March05_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Photos - Frames left and right: A juice bar receives it's weekly shipment of Colas. Local bottlers of soda are quite diverse in flavors of drinks and some really off-the-wall refreshments can be experienced. More and more private companies are being bought up by Coca Cola and either being closed down or swallowed up by the giant machine. The juices you see on the bar are mango at left and various homemade mixtures of juices in the other bottles. The one at the right, with the brown color, probably has some cactus ingredients and will have a very unique taste.

Center frame: Clothing stores are open as you walk from one vendor to another. Competition is great between the clothiers and there are many good deals can be had. Watch out for brand name knock offs that look like famous American clothes, but are copied designs made by locals. These can be of equal quality, or very inferior. There are usually no change rooms, so you have to really know your clothing sizes and be able to take a chance when purchasing.

Photos - One of the most competitive areas besides clothing at the market place is the Pottery displays. These hand crafted items are usually very distinctive within the village that they are made. Each village has a certain style of container or artistic object that they have been making for generations. The painting and glazing techniques are also unique - patterns have been handed down through generations of artisans for hundreds of years. Patterns and colors are often very bold and gaudy but reflect the artistic challenge, "Here I am! I'm from Mexico! Buy me and have a colorful souvenir!" The more interesting pottery sometimes has to be searched out by doing some backroads traveling. Tlapazola and Santa Cruz Papalutla are one of those places off the beaten path where Spanish is a second language and the villagers mostly use their native dialect. (I'll show that in weeks to come).

Photos - Some of the pottery displays are outside in the hot sunshine and the display shacks look like they have been made out of scrap wood and sheet metal. It looks a bit like a junk yard, but it has a lot of character. My favorite pottery is the ugly green and red clay stuff at the bottom right (center frame) the green glaze is only splashed upon the inside of the containers and outer glazing has been splashed on only by accident. This stuff is functional and can be picked up at slightly cheaper prices than the fancy glazed all over pottery. Some pottery isn't glazed at all - like the large saucer shaped dish (in frame right) leaning against the wall. This large dish is used to toast tortillas, and glazing would take away from the cooking process.

Click here for more photos of Oaxaca for this day.