OAXACA SITES

                          Churches and More

      Because of a fear of earthquakes, Oaxaca has many churches with original facades of green quarry stone, giving the city the nickname of  city of green temples. The city’s churches are the most lavish in Mexico.

We spent most of one day visiting churches in the colonial city. There are numerous churches so we could not begin to hit them all but we saw the most important ones.

      The Church of Santo Domingo, built in the 16^th century, has a lavish carved façade. Although the building started in 1572, it was 200 years and 12 million gold pesos before the church was completed. Because of the long time span it reflects a combination of Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, and Moorish designs. The impressive interior showcases a gold

covered altarpiece. Each of the 14 lateral chapels is a unique beauty. It is traditional for Mexican churches to use masses of flowers everywhere.

The inside of this church is overwhelming. There is not a square inch of wall or ceiling that is not covered with gold. It is extremely ornate, yet beautiful in all its busyness. We were awe struck and at a loss of words as we sat and looked up at the ornate decorations.

      The old convent now houses the Museum of the Cultures of Oaxaca once known as the Regional Museum.  The massive 16^th century structure is flanked by the Temple of Santo Domingo, the entrance plaza and an extensive desert botanical garden in the back. Some of the long hallways are decorated with frescos and other ornamentation, while other hallways are stark and shiny from centuries of thick white paint.  The many old cell rooms serve to display a large collection of pre-Columbian and colonial artifacts. Instead of guides computer display screens provide additional information in each room.

     The Basilica de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad is on Calle Independencia.  The front baroque façade is one of the finest examples of stone carving in Mexico. It is beautiful. The city’s patron saint, Maria Santisima de la Soledad, at one time had a five-pound gold crown decorated with 600 sparkling stones and diamonds.

A couple of years ago some of the stones were stolen. From a distance it looks like she is dressed in gold filigree, but underneath is a layer of black fabric.

The church has a lavish golden interior. A crystal chandelier hangs in the middle of the church. At each corner of the cross four angels hold smaller chandeliers. On each side of the altar two cherubs bear staffs with frosted globes. Along the walls, about waist high, are paintings that resemble marble slabs. They are quite different in their painted gold frames.

As is the custom masses of flowers were inside.  The eye-catching doors at the front of the church are carved wood painted in white and mauve.

     The Hotel Camino Real was originally a Dominican convent built in 1576. Masses of hibiscus, bougainvillea, palms, and exotic hanging plants provide surprises around every corner.  A three-tiered fountain in one of the courtyards is known as the nun’s lavabo. The domed structure on a circular row of arches holds up the central pool from which water flows to twelve small and twelve larger washing bowls where nuns did their laundry. It is quite a unique structure.  We were told a few years ago Japanese bought the hotel El Presidente and renamed it. They have installed air conditioning, extravagant lighting for a show and other amenities that go against the city’s colonial atmosphere. Residents are upset over these changes and are trying to buy the hotel back, but the Japanese won’t sell. Although the hotel is the largest and most expensive in the city the food is notoriously bad. I’m not sure of the present status.

      At Santa Maria del Tule we viewed  the famous 2000-year-old Tule Tree. The Mexican cypress is said to be the largest tree in Latin America. The gnarled house sized trunk divides into a forest of elephantine limbs that rise to 15 stories high. With little imagination all sorts of figures can be seen in the gnarls of the trunk. Three small boys, dressed in green sweaters and pants, escorted us around the tree shining a mirror on the trunk to point out various images. Then they would say, “Do you see?” They were cute as can be and well deserving of our tips.

       Oaxaca is a lovely city and we certainly enjoyed our visit there.

REMEDIOS, CUBA

                                      A City Well Preserved
          I was lucky enough to get to Cuba in November just before President Bush cut off all US travel to the island. Now that travel has opened up somewhat, I keep lookimg at itinerates and have seen nothing as extensive as I was lucky to have.

       One morning we were off to Remedios, a town of 18,000.  Our first stop was at Inglesia de San Juan Batista Church (1692), the focal point of Plaza Marti, the town square. A cute little elderly docent showed us around. The altar was gilded with 24-carat gold leaf. In 1762 the church was the center of the city when it was designated a bishopery.

        An 1939 earthquake damaged the church bell tower. The church has never been demolished, just added on to. The 81 year-old docent was delighted to show us the only known pregnant Madonna, which stands protected in one of the many wall cabinets.

    The carved cedar altar and carved mahogany ceiling were beautiful. This gorgeous ceiling had been

Remedios Church

plastered over and rediscovered during restoration. There was one interesting cement grave covering in the floor where the builder of the church and his family are buried. Some of the letters in the names were doubled up to conserve space. It was most unique.

The town of Remedios, settled in 1514, is one of the oldest cities in Cuba. This is where I really felt like I was in a time warp and that time had stood still for decades. The city is flat and its narrow streets are paved. The entire city was named a national monument in 1979, and is in relatively good repair.

     Leaving the church we walked across the street where bike-taxis were waiting for us. We took off in a caravan to the tobacco factory.

      The tour of the cigar factory was most interesting. It was fascinating to see the cigars hand rolled. Some used full leaves; others used the tobacco scraps for the filling. The cigars are placed in special holders and then pressed for 16 minutes. Following that, the ends are cut, the final wrap applied and the ends fixed. The bands are applied elsewhere.

Only women remove the main vein of the tobacco leaf splitting it in two. We were told that women are more precise and particular. There is a technique to getting the vein out in one piece. Workers work on a quota of 125-180 cigars a day, depending on what area they are working.  This small factory produced 10,000 cigars a day, about half of which are exported.

      The same factory makes several different brands of cigars. The cigars, even in the same brand, can vary regarding quality and taste. We were told, “Each worker is given two cigars a day plus one box a month.”  Most often the workers sell the cigars for extra money. We were cautioned not to buy cigars on the street, because they might be filled with banana leaves. Our guide had a relative who worked in the cigar factory so he was the cigar source for many of us, and most of us bought the legal limit.

       At the local museum  we learned about the Festival of Parrandas, unique to this area. It was started in 1820 when children were making noise in the streets to wake people to get them to church on Christmas day. Today two neighborhoods compete building floats, torches, and fireworks. The float building is very secretive. The festival starts at 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve with a parade, and goes all night, ending with fireworks. Everyone is a winner as it is all in fun, then everyone returns home to sleep and Christmas mass is given in the evening so everyone can attend.

     The museum had costumes, lanterns, pictures of previous floats, and other festival paraphernalia.  Each year there is a theme to the festival, which is reflected in the floats, lanterns and costumes.  

Trusty bike-taxi

       When I left the museum I was looking over our bike-taxi. The wheels spin backward like on a geared bike, doing nothing. There is a hand brake similar to the old car hand brakes. I motioned to our driver that I would like to pedal the bike. After a couple of tries he understood. He hopped in the back with my friend and I got in the driver’s seat. We took off again caravan-style. There must be a secret telegraph in the town as all the women came out onto the doorstop to watch the spectacle of the only women peddling away among the many men, but it was easy to pedal and a fun thing to do.

A STEP BACK IN TIME

                                     A Different Way of Life

      It was a scenic ride to the town Broek op Langedijk, the Netherlands, established in 1063.  The area was swampy and after building a 4-mile dike people settled along it. Originally there were 37 islands and after digging and dikes, started in 1100, the number of islands climbed to 1500.   Originally the area covered 50 square kilometers. The canals are used for transportation by punt---flat bottom boats.  
     In the 17^th century pig farming gave way to vegetable farming. The soil is very rich and there is no need for fertilizer. The area is noted for its vegetable farming, primarily root vegetables plus cabbage. A huge amount of cabbage is grown here which used to be stored in cabbage attics. Most houses  had hoists on the side of the house to lift the cabbages up for storage.
      Because of water plants the canals need to be dredged every three years. If they are not, it’s not long before the plants close the canal and two islands will join each other to form a larger island. The canals are one-meter deep, and the lake is seven-meters deep in the center. All the islands are named.
      Auctions started in 1887 when the auctioneer stood on a wooden platform and vegetables were sold from small boats. In 1903 a clock was added and the auction building built.  The last auction  was in 1973; then all of the area plus buildings was turned into Broeker Veiling Museum.
     Built over the water, the impressive mooring halls, with 1,900 wooden posts to support the imposing wooden structure, is a national monument. The boat hall was covered in 1922. It was massive with wide sturdy walkways throughout. Moving from one part of the museum to another we stopped in the boat hall to see how the boats were constructed.
      Made of oak, they were  painted with tar containing crushed shells making the decks less slippery.
      Following a museum tour, we enjoyed a boat trip to the interesting Realm of the Thousand Islands where we were introduced to a fascinating area in the province of North Holland. Many of the islands are owned by the state for a nature reserve. Over 2500 people live in the Realm. While on the boat we noted the definite aroma of potato chips and learned the stack belching smoke was a Lay’s factory. They sure smelled good!
      We had an intimate lesson on Dutch trading in the 1912 historic auction room. It was fun to experience and witness the excitement of a traditional auction. The auction room was very light with large windows and a roof sky light. This was the oldest water vegetable auction in the world. I wonder where there might have been other ones.
      It was an interesting afternoon learning about another way of life.

THE BURELL MUSEUM

           One  of Glasgow's Great Museums

The Burrell Museum in Glasgow, Scotland sits just six miles out of the city. I was looking forward to visiting the Burrell as I’d heard a lot about it.

En route our guide told us, “Sir William Burrell made millions as a merchant and shipping agent. After his retirement in 1928 he started buying art and artifacts. He was particularly interested in porcelains. He was the first person to bid at an auction by telephone.

“In the 1940s he summoned the city to send someone to go look at his collection. The 17-year-old who was sent was stunned by the quantity and quality of what he was shown. The next day someone more qualified was sent to peruse the collection. Burrell was willing to give the whole collection, of over 9000 pieces, to the city with the condition that it remain in the city, be placed in a country setting, where it would be out of the inner city pollution, and be free to the public.”

The many boxes were stored for years unopened. Then in 1967 a fellow by the name of MacDonald left his large wooded estate, Pollack, to the city. The farmland of the estate was sold saving 65 acres for the museum. And of course after the clean air act of 1967 pollution has ceased to be a problem. A large glass building dominates the museum which the Queen opened in 1984 saying, “No city ever received a greater gift from one of her children.”

         Only the Frick collection in New York exceeds the Burrell collection in size. Burrell owned the Hutton castle and died in 1958 so he did not see his collection displayed. It is so large that only 20% of it is shown at any one time. Parts of the mixed collection including art, porcelain, tapestries, and wood dates back centuries. One could visit numerous times and still not see all of the spectacular collection. We spent so much time enjoying  the museum that we cut our lunch time very short, and  I had to add ice to my lentil soup to cool it enough to gulp it down

            The forest seen through the back glass wall is a wonderful backdrop for this museum. What a wonderful collection! The huge hanging tapestries were unbelievable and from the second story we had an excellent view of them. It probably took some one a whole lifetime to make just one.

Driving out of the museum grounds, our driver stopped the van so the guide could explain the rather strange but familiar animal grazing nearby.  The Highland cow, which is referred to as the Heeland coo, looks like a cow, has short horns, and a long shaggy amber brown coat. We were to see many of them later in our travels.

NORWAY’S VIKING MUSEUM

                   VIKING MUSEUM

In Oslo, we visited the Viking Museum which is located on the Bygdey (sounds like big day) Peninsula. It is part of the Museum of Cultural History of the University of Oslo. Three 9^th century ships  are surrounded by artifacts from days of plunder. The Tune Ship was found and excavated in 1867, Gokstad Ship was excavated in the summer of 1880, and the Oseberg Ship was found and excavated in1904.

Made of oak, the ships were buried in blue clay which preserved them well. The boats were used as tombs for the nobility. Things needed for their journey to the ‘other world’ including jewelry, furniture, and food were buried with the bodies, as well as unique treasures such as wagons, horses and especially textiles which are seldom preserved from the Viking era. The three ships, found in the Oslo fjord, are the best preserved Viking ships known.

The ships were stored in various locations, and in 1913 Professor Gabriel Gustafson, who had led the excavation of the Oseberg Ship, proposed the building of a Viking Ship Museum at Bygdøy. The artifacts and archeological finds are also displayed in the museum. The museum is not large, but is well done and the contents are awesome.