Old and Eccentric

From the log JM kept on the August 2010 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

August 19, 2010.  The old Hotel de los Escudos, in the center of Pazcuaro, is not what you would call luxurious. But it is clean and economical ($29 a night at this time of year). It is also interesting, in an eccentric and centuries-old sort of way. The desk staff remembers us, and it has a handy location right on the serene Plaza de Vasco Quiroga. It has big pine pillars and beams, and limestone steps indented and worn smooth by centuries of foot traffic. There is no security to speak of, but it feels comfortable and safe. So it suits us, and we keep coming back. 

Morning light hits Los Escudos on a prior trip. 

Note: the zocalo has not been rebuilt.

This time we stayed in the hotel “annex,” which has a lobby with a stuffed deer and a picture of the plaza covered with snow on July 16, 1996. Our interior room was almost too quiet, except for the rooftop bells that reminded us of the time every 15 minutes. In the corner of the room was a round brick fireplace that might be as old as the hotel. Patzcuaro nights can get cold, and firewood is provided. The blackened brick in the fire chamber suggested that the fireplace has seen plenty of use, but we paused when we saw that the brick on the outside of the fireplace was also blackened.

The ceiling, resting on heavy pine beams, towered 20 feet above us. The bathroom looked like a quaint little 10-ft. tall house within the 20-ft. tall room. It had brick and stucco walls, a pine door, and pine-encased semi-transparent windows that could swing open. Like many hotel bathrooms in Mexico, it was raised 8 inches above the bedroom floor. In the middle of the night, you must remember to step up on your way in (and down on your way out) or you will come to a bad end.

Once you have negotiated the step and entered the little house-bathroom, you must close the creaky pine door. The door does not shut unless you pull hard, and then it slams (waking your spouse). It is pitch black inside, so you try to find the light switch. The light shines through the window into your spouse’s (now open) eyes. If you are male, you raise the toilet seat, but it does not stay up by itself. You improvise by addressing the toilet from the side, and holding the seat up with your knee. If you are lucky, you finish the operation before the seat slips from your knee and slams down with a loud slap.

When you finish in the bathroom, you turn out the light, force open the creaky door with your shoulder, remember to step down, and grope your way back to bed. You misjudge a bit, and curse when you slam into the bed with your shin. You eventually get back to sleep, but your spouse will be awake for several hours….    

"Going green" in the interior lobby at Los Escudos.

A Bit of Luck in Tonala

From JM's August 2010 log of the Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

August 17, 2010. We have never had much luck in Tonala. The town on the outskirts of Guadalajara is reputed to be a major center of craft production. But we have always found it frustrating. There are a lot of workshops, but much of the production we've been able to find is kitchy grade B stuff--not the high quality traditional crafts that we seek.

Today we decided to give it one more try. We had a specific mission in mind: to find the workshop that creates interesting metal work under the name of Marco Polo Designs (we had failed to find it once before). 

The taxi dripped us on Alfereros street, where we had heard the workshop was located. But Alfereros is not a continuous street. It stops, changes names, travels several crooked blocks under its new alias, and then resumes liife under its original name. The house numbers follow no discernible order, and seem to be assigned by a random number generator.

Despite these difficulties, we persisted. Finally, after asking several friendly pedestrians and shopkeepers, and consulting with a helpful policeman, we found the little yellow house and workshop at Alfereros #8. We rang the bell, but there was no answer. Again . . . No response. Once more . . .  Nothing. It looked like yet another defeat in Tonala.

But we weren't quite ready to quit. After polking around the back streets for another hour or so, we returned One more time to Alfereros #8. This time the door opened, and a friendly figure emerged. He smiled when he saw us, and waved us in.

We ordered some really nice luminaries (table and wall), a big dancing Catrina skeleton, and other good metal pieces, including some clever geckos to climb all over your walls. Tonala is still hard to figure out, but it may be growing on us.

Farewell to a Friend

From the log JM kept on the August 2010 Chiripa buying trip to Mexico.

"I am so glad to see you, but I have some very bad news." We held our breath, waiting for what Tina would tell us: "My husband Carlos has died."

 Carlos and Tina in February, 2010.

It was just this past February when Carlos had drawn us a big glass of tequila from the barrel in the back room. (Carlos had received the barrel in payment from a small tequila maker who could not afford to pay cash for the special hand-blown glass bottles that Carlos had made for him.) When we protested that the glass was too big, Carlos just smiled and said "the tap closes slowly . . ."  We laughed, and he told us about the avocado trees that he was planting on their little farm. He hoped to sell the avocados to provide retirement income.

On a hot afternoon just one month later, Carlos was watering the young avocado trees when he suffered a stroke. He wanted to clean up before going to the hospital, but he naver made it. Carlos was gone, and Tina is left to tend the trees herself.

Tina and Carlos were maried for 43 years. As newlyweds they moved to Tlaquepaque to live in his mother's house, just across the street from the old Rufugio monastery. For many years, the house served as glass-blowing workshop, retail store and residence. 

Tina misses Carlos "more each day." But at least for now, she bravely carries on the family glassware business. Chiripa is proud to be one of her loyal customers.

Farewell, Carlos.

Oaxaca Parade

JM normally provides the content for the Chiripa blog, but, since he's just back from Mexico I thought I'd do another post with images from the March trip that didn't illustrate the log from that trip. 

I make it a point to visit the English language bookstore in Oaxaca to get ideas for books we might carry at Chiripa. One late afternoon in March I was casually browsing the shelves when I heard a loud commotion outside the window. Looking out I saw a parade in the making. 

The "band" stopped right by my window and the young women in traditional Oaxacan dress started dancing. 

Just as quickly as it had started they moved on down the street delighting the crowds outside.

The workers in the bookstore just kind of shrugged when asked about the reason for the parade. It had something to do with education, but they weren't really sure.  

It was fun, colorful, and unexpected.  A perfect Chiripa (happy accident) for me.

The Beauty of Buses

JM normally provides the content for the Chiripa blog, by, since he's off to Mexico I thought I'd do a couple posts with images from the March trip that didn't illustrate the log from that trip. 

Anyone who has been reading this blog knows that we travel by bus throughout Mexico. It is a convenient, efficient, and safe way to travel. This is a typical bus station in a major city.

We see all sorts of travelers and amazing baggage. On this day I noticed a woman getting off a bus carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers. By the time I could get my camera in gear she was almost out of the picture.

The woman walking behind her saw me and stopped her friend so I could get a better picture.

And then they got me in the picture. And finally, as we were parting ways the woman gave me one of the red roses from her arrangement.

This was all done without words except Gracias.

Blouses from Oaxaca

Below you will see 12 styles of blouses made by women in Oaxaca. Chiripa is considering carrying a small amount of clothing and we'd like your opinion about these blouses/tunics/huipils. All are cotton, many are hand embroidered, and the source is a woman-owned busines in Oaxaca. The owner decided to form a business after traveling with a Mexico Ballet Folklorico group. Wherever they went people would ask her how they could buy clothing like the women in the group were wearing. She began working with women and women's cooperatives in the Oaxaca city area. 

FEEDBACK is what I'm looking for. Please respond with a comment.

What # blouse is your favorite(s)?

What # would you consider purchasing?

If you would like to see the blouses in person, stop by the shop at 636 S Park Street in Madison Wisconsin. They will be on display for two weeks.

Thanks for your help!

 

 

A Misguided (But Thrilling) Ride

The final entry from the log kept by JM on the Feb/March Chiripa buying trip.

March 6, 2010. Reliable local sources suggest that we should visit the remote mountain village of San Pedro Cajonos where there is wood carving and jewelry made from silkworm cocoons. But they warned us that getting there would be somewhat difficult. They told us to start by catching a collectivo taxi near the Benito Juarez monument on the outskirts of Oaxaca.

We got to the monument OK, but it was not clear where we should board the collectivo (or which one we should take). Our cab driver and a food stand operator thought they knew, so we joined a group of people waiting at one of the stops.

When our turn came, and a collectivo drove up, we climbed aboard. Other people were waiting (and probably had more pressing needs), but they courteously deferred to us. We soon wished they hadn't, because it quickly became apparent that we were heading in the wrong direction. We were headed high into the mountains, but not to the place we had intended.

For the next hour and a half, the cab driver roared up steep switchbacks until we grew light-headed and dizzy. It was a thrilling ascent, and the scenery was spectacular, but at the end of the ride we arrived at the town of Ixtlan de Juarez (not the village of Benito Juarez, where we had planned to change collectivos to get to our ultimate destination).

The driver said he would gladly take us to Benito Juarez, but the road was bad. It would take a long time and cost us a fortune. So we gave up, and just looked around Ixtlan. In this remote spot, we might have expected to find a poor and backward village, but it was actually rather modern and prosperous. There were excellent covered basketball courts (with nets, a rarity in Mexico), a mural of Michael Jordan, and kids with their names printed on their team uniforms.

A pleasant place, but not what we were looking for. So we swallowed some Drammine pills to control the dizziness, and headed back down the mountain to Oaxaca.

That night we loaded up our packs and walked to the first-class bus depot. At midnight, our bus departed for Mexico City. We slept fitfully, and at 6 a.m. we stumbled out of the bus into the TAPO terminal in the big metropolis. A taxi took us to the airport, where we made ready to fly home to El Norte.

A last look at Oaxaca night-life from a rooftop restaurant.