Pre-colombian Mystery

Today I went to Monte Alban. The largest Zapotec site that sits upon a small mountain in the middle of the central valley of Oaxaca province. Its an amazing situation. Only once you are up there do you realize how this is a valley entirely surrounded by big mountains. Stunning. The site itself is not as impressive as Chichen Itza or Tikal, but beautiful all the same. There are some fasinating stone carvings. Many look like people in pain. One depicting childbirth and another with the structure of the female reproductive system drawn onto it. We´re talking 500-100 BC

I spent 4 hours there and got very sunburnt! I spoke with a local carving seller call Pantaleon. What a great name! Panther-lion? He´s a farmer and was telling me about how the climate has changed here. Its less predictible and more extreme, making it difficult at times to grow crops. Some years drought. This year floods....

This evening I went with Lucy to her Christian Church. Was a nice experience... A colombian woman gave her testimonial. Man, some of these Latin women sure put up with alot. Her story was about how she found God. Then found a man (in prison). He was a drug trafficer. He hated the God thing. She decided he need to find God. She had faith he would. When I say faith I mean like 10 years of it!! Seriously. They married while he was still in prison. Then he got out and wanted nothing to do with her. But she stayed. He treated her bad, she cried a lot. She had a child, she cried a lot. Then got pregnant again with twins. He still treated her bad. But she kept her faith that one day he would find God. Then it happened. He turned around to her one day out of the blue and said, I have to know this God of yours that can give you such strength to stay with me when I´m such a bad person... So that was it. He "found" God. Gave up drug trafficing. The gave all their money to the poor and now have their own ministry.... Got to take your hat off to her for sticking that out!

My food mission is re-evolving itself. I think that I have been heading down the wrong road a bit. I have been eating the local food which contains quite a lot of meat (that I would not normally eat), and few vegetable, and I don´t feel so healthy for that. I wonder why I would right a food book about food I don´t eat... Mmm.

I find myself seeking out the pre-hispanic culture. I´ve bought books about pre-hispanic food. Their diet was much healthier than that of today. I think I need to get out into remoter areas, and find people who live off the land and have stronger connections with the pre-hispanic past.