Date: 17/12/2012 à 18/12/2012

Path: Almost always followed by Mexico 160 desde Cidade do México até Oaxaca.

We left the city of Mexico and continue to southeast peel Mexican Sierra Madre where he reached the state of Oaxaca. Situated in the middle of the central valleys that state, and bearing the same name, is the city of Oaxaca de Juárez (or simply known as Oaxaca). Despite the well-preserved architectural structure dating back to the period of Spanish domination, Oaxaca retains many traditions, costumes e, in particular, a culinary peculiar, remnants of its strong heritage of pre-Columbian civilizations that occupied the region for more than 2.000 anos.

As montanhas da Sierra Madre Mexicana nos acompanhavam boa parte do caminho até o estado de Oaxaca.

It was almost late afternoon when we reached the center of Oaxaca. We walked through its historic streets and enjoy the late afternoon sitting on the stools Plaza Alameda de León, Appends Constiuición Square, or Zócalo. The Zocalo is the pleasure center of Oaxaca and there, e na Alameda de León, is the meeting point of the Oaxacan, getting crowded even during the weekdays: parents and children, students who have just left college, elderly, hawkers… Even a Congressman (little rascal) took advantage of the calm weather and family end of the year, to promote their image by distributing free popcorn (regardless of where the money came from to pay for the popcorn, the act is, no minimum, strange). But the queue for the popcorn, é clear, was huge! And although the square not maintain almost anything its colonial style (when he had no pavements or sidewalks) ela foi e muito bem na remodeled Alameda de León, is to discover majestosa Oaxaca Cathedral - Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption. The church that stands there today started construction in 1702 after being destroyed on two previous occasions by two earthquakes. The church has one of the nicest interiors of all Catholic churches we visited! With an interior in a beautiful neoclassical, what is most striking is the altar with the image of Our Lady of Assumption in bronze, encomendada na Itália.

Notice the huge queue in broad daylight from week to get the free popcorn Trickster Congressman, Zócalo not (praça central) de Oaxaca.

A facade da bela Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, close to the Zocalo of Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico

The beautiful interior of the Cathedral Oaxacan!

That night we would still have our first contact with Oaxacan cuisine. After consulting our guide book (o Ralf) and observe the movement of restaurants, not decided to go to La Terraza restaurant will eat famous Tlayuda! The tlayuda tortilla itself is a pretty big, a bit more solid (without getting to be crunch) and tastier than traditional. It comes stuffed with black beans, lettuce, guacamole, Porco linguiça, typical base sauce of green peppers and red or a hearty steak!

Andrew, Gabriel, Leonardo and Bruno Comem to Tlayuda, no restaurant La Terraza. Gustavo ate a Tamal – dish based on corn that comes wrapped in a banana leaf (em Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico)

The next day was the highlight of our visit to Oaxaca! Intense and culture, can visit the huge and ancient tree of Tule, a imponente ruína de Monte Albán e deliciar algumas das tradicionais iguarias oaxaquenhas.

Early in the morning we set off for a stroll around the charming centrinho Santa Maria del Tule, onde fica located Tule Tree (Tule tree). Known as Ahuehuete in nahuatl (the predominant language in the Aztec empire that eventually gave name to many things in Mexico), tree 2.000 years is considered one of the largest trees in the world!!! But although many tourists imagine seeing a tall tree (as, for example, the Sequoias in North America) if the tree Tule, is not its height of 42m which impresses. Or title ela recebe, indeed, consists largely due to its total volume. After all, Have your huge amount of trunk diameter and 14m in circumference 58m (which equates to just over 30 people hugging the tree!).

Notice the size and volume of the tree compared to the church and the town hall next to tree. Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca – Mexico

Or imenso Tule tree trunk – one of the largest trees in the world! (em Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca – Mexico)

We went from there to the archaeological site of Monte Alban, the ancient capital of the Zapotec. Socio political and economic center of the Zapotec by more than 1.000 years old! The Zapatecas were not fools, constructed their most important city on the 1,940 m of altitude is 400 meters above the central valley of Oaxaca! Had, thereby, an amazing and privileged view of the whole valley which gave them a great defensive advantage!

Panoramic photo of the archaeological site of Monte Alban – Oaxaca, Mexico

A view privilegiada dos Zapotecas, top of Monte Alban

With the very dry climate (especially in the winter months - Nov. to Mar.) and very hot during the day, the site is large, plan (was flattened by the Zapotecs) and impressed by the incredible level of conservation of several buildings in this city that once had 35.000 inhabitants teve e seu trough between 500 a.C. and 800 d.C.

The Expedition in hot, dry climate of the magnificent archaeological site of Monte Alban!

The main square and surrounding buildings. Notice the floor flattened the ancient Zapotec capital!

The site has a main square from where two corridors: one for north and one for south. Are arranged around several buildings where, probably, ficavam a elite Zapoteca, ceremonial and sacred buildings. But what most caught our attention was the huge field Ball game (ballgame), one of the most traditional sports played in several Mesoamerican civilizations since 1400 a.C. The exact rules of 'ball games' are unknown but, in general, the goal was to keep the ball in play. In its most classic versions, players should hit the ball using your hips, shoulders, knees or elbows and more interesting is that many of these games had ritual significance. What it means? The losers could be dead in offerings to the gods! (Now, imagine if our football was so, hein?! Hahahaha)

Or stage Ballgame no Monte Alban, one of the greatest of all mesomerica! Gabriel is a spectator and angled walls on the sidelines (although they seem bleachers), serve to help keep the ball in play!

Several signs like carved figures on buildings, some ceramic pieces and other architectural decorations, reveal that the site probably was influenced by contact between its inhabitants and Olmec civilizations and Teotihuacan. Many of the remains were removed from the site and placed in a museum annex, where more details can be found in life Zapoteca, the excavations and studies done on site over the last few years. A curiosity about the site is that it is believed that only 20% its area has been excavated so far! Truly amazing!

The figure of a man supposedly in some dance or ritual – em Monte Albán, Oaxaca – Mexico

Parts of figures in rituals, made by Zapotecs and found the site of Monte Alban, colocadas no museu anexo ao sítio.

We left hungry after all that walking and our last stop in Oaxaca would be in the traditional Mercado Benito Juarez Market, where we ate delicious sanduíche oaxaquenho and experience the traditional grasshoppers! Name chapuline not to sound very strange to many Brazilians, is not even? Anyone know where remember? For those who remembered, that's right: Mexican TV character who spent the decade of the SBT 90: or Chapolin Colorado! Grasshoppers are a type of grasshopper reddish and we never noticed those little antennas and elongated tails that the hero was actually Chapolin to represent that he was a grasshopper! hahahaha… The grasshoppers Oaxaca are fried and seasoned with salt and lemon. It tastes like a cone shrimp fritinha (but without the delicious shrimp meat inside, é clear! ) and the salt and lemon give an extra saborzinho. Who here would risk?! Well, The market also has several clothing and characteristic of the region. We left Dali and continue to Market 20 November, conhecido as food market, to enjoy the much talked Oaxacan chocolate. Mas na verdade não gostamos tanto quanto as outras iguarias.

Juices accompany the tasty sandwich Benito Juarez Market in Oaxaca – Oaxaca, Oaxaca – México.

Small chapulines the hands of Bruno, André and Gustavo – market Juarez – Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico

Gabriel about to devour another Chapuline! (em Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico)

Clothes typical Oaxaquenhas in the Benito Juarez market – Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico

The traditional Mexican sauce known as' Mole’ (based on many different peppers and chillies) exposed to market 20 November – Oaxaca, Oaxaca – Mexico

Due to the proximity of Oaxaca archaeological site of Monte Alban, e A Cidade de Santa Maria del Tule, in just two days exploring the region and could "taste" some of their traditions. Unfortunately our time is short and we needed to follow the Southeast. Traditions, stories, culinary, archeological sites… an entire cultural wealth of other pre-Columbian peoples that still remains alive for Mexican lands were waiting. We needed to leave and the next stops would be nothing more, nothing less, independent of the state of Chiapas mystical Yucatan peninsula! Até breve!

Nanda and Bruno came out of the site of Monte Albán…

To check out more photos from this experience, click here!

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Date: 21/11/2012 à 22/11/2012

Path: Always follow the Carretera Federal 1 (Mexico 1) always guiding us through the boards and local guidelines. To get to ask guidance in Serra San Ignacio, where is the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History).

Surrounded by two seas that cut the peninsula in countless beaches and bays, the Baja California, frightfully, also houses in its interior a narrow desert dry and extreme. With low rainfall and very strong winds, El Vizcaíno desert hosts an abundant number of animal and plant species that have adapted to these conditions and earned him the title of Biosphere Reserve by Unesco. But that's not all! O deserto El Vizcaino hides, inside, mysteries of human life dating back more than 3.000 years old!!

We left the bay of los Angeles after breakfast. We went after the best information about Sierra de San Francisco and the famous cave paintings hidden inside their dens. There were hundreds of kilometers traveled south and we went into our second Mexican state - Baja California Sur - where we were greeted by a huge dry vegetation, stony soil and cactaceous and more rugged stretch of Baja, cercado por altas serras e montanhas.

The ground dried cactus and desert El Vizcaíno, Sul Baja California – Mexico

The first stop was in the town of San Ignacio to glean more information on how to make the visit to the archaeological site of the Sierra de San Francisco. Our research, mainly blog do 1000 day for the Americas, us that we needed a pointed advance permission to visit the "Caves" where the paintings were. It was just before the 16h when stopped at INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) to take away our doubts and buy tickets to ride one of the best known sites in the region: the Mouse Cave. Although this is the more traditional visit, the INAH has shown us that there are other views that can be made to see the cave paintings, some of these, lasting until 3 days, includes mounting a mule that takes the visitor into the mountains on a long stretch of downhill and then up camp right there on the nature of the site. It really seemed very interesting! But due to our budget constraints and our script we still had long defined by Baja, we chose only the simple visit to Mouse Cave.

A estrada that cuts to the Sierra de San Francisco, Sul Baja California – Mexico

We returned a few kilometers north by road Mexico 1 and hamper the paved road that leads into the mountains of El Vizcaino Desert. That path leads to the flat expanse of parched soil and cactaceous, goes towards the imposing wall on which it is situated Sierra of San Francisco.

Rumo to Sierra de San Francisco!! Sul Baja California – Mexico

We walked the final stretch of a few miles we came in very rugged and rustic, e only, Sierra da ali hotel. Impeccably clean and very tidy, Today the hotel is mainly maintained by owner Yandira, who received us. But due to our constant search for lower costs decided to sleep in the tent and just enjoy the food made by the Yandira there in the kitchen of the small hotel. The temperature falls a lot during the night, but nothing compared to the cold nights of Alaska! Hahaha Fomos dormir cedo.

The Tanajura enjoying the beautiful view from atop the Sierra de San Francisco!

Start of final stretch: Chaos and bumpy road (Sierra de San Francisco, Sul Baja California – Mexico)

O rústico and impecável no hotel Rancho San Francisco

Waking up in the morning chill of the Sierra de San Francisco

No dia seguinte por volta das 9h conheceríamos o senhor Jose que seria nosso guia na visita à Mouse Cave. The cave gets its name from one of its major paintings probably a deer, in which the ancient inhabitants thought to be a large rat, que lhe renderam to alcunha de 'ratón'. The paintings dating there were probably made by people Cochimi, from North America, and are of very high quality to international standards. They are dated between 1100 and 1300 a.c. and were found in the eighteenth century by a Jesuit missionary named Francisco Javier, in its passage through the region in search of colonization of primitive peoples there. Mysteries and beliefs lend an air of fable to some of the paintings: traditional beliefs say that the drawings were made by giant men, since some people have shown more than 2m! They also point to a mystical-religious content with men who seem sorcerers. But most of the paintings show hunting scenes and various animals of the region. Due to lack of information in terms of location and our visit restricted to only one cave, less than 1 hora já estávamos de volta ao hotel.

O Senhor conduziu us to cave Mouse

The deer (ou ratón – believed as the first discoverers of paintings) that gave rise to the name of Cueva!

Men “giant”

Typical dinner na caça Mouse Cave

Reading one of the few information signs that are in place

The hotel itself and Mouse Cave ficam populated outskirts of the small of the Rancho San Francisco. Near 100 People live there and, second in informaram, There are other smaller ranches here in the Sierra. Some of its residents work as guides, while others are devoted to subsistence activities in the region. Around 7:30 am, Walking distance to 5 minutes (even before the visit to Mouse Cave) Since hosting the rustic ranch until centrinho, nos permitiu apreciar mais de perto a rotina daqueles habitantes.

The entrance to the Rancho San Francisco

A humble little church gives and colorful welcome. Humble cottages are scattered around the town's only school there. At that hour of the morning, there who is watering the flowers from her colorful little garden and someone is sweeping the driveway. Father and son play for the goats in the pen while boys and girls play ball in the schoolyard. Clearly we were weird that reality, yet all greeted us with a smile and a 'good morning '.

But it was strange to see, return in that short walk, one of those very frightened goats tied in the trunk of a tree. And when we came back from cueva del Raton, hours, Só encontrava-ali to be corda that amarrava, some of its innards and bloodshed that left a trail into the kitchen of hosting. Our fear is something so trivial to their reality, reveals how we really are urban guys!

Child runs around the hotel in Rancho San Francisco

It was more an experience that fulfilled its role in our ongoing transformation.

The numerous goats on the ranch will open the way to Tanajura off the Sierra de San Francisco (Sul Baja California, Mexico)

Click here to see more photos of Sierra de San Francisco!

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