Oaxaca city

My time in Oaxaca city was SO MUCH FUN that I forgot to blog. First off, I must describe THE TREE. The Arbole d´Tule is the world´s largest tree but I could not have prepared myself for the life-altering impact it would have on me. It is one of the greatest and yet simplest things I have ever seen in my life. It is so beautifully and intricately constructed. It looks like 40 trees intertwined in to one. It looks like something from Avatar. And yet it is (obviously) natural and took over 2000 years to grow. I became emotional and went back to see it twice. And yet it is a TREE. It is so incredible how small moments like that make you realise just how much beauty there really is in the world and you just need to SLOW DOWN, live and breathe each moment and appreciate life´s fine details.

With the tree I felt very privileged to have visited it and I had the same experience when I visited the Hierve el Agua - Oaxaca city´s own petrified waterfalls, created when too much sulphur got in to the water system thus creating a ´frozen water´ look. (Or something like that, I have never purported to be good at science.) Here, the waterfalls were not what I enjoyed seeing the most but rather the astonishingly expansive view. Whilst tourists frolicked in the natural pools, I sat (alone) at the edge of the cliff and watched the Mexican vultures soaring over the trees and the valleys for hours. It was an intense experience.

Similar to my visiting of the two great ruins in Oaxaca, Monte Alban and Mitla, both of the ancient Zapotec civilisation from whom the Nahuatl peoples originate. Surprisingly I am still not sick of ruins and continue to eek out great enjoyment from sitting atop the highest of the pyramids and contextualising myself within lifetimes of civilisations. Also, I was really impressed with the traditional Oaxacan rug-making technique, typical of the Teotitlan del Valle area of Oaxaca. I was fortunate enough to witness five generations of women from the same family - chatting Zapotec language and Spanish with each other - as they wove together the beginnings of one of their lavish rugs, all the yarn dyed using natural colours of flowers and beetles and organic compounds like indigo.

I seem to be perhaps exaggerating my appreciation of all my experiences but this is only because I have come to realise what I do not enjoy; tourgroups, tourists, crowds, ¨holiday snaps¨, cheesy hostels and people who only speak English abroad. So long as I avoid these things, I am happy and can continue to enjoy my exaggerated happiness out here. It is of course difficult when you are someplace and wish to visit a certain attraction (it is afterall a sight-to-see for a reason) as these things tend to attract aspects on my avoid list. But when tourists go to one of the world´s wonders - the tree or ruins for example - they would be happy with a bit of an explanation (in the English language of course) and OBVIOUSLY the requisite photos of them-in-front-of-tree and them-in-front-of-view. YOU are not the attraction you fugly douche! And once these rats swarm in to one of the aforementioned places, their very presence depreciates my enjoyment. It is as though my pleasure is inversely proportional to that of others´. Not ALL others of course, just the shit ones. Nevertheless, I have found a good way of coping with such situations - just IGNORE. And I mean almost to the point of rude. Of COURSE I will be polite to them I just won´t initiate their conversation, because trust me I have tried before (I´m a friendly person!) but it always proves absurdly dry. And so I remove myself graciously from their company and continue to have a personal, individual, overwhelmingly existential experience between myself and the various places of interest.

I´m being a bit of a self-righteous wanker I know. Whatevs.

Anyways, another reason why I enjoyed Oaxaca city so much was because of the people I spent my time with. I hung out a lot with people from my hostel and we met a totally cool local Oaxacan (Medicine student) named Fermin who took us out, showed us the sights, invited us in to his home, spoke SPANISH with us, cooked with us (I tried and failed to cook with Nopale, the cactus leaf... unfortunately I didn´t realise the market is supposed to skin it for you so I ended up with and continue to have annoyingly small but painful cactus prickles in my hands!) and we just had a totally rad time with him! Oaxaca city can definitely party and is so buzzing all week long! The bars are spilling out with people and the clientele are so energetic as they dance frenetically to the music - usually Mexican/ Salsa fused with contemporary Western popular music. Surprisingly, a really exciting combination!

My favourite day (easily, and possibly one of my favourite days in Mexico yet?) was when Fermin took myself and Andrea, a Swiss guy, to a an ex-convent dated from around the 15th century. There was an entrance fee which we did not appreciate and so instead we just chilled outside in the convent´s grounds, bought a couple of cheap plastic kites and flew them for hours with all the local kids! I felt so happy and free all day long... It was a really lucky and beautiful feeling. And as the sun set, I took some of my best footage yet... Probably will never use it for anything but even if it is just for my own memories, I am so glad I was able to capture our childlike glee of that day... Later we went to watch Alice in Wonderland/ Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas in 3D (excellent Burton-work, poor scriptwriting) and then flew the kites in the carpark until the early hours of the morning... Extreme kiting :) Who needs artificial stimulants?!

Elliot, Fermin, Andrea and myself

SO after a wonderful week in Oaxaca city, I realised it was time for me to move on ot the coast. So I ate my final tacos with Fermin and Andrea (and the American brothers Steven and Charles who I bumped in to yet AGAIN on my travels!) and jumped on the 10hour busride to Puerto Escondido. And here I am and it is STUNNING. Awesome waves, big white beach, few tourists, chilled hostel vibe, loads of sun... I am in my own paradise :)

Playa updates to come,
A x

times they are a-changing

I repeat myself when I say that I don´t know what it is about Cathedrals but they strike me so deeply with their enormity and overwhelming sense of harmony that I always feel so insignifant and humbled and silenced (which takes a lot.) The cathedral in Morelia had no less an effect upon me. I was there on Monday and the meaning of the cathedrals really grabbed every breathing particle that makes up ´Anetta´ and inspired my very core, even rendering me emotional. It was intense. I was so awe-struck and deeply contemplative when sitting in there that I even got caught up in midday mass without even realising, until the Priest was standing at the front speaking in low biblical Spanish tones and I realised that every Mexican around me had stood in respect. I snuck out swiftly.

But the Cathedral´s impact, to me, is representative of how I wish to try and live my life. Aware of my contextualisation within lifetimes of history, culture, conflict, religion, philosophy and not taking it for granted.

Jacky & Yvonne

Today is my last full day in the Bosque. I will miss it dearly but having lived in this peaceful eco village for a month, I know that it is definitely time for me to move on... I am embarking on the next chapter of my latin american travels. Exceedingly nervous and exceedingly excited! I will begin tomorrow in Morelia, a colonial city about an hour away from Patzcuaro (journey time from the Bosque of course is 4hours!) Here I spent last weekend with the wonderful Brothers Woodward (Steven and Charles) from Denver, Colorado. They finished their 2-week stint in the Bosque and were continuing on with their adventures - cycling through Mexico - so I followed them to enjoy my days off and had a thoroughly entertaining ¨weekend.´´ We walked around the stunning Centro Historico and I introduced the brothers to my meditative habit of contextualising myself within every new experience to ensure I adequately live in each moment and savour every bit of my life. They called me a New Age Hippie which is laughable but I must admit that I am finding myself increasingly spiritual these days. I am just realising more and more how much incredible beauty there is to our very existence and it means a lot to me to attempt to appreciate that as much as possible.

Goodbye Bosque!

Filming in the Bosque has been fun and liberating. I have had deadlines but not the same money/ permissions/ crew restrictions as I do in London so it has never felt tedious or overly limited. Three short films/¨vlogs¨ later and I am very proud to have been able to document my first month in Mexico and have an enduring record of my time spent in the Bosque. I have conducted several interviews with volunteers here and one of my favourite questions is ´´Have you learnt anything from this experience?¨ I enjoy asking this question as answers are always extremely varied as there is just a multitude of personalities that make up the volunteer team. It is such an open question that it is interpreted to mean social, personal, environmental lessons. For me it means all as I feel the experience has enrichened me in all the above ways.

I have become more conscious of my impact on the planet. I have learned to ´listen to the land´ and my newfound mantra ´the forest is my friend.´ I have become more self sufficient and independent. I have learned how good it feels to eat healthily three times a day for a month. I have learned how good it feels to constantly be among the trees and to live in nature. I have learned many things about myself - that I am a bit more of an attention seeker than I would previously admit. That I LOVE getting to really know people and can grow attachments easily and quickly. That I still continue to judge people too fast, despite me thinking that I had grown out of this. That quiet people DOES NOT MEAN boring people! That I like to always be involved but it is probably better for me to not always be! That I enjoy working alone. That I do not enjoy playing alone. That I need my time to sit aside and reflect in my own calm. That I don´t need to party to have fun. That sitting around a fire with a book on Sufism can be just as pleasurable. That I actually love talking to people who are completely different from me and am keenly interested in other ways of living. That I enjoy being me without makeup! I am finally used to my own face :)

I am so excited about the next chapter of my travels... It is going to be very different without my safety blanket of the Bosque to go back to after a weekend´s trip away and the familiar faces all around me and a bedroom. I´ll miss the composting toilets - there´s no feeling like crapping in the great outdoors. I´ll miss the amazing food, hopefully I´ll continue these eating habits and not succumb to the quesadillas and tacos! But most importantly, hopefully I´ll keep up my newfound kinship with nature and continue to appreciate its importance in my life, for my strength of mind and body and for feeding my soul.

Peace out,
Anetta x

ps - I ain´t a hippie