12.1 Seeking the Red Triangles
Seeking the Red Triangles
We have three maps of Oaxaca, and need them all because all of them are different. They show different roads, for instance. Sure, the cuota (toll road) is the same on all of them, and since there are very few primary roads, those are the same too. But some of the tertiary roads are different, and the dirt roads that are marked (and which we find ourselves on more and more) vary tremendously. As a side note, the dirt roads marked are NOTHING like the way the roads actually run. Typically, a switchback is shown as a straight line.
One of them has a large number of little red triangles, marked as Places of Interest; and also a number of red pyramids, the zona arqueologia. It was one of these latter that led us to Danguilac. They provide the objectives for our adventures in the countryside.
We set off early on a Sunday morning to find the ruins marked near Santa Maria Ayoquezo. It wasn?t too far away, and we thought we would explore it, then take a loop over a dirt road to Ocotlan and back home in a few hours. We set off south to 135, a road which we had not traversed, and got to the town. The plan was to just visit the plaza and ask around until we found someone who knew the way, then go visit it.
Well, the zocalo was pretty crowded, much to our surprise. It was a bit intimidating, and we both hesitated. We drove around the puebla, a tiny little place, and then worked up enough courage to do it anyway. We went back to the plaza and, lo and behold, there was a town meeting going on.
We have seen a number of these. The communities are small and very active, and have regular meetings where the people?well, it seems like the men, actually?meet to discuss community things. We have never sat in on one, but there are always several men at a able up front. These are the officers of municipio, a president and secretary for sure, though I am not sure what other officers. You can remember that at Danguilac it was Francisco Ruiz, the municipio secretary, who guided us.
We weren?t going to interfere with a town meeting, so we decided to abandon that search. Nonetheless, as we drove out of the town I stopped and asked one guy, apparently casually on his way to the meeting, if there were some ruins nearby. He directed us to some caves, but Suzanne had read that the caves required flashlights and so on, which we had not brought. So we scratched that part of the trip.
Nonetheless, the map indicated another red triangle (which on that map mean ruins) at the town of Santa Inez, on the cross road we?d planned to take. Off we went. We found the turn off, at the town of San Pablo Huixtepec and drove through it.
Now, these town has no signs. Most don?t have any street signs, and none of them have road signs indicating where the nearby towns or roads are. But they are usually small enough that we follow the most travelled road which inevitably goes through the town to the zocalo, and out the other side. The land is rugged and/or poor enough that there are not a lot of heavily travelled roads anywhere.
But this time, zilch. We were lost. We couldn?t even find our way back to the main road which we had turned off of! So we were slowly thumping our way down a rutted dirt road, among the usual cement shacks with tin roofs, speculating on which way to go, when we saw a truck parked and a guy in it. We stopped, and I went to ask direction.
He actually spoke English! Well, some English And like many folks he was eager and happy to use it. Well, I?m eager and happy to use my Spanish too, so we carried on a bi-lingual conversation which was insufficient for the directions he was giving, and he finally sketched a map in the dirt. I mostly understood the directions out of town, which entailed going back to the main road again and down the ways to a different entrance to the puebla. Even that one required a couple of more stops to ask directions, but at last, off we went.
He had explained hat there were not ruins there, though, just some rock at the bottom of the church. Well, that?s what I understood him to say anyway. I thought that the rocks may have been built into the old church, as sometimes occurs.
Once out of San Pablo we drove on the bumpy road to the tiny town of Santa Inez. It?s easy to find the church in those places, because it is always the biggest building in the puebla, and with a steeple. As a measure of how small it was, the town plaza was filled by a basketball court.
By the way, we see a LOT of basketball courts in these towns. Suzanne often takes a photo. ?Another MesoAmerican ball court,? she says. This is a joke, of course, because the pre-Columbian sites almost always have a ball court to play the ancient game of pelota. It is a characteristic of the sites. (And oddly enough, the only one that doesn?t have one is Teotihuacan, the huge city in the Mexican valley!)
Well, there was a stone there, next to the church. One stone. Interesting, well worn, no idea of where it came from or anything. Here is a photo of it.
As usual, Suzanne-of-the-steady-hand was taking photos. I wandered around. There was another rock, but instead of having ancient carvings it had a big spray-painted 13 on it. This is a gang sign from the US, indicating some recent immigration. (Did you know there are two such gangs in the US? One is the 13?s, or Mexicans, and the other is the 12?s, or Chicanos, American-born Mexicans. The numbers come from the cell blocks at a LA prison where the prisoners are incarcerated, separate because of the violence which they perpetuate against each other.)
The front of the church was fairly new, and freshly painted. The side facing the plaza looked god too. But when I looked around the other side it was really, really old. And more, there were ruins from an even older church on a little hill. The ruins were interesting in themselves, and we took some pictures.
Afterwards, on we went bumping along the dirt road. We passed a few campesinos on the road, usually lugging a gigantic load of something or other. They were always curious, and stared, and also waved back when we did. This is not always the case, for in some places the people don?t even look up, in others they are embarrassed to be caught staring and quickly look away, and others yet, like this, smile and wave back.
Next was the puebla of Santiago Apostle. No red triangles, no marks, a little place with booths lining the street as is common. But Wow, what a church! We stopped to take some photos there.
When we did an old man came out and talked to me for a while. He explained that this was their saint?s day and they were preparing for a calenda, which is a church parade. We have seen a lot of these in Oaxaca, where the women have baskets of flowers, the church banner is paraded, there is often a brass band, and often various church groups solemnly marching along. He invited us to see the flower baskets, so we went through a gate with him.
Behind it were a bunch of men, all drinking beer and getting ready for some comida. We greeted them and they heartily greeted us back. Our new guide explained we were Americans (as if it was not obvious enough) and were going to take pictures. Which we did, as they talked on, in Spanish which I could not understand or, possibly, in Zapotec. Here is Santiago himself. The women carry these baskets on their heads in the calenda.
Finally we were done, and said farewell, wishing them all buon provecho, ?Happy eating!, to which they all roared gracias!, We would have liked to have stayed for the calenda, but when we asked when it was going to be the only answer was ?en el tarde.? This could mean hours and hours, and since we wanted o get home at a reasonable time we decided to depart. The gentleman escorted us outside and talked some more, explaining that he had been to the US before and travelled through California, Texas and Florida. So off we went.
It was not far to Ocotlan. This is on the other main road, 175, which we have driven many times. It was market day there, and the streets were crowded, but once again the church was pretty so we stopped to take some pictures. Also, attached to the church was a room with a huge and splendid mural which depicted, we think, the history of Ocotlan. If so, we do wonder what this part was about.
We departed and drove to the main road, which (I am proud to recount) I recognized even though we were coming from the backside in a direction we had never been before. We wound through the town, passed the church square again on the other side.
We were cruising north when we saw a surprising thing: a blue pyramid sign which designates a zona arqueologia at the town of Santo Tomas Jalieza. We?ve driven the road plenty of times, but never seen this sign, nor was it on the map. So, down the dirt road we go again!
In the plaza were some carved stones. We took pictures. You can just barely see a face here. and a jaguar head here. . I asked if there were ruins nearby, and the only guy in town pointed us up a dirt road, just five minutes away he assured me. Well, ten minutes up the road was nothing, and ten more minutes on other dirt roads, wandering among the corn fields, was nothing else either. So, maybe the sign means ?There is a carved rock this way? or something. We gave it up.
So, no ruins, plenty of adventure. We?ll ask at the tourist center what is supposed to be in Santo Tomas.
And I gotta say, boy do we love this car, our dear Jumboita. All wheel drive is the way to go around here!