Botany Adventures & Exploring Yagul

SPANISH

Hello everyone back home!

The last few days of this Spanish class have flown by, but not without excitement and a lot of fun. On Friday we met at the Xochimilco market where we had our morning discussion of the day before as well as shopped and learned about the types of products they have there; such as their tasty coffee, chocolates, and prepared foods. After the markets, having eaten plenty of food, we visited the Botanical gardens in Santo Domingo. The gardens were incredible, consisting of various plants, trees, shrubs, and corn plants. Our guide was very knowledgeable of the plant species and their histories, and was able to answer all of our eager questions. After the Botanical garden, we made our way to the Llano Park for free drinks and ice cream in observation of a local holiday.

On Sunday, we had a very busy and exciting day. Our first stop, at 9 in the morning, was Yagul, one of the many ancient ruins here in Oaxaca, about 40 minutes outside of the city. There, our two welcoming guides led us through the entire ruin. We experienced first-hand how the ancient architecture and stone work was applied as we walked through the ancient home of those pre-Hispanic habitants. After the tour, we were off to Tlacolula. Here we experienced the biggest street market in Oaxaca. In a maze of shops and stands, we were amazed at the enormous size the market. One could spend the entire day just looking at the hand-made crafts and food. At about 6 in the afternoon, we were home, and just in time to be confronted with one of the heaviest rains many of us have seen before. Although only lasting for an hour, we were soaked. It was a good welcome to the rain seasons, which begins sometime in May.

We all really enjoyed our classes and appreciated our professor’s efforts and his immense knowledge of Oaxacan history. As many of you parents back home already know, Tuesday was also the day of a 7.8 earthquake which shook Oaxaca for just only a minute. It has been a truly incredible and fun two weeks in our first track of Spanish. Through amazing field trips, friendly teachers, and eager students, we participated in a fun class while experiencing the nature of Oaxaca. We are all excited to see what the next class has in store for us, and if Oaxaca will give any more surprises.

Hasta luego,

Mickey, Ashley Moore, Sarah, and Natalie

BOTANY

The ten of us had an amazing, botanical week to different pueblos in Oaxaca in order to explore their diverse plant life. We started off Monday in the classroom, with two separate lectures during the day, in order to get our gears grinding for the week. Tuesday morning was when the real adventure began; we boarded a van to return to Capulalpam for our second time this semester. Capulalpam is a majestic little mountain town about two hours north of Oaxaca City, which is involved with ecotourism. After arriving in Capulalpam, we were greeted by a local guide, who shadowed Michael, our botany professor, as he taught us about the plants of the area, while we scribbled in our lab notebooks. After our hike we were given a short break, before having our daily lecture, which was followed by a beautiful dinner at the town’s ecotourism center. We spent the night bundling under the covers in our cabanas, as the climate in the mountains tends to be cold, especially after the sun has set!

We awoke, somewhat refreshed, on Wednesday morning and had a quick lecture before heading to a small town called La Esperanza Comaltepec, in Ixtlan, Oaxaca. On our way to La Esperanza, we stopped for a brief hike that was in the misty mountains, at 2,993 meters, just below Cerro Pélon (“Bald Mountain”). We had an opportunity to learn and view species of plants that are restricted to high elevations, or mountain environments.

We ate lunch at “ El Mirador” restaurant, where our guide was gracious enough to collect the flowers and plants that were transformed into dishes for us to eat. It was a unique, yet fun lunch, a precursor to our dessert. Our guide brought us whole honeycombs, pollinated from his own bees, and we had had the task of sucking out the honey ourselves. We made one more stop before we called it a day, which was very worthwhile. We were able to see Las Cascadas (waterfalls) in the middle of a forest, which were truly beautiful. We learned about the plant life that surrounds this type of environment. We spent the night in the municipalities’ headquarters, sleeping in the two separate rooms where the town holds all of their important meetings. It was beautiful how gracious the townspeople were to set up beds for all of us, which were covered with their own blankets.
Our third day and night were spent in the warm, humid, tropical ecotourism town of San Mateo Yetla. Conveniently, our cabañas were situated on a peaceful river, which we all took advantage of during our free time. We maximized the usage of the beautiful landscape in front of our cabañas and, as Michael would say, we “botanized” it; picking apart banana and mango trees in the afternoon heat. As always, we ended our night with a lecture and some of us followed up with a scary movie. The next morning we woke up to take a hike, just across the river. We split up into two groups
and boarded a little wooden boat, which was steered with a long wooden stick. Just across the river we encountered multiple types of plants, as we hiked along a man-made trail. But, as is customary with the guides of San Mateo Yetla, we sat quietly as our trail leader led us in a prayer in order to ensure our safety in the forest. Following the hike in the forest, we had some free time to swim in the river. We had managed to find a picturesque swimming spot. With a little encouragement from the group, nearly all of us took a jump or two into the water. We ended our trip with one last lunch in San Mateo Yetla, and then proceeded to board the van for our four and a half hour journey back to the city. All in all it was an exhausting, yet overwhelmingly enjoyable week. Looking into the horizon, we have all become excited for our next excursion that is rapidly approaching on Tuesday. ¡Vamos a la playa!

Much love to all of our family and friends,
Whitney