Denise's Oaxaca Service-Learning Blog

We went back to Marco Polo for breakfast. Delicious as usual. Blair had pancakes, and I had huevos rancheros. Mariana joined us mid-way. Karen was still snoozing. We told Mariana we were fortifying ourselves before heading back to Banamex.

Blair said that he felt optimistic about us getting our transfer. He thought that the banks would have posted the transaction during the night, and the money would be waiting for us. It was not to be. Our buddy at the bank took our information again, and he had us sit in the lobby. After about 15 minutes, he called us up to the counter and said the money hadn't arrived. I asked him if it was possible to call their headquarters (casa central) in Mexico City to see why. He gave us a blank stare, like "Why would you want to do that?" After more punching in numbers on his computer, one of the bank tellers opened up an address book she had in a drawer and gave him a number. They finally called Mexico City, but they had to call about five different numbers to find out who to talk to. Finally, he was given some sort of code to punch in, and the teller said, "Ya esta. (There it is.)" I wanted to kiss her. She printed out the screen that showed the wire transfer had occurred. However, the message "under investigation" appeared by Blair's name and Frost National Bank. The head teller called back to Mexico City, and they said that they were going to send the money back to San Antonio. I asked him why. He said, "Falta la clave (It didn't have a code.)" I wanted to cry. He asked us if we had family members who could wire us money through Western Union. We shook his hand, thanked him for his trouble, left the bank and went back to the hotel. Karen was there, and we told her what had happened and that we were going to e-mail Frost Bank to tell them what had happened. Karen, now known as the Bank of Karen, gave us more money to stay afloat. We are fortunate to have friends here who can bail us out. If worse came to worst, we could do a cash advance on our credit card, but no telling what that interest rate would be. Anyway, we decided we'd spent enough time chasing money and it was time to get to know Oaxaca.

One of our first stops was the Cafe La Nueva Babel, one that Jill, the filmmaker, recommended. Cool place. Lots of art in support of the teachers' movement. We'll definitely go back for lunch and dinner. They have either live music or poetry readings each night. From there, we walked over to the Mercado de Artesanias, a shop with a wide variety of local pottery, tin, weaving, etc. My favorite piece was a Mama pig with six baby pigs (three on each side) enjoying her milk. I'm so happy we visited the villages where the artworks are made. I have a much greater appreciation after seeing the variety at Stan's home and in the villages. We found out that the Mercado is hosting traditional dances there each night at 6:30, so we'll be going back.

We stumbled into a lunchplace called La Tentacion on Matamoros, #101. For 35 pesos, approximately $3, we had black bean soup, pork ribs, salad, corn tortillas, orange juice and jello. Good and filling. (And perfect for our budget!) On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, they have a live band (salsa, merengue, etc.) in their club next door that starts at 10 p.m. From there, we walked over to El Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo. (On the way, I took a picture of a frame shop that had Benito Juarez and Marilyn Monroe prominently displayed.) As Blair said, the Centro Cultural is spectacular. It reminded us of El Museo de Las Americas in Madrid, only better. The building itself is worth the price of admission (45 pesos). The views from the many window are gorgeous. Each room is filled with a certain period of Oaxaca's (and Mexico's) history. Do NOT miss this place if you are in town. As we were leaving the Centro, an anti-Bush demonstration was beginning to take place. He's in Mexico visiting with the new president here. Signs with "Bush: No bienvenidos!" and such were being hung on buildings. Although I share their sentiment, I've had my fill of Oaxacan demonstrations (see June 14's entry), so we moved on.

After several hours of walking non-stop, we were pooped, so we walked over to another of Jill's recommendations. This place is called Las Cuiles, and it's on Abasolo. Melissa and Mila happened to be there, enjoying the free wireless. Blair and I ordered coffee. The best yet. Cool mission tile floors and great art. We'll definitely be going back. From there, we walked back to the hotel. Just as we got in, it started pouring rain for quite a while. We decided to skip the regional dance until tomorrow night. Mary and Dan arrived wet but happy. They'd run into Eloy and hired him to take them around for the day. Gail joined them. After the rain lightened up a bit, Blair and I walked to a bakery down Independencia, away from the zocalo, called Panificadora La Luna. Huge selection. Very delicious. Much better than the bakery around the corner from the hotel. Very reasonable prices. We stood outside the bakery and ate our pasteries. Good thing. Just as we were leaving, a woman arrived with two big containers of homemade tamales. Blair got rajas (peppers), I got frijol (black bean), and we split a dulce (sweet). All for 18 pesos! We've found our dinner spot for the next three nights!

All in all, a great day, despite our banking travails. Tomorrow, we'll be exploring and uncovering the treasures of Oaxaca even more.

Labels: banks, Centro Cultural de Santo Domingo, Oaxaca

We got up early to eat breakfast at Marco Polo, the restaurant across the street from our hotel. It was as delicious as we remembered. Best of all, they refill your coffee. I had huevos rancheros with tasty chilaquiles con salsa verde on the side. Ana Maria got to the hotel at 8:40 a.m. to shuttle everyone to the DIF (orphanage) in three taxis. Karen, Blair and I told them that we would meet them later. Karen needed to tie down some loose ends on her Turkey study abroad, and Blair and I needed to head over to the bank to retrieve our ATM card.

We got to the bank when the doors opened at 9 a.m., and we were asked to take a seat. At 9:30 a.m., we were given the card back. Yipee! The teller said she thought it had been retained because that bank (Scotiabank) did not take Pulse (called Plus here) cards. She said that another bank BBVA took Pulse/Plus cards. So we trekked over to BBVA. Their ATM machines showed the Pulse/Plus logo. Hooray! We slipped the card in, and a "card retained" message appeared. Sigh! We went inside, and a woman directed us to a young man who would be able to retrieve the card for us. Sure enough, he walked to the back of the machine, popped it open, and gave the card to us. He noticed that the plastic was peeling from the card, so he said that was what was causing the problem. He directed us to another bank, HSBC, that could swipe the card at the counter inside. So, we trekked over to that bank. When we got there and stood in two lines, they said that the only cards they swiped at the counter were credit cards, not ATM cards.

They directed us to Banamex, yet another bank. We went there and explained the situation. They said that if we used their machines and the card was eaten, they would not be able to give it back. We decided to go back to BBVA, peel the plastic layer off of the front of the card and try again. So, we trekked back to BBVA. We told our friend what we intended to do. He agreed. We tried. The card was consumed again. The message at that point said that our bank had cancelled the card. We asked if it was possible to have money wired from our bank to his. He pulled out a list of banks that BBVA does business with in the U.S. Frost Bank was not on it. He recommended we go to Banamex.

So, we trekked back over to Banamex. We told the woman at the door that we wanted to have money transferred from our bank to theirs, and she wrote down the street address of their branch. (It is on the corner of Porfirio Diaz and Morelos.) We went back to our hotel to check our e-mail to see if Frost had responded to our earlier pleas for help. We did get a phone number to call. (Neither one of the 1-800 numbers worked, of course.) Luckily, Karen has a cell phone, so we called Frost Bank and explained our situation. They said that we had to get approval from that bank to be able to wire money to them, since we do not have an account with them. They said yes, and Blair had to answer a million questions from Frost for security purposes.

At that point, we jumped in a taxi to visit the orphanage. Unfortunately, our group had already departed, but we were given a mini-tour by the medical doctor in charge of the children. It made me happy to see that the soccer ball I had brought along was already being put to good use. The doctor also said they were happy to get the basketball hoop and basketballs I brought along, which were donations from an older troop in our Girl Scout Service Unit. Donations of clothes, tennis shoes and stuffed animals from our group and my daughter's Girl Scout troop were warmly received. We were also able to tour the metalworks shop. The kids cut tin into intricate shapes (fish, mermaids, hummingbirds, butterflies) and paint it. I bought a hummingbird, one of the only painted items left. (Karen bought an unpainted butterfly.) Turns out that our group cleaned the place out. Gail bought a gorgeous, large butterfly painted with bright colors.

On our way back to the hotel, we got a call from Frost Bank saying that the transfer had been made. We asked the taxi driver to take us there instead of the hotel. We raced in, ready to walk away flush with cash. It didn't happen. The gentleman at the window asked us to come back before the bank closed at 4 p.m. We did after lunch and a stroll through Oaxaca's Benito Juarez Market. When we went back to the bank, same story. Not there yet. He explained that the money first went from our bank in San Antonio to the headquarters in Mexico City. He said we should try back again tomorrow morning. We will.

Frost warned us that if the bank didn't know us, they'd send the money back. This bank knows us. I don't think there's any danger of that. I just hope that the money finds its way to the correct Banamex branch. After our day's experience with Oaxaca's banking institutions, we highly recommend BBVA. Stay away from Scotiabank and HSBC. Banamex is still up in the air.

Tonight, we're just going to take it easy and get to bed early. Our Oaxacan drama continues.

Labels: ATM, banks, DIF, Oaxaca, orphanage

Another fabulous day! Our guide, Eloy, picked us up at nueve en punto (9 on the dot) to gallavant across the countryside once again. His 10-passenger van is just right for our group.

Our first stop was the gigantic Tule tree, an enormous Mexican cypress that´s more than 2,000 years old. Truly a sight to behold. Eloy said it´s not the tallest tree in the world (although it´s pretty darn tall), but it is the widest. A precious boy named Pancho pointed out many different shapes that the tree´s bark has sculpted itself into: an elephant, a lion, an eagle, an anteater, etc. Each time he pointed out the figure by using a small mirror to reflect light onto the area, he´d ask: ¨Can you see?¨ in a sing-song voice. It´s going to be our trip catchphrase.



From Tule, surely the cleanest town in Mexico, we went to Teotitlan del Valle, a.k.a. Place of the Gods. Teotitlan is a communal village of weavers. The entire town weaves, and they take care of each other. Instead of waiting on the government to build a health clinic for them, they built their own. We were given a very informative demonstration of spinning wool, coloring it with all-natural dyes made from chochineal (bright red), marigolds (yellow/gold), zapote (dark), among other flowers and plants, before weaving the brightly colored yarns on various looms. Karen got the ¨mark of cochineal¨ placed onto the palm of her hand, so naturally she bought a red rug. Blair and I bought a small rug that we´re going to use as a wall hanging. It´s a representation of the sky and mountains around Teotitlan, and the colors and design is beautiful.

From Teotitlan, we went to Tlacolula. The town´s church, La Virgen de la Asuncion, has an amazing Baroque side chapel. Gold everywhere. I was moved by the faith of one woman who used a gladiola´s long stem to make the sign of the cross on Jesus´feet before laying the flower down and asking that her prayers be answered. We spent an hour in the market afterwards, and I felt like I was back in Guatemala. Very indigenous population represented. Lots of chickens and turkeys for sale, along with beautiful fruits and vegetables. Plenty of items for tourists, too, like more of the fanciful hand-painted animals.

We had lunch at Restaurant Donaji, not far from Tlacolula. Donaji was recently hired by a family in Norco, California, to cook for their Golden Wedding Anniversary and their granddaughter´s quinceanera. They flew her out, and I understand why. Delicious food. Most everyone got mole. Blair and I got quesadillas on homemade corn tortillas that we saw made. A mescal distillery is a short walk from the restaurant, and we were able to see the full process of making mescal, tequila´s kissing cousin. Quite a process, and quite a drink! They gave us multiple samples, and passion fruit-flavored was our favorite.

After the mescal adventure, we went to Mitla, another ancient town, that features intricate stone fretwork on its walls. I think the geometric designs, which resemble those in Greece, would make great quilt designs. I´m going to get a book on them when I return to San Antonio and see if I can turn them into a quilt.

We ended our tour with a stop at Yagul, Eloy´s favorite archeological site. It is gorgeous. We hiked up the mountain--with Melissa wondering aloud why we stopped at the mescal factory before we climbed the mountain, not after--to soak in a beautiful view of the surrounding region and the ancient city below. I spotted another ball court, similar to one we saw at Monte Alban. I guess future generations will uncover the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

Blair and I finished up the day at our now favorite restaurant, Comida Oxaquena. We both had wonderful tacos al pastor and Blair had a bowl of borracho-like beans. We topped it all off with a coconut paleta that we ate while we sat in the zocalo and watched the world stroll by.

Tomorrow: back to the bank to retrieve our ATM card then a visit to the orphanage. Stay tuned!

Labels: artisans, mescal, Mitla, Oaxaca, Tule tree, Yagul