February 22, 2010
We traveled to the lakeside village of Tzintzuntzan, which in past centuries was the capital of the powerful Tarascan empire. There we shopped for cantera stone carving.
An array of carved volcanic rock.
Carver Diego Lopez Zaldivar with his family
A veiw of the ancient ruins from Diego's window.
And we visited the overflowing artisan market. We bought armloads of things, including dozens of tall cornhusk gladiolas on bamboo sticks.
We stuffed everything into a small taxi, and then tried to stuff ourselves into the same tiny space. It was a struggle, but nothing like that which ensued when we tried to get out again at our destination. The taxi driver smiled in amusement as we thrashed around in a hopeless tangle of seat belts, bags, flowers and sticks. He kept his good humor, even when a rogue stick nearly cost him an eye. But at last we broke free, and no one was hurt. All part of the Chiripa business model!
A staple at Chiripa is the cornhusk flowers that we can only find in the Tzintzuntzan market.
These colorful additions to our shop inspire people to say: "Chiripa makes me happy!"
This photo is the family who's stall at the market sells the many flowers we purchase
(daisies, callas, tulips, and the gladiolas mentioned in the copy above).
Left to right: Angelica Morales, her husband Juan Alberto Aparicio, and their daughter Jessica Morales.
We were happy to find all of them at the shop on this trip.
Paula Guzman Perez makes these delightful skeletons.
Her display was set up outside the local cemetery that is famous for it's Day of the Dead observance.
It was just a Chiripa that she was on the path that I walked on my way to buy stone carvings.
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