You know that I do love these statues in all museums (that means the two I’ve seen so far, il museo de la antropologia in DF and today’s casa de las culturas in Oaxaca) that express the Aztec belief of duality.
So you have a statue of a face and half of it is much alive, while the other half is a skull or at least the eyes are closed, so it depicts death.
My health and state of being is like that at the moment. While my stomach still rumbles around and I don’t eat a lot and I start worrying about my energy and this and that —— I walk into Oaxaquan street life and can’t look enough as everything is interesting to me and all these things I don’t know – make me soo happy! The chocolate mixing machines. Maybe a good thing I can’t eat really, otherwise I’d have jumped right in there. The guys who were dismantling the front of a house – with hammers and bare hands. Immediately my inner economist is astonished that this is obviously cheaper than organizing & using a machine?! The grashopper selling ladies. The worm-selling ladies. That is the worms get powderized. With a little spices, as far as I get it. Nice red-orange powder, that you’re supposed to put in poquito-amounts on your fruit. Guess what I bought. And now wait until I’m back in Alemania. With a stomach bored by the desinfected purity of german food. I’ll get this out, enjoy the taste and see what my stomach says to it…. Well well well. And if my stomach says nothing for a change, I’ll invite friends over to try out the rest of the powder, it’s supposed to be very nice with oranges 🙂
Then fruit. Food. Pork feet. And not to mention my new favourite bag – still have to take a picture. It’s braided palm or something – in the form of a pig. You open its butt, stuff the pig and carry it around. It even has a twisted tail!…. I love the biggest size and was thinking I need an excuse to transport Wulli on a bus with more ease. But now I got this hat……. Well I do need a bag now or a hook to stick the hat to my backpack….. given Wulli in addition – I have plans for tomorrow. Afternoon. What if I seriously get the pig?? The vendor already demonstrated you can smash it in the sides with no need to worry.
I have booked myself an 8 o’clock escort to Monte Alban so will be up early but doubt I’ll make it for longer than 1 or 2 o’clock given my energy level. But who cares, I have a hat….
Anyhow a Mexican mercado is one of the best things in the world. So I’ve mentioned the porks feet. Plus all other intestines just that I can’t properly tell them apart.
Incense – in all variations, big blocks and three-footed bowls to burn it in. Amazing creativity in all directions. The perfect excuse for shopping would be to open a shop in downtown Munich – the Asian Kokon…. and sell the best stuff there. As you need a changing assortment, the boss (that would be me) would of course need to go over to Oaxaca regularly to buy in new things. I’ll call the shop „Mercado Barbarico“ and friend C. could open her café in it – Italian espresso, Mexican chocolata calienda —- and fried grashoppers as a snack…
Ah yes – I could just keep myself from buying half a kilo of chocolate. Have to find a mule first, and I’m not sure that’s allowed on first class autobus.
The baskets.
I don’t know. I mean we have neat stuff in Germany as well, right? It’s just it’s so individual here. Pieces are handmade and they often carry the personality of its owner – that makes it so much fun looking.
I couldn’t take as many photos as I’d love to to breathe in the atmosphere. Ladies, it even tops Aleppo back in the more peaceful days.
And I’m having fun watching the churches. They are — Mexican. And with all the anthropological stuff in my back mind, I start seeing things in the churches that have clear not so catholic or spanish roots – and I love it. How much symbols of our ancestors do German churches bear and shouldn’t I know more about it??? Well can’t do much more than read National Geographic…
Anyhow.
The museum in Oaxaca is much more beautiful than in DF. The building is an ex-convent with beauty, calm, a mentionable backyard (namely view into the neighboring botanical garden plus the mountains in the background) and the pieces are presented in a much more aesthetical way. It made watching a joy.
The most famous piece – well from my point of view…. – the skull from Monte Alban tomb #7 (which I’ll check on in real tomorrow, yippi!) is really really charismatic. As I went in late I had the room with the tomb’s treasure almost completely for myself every now and then.
Well enough for now. I want my chicken soup, consomme de pollo con vegetales or something like that.
And I am actually looking forward to my night bus. I booked superpremium class. I have a single seat, one meter space to the front seat and my own tv-station……. Now go laugh at me. I want to arrive in San Cristobal fresh and crisp before I start freezing off my butt again. Long live Wulli, who I am now going to take for a stroll. The wind from the mountains here makes it cool at night which I really like. Plus it blows away the smog that’s a children’s joke compared to Puebla, so I am really enjoying breathing in – and breathing out.