February21_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - The old train station along Madero in Oaxaca hasn't been used by the public in a number of years, but the terminal building still exists, boarded up and taken over by vagrants and homeless. The tree you see here is only a hundred or so years old - The Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) known in Spanish as a sabino, in Nahuatl ahuehuete and in Central Valley Zapotec Yagaguichiciña, is Mexico's national tree. According to legend, Hernan Cortes cried beneath the boughs of a cypress after the Aztecs defeated the Spanish on La Noche Triste (The Sad Night). As you can see, the adobe wall that separates Madero and the Train station is peppered with graffiti and advertisement signs.

Photos - L-R - An old freight can that has been converted as the office for the workers at Oaxaca Train station - although not in use for the public, there still is a viable business for freight.

The entrance of the Train station with that huge, old Cypress Tree - the only shade at the station. You can see portions of the cement shell for the adobe wall has broken away to reveal adobe bricks - the true nature of the wall structure.

Looking south from inside the train station grounds at several box cars in a holding area in the western tracks. I was a bit worried about treading onto the train station grounds although there was no 'no trespassing' signs up that I could see, the place was definitely blocked off from casual foot traffic.

Photos - Shunting freight cars moving with Engine 12008 - all part of the daily routine.

Click here for more photos of Oaxaca Mexico for this day.