Category Archives: Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Oaxaca’s Ethnobotanical Garden: Rooted in Cultural History

Posted on Thursday, February 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

Rather than give you another review of Oaxaca’s Ethnobotanical Garden, I thought I would share this excellent article recently published in Garden Design Magazine. It has lots of photos of this remarkable space. Thanks to Mary Ann Walsh who follows this blog and shared the link with me.

Check the Garden for availability of guided tours in English, usually available Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 11 a.m. You can only enter the garden as part of a guided visit which lasts two hours.

You can see some of the same design elements in this garden that recur in some of the more recent renovations — the Museo Textil de Oaxaca and the Centro Academico y Cultural San Pablo funded by the Alfredo Harp Helu Foundation.

When Alejandro de Avila B. returned to Oaxaca after completing his PhD at University of California at Berkeley, he became the director of the Ethnobotanical Garden and then later, curator at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. He continues to have an important impact on the development of arts and culture in the city and is an extraordinarily knowledgeable resource.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Oaxaca travel, Travel & Tourism

Tagged Alejandro de Avila, blogsherpa, cactus, ethnobotanical, Francisco Toledo, garden, Mexico, Oaxaca

Chiapas Retrospective: San Cristobal de las Casas Textiles, Food, Lodging, Shopping

Posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2012 | 2 Comments

Huipil, San Andres Larainzar, Mercado Sto Domingo

In retrospect: The best of San Cristobal de las Casas! Now that I am back in Oaxaca, settled into my comfy room with my Zapotec family in Teotitlan del Valle, I revisit my travels to San Cristobal de las Casas. With Oaxacaqueño organic coffee from Nuevo Mundo in hand to wash down the almond paste and chocolate croissants leftover from the San Cris authentic French bakery on Real Guadalupe, one of many in San Cris, I am reminiscing.

Pozole con Pollo at Gorditas

San Cristobal de las Casas is a perfect city for eating, sleeping, strolling, exploring indigenous culture, shopping for textiles and amber, and sitting at sidewalk cafes watching the world go by. The world is well-represented here. There are travelers from just about every European country, the U.S., Australia, and Asia. The cuisine reflects this. Someone told me that San Cristobal is, per capita, the most international city in Mexico.

Food Highlights

At Comida Thai, Real de Guadalupe #84, you can dine as I did on an incredible, authentic spicy red curry in coconut milk with chicken, for 85 pesos. Close your eyes and you could be in Bangkok. Chef Sutharee Nagavajara is young, talented and welcomes you to the 11-seat restaurant she operates with her husband Carlos Sanchez Andonaegui. Don’t miss it!

Enjoy authentic Italian cannelloni or pizza or house made pasta (fettucini, spaghetti) with a choice of toppings at Napoli Italian Restaurant on Ejercito Nacional #8 between Av. Gen. Utrilla and Av. S. Dominguez. Chef/owner Romero is from Italy and has been in San Cristobal for over 10 years, in Mexico for more than 20 years. The restaurant seats 12 and the joy is in sharing a table with strangers who become compadres. It was SO GOOD I ate there three times!

Pie de Queso and other Goodies in Tierra Madre Bakery

In Plaza Madre Tierra on Insurgentes across from the Mercado de Dulces y Artesanias is the MOST wonderful bakery, a welcoming cafe, and gallery that features the textiles from Los Caminos de los Altos Cooperativo.

Stop for homemade dark chocolate (amargo) truffles flavored with tequila at Cafe Yik (on the zocalo or Anandor Av. 20 de Noviembre). Buy some after dinner to nibble on during your walk “home.” Have a lunch of pozole con pollo at Gorditas on Av. Miguel Hidalgo for under $5USD.

Splurge for dinner at Restaurante Babel, also on Real de Guadalupe. For under 160 pesos per person you can get the menu of the day that includes a first and second course, a glass of good Argentine wine, and coffee.

Where I have included links to TripAdvisor Reviews, this means the location does not have their own website.

A Good Night’s Sleep

My home away from home in San Cristobal de las Casas is Bela’s Bed and Breakfast, Av. Dr. Navarro #2. She is Numero Uno on Trip Advisor, so get your reservations in early. The breakfast includes unsweetened natural yoghurt, a mixed fruit bowl, homemade granola with plenty of nuts and seeds, eggs cooked to your liking, bacon, juice, and extraordinary coffee. Bela is a great host and the five-room adobe, and tile casa is built around a lush patio of flowering plants and local decor. Bela gives you a good map, and tips for eating, touring and shopping. From $45 per night for shared bath, $70 per night for private bath.

Best back up is Posada del Abuelito on Av. Tapachula #18. Rebecca and Rob run a lovely hostel that caters to backpackers who like to share dorm space. But there are two lovely, very clean rooms with private bath for 280 pesos per night, including a breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, coffee and access to the kitchen.

Textile Lovers’ Shopping Galore

Carmen wears Las Margaritas ceremonial huipil with natural dyes

I discovered Tienda de Artesanias Karmelita, Av. Gen Utrilla #31-A on the day before I was set to depart back to Oaxaca. Karmelita’s has the best quality at reasonable prices. Shop here if you can’t get to a pueblo (still iffy, since someone might take you to a place of poor quality and higher prices) and if you don’t know much about textile quality. No website. Phone (967) 100-1996 or estevez_fer20@hotmail.com I got a gorgeous ceremonial huipil from Las Margaritas pueblo at a fraction of what a similar one sells for at Sna Jolobil (museum quality, museum prices) and of better quality than any other shop in town. The one above is handwoven wool with natural dyes.

The outdoor market at Santo Domingo church can yield special finds if you know what to look for. I found a gorgeous huipil, finely woven on a backstrap loom with intricate bordado weaving from the village of San Andres Larainzar for 700 pesos– that’s $58USD (double that in a gallery).

Adriana from Chenalho

In the market on my last day I also found two extraordinary huipils from the village of Chenalho high in the mountains outside of Chamula with handmade cloth and intricate embroidery for 250 pesos each (that’s $22USD). Look at the handwork. Turn the cloth inside out to see how the stitching and weaving is finished. Look for tightness of weave, for the quality of the finish work, the binding off around the neck and armpits, hems. Chenalho women and children were massacred by paramilitary extremists during the Zapatista era and I wanted to support them with a purchase.

Sneak Preview! Last night at a party, I met Ann Conway and John Do, who met years ago while they were Peace Corps volunteers. The plan to open La Joya Hotel San Cristobal this coming August 2012. See www.lajoyahotelsancris.com to keep up with their progress.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Dining and Lodging, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture

Day of the Dead 2012 Photography Expedition in Oaxaca, Mexico

Posted on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

7 Nights and 8 Days, Sunday, October 28 to Sunday, November 4, 2012. Bill Bamberger returns in 2012 to lead this very popular expedition that gives you an intimate view of Oaxaca’s extraordinary Day of the Dead celebrations.

You get a taste of how the city and a smaller village celebrate. Bill teaches in the Folklore Program in the College of Arts and Sciences at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and in the renown Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. His approach is both creative and technical.

Travel with us to Oaxaca, Mexico where you will explore the magic and mystery of Day of the Dead through photography– a feast for the visual senses. This seven-night, eight-day expedition is a cultural immersion experience. Come with us to document the food, religious symbols, people, cemeteries and family celebrations both in the city and in the rural Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle. By the end of the week, you will better use your digital SLR camera for visual storytelling and cultural discovery.

We will accept 10 participants. Last year we filled quickly. If this is something you’ve always dreamed of doing, don’t hesitate!

This workshop is for beginning and intermediate-level amateur photographers who want to learn more about their digital SLR cameras and move more comfortably beyond the automatic setting. Technical topics covered include using natural light, aperture and shutter speed, using a tripod for night-time photography, using bounce flash, focusing on details, photographing people and taking the time to set up your shot.

The workshop features documentary-style photography, which involves some degree of assimilation and a greater understanding of the culture and people you are photographing. On this journey you will photograph people in their natural settings, experience local rituals, visit family environments, all as you immerse yourself in both the city and rural life of Oaxaca.

During our week together, we will review each other’s work, give feedback, and offer supportive critiques. The workshop includes a mix of class instruction and being out on the streets to capture the action. We offer structured group discussion and opportunities for individual feedback with Bill during privately scheduled coaching sessions.

You will have the option to undertake an independent project during the week to document Day of the Dead family observances and rituals. Here is what 2011 participant, photographer Nick Eckert, created:

About Photographer and Educator Bill Bamberger

For two decades Bill Bamberger has been photographing people around the world and their daily lives. His photographs have appeared in Aperture, Doubletake, Harper’s and the New York Times Magazine. He has appeared as a featured guest on CBS Sunday Morning, About Books (CSPAN2), and North Carolina People with William Friday. His first book, Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory (DoubleTakeBooks/Norton, 1998), won the Mayflower Prize in Nonfiction and was a semifinalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

Bamberger’s work explores large social issues of our time: the demise of the American factory, housing in America, adolescents coming of age. A trademark of Bamberger’s exhibitions is that they are first shown in the community where he has chosen to photograph prior to their museum exhibition. Closing: The Life and Death of an American Factory premiered in an abandoned department store a block from the closed furniture factory, while Stories of Home was first shown in a custom-designed 1,000 square foot mobile art gallery on San Antonio’s Mexican-American West Side.

Bamberger has had one-person exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery and the National Building Museum. He was one of fifty-six American artists to take part in Artists and Communities: America Creates for the Millennium, the National Endowment for the Arts millennium project where he produced part II in an ongoing series about teenage boys coming of age.

Bill lives in Durham, North Carolina, and teaches photography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at Duke University. He has lectured at museums and universities, and has taught classes and workshops for the public good in underserved communities across the country. His ability to relate to people to draw them into the photographic experience as a subject is why he makes an outstanding instructor. Website: billbamberger.com

Preliminary Itinerary (subject to change)

Day 1, Sunday, October 28: Travel to Oaxaca and check-in to our lovely bed and breakfast close to the Zocalo. Dinner on your own. Overnight in Oaxaca.

Day 2, Monday, October 29: After breakfast and a brief orientation, we’ll embark on a group walking expedition around the city, visit markets selling wild marigold, special breads, candies, and holiday ritual necessities. After lunch we will meet for class, then enjoy free time to capture the “magic hour” before dinner. Options to explore churches, street parades, public altars. Overnight Oaxaca. Includes breakfast, lunch.

Day 3, Tuesday, October 30: After breakfast and class, we will arrange an optional guided visit to Monte Alban and the Atzompa pottery village. Otherwise, you will have the day on your own. We’ll meet in late afternoon to review our best of day work. Overnight Oaxaca. Includes breakfast.

Day 4, Wednesday, October 31: After breakfast and class, you will have the afternoon free. At 3:30 p.m. we will go together to the famed Xoxocotlan cemetery for an extraordinary Day of the Dead extravaganza. This is a VERY late night, so be prepared! We will stay until at least 12 a.m. Overnight Oaxaca. Includes breakfast.

Day 5, Thursday, November 1: After breakfast and a debriefing session, we will leave for the Zapotec weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle. After lunch and check-in at our bed and breakfast posada, we’ll enjoy a village walkabout orientation. Overnight Teotitlan del Valle. Includes breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Day 6, Friday, November 2: After breakfast and a briefing session, we will pair you with another participant and introduce you to a local host family for a cultural immersion experience. This gives you the opportunity to meet people and share in their customs and traditions. The families welcome you into their homes where you will share the traditional meal and go with them to the village cemetery. We’ll see you back at our B&B after nightfall. Overnight Teotitlan del Valle. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Day 7, Saturday, November 3: After breakfast we will share experiences and photos of the day before in our last class session. You’ll have the rest of the day on your own to meander or prepare your Best of Week photo exhibition and celebration supper. Includes breakfast and dinner.

Day 8, Sunday, November 4: After breakfast leave for your home countries.

What You Should Bring

1) Your energy and enthusiasm

2) Digital SLR camera

3) Laptop computer

4) Software for organizing and presenting images (such as Photoshop Express)

5) Batteries and battery charger

6) Camera Memory card(s) and data sticks

7) Pen and notepad

Plus, sturdy, comfortable walking shoes, sun protection, sun hat

(Upon registration, you will receive a complete packet and information guide with suggested packing list and other useful information.)

Lodging/Accommodations. To keep this experience affordable, we have selected accommodations that are clean and basic. We will spend three nights in Oaxaca at a bed and breakfast featured in the New York Times, and three nights at a posada/hostel in Teotitlan del Valle. If you prefer luxury accommodations, please consider a different program.

Cost: The basic cost for the trip is $1,395. USD. This includes seven nights lodging shared occupancy with shared bath, seven breakfasts, three lunches, three dinners, transportation to the villages included in the itinerary, and all instruction. Most travel workshops of this type and length cost more than twice as much! It does NOT include airfare, taxes, tips/gratuities, travel insurance, liquor/alcoholic beverages, some meals as specified in the itinerary, site entry fees, and transportation.

You will have the option of sharing a double room with shared bath for the base price of the trip. Please indicate your preference.

Option 1: Double room with shared bath; $1,395. Deposit to reserve: $700.

Option 2: Double room with private bath; $1,595. Deposit to reserve: $800.

Option 3: Single room with private bath; $1,795. Deposit to reserve: $900.

Option 4: Add one night lodging in Oaxaca on Saturday, October 27, +$125 each.

Option 5: Add guided visit to Monte Alban and Atzompa pottery village, $65 per person (minimum of 2 people needed). We will arrange for one of the most knowledgeable English-speaking local guides to take you to this famed archeological site, explain its history and then take you to a great ceramics family of Atzompa.

Reservations and Cancellations

A 50% deposit is required to guarantee your spot. The final payment for the balance due (including any supplemental costs) shall be postmarked by August 1, 2011. Payment may be made by check or PayPal. We will be happy to send you an itemized invoice.

Please understand that we make lodging and transportation arrangements months in advance of the program. Deposits or payments in full are often required by our hosts. If cancellation is necessary, please notify us in writing by email. After August 1, no refunds are possible; however, we will make every possible effort to fill your reserved space or you may send a substitute. If you cancel on or before August 1, we will refund 50% of your deposit. We strongly recommend that you take out trip cancellation, baggage, emergency evacuation and medical insurance before you begin your trip, since unforeseen circumstances are possible.

To register, contact: normahawthorne@mac.com or call (919) 274-6194. We accept payment with PayPal only. Thank you.

This workshop is produced by Norma Hawthorne, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC. We reserve the right to alter the itinerary and substitute instructors without notice.
Hand-colored sand becomes sculpture depicting Day of the Dead scenes at gravesites and public spaces; by Nick Eckert.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Travel & Tourism, Workshops and Retreats

Tagged Bill Bamberger, blogsherpa, class, course, creative, day of the dead, dia de los muertos, expedition, Mexico, Oaxaca, photography, workshop

Yaxchilan: Remote Mayan Site in Chiapas Jungle–Get There By Boat!

Posted on Monday, February 13, 2012 | 2 Comments

Yaxchilan (Yash-chee-lahn) is situated on the high banks of the Usumacinta River that borders Mexico and Guatemala, three hours southeast of Palenque. The secluded ruins are in a dense jungle only accessible by river boat, a good 30-minute ride from the launch site. The boat ride is a wonderful transition from now to then. In years past, Lacandon Mayas made this passage in open dugout canoes. Today, the wood-planked boats are covered in palm thatch.

Alligator or crocodile?

Yaxchilan rivaled Palenque (Mexico) and Tikal (Guatemala) as these three “super-powers” vied for control over the surrounding lesser Mayan centers that provided food, tribute and able fighters.

This magnificent archeological site is worthy of several hours of your time. It is a space that is dark jungle, moss-covered, limestone rocks tumbled and crumbling, and with only the beginnings of a restoration in process.

As you walk into the space you feel as if you were an archeologist discovering it for the first time. It speaks of antiquity. The howler monkeys calling back and forth across the river are haunting, adding a sense of mystery to the place. I pass through a compact Mayan arch into a vast plaza.

Situated high on a river bank, the site offers a strategic location on the wide and magnificent Usumacinta River, testifying to the power and influence of this once-great city. Huge bromeliads hang from hundred foot high trees with mahogany colored trunks. I walk beneath a tall canopy of leaves, vines, roots and flowering succulents, careful not to trip on toppled stones.

Yaxchilan is probably like Palenque was 30 years ago. The only nearby lodging is at the boat launch site, where there are also a couple of good restaurants. If you contact Daniel Chank In, the Selva Lacandon guide, he can help you make lodging and boat travel arrangements instead of taking the cookie-cutter day trip.

My journal scrawlings about the Palenque to Yaxchilan passage:

The languages of travel are Czech, German, three varieties of English (Brit, American, Aussie), Spanish, French, Dutch. These are my traveling companions. In Palenque they speak Chol. We stopped for breakfast at a simple comedor with tree trunks for stools and a dirt floor and GREAT coffee, dark and rich, locally grown and organic. I have not been sick since I arrived in Mexico a month ago.

We are western women taught to cover our breasts, be modest. From the window of the van I see a woman at the water source, one large breast exposed, suspended, full of milk walking toward a toddler waiting for nourishment. Plank wood and palm thatch cover the humans at night. Shelter is simple for man, woman, cows, chickens. Chiapas, siempre verde is the state motto. It is always damp here. We are on flat land now, clear-cut for growing corn and lumbering, heading toward the frontier. Maize scrabble, hard-scrabble, bare feet, dirt, bare chests, men at work with machetes. We pass a sign: This is Zapatista country. Land of campesinos.

Grazing land, cattle, horses. Ceiba trees, overcast skies, animals are thin I see their bones. We pass through pueblos of resistance, a village sign announces this, the sign is rough wood with white paint. The land is flat, vast, green scrub. This is the road to the Guatemala border. We pass military sentries, checkpoints, men heavily armed, some masked. Put your cameras down and cell phones away, says the driver, as we approach one. They wave us through. On the way back, away from the border, we are stopped and I show my passport. Of course they are checking for drugs and I know that the pipeline works its way across the river through the jungle to the vast cities and towns of America where demand keeps this business in business. Did I feel in danger? No.

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Posted in Cultural Commentary, Oaxaca Mexico art and culture, Photography, Travel & Tourism

Tagged archeology, architecture, blogsherpa, Bonampak, Chiapas, lodging, Mexico, Oaxaca, Palenque, safety, tourism, travel, Usumacinta River, War on Drugs, Yaxchilan

Bonampak Archeological Site: Mayan Treasure in the Chiapas Jungle

Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Bonampak is at the farthest reaches of Chiapas near the Usumacinta River in the Selva Lacandon — a rainforest jungle that is almost three hours from Palenque. It’s one of those magical places that I have dreamed of visiting but never imagined I might get to. To get as far as Palenque and not go another three hours to Bonampak would have been a mistake.

At the Palenque archeological museum and gift shop I bought Arqueologia Mexicana magazine, Vol. X, Number 55, that features the most recent reconstruction of the Bonampak murals. Since not all the paintings are clear and have degraded over time, archeological artists have attempted to reconstruct them using accurate colors and now infrared drawings. The magazine discusses (in English and Spanish) past interpretations, controversies and the most current reconstruction that uses the natural plant and mineral pigmentation.

Bonampak was part of the Yaxchilan alliance and was a smaller Mayan center. However, the discovery of the murals in the 1940′s overshadowed its more magnificent neighbor which I will write about in my next post.

It takes a special effort to get there and plenty of patience. The tour vans leave Palenque at 6 a.m. and you don’t return until 7:30 p.m. It’s a long day, but definitely rewarding. I took more than 80 photographs at Bonampak and can only show you a few of them here. Plus, there is lots of information online about the political, social and cultural history of place if you are interested in reading more.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I’d recommend staying at a lodge either at Yaxchilan or Bonampak so you have two days to enjoy these two extraordinary sites. One day is too rushed since day tours give only two hours at Yaxchilan and one hour at Bonampak. I told them we didn’t need an hour for lunch or 45 minutes for breakfast!