Hot, Humid on the Oaxaca Coast. Heading North on the Costa Chica. Day One.
Last night was amazing. The bioluminescence in the Manialtepec Lagoon was the most spectacular I’ve ever seen in the eight or so years we having been coming to Puerto Escondido for the start of the Oaxaca Coast Textile Study Tour. (We are scheduling this again for 2025, so please tell us if you want to […]
Saving Copal Trees in Oaxaca — Palo Que Habla Bioconservation Project
Copal is the tree used to carve the wooden figures we call alebrijes in Oaxaca. It is a disappearing resource. Thanks to Jacobo and Maria Angeles in San Martin Tilcajete, where many of the region’s alebrijes are made, there is a bioconservation project called Palo Que Habla to replant copal trees for the next generation […]
Oaxaca’s Pacific Coast Offers Biodiversity for NC State University Students
After five days around Oaxaca city and into the rural Tlacolula Valley, our group of 13 people boarded the Little Airplane That Could — the 13-passenger AeroTucan, for a 35-minute flight to Puerto Escondido. Over the next five days we would immerse ourselves in the the bio- and cultural diversity of Oaxaca’s Pacific Coast. There […]
Best of Oaxaca’s Biodiversity at Ejido Union Zapata: Day of Plenty
Oaxaca celebrates indigenous food and handmade at the annual Agro-biodiversity Fair in Ejido Union Zapata. This once a year event is building traction. The main street of several blocks, cordoned off for booths and foot traffic, was packed by noon. The natural food color was beyond belief. Billed as a seed exchange, farmers came from […]
Biodiversity Fair in Union Zapata, Oaxaca, Saturday, November 24, Plus New Vegan Cafe
The Biodiversity Fair celebrates Oaxaca’s organic food. This includes not only the criollo (natural, unmodified, original) corn of the Oaxaca Valley. The fair encompasses all parts of Oaxaca State where farmers are using organic fertilizers and native seeds: peppers, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers, and more! There is no GMO here! Please come to support the small […]
In The Cloud Forest at San Antonio Cuajimoloyas, Ixtlan, Oaxaca, Mexico
Oliver Sacks, medical doctor and writer, talks about Oaxaca biodiversity and you can read about it in his Oaxaca Journal. He talks about coming to Oaxaca for forty years. You can also easily experience the climate range by visiting the Ethnobotanical Garden behind Templo Santo Domingo, where there is a sampling of the microclimates found throughout […]
Union Zapata Hosts Biodiversity Fair in Oaxaca, Mexico
Union Zapata is a small pueblo that is at off the Pan-American Highway Mexico 190, near San Pablo Villa de Mitla, about five miles from where I live. They grow organic corn, squash and beans just like many villages throughout the state of Oaxaca. But, the native crops indigenous to Mexico are at risk as […]
NCSU in Oaxaca: Crocodiles, Iguanas, Mangroves at Ventanilla Beach
It was a rollicking day in the skies over Oaxaca yesterday as I made my way back to Teotitlan del Valle from Puerto Escondido via Mexico City, where Tropical Storm Beatriz was having her way with us. Sheets of rain fell as I took off in the little Aeromar turboprop. In Huatulco, the news wasn’t […]