Today’s post is 1250 words, 50 photos, a 6.5 minute read. Enjoy!
Hi everyone,
This week I’ll take you to a Talavera pottery workshop and a walk about Puebla before heading to the lovely city of Oaxaca known for its Day of the Dead celebrations. If you missed the first four articles in this series, click here, here, here, and here.
Let’s get started.
Uriarte Talavera
After downing the cemita sandwich (see last week’s post) at the Flavors market in Puebla, our tour group walked the short distance to the Uriarte Talavera pottery workshop. Talavera pottery was introduced to Mexico by Spanish artisans during the colonial period. Mexico has a long history of ceramics and pottery, it was not glazed but burnished and painted with a clay slurry with added natural dyes. Today most ceramics and pottery are glazed and fired at high temperatures to produce a very durable product. Artisans such as Uriarte make a wide variety of products such as dishes, kitchen utensils, folk arts, and floor and wall tiles that I will showcase along the way. It’s all handmade, hand painted, and well made.
Uriarte Talavera began in 1824 in the same workshop that we toured. One of the staff served as our guide through the workshop. We began in the courtyard where he showed us the process from beginning to end.
This is the original kiln where the ceramics and pottery were fired. It’s no longer in use, replaced by gas fired ovens.
This is an example of a giant container. There’s a lot of detail in the painting, a true work of art.
The workshop also makes figures such as the Nativity scene below. The workmanship is exquisite.
In a small room near the beginning of the tour were two potters creating items that would eventually end up painted and ready to sell. The clay is sourced from the area surrounding Puebla. It’s washed, ground, and soaked to reach the right consistency before ending up on the potters wheel.
After drying for several days or even weeks, the pieces are cleaned and smoothed before the initial firing.
The pieces are then glazed to give them their milky white background.
In the next two photos, the worker is preparing then inside of this very large container for glazing.
There were a few places in the workshop where the pottery didn’t make the quality cut or were broken in transit from one place to another.
In a couple of small rooms several workers were hand painting the pottery. It’s very precise and delicate work. Plus interesting to watch.
You might wonder how they made and applied the designs. Our guide showed us one of the designs the artist was working on. He has to consider the shape of the object and make the pattern so it follows the curves of the pottery.
We met this fellow, Jorge, as he was experimenting on creating a figurine. We saw his work in the museum/gallery part of the workshop. He looked like he was having fun.
We were wowed by the process, the workmanship, and time that goes into each of these pieces. Here’s a little of what was on display and for sale.
It was a fun tour. My Traveling Partner and I looked over the many pieces for sale and decided our suitcase and wallets were too small for a purchase. But it was beautiful.
Around Puebla
After the interesting tour of Uriarte Talavera, we had the rest of the afternoon and evening to ourselves. My Traveling Partner and I walked to the town center to browse the shops, check out the cathedral and the lively market.
Our first stop was a walk through the El Parián, the traditional handcraft market in Puebla. There were two long rows of merchants selling pottery, bags, dolls, leather goods, souvenirs, and all kinds of stuff. We picked up a couple of gifts for the folks back home. 
On the main square, we entered the Puebla Cathedral considered one of the most beautiful in the world, at least according to a tourist brochure. Also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, it was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. The exterior has two of the tallest towers of any of the ancient cathedrals. The interior features extensive gold work, paintings, and other high quality attributes.
After our tour of the interior, we stepped outside to the fading afternoon sunlight. I watched as a photographer shot photos of what appeared to be of a girl coming of age on her 15th birthday, quinceañera. These celebrations in the Mexican and Latin American cultures are a big deal, families go all out for the occasion. 
As we were walking away, a family was trying to take a selfie with the Cathedral in the background. At first I walked by but something made be turn around and ask, in English, if they wanted me to take their photo. When they responded in excellent English, I was confused. I took the photos and part of the family wandered off while my Traveling Partner and I chatted with the young couple. Meet Arnold and Anna from Guatemala. One of them studied in Canada and the other in the United States. Anna also had studied in Germany. They were a delightful couple and so interesting to talk with. You never know who you’re going to meet by chance in unexpected places.
During our morning drive through the city, my Traveling Partner noticed a couple of fabric stores along the main shopping street near the Historic Center. We found one and she perused through the large store checking out the fabric and notions.
After a search for an ATM, a nice young fellow that spoke some English gave me some directions. After a bite to eat, we headed back to the hotel. In the morning we would journey to Oaxaca, the last stop on our tour.
The Road to Oaxaca
We were up early for some last minute packing and breakfast at the hotel. At 9 AM, we said goodbye to the Hotel Casareyna, one of the nicest places we’ve ever stayed at. The bus ride would take us over six hours with a couple of pitstops for restrooms and snacks.
During most of the ride to Oaxaca, I watched the scenery and landscape go by. South of Puebla there was flat plain where there was a lot of farming. It looked to me much of it is still being done by hand or with small machines. I saw one farmhand turning over some windrowed hay by hand. There were some people hoeing crops in small fields. There were fields where dried corn stalks were being chopped and hauled away likely for livestock feed. I did see some dairy cows, sheep, and goats but no beef cattle.
After the plain, the landscape became more mountainous, rugged, and arid. Many of the photos below were shot through the window of the tour bus.
As we got closer to Oaxaca, the soil became more reddish in color. It looked at one time that some areas may have been farmed, likely using irrigation but now it appeared to be abandoned.
Oaxaca is big (over 4 million in the metro area) and spread out with heavy traffic. The next two photos were taken from the bus as we drove to the city center.
Upon arrival, we checked into the Oaxaca Real Hotel, our lodging for the next three nights.
That’s it for this week. I’ll pick up the rest of the story next week.
Until then, happy travels!
Tom
PS: Click here for a link to the post about my book “Farm Boy.” Contact me if you are interested in purchasing a copy. Thanks to all have plunked down your hard earned dollars and read the book. TM