CHAMACOS! MIRA! We’re about to recount the adventure of the
last few weeks of adventures with Michael Sundue as our professor. We started
off our Botany of Oaxaca class last Monday at 9am in Solexico, where we used to
take our Spanish classes. The class is small, only 4 of us! (Amalia, Bobby, and
us, Caroline and Madeleine). Every day, we had class from 9-1 and then a lab
activity in the afternoon, either on our own or with Michael. The labs involved
trips to the market to pick out 10 different types of fruits or vegetables and
dissecting them to identify what kind of plant they were and what part of the plant we were using. We
learned that ginger isn’t actually a root, it’s a stem. And Squash and Eggplant
are fruits, not vegetables! And Avocadoes are berries, but strawberries are not berries. Did you know that a
pineapple isn’t just one fruit, but a collection of fruits? During class, some of us were having fun with using beets and turmeric root to draw with, too!
We embarked on our big journey last Monday morning from
Conzatti Park. Along with our class, we had a few others join the caravan: Goyo,
our stellar driver; Rayo, who spoke Zapoteco, an indigenous language; and
Claire, our Assistant Director. Michael told us that Conzatti immigrated to
Mexico from Italy, started a college, and was an expert in the flora of Oaxaca.
On the bus ride, Michael would scream “CHAMACOS! MIRA!”
about every ten minutes, pointing out an interesting botanical fact about the
road we were driving on. We didn’t get much sleep. Our first destination was
Capulálpam, a Pueblo Magico where we had been before and were happy to return.
As Michael said, a lot of us feel like Capulalpam is our “soul home of
Mexico”. In Capulalpam, we ate at Doña Tecla’s house, where we had stayed last
time. She makes scrumptious tortillas, some of the best we’ve had in Mexico!
This trip was full of tortillas, especially for those of us who prefer to not
eat meat. Many of our meals throughout the journey consisted of beans and
tortillas, and we also had our fair share of hot chocolate.
On our second day, we got to see a rain shadow in action- the divide between a dry climate and a wet climate. Clouds approach a mountain, but cool and condense instead of crossing over, creating a notable difference between the types of plants that grow on either side. Later that day, we descended in to the cloud forest, arriving at a waterfall where we took an hour to learn about ferns. That night, we settled in to our new home for the next three nights, “La Esperanza”. The air was so humid that the floor of our cabins were wet! There was a small restaurant in the town called “Comedor Lulu” where a little boy named Jonathan hung out. He was about 7 and loved talking to “el botánico” and shining his “mini laser” on us. During our time at La Esparanza, we went on lots of hikes. One day, we walked down a road (and cut down some sugarcane to eat along the way) and ended up at a river where we took a refreshing swim (it was hot!). However, the swim was cut short because it started to rain and we wanted to drive up the mountain before the dirt road got too wet to drive on. From that point on, it didn’t really stop raining.
Our last stop was Yetla, a pueblo alongside of a river. The whole town was basically a tropical botanical garden. We went on a hike led by Simón, a guide who knows a whole lot about plants and their medicinal uses. It was interesting to get his perspective alongside Michael’s perspective on the plants along the trail. On our last full day in Yetla, we had our field final. Michael collected 38 plants and gave them each a number, and we had to identify the latin name of the family of the plant. Some of the plants we had never seen before! The final was a challenge (especially because there was a baptism playing very loud bad music outside of the cabin) but we all did pretty well! Afterwards we had a lovely dinner all together. Our group got along well and had fun learning, sometimes we would have lecture in our cabins at night and we got to be in our beds. The class was unique from other classes that we have taken at UVM because it was so small, so hands on, and we got to spend time together in and out of class. We all agreed that it was one of our favorite classes that we’ve taken, and that we learned a lot. We’re looking forward to our final week of Botany in the city!
On our second day, we got to see a rain shadow in action- the divide between a dry climate and a wet climate. Clouds approach a mountain, but cool and condense instead of crossing over, creating a notable difference between the types of plants that grow on either side. Later that day, we descended in to the cloud forest, arriving at a waterfall where we took an hour to learn about ferns. That night, we settled in to our new home for the next three nights, “La Esperanza”. The air was so humid that the floor of our cabins were wet! There was a small restaurant in the town called “Comedor Lulu” where a little boy named Jonathan hung out. He was about 7 and loved talking to “el botánico” and shining his “mini laser” on us. During our time at La Esparanza, we went on lots of hikes. One day, we walked down a road (and cut down some sugarcane to eat along the way) and ended up at a river where we took a refreshing swim (it was hot!). However, the swim was cut short because it started to rain and we wanted to drive up the mountain before the dirt road got too wet to drive on. From that point on, it didn’t really stop raining.
Our last stop was Yetla, a pueblo alongside of a river. The whole town was basically a tropical botanical garden. We went on a hike led by Simón, a guide who knows a whole lot about plants and their medicinal uses. It was interesting to get his perspective alongside Michael’s perspective on the plants along the trail. On our last full day in Yetla, we had our field final. Michael collected 38 plants and gave them each a number, and we had to identify the latin name of the family of the plant. Some of the plants we had never seen before! The final was a challenge (especially because there was a baptism playing very loud bad music outside of the cabin) but we all did pretty well! Afterwards we had a lovely dinner all together. Our group got along well and had fun learning, sometimes we would have lecture in our cabins at night and we got to be in our beds. The class was unique from other classes that we have taken at UVM because it was so small, so hands on, and we got to spend time together in and out of class. We all agreed that it was one of our favorite classes that we’ve taken, and that we learned a lot. We’re looking forward to our final week of Botany in the city!
~ Caroline and Madeleine
Hello Uvm Oaxaca,Thanks for your wonderful post .It really amazing to learn about plants and its about various adventurous places as you mention in this post.Its necessary to know all this things an get knowledge about it.
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