Oaxaca Craft Villages

When doing my research about the city of Oaxaca and the surrounding areas, I kept coming across different articles written by the same guy. They were all very helpful and I realized that he does tours tailored to your needs and what you want to see. Oaxaca is famous for many of the crafts made in the surrounding villages and I wanted to make sure we got to see at least a few of these places. I figured instead of us trying to navigate the roads and language ourselves, we would hire Alvin for the day. It was my favorite day of the whole trip! He is very knowledgeable about the area and the villages and he speaks fluent Spanish which was very helpful during the demonstrations. He knows exactly where to go and knows the people in the villages very well. I highly recommend doing at least one day with him if you ever get to Oaxaca! (http://www.tomzap.com/machaya.html)

A couple more pictures of the house we rented

Our first stop in the morning was the rug village of Teotitlan del Valle. There are many shops selling rugs along the main road, but we went to Casa Santiago where they showed us how the wool is cleaned and then spun and how they use all natural dyes. It was amazing how they could create so many different colors using natural sources.

Smashing the cochineal (a tiny bug)to make red dye

Gloria cleaning the wool

Gloria spinning the wool...Lydia couldn't take her eyes off of it!

The spun wool being dyed

The "ingredients" used in making the natural dyes

They let the wool sit in the dye for weeks (depending on

how dark they want it) and then they hang it

out to dry which also takes weeks (or even months).

One of the looms that they weave the rugs on.

The family was so warm and inviting and the kids were actually more interested than I thought they would be. Of course we had to buy a couple of rugs before we left because they were so beautiful! I'm not sure if it'll work, but there is a video at the end of this post of the rug working on the loom.

From the rugs we headed to the black pottery village of San Bartolo Coyotepec and the late Dona Rosa's workshop. From the first time I saw the black pottery in San Miguel, I fell in love with it. Unfortunately, outside of Oaxaca, it's very expensive. I could not believe how inexpensive it was at the workshop. Before we loaded up, we saw a demonstration of how they make the pottery. These people have talent! They still use a wheel made by stacking two plates and do everything by hand.

Hollowing out the clay

Smoothing the piece out on the "wheel"

Literally 5 minutes later, this is what that ball of clay turned into

He used another sample piece to show how they

make the cutouts in the pieces

The boys had fun picking out their own piece of black

pottery and I was in heaven with all there was to choose from!!

Oaxaca's state drink, Mezcal, is made from the agave plant like Tequila, but is not as well known. They start by baking the agave over firewood in a deep in-ground pit and then use a multi-ton stone, pulled by a horse, to crush it, ferment it in pine barrels, and then let it age for 8 years in oak barrels. We stopped at a "distillery" on the side of the road to see some of the process.

The owner of the Mezcal facility really enjoyed Lydia!

They had some Mezcal fermenting...looks appetizing!

The horse had the day off today, but this is the stone

he pulls to smash the baked agave

Nolan really wanted to taste test!

Alvin, our tour guide, taking us through the entire process

Dad and I taking a taste. I have to say, I like

tequila better! Sorry Oaxaca.

Ethan liked this statue.

By this time, we were all starving, so Alvin took us to a traditional Zapotec restaurant with tasty food and a small playground. We had some more Mezcla on the house and had a nice, liesurely lunch.

What a beautiful presentation! This is a traditional

Zapotec dish that my Dad and Anna both had and loved.

From lunch we headed to our longest stop of the day...the village of San Martin Tilcajete where they make the colorful, wooden, hand-carved animals, kown around Mexico as Alebrijes. We went to the shop that is known to have the best quality alebrijes in the state and once you see them, you can tell a difference! They were absolutely gorgeous! Check them out at http://www.tilcajete.org/ They took us through the entire process which is all done by hand. Most of the people that work there are family members. The reason this was the longest stop was because none of us could decide what we wanted! I would have been happy with anything!

All of the pieces that are carved and waiting

Nolan helped make some different paint colors out of

natural materials and then got to paint the log with it.

Lydia and Daddy looking on

Nolan with his messy hands

All of the alebrijes are handpainted...each painter has

their choice of color and how they want to paint the animal

unless it's a special order. Their work is so detailed and beautiful!

The alebrije we decided on. Yes, it's

very different, but we LOVE it!!

The alebrije Ethan chose...they aren't all dragons,

they have every type of animal, but, for some

reason, we were drawn to the dragons.

By the time we were done with the alebrijes, it was getting late, so we could only make one more stop to the cotton textile pueblita near by. The women weave table runners, placemats, purses, etc. on a back strap loom. Their work is amazing.