Most of the day was spent in San Bartolo Coyotepec.

Our first stop was at the workshop of the family of potter Dona Rosa. The Dona Rosa invented the burnishing technique that produces the glossy black pottery that the village has become known for. Her son don Valente continues the tradition.

Here are three pots that sit outside of the door of my room here at the Casa.

examples of black pottery

Don Valente is in his 80s. He still works everyday. The potters here work without a wheel as we think of it. Instead they use two dishes shaped like saucers. One placed upside down on the floor and the second placed right side up on top of it. The pot is then shaped by hand by turning slowly.

setting the pot on the saucer

creating a pot is a multi-day process. The first day the pot body is made, then after drying a couple of days the neck is added.

forming the neck

Another round of drying and the decoration (if any) is added. This is incising using shaped tools. Pots can also have bits stuck on to create an applique like effect. Cutting away parts of the pot to create lacework is also common. (See the above picture of pots in the Casa.)

incising ‘grecas’

The unique thing about the black pottery created in San Bortolo is the glossy finish. The finish is created by taking a dry, unfired pot, making the surface a bit damp and rubbing it with a piece of smooth quartz. Then firing the piece for 10 hours. The finished piece is beautiful but fragile and porous. We’ve never had much luck trying to get pieces home without them breaking.

burnishing the pot

The result is the glossy surface on the lattice work on this pot.

lattice work black pot

originally the clay at San Bartolo was used to make functional vessels. These are fired for 13 or 14 hours and the pots are matte dark grey. These pots are waterproof and durable. They also make a pleasant ringing sound when tapped. Don Valente has a set that he plays a tune on at the end of his demonstration.

fired for 13 or 14 hours

The two pictures above were taken at the folk art museum near the zoloco in San Bartolo. The building is another example of the fine modern architecture that being done in Mexico.

folk art museum

Fireworks are a big deal and common at all sorts of fiestas here. One of the kind of freaky and cool things that they do is take fireworks into the crowds. The car in this picture is a ‘mule’ that is loaded with fireworks that spark and spin. Bulls and horses are also common shapes but anything is fair game.

car structure used to support fireworks

At the folk art museum we made two excellent discoveries.

Miguel Ramirez, who is up in the Xochimilco neighborhood of the city. I’ve seen his work before but haven’t had a name to put to it. Next time I’m here I’m have a better chance of finding his workshop.

tin art

The other discovery is entirely new to me. Adolfo Alquisiris Guerrero. He’s a welder who works at the Pemex plant in Salina Cruz. Be makes things — mostly animals out of recycled parts. I’ll try to set up a chance to see and buy some of his work the next time we come done.

stork?

rooster

Jim liked this picture a lot. He mumbled something about grumpy kitties. I chose to ignore him.

bring it, cupcake

Today is the Halloween for most of you all. Here in Mexico it is the day before Muertos. There’s lots of getting ready and cleaning and arranging going on.

We were out and about doing tourista things this morning. Our destination was Teotitlan de Valle, home to the most famous of the Zapotec weavers.

We started in the show room of a family that has long ties back to Jane’s family in the San Joaquin valley. This is pretty typical for a weaver’s show room.

rug show room

Our second stop was at Isaac Vasquez Garcia’s. He is the best known of the weavers outside of Mexico.
The loom are handmade and according to my friend Demetrio last about 20 years under hard use.

a loom at isaac’s

Issac demonstrated all of the steps int he process of making a Zapotec rug. here he is holding a bowl of grana. Grana is the dried form of the cochineal bug that is used to produce the red dyes.

isaac with a bowl of grana

Much of Isaac Vasquerz’s work is figurative rather than patterned. Here is shows us how he works a design in small sections across the loom.

isaac weaving a design

Every year I go into Teotitlan chanting “I don’t need another rug. I don’t need another rug.” Um, yeah, right, like that works. This lovely gold deer is coming home with us.

isaac holding the deer rug

After the weaving demo but before lunch we went to see Vivian and her daughter-in-laws make candles. These giant beeswax candles are decorated with flowers, fruits, birds, and angels, all made out of sheets of beeswax. traditionally these candles are used in betrothal ceremonies. The groom’s family takes the candles, bread, and fruit to the house of the bride’s family. The party starts at 6AM and lasts all day.

vivian and jane with a candle

For lunch we returned to Isaac Vasquez’s house to eat tamales. We arrived as another group was finishing watching the demo. Lunch time means that the households sons were around. Picking oranges from the trees in the courtyard is a good way to impress the girls.

orange tree

Before heading back in to town via the scenic route we stopped to walk through the cemetery near the church. Families have been spending the last day or two decorating the graves in preparation for the vigils.

graves in the cemetery in teotitlan

Now it’s 7:30 (or so) in the evening on Oct 31st. In a little while we’ll go to visit friends, to eat a little and have a drink. Then back to the house to nap until 1:30 AM when we’ll leave for Atzompa and all night vigil in the cemetery there. There will be another vigil on the night of the 1st/2nd in the cemetery here in the city.

This is the altar that we (all) have built here in the Casa in honor of Thorny Robison and all of the others that we miss.

altar at casa Colonial

Today is Friday, we must be headed for Mitla and ‘the tree’!. Our first stop is in Santa Maria del Tule, to see a huge, several thousand year old tree. In the center of the town. Pretty amazing. The redwoods are taller, but this honker is huge at the trunk!

arbol de tule at santa maria de tule

Playing ‘name that creature’ is an old game here. Supposedly this is a lion head.

gnarled bole on the trunk

stats on the tule tree

Translated roughly the interesting bits are:

Common Name: Ahuehuete

Age: more than 2000 years.

Height: 42 meters

Diameter: 14.05 meters

Volume: 816,829 cuibic meters

Weight: 636,107 tons

This is a much younger version of the same tree.

a not as big tule tree

Around here, your admission ticket doesn’t not include privileges to “Los banos”, gotta get a separate ticket for that. When you hand over your 2 pesos, you get a ticket and toilet paper! (TP not pictured)

two tickets

There’s some bizarre topiary in the garden in St. Maria, here’s a squirrel with a nut!

squirrel!

two cats? try to catch a bird?

On the hillside across the valley, they are mining lime. Looks too symmetrical and planned to be a mine to me. (Says Jim)

mining

Civilization around these parts is so old, you can pull over on the side of the road and look at petroglyphs that are thousands of years old without ever getting out of the car.

petroglyph by the highway

And here we are at Mitla, one of my favorite Oaxacan archeological sites. The setting is beautiful, the designs wonderful, and it’s a bit more to human scale than Monte Alban is.

northern building complex

White boards?! Why would we need a white board? We got a perfectly good piece of dirt and a twig right here! (Nicolas Garcia, our guide and all around helluva nice guy!)

Nico explaining the time line.

I love the fact that ancient stonework exists side-by-side with modern technology in this part of the world!

skyline at mitla

There are just a few bits of the original decoration still visible. These drawings were done in cochineal on stucco.

remnant of the original painting

The view between two of the buildings, looking across the valley.

scenic view

This is the large building in the southern portion of the complex.

large court yard

I love the designs here. This section of the wall shows six different designs.

multiple friezes

The unrestored portions of the compound show how rough the material is. A lot of the stone was taken to build the church.

unrestored portion of the south compound

Each frieze design is made up of thousands of small stones cut on the face and placed into a bed of mud or cement.

pieces making up the design

They are doing some archeology here, a pair of disembodied arms measures the stones.

measuring each stone

A frieze with a very cool lightning design in it.

lightning

And the local vendors still use the old designs

vendors at mitla

Lara and Jim

To day it was south and a little west of town to the Zaachila valley. Traffic has been terrible this week so our guide Nico took us down a super-secret short-cut. Like going down the rabbit hole.

tunnel of reeds on a dirt road

Speaking of rabbits. Our first stop was the wood carving village of Arrozola. Arsenio Moreles took a machete to a block of wood and created one of his signature long eared rabbits.

carving a rabbit

This is the view of the back yard (and studio) of one of the other carvers. I have really bad studio envy.

valley view from arrozola

I haven’t been to Arrozola in about 5 years. The town looks much the same but the quality and variety of work being offered has gone way up. This peacock is one example.

peacock

All the way down this main street you can walk into the front room of any house and find carvings for sale.

looking down the main street in arrozola

At one house where I bought a lot of little things like earrings and hair sticks, this little parrot followed us around while we shopped. If you look closely you can see that he follows the painters around too. That’s a lovely shade of blue on his tail.

parrot that followed us around

After Arrozola we went to Cuilapam de Guerroro. Their market day is Thursday. We walked through the animal market. They don’t get a lot of gringo tourists walking through the animal market.

Most land in this valley is worked with oxen.

field oxen

Goats, with little bundles of alfalfa tied to the panels.

goats in pens

All of the pigs are this pale pink pricked ear type.

a litter of pigs

Turkey is native to Mexico and the favored meat for fiestas. All of these will end up under a mole this weekend.

turkeys for dinner

This is looking over the town from the site of the large — abandoned Dominican church.

down the hill into the village

The Dominican church in Cuilapam was one of several being built in the Oaxaca area in the middle of the 16th century. There were more churches being built than there was money to build with. This one was abandoned in favor of the cathedral in Oaxaca city.

unfinished church

The chapel as been partially restored. It never had a roof. The indigenous people could not fathom the idea that you would go –inside– to pray to your god. The Dominicans met them half way. In a church but without a roof.

outdoor chapel

Today’s arty shot is of the tower of the chapel and the clear blue sky.

tower on the domincan church

No one can say how many of the Zapotec Indians were baptized in this font. Something between thousands and hundreds of thousands. The angels faces were clearly carved by locals rather than Europeans.

baptismal font

One last look at the valley before heading back into town for lunch.

zaachila valley

Lunch at La Biznaga (barrel cactus). Most places have a fixed price lunch special called the Comida Corrida. Running lunch. Today it was porkchops and apple sauce.

porkchops and apple sauce

La Biznaga has one of the great bars in Oaxaca. There are so many votaries in this city. It’s nice to have one devoted to the agave plant.

the bar at la biznaga

Today began with a trip to the Abastos market, near the south edge of the central district of oaxaca. Today was the opening of the special ‘Muertos’ section of the market, full of special flowers, candles, trinkets and food for the “dia de los muertos” celebrations. We bought flowers, candles, little skeleton figurines, copal incense, and incense burner, and some sugar cane. Here, Lara buys some marigolds

Lara, buying flowers in Abastos market

On the way there, we found elvis!

Elvis lives!

and on the way back, we found a sign which if directly translated to english, results in a hilarious, if off-colour phrase (grupo=group, tornillo=screw)

this is why direct translation is bad

This the blank carving we picked

and chose black and red for this one, kind of in the style of this one

We picked a color scheme like this item

afterwards, Jim found a little ‘Oso’ that he had to take home, too. Before we left, we made sure to get a picture with the artist and one of his recent works!

Lara, Jacobo with one of his works, Jim

After such a strenuous shopping experience, we went to Jacobo and Maria’s restuarant and had a great comida. Then back to town, drop of some laundry, then back to the casa for seista!

Today, the ‘tour’ was scheduled to go up to Monte Alban, a pre-columbian archeological site just west of Oaxaca. My lovely bride has seen it once, that was enough for her, so the tour departed slightly down on troop strength.

Common Blossoming tree on Monte Alban

It was a beautiful day, some cloud cover so it didn’t get too hot, but enough blue sky to make it interesting. These trees are all over Monte Alban, and the story is that they are the genesis of the name that the spainiards gave to the place (monte alban– white mountain). This one is near the visitors center and museum.

part of our tour group discusses the site

This was one of our first stops, at an excavated residence, complete with burial tombs. We had a pretty long and involved discussion here of the societal forces and reflections around having all you ancestors buried in your backyard, for all intents and purposes. This was not a mobile society, obviously. No one wants someone else’s relatives buried in the back yard, after all!

The view of the northern portion of the top of the mountain

Looking south across the northermost section of the Monte Alban site From here we hiked south, kind of around the nw corner of the excavations on the hilltop, leading us to this:

Looking south across the northermost section of the Monte Alban site

This is the area just to the north of the main plaza, the rounded lump you see centered in the picture is the un-excavated top of the southern edifice on the site. From here we move south, up the steps in the middle of the picture, to see this:

The main plaza at Monte Alban

This is the main plaza at Monte Alban, the little black dots you see down there are people, it gives a little idea of the scale. The place is pretty huge! The last time we were here it was winter, and very brown. This is the very end of the rainy season, so everything is nice and green.

This is one of the more symmetrical and complete pyramids among those that have been excavated.

one of the more symmetrical and complete pyramids here

This large construction is in the NW corner of the main plaza.

another large construction at Monte Alban

These columns once stood 12 meters high, and held a roof over this walkway, probably so the chiefs could look down upon all the activity below in shaded comfort.

A walkway, once covered

A sunken area in the main plaza.

A sunken portion of the main plaza

These bas-relief figures are in the SW corner of the plaza. There is much academic discussion over their actual purpose, some say they are medical pictures, some say they depict prisoners, but pretty much everyone agrees they aren’t dancers. it was the first thing that came to someones mind, and it stuck.

Stone carvings known as Los Danzantes

More Dancers

This is the Ball Court, where a ceremonial game reminiscent of soccer and handball was played.

The Ball Court

Day 4 (which was actually yesterday) we went to Ocotlan. Birthplace of the painter Rudolfo Morelos.

But before we got out of town I saw this set of signs and thought you all needed to see them as well.

signs outside a auto parts store

Ocotlan is south of the city of Oaxaca. The biggest building in town is the church. Unlike many colonial era churches in Mexico, the church in Ocotlan has been restored to the way it looked in the 1880s. Much later than the usual 16th century. A lot of buildings in Ocotlan use the same blue, white, ocher, and black color scheme.

Sto Domingo Ocotlan

Inside the church is white, gold, and black. It’s much brighter than many of the churches. This is the main chancel.

main chancel

While we were in the church I could hear a bird singing. It was a tough to locate the source. I was sure it was in the church but couldn’t find it until I realized that there the upper portion of the wall between the main chancel on the rosary chapel was open. I found this little guy perched on an angel’s wing.

finch perched on an angel’s wing

The chapel has a collection of obscure saints in the spaces between the vaults.

one of the saints in the ceiling

This is a close up of one of the geometric designs that lines the chapel.

design from the wall of the rosary chapel

it wouldn’t be a church if there wasn’t a shrine to El Nino.

shrine to el nino

Next to the church is the cloister. Which before it was turned into a museum for some of the Morelos collection was the local jail. This is what you would have seen if you were spending your days in the jailhouse courtyard.

the dome of the church as seen from the courtyard

Among the pieces in the museum are these examples of sculpture by the Josefina Aguilar and her family.

This devil sits jauntily on the display case.

little devil

One of Josefina’s sisters makes these hysterical hookers. This one is wearing m0re clothes than most.

made famous by one of the sisters

This is the whole history of the world. Or at least the part that we keep repeating.

the fall of man

The museum also contains a number of Morelos’ paintings but the rooms are too dim to see them decently, let alone photograph the installation.

A couple of blocks from the church — across the Zocolo — is Rudolfo Morelos’ house. This is the view of the gardens at the cnter of the house.

the gardens from above

This walkway leads from the stairs across the top of the porch to Morelos’ studio.

upstairs at the Morelos house

I get studio envy every time I come up here. This long sky-lit room now houses some of his lithographs.

morelos

Dialogo espera.

one of the lithographs

The house is full of little surprises. You can only see this fellow if you turn around and look backwards from the studio door.

sculpture upstairs

There were birds singing in Morelos’ house.

canary in a blue cage

Another fantastical beast.

carousel horse

A little further down the street we went to the home of Josefina Aguilar. She demonstrated how she builds her sculptures.

josefina creating a market woman

She has the most amazing hands. Most of her work is done by feel.

amazing hands

It took her a little over 20 minutes to create this sculpture of a market women carrying calla lilies and marigolds — the traditional day of the dead flowers. I don’t know how the little dog figures into it.

market woman with day of the dead flowers and a puppy

Josefina’s son Demitrio is also a talented painter. I bought this gem from him.

untitled painting by Demitrio Aguilar

Demitrio Aguilar

ObMoto. This mechanic’s shop was right next door to the Aguilar’s.

Jim found this inside. But there was no-one around to ask about it.

partially rebuilt moto

Our last stop for the day was St. Martin Tilcajete. We went to see two families of wood carvers.

Here are two masks carved by Isadora Cruz, one of the old men of wood carving in the valley.

two unfinished masks

Crafts in Oaxaca are family businesses. This is Isadora’s daughter Rosa holding a half finished Dia de Muertos mask.

Rosa

There’s not a lot of straight timber left in the valley.

wood used to make masks

Leaving town we had to give way for this gentleman and his field workers.

a pair of brahma bulls

Today was our first day of being official “tourists”. We went out with Jane and Nico, our guides, and five other people who are staying here at Casa Colonial. Today’s journey was to the north into the valley of Etla.

Sections of adobe wall are every where.

naked adobe

First we went to San Jose de Mogote to see some of the oldest structures in Oaxaca. There are mounds through out the village, most of them have not yet been excavated. The structures were built by the Zapotecs around 1300 BCE. This site predates the much more famous Monte Alban by about 1000 years.

This is not a mound or excavation, this is the new church in San Jose. Those are living plants in a bed built into floor of the aisle.

new church building

Here is one of the first areas to be excavated. It’s basically in someone’s backyard.

built circa 1300 BCE

These steep steps go from the courtyard up to the buildings that are at the top. The stone is held together by cement.

steps up form the courtyard

On the other side of the mound are these porches.

porches at the base of the mound

The top hasn’t been excavated. You can see the outlines of the structures as you stand here. The view is of the rest of the Etla valley to San Augustine and to the right along the valley to the city of Oaxaca.

the unexcavated part of the big mound

There is a small museum in San Jose that houses much of the material from the excavations. It was built in a couple of rooms of the old Hacienda. The Hacienda San Jose (or Hacienda Cacique) was one of the last haciendas to be abolished after the revolution.

the hacienda porch

This is one of the headdresses from the San Jose site.

headdress

This figure is the only prone figure from the Zapotec era that our guide knows of.

unusual prone figure

A little ways up the road from the courtyard and porches you can climb the hill and see where the ball court was. The Zapotecs played their own version of the bloody ball game that the Aztecs played in Mexico City.

unexcavated ball court

San Augustine Etla is also known as Vista Hermosa. It sits on the mountain slopes and receives a lot of water from the springs above it. In the 1883 a cotton mill and generating plant were built here. The manufacturing stopped in the mid 20th century. Over the last 10 years Francisco Toledo has overseen it’s recreation as an arts center.

The purple color in the fountains at the front of the building was made by running water infused with cochineal over the steps for a couple of years. They used to be very red, now they are fading to purply-pink.

the new facade

The interior of the center is two open floors of gallery and workshop space.

the upstairs gallery/workshop space

The building wasn’t the only thing that got attention. The grounds are wonderful. There is a system of linked shallow ponds that flow from the top of the site to the front.

part of the system of ponds

From San Augstine Etla we went to see one of the most famous potters in the area. Irma Blanco is a recognized national treasure. She sat down and made a small statute of a market woman for us. It took her about 10 minutes. In this picture she’s just starting.

Irma Blanco creating a market lady

This is Irma’s kiln. She and her family fill it and then cover it with broken tiles. It is fired with wood.

kiln for large figures

This is one of her mermaids. She loves to add flowers to everything. The black clay dries to this light gray but it turns a light tan when it’s fired.

mermaid

Today we took a little walking tour with our host Jane and a couple of other guests.

A block away from the Casa there is a little alley on the back side of the local market. It’s a good place to stop for a soda in the shade.

a pedestrian alleyway near the casa

The Virgin of Soledad is the patron of the City of Oaxaca. Her church is near enough to hear the bells in the morning. The top of the front facade is coated in painted plaster.

the facade of the basilica of San Jose

Inside the Virgin herself is above the altar. You almost can’t see her for the rococo decorations.

virgin of soledad

City hall is right next door. The central court yard is a pleasant place to wait.

the central court of city hall

Tucked in a corner of the first floor is the time clock.

time clock in city hall

After spending time in restored buildings we went to see the bar called Los Danzantes. In a typical colonial building but with very modern decor.

sign and masks on the wall above the bar

The bar itself was made out of blocks of crushed cars.

the bar at Los Danzantes

This is one of my favorite courtyard fountains in the city.

modern interpretation of the court yard fountion

Then on to another church. Sto. Domingo de Guzman. This is the ceiling in the rosay chapel. Usually there is a lovely white virgin in here but she’s been moved for the weekend to the main sanctuary.

ornate ceiling in the rosary chapel

Tomorrow (Sunday) the city will be celebrating the dedication of this new retablo. It’s huge and very shiny. A lot of time (3 years) and money has been spent on it.

new retablo

You see the strangest things on the bulletin boards in little courtyards. This was outside the door of BlackBox, one of my favorite ‘modern’ art stores.

learn Japanese in Oaxaca

The last church of the day was the Catherdral in the center of the city. it was filled with hundreds of these bundles of lilies because Friday was the festival of El Senor del Rayo. Our Lord of the Lightening Bolt is what they call the crucifix housed in the side chapel that was the only thing that survived a fire started when lightening struck the original thatched roof.

one of a couple of hundred bundles of lilies

The city is starting to decorate for the day of the dead.

day of the dead soldier

First day confusion. Imagine our surprise to arrive in the Zocolo this morning and discover that the Carrera Panamericana was finishing it’s first stage in our front yard. So to speak.

Lots of classic cars (with classic drivers) rallying across Mexico. You can find the whole story of a race that was revived on the official site (en espanol) and an english version.

The race finished somewhere out of town but the final transit stage took the cars into the center of the city. Here’s the finish line.

finish line

There are a lot of Studebakers entered. This one is done up in Mexican green, white, and red. (#116)

studebaker in Mexican colors

Some classic Volvos as well. A PV 544 (#121)

volvo races

By now you’ve noticed that there isn’t much in the way of crowd control. Taking pictures was just a matter of standing in the middle of the street and waiting for the cars to arrive.

intrepid photographer #1

We’d hear the police sirens and then see a car turning the corner. (#231 maybe listed on the website as #407)

turning the corner to Alcala

This lovely purple Studebaker is local. To us, at least. (#120)

purple studebaker

Somethings are a little hard to identify when they’re race prepped. This one is a sunbeam??? (#222)

looked very red, sounded very red

must have run very red as well

Sometimes the shots just don’t work out. Grimacing is common.

intrepid photographer #2

A lovely Mercedes SL that came all the way from Germany. (#302)

came from a long ways away

Everybody wanted pictures and autographs. There were a couple of recognizable stars but all the drivers got special attention from the crowd.

some of these guys are famous or something

In case you didn’t figure out who the fellows above were.

and the answer is…

This is a rather arty shot. The first SL I’ve seen with a tow hook. (#311)

you don’t see too many of these turned in to race cars

The drivers headed back to the hotels. We came back and sorted pictures.

that’s all for tonight