A photo tour of Lachiviza

Remember back when...

Alright, think back with me to a simpler time when:

• There was one phone in the whole town, and people had to come running when they got a call.
• Kids went down to the swimming hole to escape the heat.
• Families used a truck bed and blankets as a tent for camping.
• The bathroom was in a shed behind the house.
• Babies were bathed in metal tubs on the porch.
• You could always see clothes out on the line to dry.
• Men in town gathered in a shady spot to pass the afternoon.

Actually, I only have to think back to last week to remember each of these things, as I spent time in a rural village in the southeast corner of Oaxaca.

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Pictured below is the thriving metropolis of Lachiviza (la-chee-vee-saw) where we spent 3 days. No one could tell us the population of the town - what they knew was that there are about 60-70 households, with roughly 3 adults per house.

Jo Ellen, Cindy, and I were there with a Oaxacan team to do a health fair.

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Each day we drove an hour on this road winding through the mountains of the southern Mexico to get to Lachiviza. Just as I would begin wonder if we would ever arrive, we would round the corner and see Lachiviza nestled in the valley.

As the bus came around this corner, the driver would honk the horn so everyone in town would know the bus was on its way. She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes...

The bus was headed through to the larger village of Santa Maria Guienagati (sorry, I have very little idea how to pronounce that one). Often people would take the bus to go to the market there, since there were no stores to speak of in Lachiviza.

Pictured above is another popular method of travel in the isthmus. This road is only recently paved, and there is often debris on the road from rock slides. The tractors in the picture are doing something in relation to taking care of that problem - I know, I'm a very informed tour guide ;-).

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Two 'cowgirls' leading the herd home, or rather, following.

The typical daily attire of older women in the isthmus. Somehow they still look so nice even though the colors don't match. Since these villages have been isolated for so long, their native language of Zapoteco is still spoken. Some older women don't know any Spanish at all.

Also not uncommon to see going down the road. The people of the isthmus find it funny the things we want to take pictures of - after all, what's so exciting about seeing oxen pull a cart down the road? As you can see, the oxen are also curious take a look at the gringas in a big red van. ;-)

We had just finished a tasty lunch of 'caldo de res' (beef stew). As the guest, I got the treat of having a huge bone in my bowl - better meat there, I'm told. During the meal, tiny baby chicks walked around under my chair. At one point the rooster and turkey decided to pass by to check out what was going on.

Jo Ellen needed some time to cool off in the local slammer. ;-)

Actually, it was quite warm in those cells, and though the white/blue building on the left is a bathroom, I'm not sure how obliging they are to let you out when you need to use it.

And I'll leave you with a rather picturesque scene of a donkey and her... foal (had to look that one up).