This tray table was in fact not inoperative! The duct tape was just sticky enough to pull down that table and stick it back again. I hoped they were focusing on more important aspects of air travel.What a great spot to plop down your bags in then zip out to wander about the little town just up the hill from the town.The perfect way to start the day….fix Chiapas coffee, give the cat leftover cheese, climb back in bed and enjoy the view. There is a very tall mountain range behind the bougainvilleas.
Brant and I love that we live in a place that is fun to visit. Even if we get to be boring company there is always a beautiful beach out there. That said we had terrific holidays with family and friends. So what do you do when the last group leaves for the airport? You head to Oaxaca!
Hard to stop taking pictures even to get your picture taken around this place. (Steps down to restaurant)
Pleasantly tired from the holidays but not wanting to miss the opportunity to visit Sally in her happy place, and to be at Jose Herrera Gallego’s gallery opening, the 3 art loving women headed out. How often does one get to hang out and paint with so many great artists? And even more important, we got to see a place through the eyes of the artists who love Oaxaca. And I was with 2 friends that never tire of taking beautiful pics, sketching/painting, and wandering (well they might get a little tired of wandering).
Sally took us to her favorite restaurant in town. This soup was delicious. Hot cocoa with pan dulces and orange papaya juice for breakfast…pretty perfect.
We thought/knew we would leave regretting we could not see more, but even more surprised by how many things we did. And how much variety, seemingly easily done (thanks to help from our Oaxaca friends) and all at a very reasonable price.
We kept finding more stuff as we wandered the grounds here at our inn.
We took a unique money saving approach by spending a night in Monterey. I had read there is a great river walk in Monterey but alas only time for dinner then an early flight. So fortunate to have friends pick us up at the airport in Oaxaca and whisk us a way to a village in the foothills where we stayed in a place that was too perfect because we wanted to stay there and soak in the beauty and peacefulness of the place.
A pathway wandered down to this little restaurant on the grounds. It served delicious food that I think we could have been happy to eat all week, but of course I wanted to explore more more more…..
I say that because the pictures on the web did not convey the intricate beauty of the place. It had great attention to detail….art everywhere…paintings, sculptures, textiles…not to mention gardens that were clearly built by an artist. I believe they teach immersion Spanish classes and I think this would be a perfect spot. After class you could wander the little town and practice…mandatory practice as not much english is spoken here.
Our rooms surrounded a courtyard that faced a mountain range and sunrise.This beautiful delicious fruit bowl was in my room, note the octopus at the bottom of the bowl. These ceramics were done by a ceramicist who has a studio on the grounds. And this bowl of fruit coupled with cheese from the little town, a bottle of wine and guacamole made for a perfect late night dinner one evening after our day’s adventures. Favorite shower and wished Brant could have shared with me. The top of the shower was all glass and I could look directly above and see the moon at night. Stunning! Must go back with Brant soon.One morning I heard funny noises outside my window and tippy toed up to the window to see 2 burros watching me. Well at least I thought they were watching me.
We took a side trip to the town of El Tule. I believe the town is most famous for its giant cedar tree. See stats below. We lucked into a guided tour of the town with a gringo who moved there from Canada with his wife a few years ago (Kitimat friends of Heather). Interesting to hear their story and how they now host artists….sculpturing, painters and many musicians at their home and offer the workshops and home concerts to others. The best part was the icy ice cream in tropical flavors—-some that even I didn’t know (a rarity for me).
Not sure how you capture this tree….it is huge.Seriously how did they figure out all of this?One of the things that makes Oaxaca special is the incongruity of so many things all mixed up together….…no worries, no tuna ice cream here…that refers to cactus. I didn’t get it because I tried a tuna from our yard and lets just say that you shouldn’t trust the you tube when it says a simple lighter will remove all the spines….So what do you do when you realize you no longer have a cab ride home and you are not quite sure how to get en other? Well you get a glass of free mezcal and go sit out on the road to drink it…while you figure it out!
It’s a special feeling when an artist drives up from Oaxaca to do a painting session with you. Again it was an artist that had been to Los Barriles in the past and Sally managed to work in a couple sessions. It’s always fun (and helpful) to see someone’s approach…even if you don’t always agree.
It’s always fun to look back at these pictures and see how focused we were. The women on the right is the original owner/designer of the inn (now son and daughter in law run it). While walking through Oaxaca we happened to see Santiago’s worked displayed in a store.
One day we took a van up to the mountains to visit friends of Sally’s and to a place called Hierve del Agua. We stopped at a market in Tla de Matamoros to pick up some flowers and supplies for the family we were visiting. After a tasty lunch—-especially the hot chocalate made from scratch. Then back in the van to travel to tall mountains without snow lines….trees up to the very top!
My favorite travel places are always the food markets and this had to be one of the most colorful best stocked I’ve ever seen.We passed many of these tequila trucks on the road.I bought this woman’s flowers but what I really wanted was her picture. It became clear to me she spoke very little Spanish. And it became clear to her (and her friends), that my friends were sneaking pics from the sides. She was happy to have her pic taken as long as I paid….and let’s just say I paid lot more for the pics than the flowers. We were all laughing, and she was very happy…great teamwork on both sides! This seems like a tough way to make lunch but it was really delicious. Note the plastic basket on the wall and the metal pitcher of hot chocalate.One of the many beautiful ceramic pieces at our inn.This unbelievably is the kiln they fire their pottery in. Had no idea this was possible but it’s easy to see how they get those black colors.I just love this pic! These are the 2 longtime friends of Sallys who fixed us lunch. They also tend agaves and make ceramics. They were written about in this book about tequila production. Clever huh?Flank steak, avocadoes, fresh cheese, roasted jalapeños,, freshly made tortillas, black beans and hot chocolate….another perfect lunch. I bought one of these gizmos at Chapitos to take to Maris. Had no idea what it was for but now have some good directions for use!As you can see the light was always catching on things here making it a non stop photographer’s delightAfter our hike we all enjoyed sitting down and sketching for a bit. For me, a dream to have time to do this sort of thing…. and yes those are agave fields in the distance.In the short time the 3 of us went for a hike, Jose Herrera created this beautiful painting that really captures the sense of the place.This reminded me a bit of the thermal pools in BC.The original infinity pool…notice the petrified waterfalls in the background.Not sure what a Rusa is, but loved how all the colors framed the velvety mountain range behind.I did not take this pic but when we returned from Oaxaca and took some painting classes with Jose Herrera, this is one one of the pictures used for a class. (Much better than my photos). This is a petrified waterfall… a park is built around the area with lots of hiking trails. I believe its about an hour from Oaxaca.Tequila!Taken from the van while driving thought the valley up to the mountains.These photos were taken at a church from the 1500s. I believe in the town of Tla. De Matamoros. Perhaps the sculptures done in such a way to convince the indigenous that the Spanish were kind and compassionate? Regardless the faces of these men were really very sweet and touching somehow.Again there is that incongruous mix of the European architecture mixed with the indigenous. Remarkable craftsmen who also had a wonderful sense of color.Suspecting this was done a bit later—definitely baroque! And stunning to see.
Oaxaca was a wonderful city to wander in….even when your shoes fall apart. And we certainly did feel we missed seeing so much—-BUT WE SAW SO MUCH !!! Most definitely a place to come to…several times.
I took so many pics of us under these things! So hard to pic….I need a separate file just for these and I don’t even know what they are called.When Maryanne’s shoe fell apart and we were failing at finding a zapatería we managed to find an art gallery that had packing tape. That would be hard to explain in English, but a quick look at her shoe and we set to work. Fortunately we did eventually find a shoe store.
Some have asked if we would consider moving there. I could definitely come here and stay a few weeks, but the reason to be here in Mexico is for me is that beautiful ocean. And the truth is we have gotten used to playing a little pickleball here. And of course, lots of terrific friends…so no we wouldn’t move there unless it becomes too financially prudent to do so. And I bet we would love living there…as long as I got to take the 5 hour bus ride to the beach a few times a year. There is something very mystical about Oaxaca. Staying 20 minutes out of the city in the hills deepened that feeling. There is a combination of European architecture from the 1500s combined with the artistry of the Zapotecs all nestled into steep mountains, desert and lots of agave plantations. A very difficult place to capture in pictures because it is most definitely beautiful but also so different that it strikes you as odd at times. (A new highway has been made that takes what was a 15 hour drive over the mountains to the coast into a 4.5 hour drive through tunnels to Bahia de Huatulco which we visited with Maris about 25 years ago…another spectacular set of beaches).
The light striking these balloons then the building made for a startling combo but I never seemed to quite capture it. Maybe I need to paint what I saw.Dressing to match the murals…..Check out the tiling on the domesWay too much to photograph here in OaxacaI took this pic at sunset. There seemed be kind of a glowing light in the evenings.Here we are the gallery opening of several artists. It was a terrific mix of styles and always great to feel the energy of gallery opening…especially when you have had the opportunity to be taught by one of the artistsHere Is one of Jose Herrera Gallego’s watercolorsThis is our outdoor kitchen at the inn. Wonderful to fix coffee there every morning…. Just like a Chelsea morning if you know the words.Here I am at the mezcal bar, buying cookies from the nun who seemed a little irked that I did not want to buy any of her roasted grasshoppersAs you can see Sally is definitely in her “happy place” and we are so thankful she shared it with us.One of Sally’s friends showed us some of his art collection in this home. He told us the stories of the artist’s, most who are from the surrounding villages and who he had come to know over the years. We felt that we had stumbled on a special art museum with a private tour. We really wanted to take folks out for picking us up at the airport etc. So this was the only place open at night in our village (lunches are the big meal here). This woman pounded out the corn meal and topped with mole, cheese and mushrooms. Very tasty with beer that we pulled out of the fridge but I think the whole dinner cost about 10 dollars for the 5 of us . Haha big of us to treat him to dinner right?You have to have a lot of donkeys carrying wood to keep the o all the stoves working around here.A successful market day! We all bought new plastic totes… which cost 12 dollars in Oaxaca and 60 in LB.Marigolds were painted everywhere it seemed….…the marigolds are the giant ones seen during Día de los Muertos.We wandered the part of town that is covered with murals. Yes quite a few tourists in that part of town but you can see why we are all here. And I’m thankful for friends who put up with my relentless quest for cat bars (even if one has a cat allergy).A well deserved “girl’s style” dinner after another great day.
I hesitated to use this picture because somehow it feels intrusive but in these days that seem a bit dark for many of us I could not resist sharing the beauty of this picture. A moment of love and kindness; and a friendship that will always exist….regardless of space and time.
PS…Super Bowl Sunday finally gave me the time to finish this!
Life's Been Good To Us So Far! 
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pretty! Famous Sculptor’s Work Fetches Record Price 2025 awesome
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