Just What I Needed, Capulalpam The Magical Town: July 20th-21st

     Just when I felt like I was starting to get a little homesick, the mountains saved me. Our last full weekend there we all went to Capulalpam de Mendez, a town in the mountains northwest of the city. The Mexican government designates some towns as "Magic Towns" based upon how much of their traditions they have kept. Capulalpam is a "Pueblo Magico" and also a town known for ecotourism. It is known for its very strong ties still with traditional medicine, that is the main reason why we went there.
     Saturday morning we all met outside of Chedraui, the large supermarket right near our homes, to all take a van together. All of us students, Lindsey from SURCO, and Dr. G and his wife who had come to visit went. It was another windy ride through the mountains to get there. Time was a little thrown off when we got there because they did not practice day light savings time so the time was an hour off from what it was in the city. This weekend we all stayed together. One family owned a inn/hotel which was attached to their house. There were five bedrooms which we all split up into. It was really cool to all be staying with each other since one of the things we had commented about the city was that we had wished all of our homestays were a little closer to each other. We put our stuff down and relaxed for a little and then headed out for a tour of the town.

     The streets were very steep all throughout the town, so just exploring was a hike (which I loved!!). First we hiked up to a church which had a gorgeous view from the outside of it and was very beautiful inside.

The view.

     Something very special about this town is that it has a traditional medical clinic right next to a modern medicine clinic. We walked from the church and went to the traditional medical clinic. Two women who worked there told us everything about it. The clinic offered massages, limpias (a type of healing ceremony), temazcals (a healing ceremony we would soon have), and many more. They had a garden where they grew different herbs and flowers for oils and medicines they made. Many people use the clinic and will even come from very far distances to use the clinic. We asked them about their location with the modern clinic. They said that it works out very well because if one or the other cannot cure something, they will send the patient to the other clinic for different types of treatment. We got to tour the clinic and see all of the different rooms and the garden as well as their store which had treatments for just about every ailment one could think of.

Their garden.

     Afterwards we really had nothing to do except wait for comida. Lindsey from SURCO asked if anyone wanted to hike a little more to an even better view. Since it really wasn't a hiking group and a lot of kids were tired everyone said no except for me, the little hiker. I had to see this view!!! In my mind I was in Mexico having a once in a lifetime experience and I did not want to miss out on anything. So Lindsey took me and Chris also decided to come with us while everyone else went back to our inn. We hiked up the very steep roads for another ten minutes until we got to the very top at this tiny little chapel with an absolutely gorgeous view. It was so worth being out of breath for 5 minutes. I was so glad I did it.

One of my favorite views I have seen in my life so far.

At the top.

In the center is the first church we had stopped at and now we were way above that.

     The 3 of us headed back down and went back to the inn to eat comida. We were all starving and ready to eat. After comida we were all very tired so we all enjoyed some nice naps and just hung out. I only slept for a little bit so I explored the inn a little. They also had massages there so I set up my appointment to get one Sunday morning. Later in the afternoon we had two things planned. One was suppose to be a talk from a local man about the invasion of the mining industry in the area. We kept waiting and waiting but it fell through when the man never showed up. Our other activity was a temazcal.
     A temazcal is a type of healing ceremony used to heal all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional problems. It is a sweat hut where one gets rid of all of their toxins. We were fortunate enough that the family had a temazcal hut at the inn we were staying at.

The adobe hut.

     Since we were waiting around for the speaker who never showed, our temazcals were a little latter then planned. The easiest thing to compare it to is a sauna. Hot stones are heated over a fire outside and placed in there and then water is put on them to create steam.

Stones being heated.

 Since there was a good amount of us, we had to split up into 2 groups because only 8 people can go in at a time. You sweat a lot so we all wore our bathing suits. Me, Steph, Monica, and Lindsey went in the second group. The one woman from the family performs the ceremony so she goes in there with you as well. When they made our beds before we got there that weekend they put extra blankets on that we bring with us to the temazcal that we get wrapped in when we are done. Before you go in she blew a type of incense all over you.

Heading in.

     Earlier in the day Lindsey was telling us more about the temazcal. She warned us that it was not going to be something really fun because it was meant to be a healing ceremony so you would have to use mind power to stick it out in there. The ceremony lasted about 45 minutes. It was very small, dark, and hot in there. In the first group there were some people who were a little claustrophobic so they sat towards the exit. We all sat on little wooden chairs around the hot stones and the blanket covered the entrance so we could not see anything. Even with my eyes wide open I was seeing nothing at all, pitch black. It was also very tiny and you couldn't really put your head back because the wall was right there. When I first got in I could feel my breathing freaking a little so I quickly calmed myself down and controlled my breathing. It was so hot and steamy in there it made it a little difficult to breath at first. Throughout the ceremony we got cold tea, and cold clothes to wipe ourselves down. It was so dark in there that you could not see the person sitting next to you and would have to feel for their arm in order to pass the objects around. About half way through the ceremony we also got little pieces of luffa. She told us that if we felt like we stopped sweating our pores might have been clogged so if we scrubbed ourselves we would open up our pores again.I left my hair down while I was in there to see how sweaty it would get and when we were done it felt like I had just jumped in a pool.
     Since we didn't have something in particular that we were going into be healed for, we had a generic ceremony. She told us a lot about the tradition and what the temazcals are used for. She said many families have been using them recently to treat their children who have asthma. Asthma is becoming a lot more common there as the country develops their industry. After she told us all about the ceremony, we did a small self-reflection ceremony where she told us to focus on something we want to improve in our lives and try to figure out how to improve it. The whole experience was extremely spiritual and personal. It touched us all somehow because we all later admitted to each other that we all cried at some point during the ceremony, whether it was happy or sad tears or just trying to  release something. When the temazcal was over you came out of the hut one by one and they rubbed your face, head, arms, and legs with mezcal. Then they wrap you in your blanket and you are suppose to go and relax, take a nap, and then take a cold shower if you want to rinse so that you can keep sweating. I was extremely relaxed when I came out and almost couldn't stand up. I went and laid down for a little bit and then went and ate cena with everyone else and then rinsed off. It was a very touching experience. I now would be a total advocate for traditional medicine and healing, I may not have gone in there with something in particular to heal but I definitely felt a difference in myself when I left.

     Later that night we all hung out and did karaoke! They had a bunch of couches around a big TV with a karaoke machine attached so we had to take advantage of that. We sang until we got asked to keep it down. We were all bundled up in sweatshirts and sweatpants because it got very cold there at night since we were up in the mountains.

     The next morning I woke up a little earlier than everyone else to get my massage. It was fabulous. We then had breakfast and got ready for our hike. Pedro, the son of the family who helped us use the karaoke the night before took us on a hike. We went all around the town and up into a park for about 2 hours. I loved every minute of it. We made a big loop and actually ended up at the very high point at the little church which Lindsey, Chris, and I had gone to the day before. Along the way Pedro was very informative. He was telling us about all the different plants there and the history of the town as well. We also came along some fresh mountain water which we all tried and no one got sick!

The mountain water.

     Pedro also pointed out vegetables along the way which he would pick right out of the ground and let us try if we wanted, of course I had to try.

It actually didn't taste too bad.

     We stopped in the park for a while and explored. There was a gigantic tree there which we all had our picture taken in front of. Steph and I wrote our names on it so that when we go back one day it will be there.

     The views at the top were once again perfect.

We make some pretty cute hikers.

 Since I love hiking so much, nothing was greater then to see the transformation in some of the other students. Some of them weren't so fond of hiking but once we got to the top and they saw the views, they would all get the biggest smiles on their faces. I hoped that my love of hiking would be contagious and I think it might have been just a little. Not only were we doing such amazing things but it was also about they people you did them with. I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids, we were all so different yet very similar at the same time. We were always working together and learning from each other. Some amazing friendships have come from this experience and I couldn't be more grateful.

Showing off Dr. G's belt.

 Eating differently, I lost a good amount of weight the first week or two, to the point where my pants were a little too big on me. I was constantly pulling them up and got tired of it. So before we went on our hike I asked Dr. G. if he had an extra belt I could borrow since I didn't bring any and he did. It worked perfectly and I looked pretty stylish rocking a Oaxacan belt.

A mountain dog just chilling on his house.

     We headed back down and back to the inn where we packed up and headed out. We made one more stop before we left Capulalpam. We got to go ziplining!!! Once again going back to the city was pretty sad. I had been a little homesick when we were going to Capulalpam but the weekend was just so amazing that it made me realize that I needed to continue to seize every moment I had there and that my family and home will always be there when I get back so instead of harping on that I needed to enjoy every last minute. And that I did! It was also our last full weekend and group trip together. It then became real that we were leaving within the next week and I did not like that at all. I tried my hardest not to think about it but it slowly started to get more and more real. I tried to focus more on the amazing time I just had. I have always loved the mountains and I think that's one I did not want to leave there to go back to the city. I did a lot of thinking that weekend. As sad as I was that I would be leaving soon, I focused on the amazing fact that there is nothing stopping me from going back to Oaxaca and Capulalpam one day. They are not going anywhere and it made me really happy to think that I can come back and enjoy it again. I decided to focus on the future and all that lies ahead rather than the past. Capulalpam and its beautiful mountains were just what I needed that weekend. For me, it was a magical town.
    - Lindsay