A Facelift

Ha ha.  Gotcha.  Not going to happen, except to our house.

Here are Juan and his cousin repainting the front of our house.  It is still the original color, Mescal, but with a sealer and two more coats. 

They painted the new construction on the rooftop as well.  Such a lovely, buttery color in the sunset light.

And finally, we added the beautiful hammock we bought this last trip to 

Zihuatanejo.

Perfect!  Come visit us sometime.

Talavera in Puebla

Walking around Puebla can give you a neck crick.  Sara found a walking tour map of notable tile covered buildings in town.  Talavera in Mexico originated in Puebla and the more wealthy used these tiles to cover the facades of their homes.  To me the architecture was reminiscent of some of the buildings I saw in Holland.

This is the shop, a cantina actually, where they sell a delicious raisin liqueur called Pasita.  Founded in 1916, La Pasita is open only for a few hours in the afternoon and after our first bottle we came back for more. Looks like these tiles were applied in the year it was opened.

The Uriarte family has been creating and selling talavera pottery and tiles since 1824. We stopped in the shop to admire their handiwork.

And here are the three patient guys who took the walking tour with us and went to the shop with us. 

 Good work, guys. Thanks.

Alebrijes from Oaxaca

Alebrijes (ali-bre-haze) are fantastical animals carved from copal wood found in Oaxaca.  After Monte Albán we went to the nearby town of Arrazola to visit the workshop of one  of the carvers, Pepe Santiago.

They first chop the soft copal wood with machetes into rough forms.

 Then they shape it more finely with small knives

 and set their carvings to dry in the sun.

Each sculpture is unique and can take from days to weeks to complete, depending on the complexity of the form and painted designs.

Here is Rohan posing with the artist, Pepe Santiago, and his own colorful choice.

We took this little praying mantis home with us.

and this monster came home with us from the market in downtown Oaxaca.

Each part of these sculptures is designed to be packed to fit safely in your luggage, so his wings, tail, and even tongue are removable.  He arrived without damage.
 

Monte Albán, Oaxaca

Yup, pretty interesting,,,a human skull covered with a mosaic of turquoise stones.  This was in the collection of the museum in the Santo Domingo church in central Oaxaca.  Many of the artifacts in the museum, like this one, originated from the tombs in Monte Albán, on a hilltop about 6 miles outside of Oaxaca.

Here is Rohan peering down into a small tomb.  Most were emptied of their treasures by the late 1800s but one tomb, Tomb 7, was discovered untouched in 1932. 

I was captivated by the detail of the necklaces and other ornaments that were found here. 500 pieces of jewelry and art made of almost 8 pounds of gold and turquoise, conch shell, amber, and obsidian were uncovered, signifying the wide trade that must have occurred.

These pearls were brought from the coast, over 100 miles away.

Monte Albán flourished from 500BC to around 1300AD and was inhabited by the Zapotec people.  It covers a mountain top that was leveled in a process our guide told us took over 200 years just to flatten. 

Here we all are, catching our breath after climbing to the top of a pyramid.

If you do make it to Monte Albán, be sure to make a stop first in central Oaxaca at the museum in the Santo Domingo church to get a glimpse of the riches that were there.