Viajar el mundo: Mezcal Mystery and Mole

29 de Junio

After six weeks by a lake and in cultural centres of cities and towns, it’s now time to hit the beach. Today we are off to the Caribbean side of Mexico, and we are being lazy about it too. No eighteen-hour bus rides for us, we decided to pay double and get on a flight that will have us on the lovely Isla Mujeres by sunset. But more about that in a future blog.

Bowls of hot chocolate and white t shirts. Dangerous

Oaxaca is where we have been, pronounced Wa-ha-ka, which is important to get right. It’s very difficult to find anyone who sells bus tickets to O-axe-a-kaar.

It’s a city about five hours south of Mexico City almost in the middle of the country. It’s famous for its chocolate, which is a delightful dark concoction, which tastes good in or on anything at all. Its commonly used as a mole (pronounced moh-lay, very different from the Aussie female bogan), which is a sauce, and is especially tasty drizzled over roast chicken. The chocolate here is also 100% cocoa, its extremely delicious and we found ourselves in many a café sampling hot chocolates or milkshakes. The hot chocolates are served with bread rolls, for dipping into the steaming drink. Interesting. We have bought dozens of chocolate bars as presents for all our friends and family back home, but unfortunately we have eaten all of them so there will be no presents of damn good chocolate bars for anyone. We do apologize.

Everything is covered in chocolate here. They even serve fried chocolate covered grasshoppers in the markets. The churches give out chocolate communion and illnesses are diagnosed with chocolate tablets.

Oaxaca is also famous for its Mariachi bands. In the town square (Zocalo) at night, they are all dressed up in their Three Amigo gear, wandering around from table to table, busking out Mexican ballads. They are usually five to six piece bands, and there may be a few different bands vying for attention at the one time. But they never play at the one time, only coming in when the other Mariachi has finished their tune. Its almost like there is a competition, but friendly and great entertainment over dinner and a beer, but no Steve Martin.

Around Oaxaca there are a few things to do, and yesterday we took a day trip to discover what else is out there. A visit to Hierve al Agua was part, which literally means Boiling Water. That you can swim in. It is a pool, which sits on the edge of a cliff, in the Sierra Madre mountains, about 3000m above sea level. By the time the water filters down to the swimming spot, it has become cool enough for a very refreshing dip, overlooking the valleys and the Petrified Waterfalls; water which was so salty and slow dripping it has solidified to the cliff face over time.

Despite the obvious physical difficulties, Mr Tree would make a good husband

El Petrified was known as the brave waterfall before he saw the drop

Close up of Mr Tree

El Tule is a town that has a big tree. Why is this interesting you will probably ask? Well, it’s the widest tree in the world, and is about 2000 years old. Yesterday, it also hosted the local round of Miss Tree 2012. This is a Mexico Top Model type of competition where a few leggy locals in skimpy outfits were posing in front of El Tule in the hope of scoring points from the judges. There was a massive crowd of about fifteen there to watch, most of whom were from the sponsoring fertilizer company.

The runners up in the modelling contest were happy with their new hats

The winner of Mexico's next top model would be the girl who was least stoned

The hungry tree would soon snack on the gingerbread house

Other activities included a visit to some ancient ruins where rich priests used to hang out, a demonstration from a local weaver on the fine art of hand making carpets in the hope that we would cough up $300 for one, and the highlight of any day tour, an excursion that involves alcohol. This time, it was the Mezcal factory.

Mezcal is to Oaxaca what Tequila is to Mexico. It is drunk for all occasions, weddings, parties, funerals, and job interviews. Some of the stuff is equivalent to paint stripper mixed with diesel, while the new modern stuff has been made more socially responsible thanks to the additions of coconut and mint, much to the chagrin of traditional harden the f*** up Mexicans but much to the relief of emergency departments in the country.

When you see the process of creating a bottle of traditional Mezcal, (sans fruity additions and closer to 50% ABV), its hard to believe that the final product is possible. After nine years of growing happily in the Mexican desert, the distillers rip out the middle of the blue agave plant, which is a type of cactus, and throw it into a hole with others, burn it and cover it with mud, water and sand. In the old days, they actually used to throw a bit of horse shit in there for good measure. After five days, the mixture is shovelled into a big vat, where it ferments some more and invites a plaque of mosquitos over, then five days later its boiled and filtered and drained into giant barrels, where the fine Mexican craftsmen take the opportunity to taste their produce. It was at this stage we both decided to try it out, and we suggested that they were spelling Metho wrong. We knew we weren’t soft when other Mexicans were keeling over at even the smell of it. After being stretchered into the showroom we were revived with a dozen shots of other flavours of Mezcal, and drove back to Oaxaca city happy.

Due to environmental pressures, the Church was forced to attract a more greener congregation

So we are now at the airport awaiting our flight out. A very small airport with Mezcal souvenir shops, selling Mezcal sweets and mexcal pens and hats made of cactus. Another interesting taxi ride out here, where seatbelts are absolutely essential but never installed. Taxi drivers will toot viciously at the car in front that has rudely stopped at a red light. Drivers figure that the faster you approach potholes and speed bumps on the road, the more airborne you will possibly get and therefore avoid the pain and inconvenience of having to slow down and go around them.