Tag Archives: copal wood carved figures

Ephraim Fuentes is a talented wood carver from San Martin Tilcajete. Chris Hugo, from Washington State, wrote me to recommend Ephraim and tell about the great experience he and his group had visiting the workshop. I asked Chris to send photos to share with you, and he says, “These may be foxes or something mythical from the dog kingdom. The “male” is about 24″ tall.” He also gave me permission to share his impressions of their recent Oaxaca visit (below).

“Our group of six loved Oaxaca. We attended two Guelaguetza performances in the Cerro del Fortin, spent a 12+ hour day with Susana Trilling at her cooking school (our final day), and saw as much of the area as we could in a shortened week. We rented a house in San Felipe, and although the accommodations were great, the steep road to the house was severely torn up to put sewer lines in — so we had to walk several blocks (sometimes in mud) to get to a bus / taxi street. At least it didn’t rain until our last night (after graduation from cooking class). Overall, we were very lucky to mostly avoid rain during the rainy season, both in Mexico City (3 days coming and going) and in Oaxaca.

“I’m 61 and have been visiting Mexico regularly since 1959 — next year will be my 50th anniversary! I’ve visited over 20 major cities from Juarez and Nogales to Acapulco and Cancun and have never had a bad experience (other than the normal travel illnesses) — although my brother nearly died of typhoid fever in Mexico in 1957. In the past couple of years, we’ve enjoyed similar great adventures with welcoming cultures in Guatemala and Panama.

“Although some elements of the greatly segregated economy of Oaxaca benefit by tourism revenues, it was special to be there when so few tourists were out and about. I don’t think we saw a handful of tourists among the thousands of locals at the Tlacolula market.

“Oaxaca street scapes remind us of a much bigger San Miguel de Allende. The colonial charm of both cities puts a good face to the “real” Mexico.

“Thanks for helping to orient new visitors to Oaxaca — since there are no
sunny beaches with jet skis and 24-hour beer parties, we can only hope that
“Ugly Americans” won’t ever find their way there.”

Chris Hugo

“P.S. The travel guides for Oaxaca suggest using second class buses to get to
the surrounding villages. The day we tried to get to Ocotlan, the bus seats
were sold out, yet we wasted an hour to find that out (although, we enjoyed
watching the chaotic loading, unloading, and reloading the bus as the
station personnel tried to figure out who could go and who could not —
chickens, bails of ropes, and all). We suggest taking a taxi on the outbound
trip to villages and then grabbing any bus heading back into Oaxaca. Time is
just too precious to fiddle around at the big station across from the
Abastos Market and then not be assured of travel. Best to just get a taxi.
That raises another subject, taxi rates. We found them to be all over the
board — we got a taxi back from San Martin Tilcajete for 40 pesos, yet paid
twice that to get from our rental house to the First Class bus station a few
miles away. Generally, we could get anywhere around town for 40 pesos and
out to nearby places like Monte Alban for 60=80. Like all buying in Mexico
towns, you have to be willing to pass on the first taxi if the driver
doesn’t take your offer. You probably have good experience with this, and it
is worth sharing with new visitors.

“Of note, our air travel was to Mexico City where my family has been friends
with the owners of a boutique hotel (Casa Gonzalez) since my second trip to
Mexico in 1963. Our travel party of three couples stayed at the Casa,
enjoyed a night out with our hosts, and spent a rushed two days seeing
Teotihuacan, the Zocalo / Templo Mayor, and the Museo Nat de Antropologia. We
took the ADO line First Class bus to Oaxaca and the ADO GL Luxury Class bus
back to Mexico City. We couldn’t distinguish between the two, although the
GL cost about 20% more. Although the schedules say the GL is 30 minutes
faster, for our trips it was actually longer. Maybe it was partly due to the
spontaneous stop for a security check of all passengers and luggage by
soldiers along the highway.”