Spanish Classes in Oaxaca, En Via, Pueblos Mancomunados, and Puebla
Oaxaca is a vibrant medium-sized city - much more of my type compared to hectic and overwhelming Mexico City.
Aztec dancers in the center of Oaxaca
Spanish Classes
As soon as I arrived I applied to an Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca - a spanish school. I was new to Spanish but was placed in an A2 group because I could sort of guess some things just thanks to my half-forgotten Italian and French. There were only four people in the class which made it almost personal. It amazed me how our teacher Miguel never said a word in English - he could explain everything through his gestures and drawings.
Our schedule looked like this:
9:00-10:30, 10:40-11:50 classes, I get coffee and talk to people during the short break
12:00-13:00 - a conversational class
13:00-15:00 - a lunch break which is actually enough time to explore the city a bit!
15:00-16:00 - an intercambio where you exchange language practice with a native speaker
16:00-18:00 - a cooking class in spanish. I got lucky because we were cooking food fot the Semana Santa which meant everything was vegetarian (huazontles, romeritos, molotes de plátano, and other meals!)
As soon as I arrived I applied to an Instituto Cultural de Oaxaca - a spanish school. I was new to Spanish but was placed in an A2 group because I could sort of guess some things just thanks to my half-forgotten Italian and French. There were only four people in the class which made it almost personal. It amazed me how our teacher Miguel never said a word in English - he could explain everything through his gestures and drawings.
Our schedule looked like this:
9:00-10:30, 10:40-11:50 classes, I get coffee and talk to people during the short break
12:00-13:00 - a conversational class
13:00-15:00 - a lunch break which is actually enough time to explore the city a bit!
15:00-16:00 - an intercambio where you exchange language practice with a native speaker
16:00-18:00 - a cooking class in spanish. I got lucky because we were cooking food fot the Semana Santa which meant everything was vegetarian (huazontles, romeritos, molotes de plátano, and other meals!)
En Via Tour
En Via is an NGO that helps local women to get loans to start their local small businesses. A big chunk of 850 pesos that you pay for the tour goes to these women.The problem with starting a small business in the rural parts of Mexico is that people can't get loans that would be big enough to jump start their company. Even if they manage to get a loan the interest rate is gigantic. En Via helps women in three ways. First, they give them loans at 0% interest rate. Second, they support responsible tourism (60 pesos goes to our lunch to one of the borrowers who opened a tiny cafe, 140 for a van, gas, and a driver, the rest goes to the loan budget) . Third - through educational programs.
The loans start with 1500 pesos. Women need to find two partners to work with first, then, each of them can get a loan which they need to pay back during the next 8 weeks. If they succeed, the next loan can be 2500 pesos, and so on up to 5500 pesos. If one of the women can't pay on time or can't show up on the weekly gatherings two other women need to pay for her or the woman has to make an arrangement and explain why she couldn't come and pay herself. If one of them fails to pay, they all are charged a 60 pesos fine. Right now they have a 99% payback rate.
Educational classes are very different, starting with basic personal finances and ending with health, nutrition, marketing, signage, design, english, etc. Because a lot of people don't speak spanish, there are sometimes classes in Zapotec as well.
En Via is an NGO that helps local women to get loans to start their local small businesses. A big chunk of 850 pesos that you pay for the tour goes to these women.The problem with starting a small business in the rural parts of Mexico is that people can't get loans that would be big enough to jump start their company. Even if they manage to get a loan the interest rate is gigantic. En Via helps women in three ways. First, they give them loans at 0% interest rate. Second, they support responsible tourism (60 pesos goes to our lunch to one of the borrowers who opened a tiny cafe, 140 for a van, gas, and a driver, the rest goes to the loan budget) . Third - through educational programs.
The loans start with 1500 pesos. Women need to find two partners to work with first, then, each of them can get a loan which they need to pay back during the next 8 weeks. If they succeed, the next loan can be 2500 pesos, and so on up to 5500 pesos. If one of the women can't pay on time or can't show up on the weekly gatherings two other women need to pay for her or the woman has to make an arrangement and explain why she couldn't come and pay herself. If one of them fails to pay, they all are charged a 60 pesos fine. Right now they have a 99% payback rate.
Educational classes are very different, starting with basic personal finances and ending with health, nutrition, marketing, signage, design, english, etc. Because a lot of people don't speak spanish, there are sometimes classes in Zapotec as well.
The first place we went to was a leather store. A whole family (mother, her two sons and daughter-in-law + a couple of young boys who are now employed there) work on new designs and on making bags, wallets, etc. They have several sewing machines and in general I think quite successful.
Then we had lunch and moved to the second village where we've met two families who are weaving rugs. All three women who were presenting their work (1 and 2 at another house) are really sweet and were eager to share their thoughts about lots of things. The first woman has a dog who looks..really really really crazy. Her eyes are wide-open and she barks all the time. We thought it's because she was on a really short leash.
All women wear the aprons that are very unique and not just for cooking but for looking pretty. They don't remember how the tradition started.
Zapotec language is all over, and while some people say that people from different villages can't understand each other, the woman explained that it's like a person from California talking to a person from the UK.
Water is a rarity, the drought is everywhere, very sad-looking brown hills. The villages occurred, it turned out, when one village drew the borders around it and told everyone who were outside of these borders to move away. So they moved and formed new settlements.
Long time ago, a married woman would wear a braid and a shawl to show that she is married, but now everyone wants to look modern so they don't do it anymore. The tradition of the youngest girl staying with the mother to take care of her and not being able to marry is actually still alive though this family had 10 kids, 5 of whom were boys, so there was no question. Every kid helps mother and grandparents to weave, clean the house, grow plants, cook, etc.
When we asked about divorces, the woman said: it never happens. You get married and start focusing on making kids, cooking, farming, working, cooking, then kids need to go to school, then find a job, then they get married, then grandchildren come, then you look around and you are already old: there is no time to think about divorces.
Then we had lunch and moved to the second village where we've met two families who are weaving rugs. All three women who were presenting their work (1 and 2 at another house) are really sweet and were eager to share their thoughts about lots of things. The first woman has a dog who looks..really really really crazy. Her eyes are wide-open and she barks all the time. We thought it's because she was on a really short leash.
All women wear the aprons that are very unique and not just for cooking but for looking pretty. They don't remember how the tradition started.
Zapotec language is all over, and while some people say that people from different villages can't understand each other, the woman explained that it's like a person from California talking to a person from the UK.
Water is a rarity, the drought is everywhere, very sad-looking brown hills. The villages occurred, it turned out, when one village drew the borders around it and told everyone who were outside of these borders to move away. So they moved and formed new settlements.
Long time ago, a married woman would wear a braid and a shawl to show that she is married, but now everyone wants to look modern so they don't do it anymore. The tradition of the youngest girl staying with the mother to take care of her and not being able to marry is actually still alive though this family had 10 kids, 5 of whom were boys, so there was no question. Every kid helps mother and grandparents to weave, clean the house, grow plants, cook, etc.
When we asked about divorces, the woman said: it never happens. You get married and start focusing on making kids, cooking, farming, working, cooking, then kids need to go to school, then find a job, then they get married, then grandchildren come, then you look around and you are already old: there is no time to think about divorces.
Hiking the Pueblos Mancomunados Trail
I found a random person from my hostel who agreed to go to Pueblos Mancomunados (8 villages connected by old zapoteca trails).
Day 1
We arrived at the first village (Ixtlan de Juarez, it's not part of the 8 villages) by collectivo that cost only 70 pesos, walked around, didn't find anything fun and decided to head south. People didn't think that there was any hiking route so we decided to hitchhike (it was like 18 km between villages on a car road, so not super pleasant).We got dropped off next to a small village that's not even on the map (San Juan).
There we watched a basketball game for a bit (it's a huuuuge thing in the Oaxaca region, every village has at least one basketball court, sometimes two or three..for a couple of hundred people it's amazing!). After watching the game for like 30 min, we walked for 5 km to get to our destination village (Amatlan). We found one hut owned by the monopolist ecotourism company Expediciones Sierra Norte. We tried to open all doors and figured there was not a single person in, but after interrogating locals we found a person responsible for the cabanas (300 pesos).
Day 2
Next day we went to Latuvi (18 km, 2800 m), passing by another village Lachatao. Each village has a church, a municipal building and, as I mentioned earlier, one or two basketball courts. We reached Latuvi by like 4-5pm. The view was amazing, also every hotel has hammocks which was wonderful for reading my book (a dorm bed was 180 pesos).
Day 3
After a cold night we headed to Benito Juarez (3000 m) a smaller but definitely way more touristy village. To catch a collectivo back to Oaxaca we needed to hike 4 km to another village (Cuajimoloyas.) Cuajimoloyas was definitely worth visiting because it's really pretty: a lot of neat houses and pine trees. It has bike rental services and a zip-line. We walked around until it started raining, I almost froze to death while waiting for our collectivo. The car arrived in like an hour, it was again sort of a truck with a local guy on the back (30+18 pesos for 65 km).
I found a random person from my hostel who agreed to go to Pueblos Mancomunados (8 villages connected by old zapoteca trails).
Day 1
We arrived at the first village (Ixtlan de Juarez, it's not part of the 8 villages) by collectivo that cost only 70 pesos, walked around, didn't find anything fun and decided to head south. People didn't think that there was any hiking route so we decided to hitchhike (it was like 18 km between villages on a car road, so not super pleasant).We got dropped off next to a small village that's not even on the map (San Juan).
There we watched a basketball game for a bit (it's a huuuuge thing in the Oaxaca region, every village has at least one basketball court, sometimes two or three..for a couple of hundred people it's amazing!). After watching the game for like 30 min, we walked for 5 km to get to our destination village (Amatlan). We found one hut owned by the monopolist ecotourism company Expediciones Sierra Norte. We tried to open all doors and figured there was not a single person in, but after interrogating locals we found a person responsible for the cabanas (300 pesos).
Day 2
Next day we went to Latuvi (18 km, 2800 m), passing by another village Lachatao. Each village has a church, a municipal building and, as I mentioned earlier, one or two basketball courts. We reached Latuvi by like 4-5pm. The view was amazing, also every hotel has hammocks which was wonderful for reading my book (a dorm bed was 180 pesos).
Day 3
After a cold night we headed to Benito Juarez (3000 m) a smaller but definitely way more touristy village. To catch a collectivo back to Oaxaca we needed to hike 4 km to another village (Cuajimoloyas.) Cuajimoloyas was definitely worth visiting because it's really pretty: a lot of neat houses and pine trees. It has bike rental services and a zip-line. We walked around until it started raining, I almost froze to death while waiting for our collectivo. The car arrived in like an hour, it was again sort of a truck with a local guy on the back (30+18 pesos for 65 km).
Puebla
I decided to spend the last few days in Puebla and it was a great choice! Tens of cute museums and galleries, including the oldest Library in the Western Hemisphere, the Museum of Revolution, and the Museum of Alfenique (local sweets).
I decided to spend the last few days in Puebla and it was a great choice! Tens of cute museums and galleries, including the oldest Library in the Western Hemisphere, the Museum of Revolution, and the Museum of Alfenique (local sweets).
