FIBER ARTS OF THE OAXACAN HIGHLANDS The Ancient Realms of the Oaxacan Cloud People

A village of 5,000 weavers, the place where the best natural red dye on earth was first cultivated, remote pueblos where a 500 year old Spanish silk tradition still carries on, high sierras, deep valleys, lost colonial churches, Zapotec pyramids, indigenous markets and one of the most gorgeous colonial cities in Mexico. Our 10-day journey through the Oaxacan highlands is a spectacular adventure into an ancient world of textiles and beauty. From Mexico's most famous wool tapestry weaving village, Teotitlan del Valle and the legendary Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban to remote mountain villages where grass rain capes are sewn and tumplines are twined, to a far off town of backstrap weavers who all dress in bright red huipiles or gowns, this is a tour that looks at Oaxaca's most legendary wonders and goes far beyond, into the little known reaches of the misty Zapotec Sierra and the land of the Cloud People in the Mixtec uplands.

This trip is built around weaving, dyeing and spinning, arts that have been continuously practiced in Oaxaca for thousands of years. But more, it is about stepping into a different culture, it is about people meeting people through the bridge of common interests. Our interest in textiles opens doors that might otherwise remain closed; it gives us a reason to travel deep into an unknown and exotic land, and come away feeling less like strangers than friends.

ITINERARY
(B=Breakfast included, L=lunch, D=Dinner)
Day 1, Saturday (D)
Arrival. Today we will have our first meeting at 5:00 PM for an orientation and a Oaxacan dinner.

Day 2-Sunday (B, L, D)

Today is Sunday, and that means market in the town of Tlacolula. Being Oaxaca's most colorful market, we don't want to miss it and we'll head out for a morning of investigating the aisles, booths and smoky interiors of this rich market. Then we head for the Sierra, climbing the road out of the valley and into the mist tangled peaks of the Sierra Madre Oriental. Our journey is to Ixtlan (elevation about 7,500ft), a small mountain town where we will spend the evening.

The land of the Mixteca

Day 3- Monday (B, L, D)

Hidden among the mountain peaks and valleys are many small Zapotec villages, and among them are those who carry on the old time trades of wool blanket weaving, ixtle (agave fiber) rope making, tump line and hammock weaving and pottery, to name a few. Today we set out to explore the pine-clad slopes of the sierra and visit two of these villages and meet the artisans who carry on this work. We will meet a man who is rediscovering the use of natural dyes to paint his ixtle fibers and has made award winning shoulder bags with it. In another village we will see how a long mountain grass is sewn into mats that were used in the sierra region as rain capes before plastic appeared and where cotton is woven into sashes and shawls. We will spend the evening in Ixtlan.

Day 4- Tuesday. (B,L,D)

We continue our mountain explorations today with a visit to a village that is one of the last villages in Mexico where silk cultivation still survives after the industry's collapse in the late 1500's. Here villagers cultivate, spin and weave the silk on backstrap looms. We will visit with weavers and learn about this process and, with any luck, there will be a few handspun shawls available. With their handspun, hand woven texture they are gorgeous and unique and unlike any other silk you've seen. But not cheap at around $200 each. On the other hand if you consider the time put into making them, they are under priced. Time allowing we'll hike up to the church where there are wonderful views of the mountains and valleys on all sides. In the afternoon we will head out of the Sierra and into the Tlacolula valley where we will treat ourselves to a small and very lovely valley hotel overlooking the weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle. Casa Cerro Sagrado (www.casacerrosagrado.com).

A crabapple dessert is prepared for a feast at the Gonzalez home in Teotitlan.

Day 5- Wednesday. (B, L, D)

Oaxaca's most famous weaving village is the important Zapotec town of Teotitlan del Valle, where of the 7,000 residents it is said that 5,000 of them are involved in the wool rug weaving trade. Today we will meet a few of those weavers and immerse ourselves, for a moment, in their world. We will spend the day surrounded by looms, rugs, dye baths and Teotitlan's legendary hospitality. We will begin with a masterful, in depth demonstration of the uses of cochineal and indigo with a dyer who is an award winning expert with these special colors. We will spend time with a family who dyes with different local plants, barks and fruits such as Brazil wood, zapote fruit, palmagranite and dodder. We'll see how the weaving is done and perhaps give it a try ourselves. For lunch we will devour a meal of superb Teotitlan traditional cooking with the Gonzalez family and likely be conscripted into tortilla making duty as well. Evening on the hilltop hotel of Casa Cerro Sagrado.

Day 6- Thursday. (B, L,D)

After a long breakfast we pack our bags and head out of Oaxaca valley and the land of the Zapotecs into the ancient domain of the Mixtec, or cloud people, as they called themselves. This region was the home to powerful Mixtec city states where the artisans were masters of polychrome pottery and gold and silver work. After the conquest the area was found to be ideal for growing mulberry trees and silk was king. Today the silk and mulberry trees are long gone. But the evidence of this lucrative early silk boom is visible in the large Dominican churches and ex-convents we will visit on our drive. These enormous structures where built with the riches spun by those humble worms. In the afternoon we will arrive in the town of Tlaxiaco (tlah-he-AH-co) where we will spend the night.

Weaving sleeping mat (petate) of palm leaves in the village of San Lorenzo.

Day 7- Friday. (B,L,D)

The small, hillside village of Cuquila dates back over 1,500 years. Above the town are still to be found the stone temples and foundations of the old city. For those (like ourselves) not up to the steep hike to see the ruins, several dedicated villagers have put together a small community museum to showcase some of the finds from the ruins as well as to highlight the weaving tradition of the village- which is what brings us here in the first place. We'll start our morning at the small house among the pines built by Emiliano Melchor, the muscle and inspiration behind the museum project. With him we will enjoy a country breakfast made from home grown corn and beans and learn how his family spins wool into fine thread and weaves with backstrap looms. Then we travel further down the road to the land of the Trique Indians, who wear some of the most lovely clothing in Oaxaca in the from of their laboriously woven and brocaded, full length huipiles, or gowns. Here we will visit with weavers and see why it takes months to make one of these huipiles. After a picnic lunch we return to Tlaxiaco for the evening.

Basket of yucca leaves

Day 8- Saturday (B,L)

As we sleep the town square outside of our hotel will be metamorphosing into a market. The first rays of sunlight will find, at our front door, a busy market filling fast with people from the far corners of the Mixtec highlands .You have the morning free to explore the market and soak in all the texture and aroma of this ancient and essential weekly custom. Then we load up once again and continue our journey, traveling out to a village where a yucca-like leave is plaited into baskets and the old women still weave ornate sashes. Then we follow a dusty, backland track that will deliver us to a sacred hillside where an enormous, fading cathedral stands above the ruins of an even older, collapsing church which in turn sits at the foot of the terraces of a Mixtec ceremonial. Why is all this out here? We will find out. Then our trail turns to better paved roads and finally the lights of lovely Oaxaca City, which will be our home for the rest of our trip.

Drop spindle, silk cocoons, and hand-spun silk

Day 9- Sunday. (B, L)

We have come far and seen much. This morning is yours to catch your breath, get up to date in your journaling or sleeping or for wandering the streets of Oaxaca at a leisurely pace. We will gather again at lunch time to eat and then visit a woman with an impressive textile collection to learn about weavings from the far corners of this diverse state. Then we travel up a small mountain to a place overflowing with myth and legend, the ceremonial center of one of Mesoamerica's most important ancient cities, Monte Alban. Now monumental ruins, this city once housed 40,000 people and controlled the valleys of Oaxaca with influences reaching far beyond. We will be here in the softening light of afternoon and these mountain top ruins offer wonderful views of the valleys spreading beyond to the north, south and east. Evening in Oaxaca.

Day 10-Monday (B,L,D)

Before the creation of synthetic dyes in the 1800's, the best red dye on earth came from a little cactus plague called cochineal. The bug was first found and used in Mesoamerica and it's production was once an immensely important industry in Oaxaca and New Spain. So important was it, in fact, that most of the old buildings in Oaxaca were built with cochineal wealth. The glory days faded with modern dyes, but cochineal is still used and still important in many ways. We will visit a cochineal research center near the city this morning to see how the little bug is raised and what are some of the contemporary uses for this fine red. We will travel further down the road to visit the village of Jalieza, the only village in Oaxaca valley where the backstrap weaving tradition is still carried on, where colorful cotton bags and belts are woven and where, unique to all of Oaxaca, men as well as women weave on backstrap looms. In the afternoon we return to Oaxaca and the hours before dinner are yours to do your last minute shopping or relaxing on our last day. Then we dust our shoes off and hit the down for a classy final dinner as a group and farewells. Evening in Oaxaca.

You will likely be fortunate enough to encounter this guitarist in Oaxaca city's old town, and his sweet old romantic ballads.	The calm patience of fine worksmanship as well as the color of natural dyes emanates from these folded rugs of handspun wool in Teotitlan.

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