Another tour day, this time to the east of the city. The first thing I saw, just getting out of the city was a sign proclaiming “Ciudad de las Canteras” or City of Quarries, and on inquiry from the driver he told me that yes, this is where the quarries of all the sillar building stone used throughout the city came from, and that in fact there was a pretty promenade through one of the now abandoned quarries. I told him he would have to drop me off here on the way back.
The first real stop was in Santa Maria del Tule, a pretty little town whose claim to fame is to be guardians of the biggest tree in the world! Not the tallest, but the fattest, with a circumference of more than 400 m. Like some Oaxaqueňos, it is portentously wide but not very tall, maxing at 80 m. The tree is an ahuehuete or sabino (a type of juniper tree) and is really a marvel of nature, It is 2,000 years old, five times larger than its 1,000 year old son, and has an intricate internal structure that invites to get lost in its labyrinthine dance of branches and ridges. I took two turns around it, and took several photos, with the idea of drawing it in black ink once I get home.
Next we stopped in a bakery to have breakfast: A tamal oaxaqueňo of mole negro. Oh my goodness, it was a monster wrapped in a banana leaf and was absolutely delicious, accompanied with a mug of tasty local chocolate.
From there we went to Mitla, which is a must for the visitor to Oaxaca. This was the main site of the Mixtecos, who during the Post-Classic occupied the Valley of Oaxaca. The site is not very big and does not include pyramids or monumental architecture. It is really three quadrangles, each maybe 100 by 50 m, but what they lack in monumentality they more than make up for in their commodious proportions, wide portals, and the most exquisite geometric decorations on their facades. The Mixtecos must have been OCD, because they created intricate geometric patterns with small stone blocks, just like if they were playing Janga, in panels that were maybe 2 m tall and 10 m wide. They did this in panel after panel, and I don’t think they ever repeated themselves. They were also master goldsmiths, and their pieces are among the most famous gold artifacts in Mesoamerica. They were also the Goths of their time, obsessed with death.
Pushing forward we climbed the mountains to reach a place called Hierve el Agua, a surreal line of springs that seep out of the limestone rock high on the wall of the valley. As the spring water comes in contact with the air, the calcium and the carbonate dissolved in the water react to form calcite, which is deposited as a film on the rocks. Little by little this thin skin of calcite deposits has grown into a magnificent set of travertine pools that at their very edge “cascade” down over a couple hundred meters to form an astonishing stone waterfall (kind of a giant stalactite or drape that hangs over the cliff). The name of the place arises because in this day and age the springs bubble up through the travertine pools and give the impression that they are boiling (the water is indeed cool and crystalline).
Lunch was … glorious! I have learnt my lesson and took only very small portions, so I was able to enjoy caldo de nopales, mole negro, mole amarillo, encacahuatado de cerdo, serrano de puerco, encocacolado de pollo, natilla, pay de queso, mousse de mezcal, condesas, y flán It was a gastronomic delight!
Our last two stops were at a carpet weaving store, where we had a fascinating lecture about the different types of vegetable and insect dyes used in the industry. Fascinating, of course, was the use of the grana-cochinilla, a tiny insect parasite of the nopal that after it is scraped from the cactus pads is dried and stored as little gray granules. Once the artisan is ready to create the dye the granules are ground, and different shades of bright red, orange, and purple are obtained by mixing the grounds with vinegar, herbs, or lime. It seems to be a pH dependent process, so by adjusting the pH of the mix all sorts of cool colors can be created.
Finally we reached the mezcal factory, the title attraction of the tour. Mezcal, tequila, sotol, and all the other gut rot sold throughout the country are all derived from similar agave plants and using similar processes. The are at least 40 different types of agaves, with lifespans from 5 to 50 years, and you have to wait until they are dying to harvest them. An agave that has reached its maturity blooms with a big white flower supported by a woody stem, and it is at this time that the plant is uprooted, the spiny leaves are cut with a machete, and the remaining core (called la piňa), which is maybe as large as a very large beachball, is quartered and cooked. For cooking they use large stone pits, where a fire is lighted and allowed to turn into coals, a layer of stones that get real hot, a pickup bed of piňas, and a cover of branches and dirt. Cooking takes a day, after which the cooked agave is soft, sweet, and has a distinctive smoke flavor. The soft agave then goes to a trapiche where a large mill stone is rolled over the cooked agave to create a mosto mash that is then passed to wooden vats to ferment (a horse walking in circles provides the energy needed). After that the fermented mosto is passed unto the boiler of an alambique or still, where the high alcohol fraction is distilled (sometimes twice to boost the alcohol content), The mezcal is now ready to drink, but it would be much smoother if allowed to rest in ceramic or oak jars and barrels.
Mezcal is now taking some of the high end market from tequila, and a one-liter bottle will range in price from MEX$ 500 to 2,000 (US$ 25 to 100). The key determinant here is how much you have to wait for your agave plantation to be ripe for harvest, since there is the general impression that old agaves should yield higher level gut-rot. Outside of patience, there is not much to the manufacture of tequila or mezcal, so it is a bit of a concern that some Central Valley farmers are toying with the idea of tearing down the almond orchards to plant drought-tolerant agaves to compete in the tequila market. And you know they will not go with just 500 plants at a time, but with 500,000, which in 10 years could create the biggest glut of craft tequilas in the world!
My last hurrah was leaving my group in Ciudad de las Canteras, and confirming that indeed there is a 50-m thick peralkaline ignimbrite cropping out in and around the city, which is moderately welded and vapor-phase altered to from a sillar that is perfect for stone blocks and statuary art. I could not see any stratigraphy in the outcrops I visited, but I will do some Google research to try to find more about it … well, I see a paper about the Late Eocene Tilzapotla Ignimbrite, but see also reference to the Miocene Etla Ignimbrite.
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