Elderhostel invites participants to "immerse yourself in celebratory rituals for the dead. Roam the halls of imposing palaces and awe-inspiring cathedrals. Embrace the mystery that lies beneath the region's surface in museums and archaeological sites. Absorb the varying differences in three of Mexico's most fascinating cities to discover the traditional significance that defines this intriguing culture."
PICTURED SITES ARE DESCRIBED IN THIS TEXT.
The Casa Conzatti Hotel, about seven blocks from Oaxaca’s historic central plaza, was a colonial style house in a quiet residential area when it was the home of Cassiano Conzatti, a renowned Italian naturalist and botanist who lived there at the end of the 19th century. Grateful for his remarkable work, the Oaxacan people named the park facing the house Conzatti Park. It was where he planted and made research on regional flora. The pleasant hotel has 41 rooms including two junior suites and two master suites and a delightful restaurant called “Magnolias”.
About five of the seven blocks to the zocalo from the hotel were on the Macedonio Alcalá Tourist Walkway, a paved street closed to vehicular traffic and converted into a pedestrian walkway in 1985. The street is flanked by colonial buildings such as the Public Library, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the former State of Oaxaca Institute of Sciences and Arts Building (today part of the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez) along with various shops, restaurants, and craft stores.
The streets of Oaxaca run along the grid laid out in 1529 by Spanish architect Alonso García Bravo who used the same plan he had used in Mexico City. Oaxaca’s zocalo, or main plaza, has wrought-iron benches and a bandstand. The square has a lot of trees with the oldest being laurel trees. There are a number of restaurants on the east and west sides with tables filling the arched passageways. UNESCO has designated the historic city center as a World Heritage Site. Renovation of the zocalo took place in 2005. In the early 1980’s the square was blocked off and motorized vehicles were prevented from entering. Civil unrest related to teachers’ strikes in 2006 came to a head in the zocalo. That situation caused tourists to resist visiting there other than during the Christmas holidays, and this 2008 celebration of the Day of the Dead was the first for Elderhostel for a few years.
The Camino Real Hotel is in a 16th-century building, the former Convento de Santa Catalina de Siena, one of the city’s landmarks. It has retained many original details such as intricate frescoes in guest rooms. A rear patio holds the covered pileta, a circle of stone basins where the nuns did laundry. The breakfast buffet is served under the arches in what was the kitchen of the convent. There are 84 rooms and seven suites.
The Government Palace is a 19th-century state capitol in neoclassical style on the south side of the zocalo. In 1576 the first building on the site of the Government Palace was built with its replacement being finished in 1783. Two earthquakes destroyed almost all of that building. The current palace was begun in 1832, and after several delays, it was formally inaugurated on September 15, 1884. The earthquake of 1931 did considerable damage, with reconstruction of portions of the palace occurring between 1936 and 1948.
In 1980, the artist, Arturo Garcia Bustos, decorated the interior walls of the palace’s main staircase leading to the upper level with a mural showing three different eras. The left mural expresses pre-Hispanic traditions reflecting lifestyles of Zapotecos, Mixtecos and Mexicas. The right mural reflects the time of the conquest, while the center mural depicts the time of the country’s independence.
Garcia Bustos painted a second mural in 1987 on the ceiling and walls of the side staircase leading to the east patio of the palace. It represents the birth of the Universe from the mystical point of view of pre-Hispanic Oaxacan cultures. The central mural portrays water, fertility of the soil and education. Side murals depict the tree of life and daily life in different areas of Oaxaca State.
El Llano is one of the oldest and largest parks in the city and about two blocks from the Hotel Conzatti. General Morelos created it to commemorate the civic-religious festival that celebrated the victory of the Movement of Independence. In 1894 a monument with a statue of Benito Juárez was placed in the park. During the middle of the twentieth century the park served as zoo, which was closed in 1970, the year that the park was redesigned as it is now. It has gardens, walkways, benches, and four large fountains with a statue of a lion occupying each corner entrance.
The Arches of Xochimilco are stone arches remaining from the San Felipe Aqueduct that was built during the middle of the 18th century and provided water to Oaxaca City until early 1941. Through many of the arches there are twisting streets or secluded plazas. In 2002 arches of another type, those of McDonald’s Restaurant, wanted to be added to the zocalo. The city turned down the request.
We heard much about Benito Juárez who lived between 1806 and 1872. He was a Zapotec Indian who at the age of 12 walked to the city of Oaxaca from his home in the mountains hoping to educate himself and find a better life. At the time, he was illiterate and could not speak Spanish, only Zapotec. Juárez is often regarded as Mexico's greatest and most beloved leader serving several terms as president.
Oaxaca traces its history at least 7,000 years back when about 20 diverse ethnic groups occupied the land. The Mixtecs and Zapotecs were the two most important groups. When the Aztecs arrived, they named the central valley Huaxyacac because of the huaje trees covering the land. When the Spanish arrived in the year 1521, they renamed it Oaxaca, a much more easily pronounced word.
The settlement was officially named a royal city in 1532. This area of Mexico was given to Hernan Cortes after the Spanish Conquest, in return for his services to the Spanish Crown. Oaxaca gained prominence in the colonial era because of its location as a gateway to Central and South America as well as its rich landscape, intricate textiles and rumored gold mines.
The State of Oaxaca has a population of about 4 million, while Oaxaca City has about a half million residents.
Oaxaca has nearly perfect weather all year with sunlight almost daily and ideal temperatures because of its location abut 5,500 feet in elevation. Oaxaca State is in the Sierra Madre mountains with the Pacific Ocean touching its southern shoreline.
Oaxaca has been described as owing its popularity to its architecture, its cultural traditions, its large variety of regional food, and its temperate weather.
An index of articles related to this trip can be seen at our home page: http://www.worldisround.com/home/jdtan/index.html
If you have any questions, email them to me at jdtanner@a5.com rather than including them in your remarks at the bottom of the photo page.
Diane Tanner
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