Day 2: I conquer my fears...Monday, June 19, 2006

Today was an amazing day. We were hustling and bustling like I´ve never done. We started the morning with a visit with Susana Trilling (a renowed chef from Texas who is now living in Oaxaca and has written several books on Oaxacan cuisine, she has also been on the food network). Susana has a lovely home and cooking school she operates in Oaxaca. To get to her house we had to cross a river... hahahahahaha... here I am walking slowly across. I loved getting me feet wet! Basically, we learned how the people of Oaxaca live off of the land to survive. It truly is beautiful and remarkable. I am coming home with a nopal salad recipe that I´ll have to make for grandma someday!

Here you will see a picture from the paper factory in one of the regions of Oaxaca, Etla. Here the young men and women of the village prepare the paper from scratch using local cactus and fibers from trees. The process is truly amazing, and it is amazing how people in the states take advantage of this labor and sell this paper for ungodly amounts of money. The hard work that goes into every single one of these pages is amazing!

Now this is a truly amazing picture. This is one of the ruins from the Zapoteca era. The Montealban ruins are beautiful, and I have more pictures to share. We arrived here late in the afternoon, so we were the only ones there. The rain clouds were dark and gloomy and the thunder resonated around the area. We knew we were in for trouble, but we stayed and endured the rain storm. It was almost as if the rain gods were welcoming us there. And yes, I did climb this temple in the rain!!!!!! My legs have been sore for three days now because of that climb, but it was worth it!