Hill of Soap: Yucunuma

At the last minute, I decided we should visit the pueblo of Yucunuma, located nearby to Teposcolula. This is a relatively isolated town, reached now only by dirt road, and a pueblo that the Spaniards *never lived in* --- you know that made me wanna go! Ja. We found a taxi driver who would take us there and then wait for us to take us back to Teposcolula. (which is a good thing, there are only about 250 people who live there and the vast majority were asleep I think). We had been told that when we got there we should ask in the palacio municipal for a guide who would let us into the community museum. When we got there, the main plaza was devoid of people and at the Palacio Municipal, there were two teenagers and a dog in the portico and one lone guy in the office. This guy promised to call the guide, one Lazaro Cardenas Chavez. Having secured his promise, I wandered back outside to join Eric and Thalia in their explorations of the plaza. A moment or so later, I heard the guy over the town PA system, paging Lazaro to come to the palacio municipal!!! Literally just paging him over the airways. We had heard this sort of thing in Teposcolula but it was all town notices-- if you want to sign your kids up for catechism class, there's a meeting, etc. This was just like instead of using the phone. It was awesome. And it worked, Lazaro ambled along in five or ten minutes. Anyway, that was just a little side story. But it does give you a sense of how small the town is.

Here's some fotos of the main plaza and surrounding buildings. Here the church and the palacio municipal are...examples of porfiriato!

Yucunama's palacio municipal

the church, through a few of the trees & plantings of the town plaza

there was a very large kiosko in the middle of the plaza. Thalia liked it for dancing/practicing her pirouettes...I liked it as a framing device. We all have our (all-consuming) hobbies...

the campo started pretty quick here in Yucunuma or...who needs a cochera anyway?!

Lazaro, whose page had awakened him from a nap (he'd been working much of the night...or working & then drinking, based on how he smelled), took us on a tour of the museum (no fotos of that as the light was very low and Lazaro talks fast but it was cool little community museum) and then the rest of the town, including all of its significant sights and places.

most of the people in Yucunuma are farmers - so agricultural fields surround the town. Right now it is the season of harvesting the dried maize stalks (the corn already having been harvested), this to be used as food for livestock for the rest of the year

Lazaro explained that this work happens at night/early morning because it's cool then and if they tried to do it in the heat of the day, it would all turn to dust. Here are the corn stalks all piled up.

We ran across this HUGE agave plant with a very cool-looking quiote

Yucunuma has its own giant ahuehuete tree - this one at least a thousand years old. Here's Thalia, Eric and Lazaro walking towards the tree. There is a spring at the tree (one of three springs in Yucunuma-- which is rather unusual, none of the other ancient or colonial settlements have springs) which keeps the tree healthy as ahuehuetes are really swamp trees

Eric and Thalia at the site of another of the town's springs, at this one they have always traditionally had lavaderos-- laundry sinks, using the water and the soap from the root of the nama'amole plant...in fact, this is the source of the name of the pueblo: in Mixteco, Yuca for "hill" and Numa for soap or the plant (sources vary).

local horses also came to drink from a trough at the same spring site

Thalia got to pet the foal! <3