Sunset in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico

My internet connection is funky and while I wanted to publish a post today about our Oaxaca Textile Study Tour trip to the mountain village of San Juan Colorado, it may not happen. The photo download is not cooperating.

Sunset at Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico

So in lieu of hand-spun green, brown coyuche and creamy white native cotton, I’m going to tell you about our first night in Puerto Escondido on the beach after flying in the AeroTucan 13-passenger single engine Cessna Grand Caravan skirting 12,000 foot mountains and not going higher than 9,300 feet altitude.

Patrice Petrillie tells us about the endangered caracol purpura snail

How do we know? We could all see the altimeter. The pilot sat a mere eight feet in front of me!

Patrice Patrillie, director of Dreamweavers Tixinda Cooperative invited our group to the home of a supporter for sunset on the beach, a presentation about the purpose of Dreamweavers to sustain indigenous textile craft, and to participate in a release of endangered baby sea turtles.

Barbara and Sandi enjoying appetizers before the turtle release

Dreamweavers was having an expoventa on Sunday, January 21, and our itinerary dovetailed so that we would return for the event from our wanderings along the coast and in the mountains discovering textile villages in time for the 10:00 a.m. opening.

Being here in time for the expoventa was planned as part of the itinerary for the Oaxaca Textile Study Tour.

I’m accepting names now for people interested in our 2019 trip.

Please send an email.

We put the sea turtles on the sand to make their way to the ocean

Before touching the turtles, we were asked by our host to wash our hands in sand and sea water to eliminate any odors.

The sea turtles are a food staple for indigenous people who live in coastal towns along the Pacific. There is a rescue operation in place to protect them from poachers.

Along the Puerto Escondido coast where we learned about the caracol purpura

The tension is always about honoring the cultural traditions of native people who rely on sea animals to survive and wildlife preservationists who want the species to survive. With global warming, survival is becoming a more difficult challenge for all of us.

As I held this turtle, its flippers were strong, eager to escape

As with the turtles, the caracol purpura, a snail that lives on the rocky coastline of Oaxaca, is at risk of extinction. Mixtec people have used the snail ink for millenia to dye their clothing a brilliant purple, just as the Romans harvested the snail along the coast of Morocco to color the senators’ robes. But, this creature is also endangered and caracol threads incorporated into clothing drives the price up. Yet, this, too, is part of the regional culture as humans interpret their lives through the garments they wear.

The last bit of sunset before we return to town