Sites of Oaxaca Part II
Earlier this week we went on a second excursion to learn more about Oaxaca. This one was only a half day - Monte Alban and a place that carves Alebrijes.
Monte Alban was a massive archaeological site located in a low mountainous range in Oaxaca. It's location was beautiful - situated on flattened hills surrounded by valleys. It is another site of the Zapotec people. Here we saw more homes, sites of worship, a pre-historic game court (kind of like basketball), tombs, and many carved stone monuments. Lucky for us we went early in the morning - as we got ready to leave the site, tourists started flooding in.
Next we went to a place that carves the fantastical creatures called Alebrijes, unique to the region. These are hand wood carvings of magical, imaginary creatures that are then painted in beautiful, bright colors by hand. Apparently they can also be made out of paper mache, but we only saw the wood pieces. The larger pieces take months to make as the wood needs time to dry after a carving. We got to see a couple of men at work carving by hand with sharp knives, then some artists painting the dried pieces for sale. It's incredible - there's no blueprints or designs to follow, the creatures exist solely inside the carver's imaginations as they create the pieces. There were definitely some familiar animals on the shelves - lots of beautiful birds, porcupines are a favorite, and dragons, and then there were lots of other creatures that I have no names for.
My favorite - they actually paint shoes too! I tried to buy a pair, since they also happened to be the brand of my favorite sneaker, but since I'm in the land of people my height, they actually had nothing left in my size. :(
And that was the last of our Oaxaca adventures - a beautiful state, rich in culture and heritage!
Monte Alban was a massive archaeological site located in a low mountainous range in Oaxaca. It's location was beautiful - situated on flattened hills surrounded by valleys. It is another site of the Zapotec people. Here we saw more homes, sites of worship, a pre-historic game court (kind of like basketball), tombs, and many carved stone monuments. Lucky for us we went early in the morning - as we got ready to leave the site, tourists started flooding in.
Next we went to a place that carves the fantastical creatures called Alebrijes, unique to the region. These are hand wood carvings of magical, imaginary creatures that are then painted in beautiful, bright colors by hand. Apparently they can also be made out of paper mache, but we only saw the wood pieces. The larger pieces take months to make as the wood needs time to dry after a carving. We got to see a couple of men at work carving by hand with sharp knives, then some artists painting the dried pieces for sale. It's incredible - there's no blueprints or designs to follow, the creatures exist solely inside the carver's imaginations as they create the pieces. There were definitely some familiar animals on the shelves - lots of beautiful birds, porcupines are a favorite, and dragons, and then there were lots of other creatures that I have no names for.
My favorite - they actually paint shoes too! I tried to buy a pair, since they also happened to be the brand of my favorite sneaker, but since I'm in the land of people my height, they actually had nothing left in my size. :(
And that was the last of our Oaxaca adventures - a beautiful state, rich in culture and heritage!
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