Hola from Oaxaca! My name is Joe McKibben and I am in my third year at Luther College. I am a business management major with a Spanish minor and I also play baseball. My spanish minor requirements have given me the incredible opportunity to leave the United States for the first time and spend over 3 weeks in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.
Oaxaca has certainly proven to be a special place with beautiful views, amazing food, and perfect weather. Our time here is flying by as we only have 1 week left. Our weeks have been filled with classes, exploring, and interacting with awesome people. Some of us have become experts at Salsa dancing, and others not so much. We also have learned how to prepare some authentic Oaxacan dishes. It has been incredible to be fully immersed in a culture so different from what we are all used to. The host family experience has been so cool, it’s a great way to fully understand what everyday life is like here in Oaxaca.
Out of all the cool adventures we have had so far, this past weekend was for sure the highlight of the trip so far in my opinion. We spent all day Saturday and most of the day on Sunday way up in the mountains near a town called Ixtlán de Juárez. With the most windy roads I have ever been on, the ride up there was certainly an adventure of its own. At an elevation of around 7,500 feet in some places, the climate is the opposite of what it is in Oaxaca de Juárez, the city in which we live for this trip. It was a big surprise to all of us to see that when we ascended into the mountains, it began raining and the temperatures dropped significantly. The city of Oaxaca is very dry this time of year. It has not gotten rain since August, but only 40 miles away up in the mountains, there is almost always a constant mist in the air with constant fog The first place we stopped at after eating, was an institute of natural medicine.
At this place, we had the opportunity to see a demonstration of a spiritual cleansing they performed on our professor, which was one of the most fascinating things I have ever watched. After leaving the institute of natural medicine, we visited somewhat of an enchanted lagoon that commemorates Benito Juarez, a former president of Mexico who is from Oaxaca. Later that night we got to spend the night in small cabins in the middle of the forest in the Sierra Norte mountain range. We did not have cell phone service on this excursion, so the bonding time we had together as a group was very special.
The next day, we visited a massive flower cultivation center with over 20 expansive greenhouses where they grow thousands of plants, flowers, and succulents. The people at the flower cultivation place generously allowed us to take a succulent to bring back to our host families as a gift. Later that day we visited a trout hatchery and ate the most fresh trout any of us have ever eaten. The best part of the day was taking a trail up the side of a mountain to a beautiful lookout of the city of Ixtlán.
Our time here in Oaxaca is limited, but the experiences and everything we have learned so far are things we will never forget. I can’t wait to make the most of the last week here in Oaxaca.
-Joe
