covering the people of México from prehistoric to present times.

Quinn thought it would be fun to climb into this giant basket and roll along the floor.

Green Mole, aka pipian

On our last day in the city we made the trek by train to Xochimilco, an area of the city consisting of canals and islands. When Cortes first arrived in Tenochtitlán, the Aztec predecessor to México city, the city of pyramids and canals was built on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Xochimilco is reminiscent of the ancient Aztec city and there we could hire a boat (and driver) to take us through the canals. The local market is on the canal, too, with vendors offering everything from food and refreshments to mariachi music and various souvenirs. It was very relaxing.

The next day we went to Xochimilco (so-she-mil-co) and spent a couple of hours touring the canals by boat.

We visited a small zoo that housed some cool snakes, salamanders, and turtles.

Sunset over the city

The next morning we took the metro to the airport so we could fly to Chetumal (in the southeast corner of México).

I remember the first time Krispy Kreme donuts opened in Denver. It was a big deal, with everyone bringing donuts to work for a week or so. Apparently Krispy Kreme is a phenomenon here too, because at least 4 or 5 people on the plane had big bags of Krispy Kreme donuts with them, apparently to share with friends and family in Chetumal.

We spent the evening by the pool at our hotel in Chetumal. The next morning we boarded a bus to Belize City. The bus was second class, and the whole trip took over 5 hours. At least the breezes coming in through the windows kept things somewhat cool. Being in the heat and humidity of the tropics is quite a shock after the drier, high altitude interior of México.

The next morning we boarded a boat for the final leg of our trip to Caye Caulker.

The harbor in Belize City

After reluctantly returning to Oaxaca, we decided that our best hope for getting the van fixed was to take it to the Ford dealership and have them diagnose and repair it, despite the inevitable high cost. We dropped it off first thing on Wednesday morning, and on Friday afternoon they called to let us know that the problem was a sensor in the engine – great news except that the particular sensor they said was bad was one that Calvin and I had replaced a few days earlier. They said it needed to be replaced to continue the diagnosis, and that since I bought the part from them, at least it was under warranty and we wouldn’t have to pay for another one.

The Ford dealership in Oaxaca looks very clean, professional, and expensive. Hope they can fix it.

It sucks when your car is in the shop, but it really sucks when your house is in the shop. Fortunately Calvin and Leanne at the Overlander Oasis have a casita (basically a small apartment) that they rent out. So we moved in and are enjoying the mostly full featured kitchen and a TV and DVD player!

Q loves it when we can pull all of his toys out at once.

On Friday evening we got a special treat. Leanne volunteered to watch Quinn and suggested that we go into town to enjoy a buffet dinner and traditional dance performance. We jumped on the opportunity, since we’re seldom anywhere long enough to meet people we trust to watch Quinn (and who Quinn trusts enough to watch him). We stuffed ourselves with delicious food and talked with some young American backpackers while we enjoyed the performance.

Our last day in Oaxaca

We’re due to meet Witt’s parents in Belize in about two weeks, and with the van in the shop we’re not going to be able to drive there in time. So we made plane reservations instead. The lowest priced way to go is to fly from Mexico City to Chetumal, and take the bus from there to Belize City. We decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see Mexico City and booked a few nights in a hotel there. On Tuesday we left Oaxaca by bus.

Mexico City is the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere with over 20 million people. It can be pretty daunting to visit, but Jen got us a nice hotel right in the heart of the tourist area, and we had no problem getting a taxi from the bus station to the hotel.

On Wednesday, our first full day in the city, we visited the Templo Mayor, which was originally built in the 1300s on an island in a large lake that then covered the Valle de Mexico. The legend is that the Aztecs, a wandering tribe at that time, saw on an island in the lake an eagle perched on a cactus with a snake in it’s mouth. This matched a prophecy they had known, and so they built a temple on the site. When the Spanish arrived, they simply built atop the Aztec temple. The image of the eagle with the snake is visible on the Mexican flag.

Mexico City’s main cathedral

The Templo Mayor, discovered during excavation for a new drainage system, consists of seven different layers, or phases of building, with each expanding on the version before it.

The museum on the site of the Templo Mayor was excellent.

Since we all had dentist appointments scheduled for Tuesday, we were going to be in the Oaxaca metro area at least until then. Our host Leanne at the Overlander Oasis took us on a tour of the surrounding communities on Sunday. We visited the market in Tlacolula, and candle-making shop and silk and wool textile workshops in Teotitlán del Valle. On our way home we stopped to sample some mezcal.

At the market in Tlacolula

The ladies in the candle shop were making candles for Easter. They started by hanging a long string, then pouring hot wax down it over and over. They said it takes about 100 pours to make a candle.

Then they make wax flowers and pin them to the candle. Leanne, our hostess at Overlander Oasis, is on the left.

Watching silk worms fattening themselves up

Watching the weaving machine at work was fascinating

Oaxaca is known as the place to come in Mexico for cooking classes. Rather than go into town and spend a lot of money for a formal class, Leanne arranged for her neighbor, Teresa, to come to the campground and show us how to cook moletos in Leanne’s own kitchen. Teresa also happens to be the lady who rides around on her bicycle selling yummy donuts almost every day!

The cooking class lasted about four hours and we topped it off by stuffing our faces with the yummy treats we had made. We had to force Teresa to accept 50 pesos for her time, and she also got to take the leftovers home to her family.

Teresa helps Quinn press the masa dough for the moletos

Quinn and dad mash potatoes. We added chorizo sausage to the potatoes to make the filling for the moletos

Yes, that’s a bus in the kitchen. It’s a 1957 greyhound that Calvin and Leanne built and traveled around Mexico in for many years. Now it’s their bedroom and living room.

Of course no meal is complete without guacamole, salsa, and queso fresco

Time to eat!

Our trip to the dentist on Tuesday was mostly uneventful. When we told her that we’d last had our teeth cleaned 5 months ago, she said that most of her customers came every 5 years. I’ve tried that approach; it’s painful!

Based on advice from Derek of Colorado Campervan, we decided to replace a couple of parts in the van to try to solve our power problems. We ordered the parts from the Ford dealership in town, but they wouldn’t be here till Friday. With a couple more days to kill, we headed out for some sightseeing. First we drove to Hierve de Agua, a natural hot spring spilling off the side of a cliff and creating what looks like a petrified waterfall. It was great camping, right on the edge of the cliff with wonderful views and dark skies for star gazing.

Don’t jump off!

We tried to take the newer road on the way back, but it was blocked by a landslide that Calvin said was caused intentionally to keep traffic going through the local town on the old road.

On Friday morning we visited Monte Alban, the largest Zapotecan ruin in the area. Set on top of a hill with great views in all directions, it was quite impressive. The previous evening’s rain had even cleaned some of the haze out of the sky.

A Jacaranda tree in bloom at Monte Alban

From the top of Monte Alban

Later we visited the amazing history museum in Oaxaca. Too bad Jen and I only typically get about 20 minutes in a museum.

We picked up our parts at the Ford dealership that afternoon and headed back to Overlander Oasis.

On Saturday Calvin (Leanne’s husband) and I replaced the two parts in the van. Unfortunately when we took it for a test drive the problem was still there. We needed to leave soon if we were to meet my parents in Belize in two weeks, so we decided to depart on Tuesday for Huatulco on the coast. The road is very windy and climbs over a mountain range, and by the time we had climbed up a very windy road the van wasn’t running well and Jen and I were both very stressed out. We decided that we had to get it fixed in Oaxaca one way or another. Reluctantly we turned around and drove the 3-1/2 hours back to the Overlander Oasis.

Calvin of Overlander Oasis with the tool he made to help extract the IPR valve from our engine.

Quinn’s best friend at the campground is Lissie.

Quinn hooked Lissie up to his dump truck.

On what we thought was our last night at the campground, we made gumbo for everyone staying there. Lacking okra, we used prickly pear cactus instead!

Vermillion Flycatcher

Social Flycatcher

First off, it’s easy to pronounce, if not intuitive: Wa-ha-ca.

We’ve been in Oaxaca for the past week, having arrived on February 23. We’re staying at the wonderful Overlander Oasis, run by a very friendly Canadian couple.

We’ve been super busy over the past week – we took another week of Spanish classes, and did a little volunteer work at the Centro de Esparanza Infantil. The Esparanza center has a very straightforward business model. For $250 per year, you can sponsor a kid by helping to pay for their books, school fees, and uniforms, and they get an education that their family may not otherwise be able to afford. We met the center’s director and were so impressed that we decided to sponsor a child ourselves. We are going to sign up next week, and may even get to meet the child. We’re hoping to get someone about Quinn’s age so that they can correspond.

A couple of the older kids at the Esperanza center really got into the math exercises at Khan Academy

After Spanish classes each day, we made a point of seeking out well reviewed restaurants in town for a late lunch. We even had a really nice meal in a white-tablecloth restaurant one afternoon! Needless to say we’ve been enjoying all of this immensely!

I was in heaven with all of the seafood and tacos in Baja. I didn’t think the food could possibly get any better, but it has. We had some amazing meals in Guanajuato and again in San Miguel, but Oaxaca has the justifiable reputation of being the culinary capital of Mexico.

It’s famous for it’s “7 moles” – Negro, Amarillo, Verde, Colorado, Coloradito, Chichile Negro, and Mancha Manteles. So far we’ve only sampled a few of them, but we hope to rectify that over the next few days.

A stuffed poblano pepper with black bean sauce

Poblano creme soup

Pork ribs in Mole Mancha Manteles

Chicken with Mole Negro

Quinn’s not a huge fan of the fancy food

On the way into Oaxaca we had to cross some pretty high passes, and the van started having the same power problems we’ve been experiencing on and off over the past couple of months. It never got as bad as it did on Christmas eve though, and we made it without any problems.

On Thursday we took the van into the Ford dealer to see if they could help us figure out the problem. They wanted 3 days just to do a diagnosis and we were skeptical that they could actually figure out what was wrong. On Saturday morning, based on advice from The Google, I removed and cleaned the exhaust back pressure tube and sensor. I also posted my woeful tale to powerstroke.org, but it’s looking like we’re going to roll out of Oaxaca no closer to a solution.

We have a few more touristy things to do in town early next week, and we even have dentist appointments for all three of us on Tuesday (for the princely sum of $23 apiece). We’re hoping to be on the road again on Wednesday or Thursday.

Q got some more car time

The locals say this 2000 year old tree is the biggest tree in the world.

We had been debating whether to visit La Reserva de la Mariposa Monarcas, a mountain sanctuary for Monarch butterflies that migrate south from the US and Canada, for some time. Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue, but it’s in the state of Michoacán, which has been experiencing some problems lately. In a nutshell, the drug cartels moved in and started extracting protection money from local businesses. Frustrated at the lack of help from the police, the locals took matters into their own hands and organized vigilante groups to fight the cartels. The main cartel asserts that the vigilantes are in fact under cover operatives for a rival cartel. The feds finally took notice and sent in the cavalry (or the Mexican equivalent thereof – usually armed guys dressed in black toting machine guns in the back of pickup trucks). The locals still didn’t trust them, so they conscripted the vigilantes into the police force so that they could continue to fight legitimately. The upshot of all of this has been some violence.

We had decided not to go up until the morning we left San Miguel. While saying goodbye to some folks at the RV park, we learned that they had visited the butterfly reserve two weeks before and had had a great time. Gotta love last minute changes of plan.

We diverted South, and spent a fairly long day driving to the tiny mountain town of El Rosario at 9300 feet. We saw one long convoy of the aforementioned Federales on the highway, but no other signs of the problems in Michoacán. To be fair, though, we were only going into the very edge of the large state.

Some farming is still done the old fashioned way.

The next morning we set out to see the butterflies. Since Q has never ridden a horse before, we decided to rent two horses for the ride up. They took us about two thirds of the way up, which was followed by a 15 minute hike. Although the biosphere reserve is large, the butterflies only occupy a small area of forest. It was a truly amazing sight, with monarchs swarming the area and blanketing the trees in black and orange. The story of their migration from the north is pretty fantastic.

These giant succulent plants are everywhere. We thought they’d make a great start to a bad horror film. Watch out Quinn!!

Ride ’em Cowboy! Quinn loved the horse ride, but we were all allergic to the horses and the dust and so we ended out sneezing a lot. We decided to walk back down.

Our next stop was to be at Teotihuacán for more pyramid viewing. We finished lunch in El Rosario at about 1:30pm and decided to try to make it there the same day. We did, but only just, as it was after dark when we arrived. That’s not something we normally like to do, but it worked out. We found the campground, ate some leftovers for dinner, and hit the sack. The next morning we went out to tour the pyramids. They were very impressive, with the temple of the sun being second only to the pyramids in Egypt in size.

Atop the Temple of the Sun. (The Temple of the Moon is visible in the background).

After lunch we set off once again for our next destination, the town of Cholula. Cholula also has a pre-columbian pryamid, and we found it more impressive because it’s only been partially excavated, and because there’s a Catholic church perched on top, possibly built there in ignorance of the pagan temple beneath. Quinn particularly enjoyed exploring the tunnels that were bored into the pyramid by archeologists. As is usually the case, the pyramid wasn’t built all at once. A first one was built, then a subsequent ruler decided he had to out-class his predecessor and ordered his minions to expand it. So there are multiple phases of construction in evidence starting at ~500 B.C. and spanning up to 1500 years.

A model of the temple in Cholula with the Church on top

The Catholic Church that sits atop the pyramid

We ran into several groups of very excited and giggly teenage girls at the top of the pyramid who were taken by Quinn’s blue eyes and blond hair. He’s hiding behind Mom.

Through the thick smog that unfortunately covers this part of Mexico (we’re only 50km or so from Mexico City) we could just make out a volcano that gives off puffs of smoke regularly.

After Comida (the largest meal of the day, eaten between 2-4pm) we spent some time in the town square where Quinn found a playground and a trampoline. The business of trampolines is like that of the little cars he drove in Guadalajara. An enterprising person sets one up in a public area and charges 15 pesos for 15 minutes. Good stuff.

Yay! Balloons!

On Saturday we headed South once again for Oaxaca. We saw Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak at 18,491 feet, from the highway. The haze gradually cleared as we headed away from Mexico city, and the road snaked through some impressive mountainous terrain. We really noticed the ongoing power issues in the van when climbing the long grades. We’re hoping that if we can re-produce the problem while in Oaxaca we can find someone to take a look at it. We arrived just in time for Comida (notice a recurring food theme here?) and Jen found us a great restaurant where we enjoyed cold beers, Ceviche, and salmon.

Pico de Orizaba, as seen through Mexico City’s haze.

We’re staying at a very friendly campground outside of town called the Overlander Oasis that is run by a Canadian couple. We’ve signed up for more Spanish classes starting Monday, and we’ve got some volunteer work to do here, so we’ll be stationary for another week.