Today may be the best thing we'll do while we are here. We signed up for a tour of the weavers in Teotitlan who are participating in a micro finance project sponsored by
En Via. Actually it was not only weavers, but also a dress maker, a restaurant owner and a poultry vendor. The cost of the day is $50 US and all of the funds go directly into loans to be given out to entrepreneurial women in the village with whom we visited. Part of the agreement to participate in this program is that the women be willing to give two presentations to the En Via tourists about their work and what their loan will be used for. They receive their loan the following Tuesday and the Tuesday after that must begin to pay it back. The interest rate is zero percent.
Our first stop was at a restaurant in Teotitlan. The woman who made our lunch, Conception, explained that the money form her loan would be used to fix the leaky roof on her restaurant. This will be her third loan from En Via. Most of us ordered a local specialty called a
tlayuda ... in this instance a sort of folded Mexican pizza. We pronounced Conception's
tlyaudas the best in all of Oaxaca.
After lunch we headed for the church in the center of the village. The Spaniards built the church on top of an old Zapotec pilgrimage site. Stones from the old Zapotec temple were used to build the church and are revealed in openings in the white stucco. The Zapotec design patterns of the rugs have their origin in these carvings.
It was here at the church that we met our next host, Eulalia, who guided our van up to her very small home in the hills above Teotitlan. Here in this small room this weaver lives and works. The huge wooden loom and spinning wheel take up most of the room in her home, but she made us feel cozy and welcome as she explained her craft to our group of 8. The dyes are all natural ... the brownish yellows from the skins of pomegranates, the brilliant reds from the
cochinilla a parasitic worm of the prickly pear cactus. Eulalia explained to us that this was her third loan from En Via and that she would be using part of it to purchase
chochinilla which is very expensive and part of it to purchase a water tank for her roof. Until recently she would have to carry her water up from the river, but now there is town water that runs in pipes along the street next to her house, but she must have a water tank to make it accessible to her home.
All in all we visited the home of 6 women all in various stages of growing their businesses. We appreciated their hospitality and their warmth in welcoming us into their homes. Because of this extra margin of money, some women are able to pay for the uniforms to send their children to school, an option not open to them before. The money to fund these women comes directly from the money we paid for our tour.
Two Thousand Years Old. 1500 feet wide. Over 635,ooo Tons.
He started with the tree, the copal tree to be exact, giving us each a year old seedling to hold in our hands. Then he took us to the woodpile and showed us the difference between male and female tree wood. The female is softer and easier to carve. The male wood has a reddish color in its bark that is used as part of the natural coloring.
The carver begins with a machete, chunking the wood into the form that he wants. The finer work is done with chisels and knives. The wood is left to dry for 6 months, and about half way through the drying process is dipped in gasoline to kill any termites.
Thoroughly dazzled we moved to the area where the painters were at work. There were some painters working on commercial pieces in acrylic. But there were also artists working with the natural paints on the collector pieces. 
Here is an example of a finished collector's quality piece from their gallery. You can see the intricate detail, and while this picture does not showcase the rich earth tones that I think make these pieces so attractive, it does highlight the intricate detail of the work.
Friday night after a long day on the road from Ocatlan we attended a dinner and dance performance in the great hall of the old Dominican convent. I will let the pictures speak.
The final dance was the traditional dance of the region with the large feathered head dresses
A short way out of town we stopped to visit the workshops of of the Aguilar sisters. These potters work in fanciful pottery images. While there I spied a pottery painter and asked if someone might paint something typical from the region on the side of my Tilley hat. The last time I did that was at a parasol festival outside of Chiang Mai. I was delighted with the result.
dried fish
tomatillos and garlic
and chicharron before and after
and, of course, the turkeys
Today may be the best thing we'll do while we are here. We signed up for a tour of the weavers in Teotitlan who are participating in a micro finance project sponsored by En Via. Actually it was not only weavers, but also a dress maker, a restaurant owner and a poultry vendor. The cost of the day is $50 US and all of the funds go directly into loans to be given out to entrepreneurial women in the village with whom we visited. Part of the agreement to participate in this program is that the women be willing to give two presentations to the En Via tourists about their work and what their loan will be used for. They receive their loan the following Tuesday and the Tuesday after that must begin to pay it back. The interest rate is zero percent.
After lunch we headed for the church in the center of the village. The Spaniards built the church on top of an old Zapotec pilgrimage site. Stones from the old Zapotec temple were used to build the church and are revealed in openings in the white stucco. The Zapotec design patterns of the rugs have their origin in these carvings.
It was here at the church that we met our next host, Eulalia, who guided our van up to her very small home in the hills above Teotitlan. Here in this small room this weaver lives and works. The huge wooden loom and spinning wheel take up most of the room in her home, but she made us feel cozy and welcome as she explained her craft to our group of 8. The dyes are all natural ... the brownish yellows from the skins of pomegranates, the brilliant reds from the cochinilla a parasitic worm of the prickly pear cactus. Eulalia explained to us that this was her third loan from En Via and that she would be using part of it to purchase chochinilla which is very expensive and part of it to purchase a water tank for her roof. Until recently she would have to carry her water up from the river, but now there is town water that runs in pipes along the street next to her house, but she must have a water tank to make it accessible to her home.
All in all we visited the home of 6 women all in various stages of growing their businesses. We appreciated their hospitality and their warmth in welcoming us into their homes. Because of this extra margin of money, some women are able to pay for the uniforms to send their children to school, an option not open to them before. The money to fund these women comes directly from the money we paid for our tour.
We have settled in to the Casa Ollin and wasted no time in commencing the gustatorial part of the trip with a visit to Los Pacos where we tried 5 different kinds of mole that Oaxaca is famous for.
We then toured the Museo attached to the Santo Domingo Church. It is rich in regional history and filled with striking architectural arches.
Yesterday was the perfect ending to this two week odyssey. After several days of skiing in treacherous foggy conditions, the high pressure moved in and we were rewarded with perfect conditions. We rewarded ourselves with a late lunch mid-mountain. 
There is nothing quite so the essence of western skiing than the smell of hamburgers being grilled fresh on the outdoor porch in the bright sun. I don't think it got out of the teens up there, but the sun made everything OK. 
