Nascimientos de Oaxaca

Today’s post is about nascimientos, an interesting word that refers both to the nativity scenes set up all over Mexico for the Christmas holiday but also is the word for a spring. Today I visited a phenomenal place called Hierve al Agua which is a natural spring that has generated a tremendous petrified waterfall. Despite the name hierve which means boil, it is not hot but rather chilly at 75 degrees. The name comes from the fact that the water boils up out of a small hole in the stone and seeps slowly down the mountain creating these incredible formations.

Here I am with me amiga Susan, from Australia, enjoying the medicinal waters that are salty and I think loaded with soda . Check out the view from this pool!

All these cool formations are created below the wall that was built to form the pool and flowing down to the giant cascade seen in the first photo.

Nascimientos are an interesting phenomena as well and can be seen in restaurants, parks and homes. The baby Jesus is often the same size or larger than Mary and Joseph and other figures in the arrangements include the 3 wise men, shepherds, animals and various other folk come to worship the baby J. I’ve got a thing for these! There is currently an exhibit in one of the museums of about 40 nascimientos created as part of a competition for which prizes were awarded, this was one of my favorites, made up entirely of little clay animals.

This is the one we created at my school as part of my holiday customs class.

This one is at the entrance to a bookstore and appears to have famous figures of Oaxaca.

And this is part of a really huge one that you can walk through the middle of down at the Zocalo.

Tomorrow I'm planning a day of rest having been ripping and running nonstop!  Hasta Leugo.