Zaachila

 Oaxaca City  is the capitol of the state Oaxaca it lies south east of Mexico City and  stretches from the West coast in to the desert lands.

Once you've gotten over wandering the beautiful colonial center of the busy town, the great restaurants    ,  markets , craft shops and art galleries , its time to head out to one of the many small villages in the area.

On  our recent visit we explored Zaachila  a 30 min bus ride away,  like  all the villages there is the  zocolo — the central square with a market , municipal building and a church  .

On the afternoon of first visit we followed a procession to the local cemetery , the lure of a rowdy brass band , women carrying armfuls of flowers and lit candles , some guys trailing along  at the back sipping on local mescal, is always too much for us not to join in so we wandered along chatting with a chap who informed us that it was a 1st anniversary of the death of a relative and they where laying the head stone that afternoon and invited us to the join them.

This little cemetery has got to be one of the prettiest we have ever been to  ,it was filled to overflowing with love and memory ,I know this sounds strange but it felt full of life , graves with only inches between them almost popping out of the ground with the squash , brightly coloured flowers and decorations  everywhere , it had such a warmth and tranquil beauty, as well as a respite from the heat and  paved streets of the village. We ended up returning 2 more times to wander and take photos.

Kirsty used this quote when she handed in some images  from the time we spent there  for  a school project on memory.

"Don't cry for me but remember the most important things in my life and what I represented in my life and make that your memory of me, not my death"  St Augustine

In the Zaachilla cemetery the memory of life was more than present.