Oaxaca

With a 7AM flight on Thursday January 4^th, we decided to spend the night of the 3^rd near the airport at the Hilton Garden Inn in Aurora. We had a good and fun dinner at Pho 92, where the waiters were young and cheery, and all nephews and nieces of the owner.

The Volcanos near Mexico City.

With at 7 am flight, we were on the 3:45 van to the airport. With priority status on Delta, we got entry in the Delta skyclub, where we ate a light breakfast. Our flight was on Aeromexico, although it was booked through Delta. The flight to Mexico City was routine.  We got quite a view of the major volcanos outside of Mexico City.  Popo was smoking!   We cleared immigration with no difficulty, but got confused and frustrated with baggage. The baggage came on the belt in dribs and drabs. Finally we asked where our bags were, and were told that we did not need to collect them, and we could bypass customs! The Aeromexico skyclub was fairly basic, but comfortable. I took a nap, as I had slept poorly. We headed for our gate, where everything was crowded, perhaps due to the holidays. The airport left a bad taste in Sandi's mouth; she compared it to an airport in the Phillipines in the 1980s!   The flight to Oaxaca was routine, our bags showed up as promised, and we got in a van to our hotel, the Casa Bugambillia B&B. We were more than pleased with the hotel, and crashed, very tired.

On Friday we had breakfast at the B&B, and met some of the other guests. We had signed up for a walking tour of town. There was some confusion because they changed the time from 10 to 11. Our guide was Andrea, who we enjoyed, and had lived in Oaxaca all her life. We visited churches and markets, talked about the city, and had lunch. We learned about mole, a chocolate sauce that comes in many varieties, and is a stable of Oaxacan cooking. The weather was warm, but not bad. After the tour, we went back to our room and rested. We headed out to eat dinner, spoke to an artist that Sandi had admired from the hotel, and then discovered a parade and street party, which was fun. We had a nice dinner at Casa Oaxaca.

We had previously spoken to a weaver from San Pedro Amuzgos, 8 hours west of Oaxaca city. Her village is indigenous, and speaks its own language, Amusgo. We took photos of some of her weavings. Sandi sent photos to her daughters, who selected one of the pieces, which were made to be cut up and put on shirts. After feedback from her daughters, we bought one of her pieces, woven on a backstrap loom.  Sandi will use them on decorative pillows. Sandi saw a walking vendor with bells, and we bought a small bell. The vendor was from another indigenous village near the coast, where they cast the bells from bronze. He was very proud of his Chatino culture and language, and recited the numbers in his own language. There are 16 different indigenous languages spoken in Oaxaca!

Saturday, after breakfast in the B&B, we went to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. This museum included much information about the indigenous groups of Mexico, going back to the Olmecs, about 3000 years ago. It also discussed the Spanish Conquest, and the societal changes after the conquest. The most impressive exhibit was the materials recovered from Tomb 7 at Monte Alban, with a wide range of gold, jewels, a crystal cup, and a skull encrusted with turquoise. The building is the old convent associated with the Santo Domingo Church, a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had lunch on the roof, at La Azotea. We continued to see party processions, called Calindas, including folkloric dancers, a band, and giant figures carried by young men. One was for a wedding, one for a quinceanera, a girl turning 15. There are groups which perform for the Calindas, it is a business. We shopped a little, and headed back to the hotel to rest. We went to La Olla restaurant next to the hotel for dinner. We watched the goings on in the square in front of the church, and then went in for mass. 

 We liked the priest; the music came from a lady playing the organ, with her two daughters singing, but it sounded like a larger group. The church is amazing, a UNESCO world heritage site, and perhaps more impressive at night, with the lights shining on the gold leaf.

Sunday we decided to go to the famous market in Tlacolula. We took a cab, and declined his offer to wait for us. The market is huge and crowded, with many indigenous people, selling everything from plastics to fruit to textiles. Sandi bought aprons and a large plastic bag woven by prisoners. We ate at stall on the edge of the market. The crowds were a bit much for Sandi, so we headed back to the street, where we ended up packed into a collective taxi, a small car with three large people in the back seat.

We went to Tule, with the giant tree, reported to be 2000 years old. The town was clean, tidy, and calm, everything that Tlacolula was not. We had lunch across the street, and ended up at a collective table with a family who own a bar in Puerto Escondido. His brother runs a restaurant and deli in Oaxaca. We took a taxi back to the hotel. We had dinner in the brother's restaurant, El Olivo Gastrobar, where we had tapas and a Spanish tortilla, which is a kind of a vegetable omelet.

Monday we went to the textile museum, where we saw an interesting exhibit of Japanese kimonos. We spent some time trying to figure out how the intricate designs were made, and concluded that they used a variety of techniques. After that we discovered the Centro Cultural San Pablo, built in an old convent. There were various exhibits, and a pleasant open area. The most interesting was an exhibit and video showing how they make the traditional clay comals that are used for baking tortillas. We had lunch again in the Zocolo at the Jardin restaurant. Then we went to the Museo Tamayo de Prehispanic art, which was Rufino Tamayo's personal collection of prehispanic pottery and other materials. We tried to get into Los Danzantes restaurant, but we lacked a reservation, so we went back to La Azota Oaxaca, and ate on the rooftop.

Tuesday we went to the World Heritage site ruins of Monte Alban, a mammoth site built over 1300 years. I had been there 35 years before, but did not remember it very well. We walked the circuit of the giant plaza admiring the carvings and just the size of it. We bought van tickets in the Zocolo. We had a big lunch at the Mayordomo restaurant, and went back to the room to rest. We had a light dinner at El Olivo Gastrobar.

We have had breakfast every morning with our fellow guests, mostly people our age, including a group from Minneapolis who were retired from the university. Many of them have been to Oaxaca multiple times.  The colorful table settings changed every day.  

Wednesday we went to the Etla Valley, north of town; not many tourists go in that direction. We flagged down a taxi to take us to the Villa de Etla, where Lulu at the hotel desk said that they had a nice market. The market was mostly fruits and vegetables; we bought some bananas and mardarins. It ws a relatively small and tranquil market, not like the craziness of the Tlacolula market. We negotiated with a collective taxi to take us on a short private trip to the nearby town of San Augustine Etla. The first thing that struck us was water; after hearing so much about drought, and seeing everything so dry, it was striking to be somewhere green, with running water. We went first to the art center, which had a large exhibit of masks. There were explanations in English, and videos as well. The art center was built from an old textile factory. There was also another exhibit, titled “We are all in danger”, with an environmental theme. We stopped briefly at the shop, where they told us how to get to the paper factory down the hill. Both the paper factory and the art center were founded by Francisco Toledo, a famous artist.

In the paper factory, they explained and demonstrated the process, in which they convert fiber to pulp, then using a screen to pick up the wet fiber out of a vat. They put it on the a sheet of aluminum, with a mat of absorbing fabric, and then they compress it. They have a large hydraulic press that they use to squeeze the water out, and then they hang it to dry. Most of the paper is used for art prints. We were very happy with the unplanned tour. Sandi bought earrings with paper in them. We then went to Santa Maria hotel, where we had a very good lunch. We went to the corner to get a collective taxi, which took us to a center for collective taxis, near the 2^nd class bus station in Oaxaca city. No seat belts in the old taxi; Sandi said that the back seat was dirty. From the taxi center, we took a regular taxi to our hotel.  We agreed to avoid collective taxis in the future; Eric told us that transportation there is run by a kind of mafia.  We rested in the afternoon, and then went out to La Restaurante Taniperla. We were surprised to see a Chiapas theme, even including the Tzeltal language on their uniforms. The food was OK, but it was noisy, both the music and street noise; we will not be going back.

Thursday we took an exellent Textile tour with Eric from Oaxaca Culture. Eric is a native Zapotec, university educated, who worked for years with the Textile Museum in Oaxaca in the education department. The tour was for us and one other lady, in Eric's car. We started in Tule, where we visited Alfredo Hernandez Oroszco. He is experimenting with different fibers. His shop is sort of a production shop, with a flying shuttle loom, making fabric to order for clients.

Eric's mother dying yarn

Our next stop was at Fe y Lola workshop, where we met Eric's family. His father was working on a tree of life tapestry, commemerating his recently deceased mother. The work was excellent, of course, but out of our price range. We had lunch in Teotitlan del Valle, then we went to a woman's cooperative; our host there showed us how she installs the leather on purses. Other women weave. At this stop we saw our first of many industrial sewing machines, but we also saw many treadle Singer machines. Our final stop was with a young couple who are raising silkworms and harvesting the silk. She uses strands of 30 cocoons to make one silk fiber. We had dinner at Quince Letras with John and Allison, who split their time between DC and France.

Friday we hired a taxi driver, Salomon, to take us to San Martin Tilcajete, where we visited the Albrije workshop, that employs 300 people making the fanciful animals from wood. There was a formal tour; we bought a turtle made in the student workshop; their work is superb but expensive.

We continued to Santo Thomas Jalieza, where there are many weavers using backstrap looms demonstrating and selling their work. We bought a table runner, some small bags, and a belt, and then went back to our hotel. We had dinner at Casa Oaxaca with John and Allison.

Saturday, we took a microfinance tour with the group En Via, and visited five women who benefited from the microfinance loans. Each woman has to go through business classes, and form a group of three. Initial loans are less than $100, and each woman makes a payment of at least one dollar weekly. If one woman misses a payment, all three women are fined. They claim a payback rate of 99%. We saw weaving, embroidery, and tortilla making; we had lunch at a restaurant run by a woman who benefited from their program. There is a lot of poverty in the villages; the villages use a traditional system of government, which requires each villager to take a “cargo” (service roll), usually every three years. One woman started a microbusiness because her husband took a cargo, and it took him away from his regular work.  Sandy bought an embroidered bag.   

Sunday Richard had an attack of Montezuma's revenge, perhaps from the meal on the microfinance tour. He felt better in the afternoon, so we walked downtown, and ate at Tr3s restaurant, one level up from the zocolo, but with a view of the zocolo. We stopped at the Oaxacan painters museum, but were not attracted to the two artists on display.

On Monday we decided to visit Jalatlaco, a neighborhood just east of where we were staying. It felt quite different than the centro, including murals and more young people than folks our age. We wandered around, stopping to have hot chocolate and baked goods, with lunch at Mooom? Restaurant, and bought some books at the english language bookstore. We had a farewell dinner with John and Alison at Trece Letras, and discussed a 2025 trip to visit them in southern France, where they have a home and a guesthouse.

On Tuesday we got up at 3 to take a 4 AM taxi to the airport. We landed in Mexico City, and visited the Aeromexico club again. Our flight home was routine. We landed with snow on the ground; we had just missed wind chill warnings, but it was still cold. Our cats were happy to see us.

A very good trip.