My friend Chris returned to Ajijic, Lake Chapala, Guadalajara, yesterday morning, so it’s been a day of quietude, plus packing to get ready to leave for the Oaxaca Coast early Saturday morning. We have a 14-person tour going to discover handmade textiles on the Costa Chica.
My family wonders when I rest. In bits and pieces, fits and starts, at night when REM sleep kicks in. It’s going to be a very busy winter. After the coast, we go to Michoacan, then I take off for Bacalar in the Yucatan to visit my Taos friend Susy Starr who owns a rug gallery that she opened in the 1970’s. I’d call her an original Hippie. Then, to Chiapas (please join us, we won’t offer this tour again for some time), then to the Mixteca Alta. I’m trying to reschedule medical appointments in New Mexico so I can have a month of unfettered time here before returning in the spring.
Instead of spending the day in the frenzy of the city, we spent the morning at the Teotitlan del Valle village market, one of the few surviving daily markets in Oaxaca. After we stopped in the church for some silent prayer (it’s all about our health, these days), we drove south along the Pan American Highway MEX 190 to San Pablo Villa de Mitla to visit Arturo the weaver, Armando the doll maker, Epifanio the antique dealer, and Reynoldo, the maker of fine quality table linens.
The chocolate atole (above) is so thick, we can eat it with a spoon!
Then, back to Mo Kalli for the second time this week to eat the amazing food prepared by traditional cook Catalina Chavez Lopez. She is a hidden treasure, tucked into the hillside in the Tres Piedras neighborhood of Tlacolula.
