Tlaxiaco
Back from a cool refreshing weekend in the mountains!
Tlaxiaco (IPA: /tla.’xia.ko/) is a Nahuatl name containing the elements tlachtli (ball game), quiahuitl (rain), and -co (place marker). It thus approximates to “Place where it rains on the ball court”. Its name in the Mixtec language is Ndijiinu, which means “good view.” Population about 20,000. 600 taxis…most of them illegal.
The city is formally known as Heroica Ciudad de Tlaxiaco (“heroic city”) in honour of a battle waged there during the 1862–67 French invasion.
Three and half hours in a comfortable van into the Mixteca Alta northeast of Oaxaca City with my friend Paula who has been here this past year teaching English to second graders in a private school. We met friends Max, Sandy and Budd there who came up the next day. Stayed in a beautiful recently remodeled hotel across from the plaza with a huge German clock installed in 1947…one of several in the Mixtec area…and it was working and on time!
Saturday was the weekly rotating market day so the plaza was full of vendors selling just about everything possible that began setting up 4-5am…including outside my hotel window I might add. Side streets full of women vendors selling huge pots of posole, chicken soup, big fat tamales, memelas, atole, cafe de olla (sweet coffee made in a pot…we called it sheep camp coffee when I was growing up). I bought a big pottery casserole with lid for 30 pesos…about $2.50 and a smaller one with lid for 20 pesos.
Toward evening we took a taxi ride up a hill so we could look out over the valley…stopping for blanco mescal for Max (ugh) before heading back to the hotel and something to eat.
Sunday, after a buffet of chilaquilles, beef burria, scrambled eggs and ham etc etc…and some of the best Mexican hot chocolate we’ve ever had, (the coffee tasted like dishwater as my mother used to say) Paula and I walked up to the house where Lila Downs, the famous Oaxacan singer, grew up…Paula knowing them because she had spent several weeks in the village during college.
Paula had wanted to see an old friend who owned a tienda…but about 20 days before we got there he had been drinking and fell and hit his head and died…a sad disappointment. But we had several nice conversations with other locals some of whom had worked in the states before and wanted to practice their English.
Then we took another taxi ride through the valley before scrambling on the van back to Oaxaca City…Sandy and Budd having gone on before us.
Quiet and friendly, none of us wanted to leave.
Tags: Mexico, Oaxaca, Tlaxiaco
Zoe
No worries! Well, I wouldn’t call you “silly” because of course you haven’t been here and the media blows everything out of proportion. The narco traffic is not here…it’s up in the border states and along the coast. I wouldn’t worry a bit. I’ve lived here since 2006 and haven’t had any bad experiences…nor have any of my friends. I belong to http://www.couchsurfing.org and have had many young people stay with me…two bicyclers riding all the way from Vancouver BC to tip of Argentina, two young women from Estonia, one from Lithuania, one guy from France and several from the States. The people here and in the mountains are wonderful and kind. I wouldn’t worry about her here more than any other place. She will have good guidance I am sure!
my grandniece, 19, is going to go to tiaxiaco the end of august to attend a school for missionaries with a religious group she is involved with, with the intention of bringing “outreach” to the indigenous people groups. (her words, not mine).
with the increased gang crime, i have undoubtedly alienated her with my “advice” not to go; now i wonder if my fears are silly.
i apologize for the intrusion, but can you tell me just how bad. or good, the area is around oaxaca city and tiaxaco? I certainly would appreciate your input. thank you,
sincerely,
judy brigman