Today’s post is 1275 words, 43 photos, 3 videos, a 7 minute read. Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

This week I’ll take you to a textile museum, a photo gallery, then to our unique farewell dinner where we helped prepare the meal and learned a lot about weaving.

If you missed the earlier articles in this series, click here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Textile Museum of Oaxaca

Near the city center, the Museum Textile of Oaxaca is in a restored 18th century house once part of a convent. It displays traditional and contemporary pieces from the Oaxaca area which is known for its finely crafted textiles. Each of the indigenous communities has their own distinctive textile patterns, textures, and materials. Most of the materials (primarily cotton and wool) are colored by using natural dyes to create colorful and intricate designs.

The museum is free. Large bags are not allowed, there is a place to secure them while viewing the exhibits. Food or drink are also not allowed. My Traveling Partner sews and makes quilts so she took a special interest in some of the designs. We spent about 45 minutes walking through the exhibit rooms.

We were bound to see something with a skeleton and a reminder of the Day of the Dead. The artist made the skeleton  of a weaver at a loom.

After leaving the Textile Museum, we were heading to the photo gallery when I saw this graffiti on the side of a building. The rough translation to English is: “The Myth of Mixing Hidden Colonial Outrages in Abya Yala.” Abya Yala is a term used by Indigenous people across Central America that means “land of full ripeness” or land of lifeblood” or “noble and that welcomes all.” It represents unity to Indigenous peoples in relationship to the land and a shared history of colonialism. The concept is interesting, I wish I knew more. I”m not sure the graffitist is for or against the concept of Abya Yala. But it made me look and dig for answer.

Near our hotel was the Hospital Molina. It gave me comfort there was a hospital close by given my age and allergy to bee stings. Apparently, this hospital is highly regarded for it’s quality of care.

We passed a shop selling queso (cheese). I was drawn to the Holstein cow with horns, not something you’ll see on most dairy farms in the US.

Manual Álvarez Bravo Photo Center

The Centro Fotográfico gallery is located just a couple of blocks from our hotel, As a serious amateur photographer, I’m always interested in taking in photo exhibits in places we visit. Ask me sometime about the photo exhibit The Youngest and I visited in Arles, France.

There were two main exhibits on display at this gallery. Both unique in their own way.

While there were still images on display, the main exhibit was are series of photos of Putin on a tv screen. I snapped one towards the end of the video loop. I was drawn to the images because of my interest in Ukraine. I admit, it was a little weird but then again, the photographer made me look.

Ok friends, some of the photography was on the weird side but that often what makes an exhibition work. If it was ordinary photos, it might not draw the same attention. This was an hour well spent.

The Trail to Santa Cecillia

At the end of our last day on the G Adventures Tour, we boarded the bus for a 45 minute ride to the village of Santa Cecillia. On the way, I snapped this photo from the bus window of the sunset. The foreground isn’t very attractive but the clouds and color make up for this defect.

We pulled up to the house of Rafaela and Victor. There Rafaela would guide us in the preparation of our traditional Mexican meal for the evening. When we entered the house, Victor was working at the loom. He’s a master weaver, creating beautiful and intricate designs, some that take months to complete. Later he would show us how he dyes the wool and spins it into thread. To learn more click here.

It’s interesting to note that until recently weaving was the families main business. They have branched out into making meals for small groups of tourists interested in traditional foods of Mexico.

Rafaela was ready for us with a pile of aprons and several dishes of raw materials for what would be our dinner.

First, she and her assistant Serena, roasted some tomatoes and peppers on the wood coals under the griddle where some of the work would be done.

There were a lot of ingredients. The first task was to deseed a large bowl of roasted peppers. Our guide, Rafael was interpreting. I thought it interesting that the team demonstrating was Rafaela and Rafael. Sounds like a good band name!

The women of our tour group outfitted in their aprons.

And the men from our group. I think we got the cutest aprons!

With more wood on the fire, the prepping of the ingredients began.

 

My Traveling Partner roasted the sesame seeds. It didn’t take long.

Next we worked on making the tortillas. She used blue or black corn and made the dough ahead of time.

We each pressed a tortilla then with a technique that Rafaela taught us we tossed them on the griddle. Here’s my Traveling Partner at work. You can tell she knows her way around a kitchen.

Next we began the making of the mole that would accompany our meal of chicken. This is hard work and it takes a while to learn the technique. Rafaela is using a metate, a large stone used to grind ingredients such as peppers, corn, onion, garlic, and etc. These are tools that have been used for thousands of years. Metates are often handed down from one generation to the next.

 

I tried my hand at rolling the mole, it was hard work and took a bit to catch on to the technique.

While Rafaela and Serena finished making the meal, Victor took us to the weaving studio to demo the making of textiles from carding to spinning, and dyeing.

Victor showed us the natural products like certain insects, flowers such as marigolds, lichens, and cactus used to make the dyes to color the threads. 

Victor demonstrated one of the colors by using Christelle’s hand.

Victor then took us to the loom where he demonstrated the technique he uses to create the weavings. Some are simple while others are quite complex.

Here is an example of a wearable he created.

This one of many rugs that he’s made.

Back in the dining room, I took a few photos before dinner was served.

After the meal and before boarding the bus, we posed for a photo with Rafaela.

Here she is again with a big smile and a hearty farewell.

It was a great evening, educational, entertaining, and filling with the excellent food and tasty mezcal.

The next morning we were chauffeured to the small Oaxaca international airport. It was 84° F (~29° C) in Oaxaca when we boarded, it was -2° F (~-18° C) when we landed in Madison. Needless to say, after 19 days in warm Mexico, it took us a few days to adjust to the cold weather. We turned up the heat in the house and stayed inside as much as we could for a few days.

We had a great time in Mexico. We are planning a month-long stay in Puerto Vallarta next winter. Can’t wait.

But in the meantime I have more travels to tell you about. Join me next week when I’ll take you to Bath, England.

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