Cisterns in Zaulta, Puebla

In stark contrast to my Saturday and Sunday spent in Mexico City, Monday I was in two rural communities in Zautla in the Sierra Norte of Puebla (about a 3 hour drive). Both communities, El Tepeyac and Zayolapan were involved in projects that gave money to women in the community to build cisterns. The only available water comes from a long tube and a couple hoses that run into the towns. Generally there is water flowing once every 3 days, but it is sometimes as infrequent as every 15 days. Thus, the main focus of the project was to construct cisterns that could be filled with rain water and with water from the tube to give people a more reliable source of water or at least the chance to store water when available. My boss tends to attract children in these small communities and I seem to attract stares as tower over everyone else.

Pictures from Zayolapan....
Pictures from El Tepeyac ........

Most of the people living in Zayolapan and El Tepeyac have family businesses making small pots that are then sold in nearby San Miguel. While we were visiting the cisterns, we passed several homes where the pots were being fired in large wood-burning ovens.

One of my favorite things about fall in Mexico.....the thousands of tiny yellow flowers that blanket the countryside

Piedras Encimadas

Since my last post it has been a long 10 days waiting for a root canal. I ended up with a golf ball sized infection on my jaw that actually entered my jaw muscle as well, making it impossible to actually do the root canal because I couldn’t open my mouth. After a week in Queretaro and several attempts, I was finally able to get a root canal on Friday, but still not able to get the crown due to more issues getting my mouth open wide enough. So on Saturday I was finally able to head back to Puebla (I initially left thinking I’d only be gone 2 days, but that turned into 10). After a quick stop in Tequisquiapan on the way home, I finally made it back to Puebla on Saturday night. On Monday, we had the day off work to commemorate the Mexican Revolution, so I decided to head up to the Sierra Norte and visit a place called Piedras Encimadas, a valley with odd rock formations. It was amazingly cold and foggy, sensations that you actually enjoy when you live in a mild climate.

Saturday in Chignahuapan

So after moving our office on Friday, Saturday, Mindy (one of the other Puebla vols) and I headed up to Chignahuapan, a town in the Sierra Norte to visit some “friends” that Mindy had made. The story is that about a month and a half ago, Mindy made a solo journey up to the same town looking for some cabins that she was planning on spending the night in. However, upon arriving in Chignahuapan, she was a bit lost and ended up asking two sisters for direction on what combi to take. They ending up insisting on taking her in the combi to the cabins to make sure she got there alright and then told her to call any time she was back in the area. We were originally planning on going back to those same cabins, but with the recent heavy rains, road conditions have been really bad (in the city too) and so the cabins were inaccessible. So long story short, we arrived in Chignahuapan on Saturday morning and meet up with the two sister’s.

One of the sister's daughter

Random baby in a bucket

After hanging around their house in the morning, we headed outside of town to the Salto de Quetzalpan, a waterfall. So the two sister’s, one of their kids, a boyfriend, and the two gringas piled into a combi and then walked about 3km and a very red dirt road to get to the waterfall and then down and up about 300+ steps. With all the recent rains, the falls were roaring and the river was pretty high.

The whole group on the road

Upper falls

After the waterfalls we headed back to town for a comida of tlacoyas (triangular thing made out of blue corn masa and filled with a type of bean). On this occasion, they were put in a bowl, drowned with green salsa, and then topped off with lettuce, onions, cheese, and cecina. And as the fog rolled in (literally by the time we left you could barely see 10 feet in front of you), we spent the rest of the afternoon stuffed and chatting before returning to Puebla.

Tlacoyas

Baby with tlacoyas

Cuetzalan, Puebla

To kick off an Independence Day puente (long weekend), Kurt and I took a trip to Cuetzalan in the Sierra Norte (mountainous northern region of Puebla). After about a 2 hour drive through flat semi-desert, the rest of the trip was in the mountains and had some spectacular views of canyons and waterfalls in the tropical (almost cloud forestish) region. The Sierra Norte (also where some of my work is based) is known for its natural features like waterfalls and caves, as well as coffee and its large indigenous population (Nahua).
We camped at a hotel just on the edge of the city and wandered around town on Saturday afternoon, thinking we’d save some nearby ruins and waterfalls for the next day. Unfortunately, there was a huge rain storm practically the whole morning on Sunday. Luckily, with the good coffee selection from the area, spending some time in cafes sampling coffee was good, but it made for a very damp trip to the ruins of Yohualichan.

The streets during the rain.

About a 30 min combi ride outside of Cuetzalan, are the ruins of Yohualichan. These ruins are very similar in construction to those at El Tajin near Papantla, Veracruz, and are believed to have been build by the same Totonacas. One theory is that they first built the ruins in Puebla, and then moved east to Veracruz to construct El Tajin. Despite the constant rain, the trip to the ruins was fun and even a little more picturesque with the fog and clouds in the background. On the way back, we decided to walk most of the way out to the main road, getting soaked in the process, but finding some more amazing views of the foggy trees and some flowers (like the clumps of ginger lining the road). Then it was back to Puebla with a bunch of soaking wet camping gear to begin the Independence Day festivities.

Road to the ruins