Land of the dead

Cactus fence - genius!

Our last night in San Cristobal we book a babysitter and go for a long evening walk around the squares, cobbled streets and dip into bars for a beer. We feel melancholy that the delicate balance between tourism and local development has tipped the wrong way. The 'authentic' mexican life was actually taking place in a messy, smelly market lining a street full of noisy buses and cars, away from the pretty old centre. We stumbled across this on our way to find a museum of traditional mayan medicine, and saw live chickens hanging by their necks casually dangling from the fingers of large colourfully dressed women, poor tiny baby chicks that had been dyed bright pink and blue cheeping to be rescued from a plastic bag - like a mexican version of goldfish at a fair. We bought freshly sliced fruit from the back of a pick-up truck piled high with pineapples, melons and piloncillo, like a voluptuous Rivera painting.

We leave with Gustavo flexing his toes through his new huaraches (sandals) bought from a man making them on the street and the smell of freshly ground coffee filling the car. This is an an epic long drive to San Pablo Villa de Mitla, in Oaxaca countryside.
 

The landscape is stunning, wide flat valley floor surrounded by blue mountains, with bright pink and blue blossom and cactus scattered across the fields. Horse and cart with young men dangling their legs over the side saunter down the hard shoulder of a wide road. While Maya is having her nap, Gustavo takes the wheel and I balance the laptop on my lap and type as Gustavo attempts to dictate his new novel. Maya was amazingly calm being in a car for so long and when we stop off at a little village by the road, we find a simple and sweet public square full of children. Maya runs to join them and is immediately surrounded, one boy then dragging her by the arm and then carrying her to a trampoline.
 

After a good sleep in a wooden bed of brightly painted and carved toucans and flowers, we walk up to Mitla archaeological site picking up pastries and coffees on the way. One of the perks of travelling with a toddler - early mornings - is rewarded when we find the warm ancient stones of Mitla empty except for lizards sunbathing next to the cactus.

Mitla, the Land of the Dead, in Zapotec culture, is made up of these detailed stone carvings all made to fit together like a puzzle without mortar. This was an important religious centre, a gateway between the living and the dead. I climbed into one of the open tombs very nervously.