Back in the day we would take a collectivo to the villages in the valley so we decided to give that transportation method a try again. We heard that the collectivos hit the main highway from a side street near the Estadio Eduardo Vasconselos (baseball park and home of the Guerreros de Oaxaca) so we took a bus from just outside our door to within a block of the park. Not sure at what corner we might pick up a collectivo, we started at the main entrance corner which is right behind home plate and after a few minutes of spotting no taxis destined for Tlacolula we walked to the right field corner. Still no luck we continued to the centre field corner and then on the the left field corner. It figures, walk about 6 blocks when 2 would have done the trick if we had of headed to the left field corner in the first place!
Anyway, numerous collectivos came around the corner but all were full so we thought we might have a bit of a wait. Just then a bus pulls up and Kris notices "TLACOLULA" on its windshield. BONUS... nearly empty bus, with plush seats and leg room, took us to within a block of the mercado in Tlacolula for all of $18 pesos (about $1 CDN) each. The market is a pretty good size running down a main street about 8 blocks with several arms going down side streets and a large inside building near the Zocalo and church. Brings back the memory of when Brian's pocket was picked the last time we were here close to 20 years ago. We are a little bit wiser now!
Lots of fun to just browse through the market looking at all the colourful goods for sale, especially the wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Mixed in is an assortment of clothing, hardware and general bric-a-brac type stalls. We were on the lookout for an assortment of hand carved wooden stir sticks that we use at home all the time. The ones we have are still functional but starting to show wear although it seems that 20+ years of use leaves one with nothing to complain about. We had looked through the markets in Oaxaca over the last couple of weeks and the only ones we could find are really non-functional machine made souvenir type things. We wanted the "real", hand carved ones and were not disappointed at the Tlacolula market, picking up this set, from a couple of different vendor stalls, for a total of about $150 MXN (about $9 CDN)...
Continuing around the market we stopped at one of the many bakery stands and picked up a couple of pineapple turnovers that we took over and munched on just outside the church. We thought we might go into the church but a mass was underway so we deferred on that one. They do have a beautiful church though. On the other side of the church was a market arm consisting of many textile stalls. We had a quick look at some rugs but decided to pass on them here. Instead Kris picked up a very nice blouse...
From there we headed back towards where the bus dropped us off earlier. On the way we stopped for a very good lunch of a 1/4 "pollo rostizado" (roast chicken) with salad and veggies each, along with a refresco (water/juice) for $100 MXN (about $6.25 CDN) for the both of us...
...tasty!
Then it was time to head home. We walked up the street to where the bus had dropped us off earlier and asked a couple there if this is where we could catch a bus back to Oaxaca. "Yes, along here" they said. We waited a bit but no bus and no collectivos either. We did see numerous "tuk tuks" here though. These are all new since we were in the valley those many years ago. Great vehicles for these small towns where many of the people rely on taxis for local transportation. Reminded us of the auto-rickshaws we took in cities and towns all over India...
There was a policeman standing about a half a block away so we went over and asked him. He pointed then walked with us a block and a half or so to the actual bus terminal, even taking us inside and telling one of the attendants there to show us to the next Oaxaca bus. How nice is that! The attendant, noticing Brian's crutch told us to go sit down and he would let us know. A few minutes later he came over and pointed out that the bus that was just pulling in will go to Oaxaca. We got on and were able to get seats. The bus filled up completely and was standing room only. WHEW...if we had waited on the street and had been able to get the bus to pull over we would have been in cramped standing room the entire way back to Oaxaca.
Monday, for the most part was a relax at home day. Mid afternoon we walked over to the Alcala for a couple of iced lattes before heading on to the lending library where we had tickets to hear Sheri Brautigam's talk on the textiles of Mexico. We got there about 50 minutes early just as the library staff were setting up for the talk. It was a good thing we got there early as we got good seats and the place filled up pretty quickly with over a half hour to go before the presentation. The interesting talk and slide show presentation lasted about an hour and a half. Afterwards, since we had not had much to eat all day, we took a taxi over to the Zocalo, walked down to the Terranova for the usual wine but added a Hawaiian pizza for the supper portion. We ordered a medium and no sooner had our wine arrived that this humongous pizza was delivered to our table. We managed to get through half of it between us and asked to have the rest packaged up to take home. Should make a decent lunch for tomorrow!
As an aside, every time we get in a taxi we ask the driver if he speaks any English. The answer is almost always "no", so we tell him "hablamos un poco Espanol" and the fun starts there. We tell him where we are from, ask some questions about Oaxaca and try to answer his questions about Canada. Usually we all have a pretty good laugh.
Tuesday was shopping day so we decided to go to Walmart as they have the best wine selection, but first it was time to finish off last night's pizza. Before leaving we went online and added some funds to our prepaid CIBC Mexican Visa cards, then it was into a taxi and off. After collecting the required goods we went to the checkout where Brian attempted to pay the required amount with his prepaid card - DECLINED! So, Kris tried her card - DECLINED! WTF???? these are supposed to be as good as cash. Luckily we had enough cash on hand to pay for the groceries and to take a taxi back home. When we got home we tried to call CIBC using the number on the back of the prepaid card. GUESS WHAT..... The number on the back of the "prepaid CIBC Mexican Visa" card is a 1-855 number that apparently is not available from Mexico! How stupid is that??? We ended up calling the regular CIBC Visa international call number and got them to transfer us to the prepaid group. Turns out there was no record of declined transactions so it was the credit card terminal at the Walmart. Weird, since we have previously used these cards at Walmart here.
Anyway, being now real low on cash, later in the afternoon we walked down to the Zocalo and went to the ScotiaBank ATM we have used on numerous occasions. GUESS WHAT... went through all the motions to withdraw cash and got - "TRANSACTION CANCELLED"..... GOOD GRIEF... so Kris tries her card and same thing. There was a young women waiting outside for the ATM so we told her it might be out of cash but give it a try. She tried it and got the same thing. So she motions to us that there is another ScotiaBank ATM around the corner. WHO KNEW??? It was a tad obscure. She goes in and comes out with some cash so maybe our luck would be better. YEAH... it was. WHEW, lucky for us that she happened to come by at the right time. Definitely time for a couple of glasses of wine in the Zocalo before calling it a day.
Wednesday morning we were provided with another beautiful sunrise over the Santo Domingo Church...
After that it was a total lazy day. Laundry, knitting, reading, watching some Craftsy.com classes before heading out to the Zocalo in the early evening. Went on a bit of another knitting needle snark hunt in the mercerias south of the Zocalo but did manage to find the extra needles Kris now needed. We had to look in four places before finding the right ones. The woman there laughed when Brian said "Esposa Feliz Vida Feliz"! Leaving there we went into the Mercado Juarez for some avocados and tomatoes for later, then it was time for a glass of wine... off to the Terranova.
Thursday was a museum day. We walked down towards the Zocalo to El Museo de Arte Hispanico de Mexico Rufino Tamayo (or if you prefer, the Rufino Tamayo Museum). We have been here on numerous occasions in past visits to Oaxaca and it never gets old... well, everything in there is a tad old... but you know what we mean. Pretty well everything in the museum dates from about 1250 AC (antes Cristo) to about 500 DC (despues Cristo). Browsing through the collection we decided to take some pictures to see if we can view the Super Bowl through the eyes of some of these ancient art pieces. For example... a referee indicating an incomplete pass...
... or perhaps a touchdown...
... lots of fun. Afterwards we continued down to the Zocalo for some lunch and to pick up some cash that we will need on Friday. Back to the house, rest etc, then to the Zocalo for the evening as per usual.
Friday was a lot of fun. Our ride out to the cooking school in Teotitlan was to pick us up at 8:30 AM so we left early to try to catch a coffee at a stop along the way. We arrived there at 7:45 only to find it closed. They don't open until 8:00! Man, if they want to catch up to Starbucks they best be opening a tad earlier! Anyway, we waited around and finally got a couple of (very good) lattes to go then hustled over to the meeting place, getting there a little after 8:25. Turns out we didn't need to rush as the driver didn't arrive until about 8:50. Oh well, we met the others also waiting (there were 10 altogether) and the van was very comfortable for the half hour drive out of the city. Reyna, the owner of El Sabor Zapoteco greeted us and we all headed off to the local market. Veggies, fruits, baked goods, and cheeses (we got to taste a bunch of different kinds) all selected we headed back to the "school". What a fun time. We all donned aprons and set to work, under Reyna's strict guidance, to preparing the dishes which consisted of 3 types of tamales, cactus salad with a yummy dressing, salsa and ice cream...
By early afternoon, everything was done (Reyna had prepared a lot of things the day before) and we all sat down for the big meal which consisted of all the dishes we made along with some mescal and, for the less timid, some chapulines (grasshoppers). Kris deferred but Brian tried a couple. Sort of crunchy and limey tasting. Brian doesn't think he is ready to give up beef just yet; Kris thinks she needs a lot more mescal before she is eating bugs!
When we were all done it was time for the rest of the gang to head back into Oaxaca. We bid them farewell and walked down the street to see if we could find Las Granadas. Reyna told us to walk a couple of blocks then turn right and it is the third door down. Sounds easy, BUT do you count doors for buildings that have been mostly demolished and she didn't mention the alley! Anyway, although the B&B had no signage of any kind, Kris did notice a small sticker from TripAdvisor stuck on what appeared to be a relatively new doorway. Turned out to be the right place. Our room was spartan by any standards but it was clean with a couple of single beds, a private bathroom and ONE towel. We dropped off our overnight bag and went walking around the small town (about 8,000 inhabitants)...
Most of the streets are stone and some have sidewalks but we made our way to the local church...
and to the artisan market. Teotitlan is woven rug/tapestry central. We have an appointment to see Omar's family studio and workshop tomorrow and plan to buy a couple of small rugs from them so we just wandered through the artisan market looking, but not too closely, at the many stalls offering up a wonderfully colourful array of rugs. Later back at the B&B we sat out on the balcony enjoying the great view of the Sierra Mardres del Sur...
We also found it to be a lot cooler, chilly actually, here in Teotitlan compared to Oaxaca and we were not prepared with just our usual t-shirts, although Kris did have a rebozo to wrap herself in. Brian found a large rug in the room closet and wrapped that around himself. Sitting out there the wine tasted very nice.
Saturday morning we were offered a most excellent breakfast of fruit salad, quesadillas, yoghurt, granola, coffee and a variety of baked goods. We ate our fill, paid our bill (about $35 CDN for the room and breakfast) and waited for Omar who arrived spot on 10:00AM as he said he would. A short ride later (we would never have found the place on our own) we arrived at his place, Fe y Lola, named so after his father and mother. He and his father, Federico, gave us a great demo of their dying techniques along with showing us some weaving under way and some of the wonderful rugs they currently have in stock.
At one point Federico put some ground cochineal into the palm of our hands. It is a dark red powder. Then he squeezed some lime juice on it and it turned bright orange. Then he added some baking soda and it turned a deep purple. Way cool! All the dyes they use are natural dyes. They are one of only a few weavers in Teotitlan who do not use chemical dyes.
What an interesting place... one of the dye baths, currently doing some indigo...
... some of the looms...
... and a sampling of some of their smaller rugs in stock at the workshop...
They didn't have anything in the sizes we are looking for but they do have back in the store in Oaxaca. We'll go in there on Monday. Afterwards, Omar was kind enough to drive us to a silk workshop Kris was interested in. Unfortunately it didn't look open so we asked him to just drop us near to the central mercado where we could catch a bus back to Oaxaca. Just as he dropped us off a bus, destination Oaxaca, pulled up so we hopped on. It took a little over an hour to get back into Oaxaca but it was an end to a real fun couple of days. Later in the afternoon we took a taxi to the Oaxaca Textile Museum, had a look around, Brian bought an alebrije (animalito)...
... then we wandered over to the Zocalo to finish off the week with a couple of glasses of wine. Nice!
Later in the evening we were treated to a pretty good fireworks display (seems like there are fireworks every night here, some better than others)...
| Back to Week 3 | On to Week 5 |
No comments:
Post a Comment