Hotel Victoria Oaxaca

... the need for foreign revenue (a prime example being the &#8216;Frida&#8217; series of sculptures made by one of the Aguilar sisters at the suggestion of a foreign art dealer).<br><br>It was a bit frustrating to have such a short amount of time in such a sight/sound/smell-filled arena, but we managed. It felt a bit better when we later made some pretty lengthy stops to a variety of other craft locales. The first was a women&#8217;s cooperative of weavers. Apparently ...

Today was a great day with beautiful(but hot) weather starting off with another Spanish lesson in the morning. It was a good experience and we all learnt a lot. Everybody was onto it today as it was cooler in the morning than last lesson in the hot sun. we learnt heaps of good phrases that will help us get on well in the Mexican culture. Such as: how to order food and good useful ...

... for the third and fourth coats in the bedrooms (the paint was so bright and the paint job was so contrasty, that it required four coats!). AT and I had some great discussion about prayer and brokenness. We then caught a few busses to get back to the house, and in between busses, we stopped at another delicious restaurant called Natural.  Wednesday - Woke up to someone honking outside. AT, who was up already, walked over to the window, then looked at me and told ...

... the first hour Shelley and I asked if we could be moved. The teacher talked so quickly and I didn't have a clue what was going on. Our new class is great! We have one person from the University of Washington (Yes, she knows the William H. Foege Building), a young man from Quincy, Washington, a writer from Canada, and Shelley - from California. From the beginning of my classes, she has been such an encouraging person. Shelley started ...

... not give up. We crossed the street, she crossed the street. If we noticed she was following us mid street, we would go back to the original side we were on- and our group even split up so we were on both sides of the street! We got to the stop and now had 3 woman trying to flag us in. The other tour guide said " you can take the public bus if you want but you have to walk 2.5 K up a hill. Our company takes you all the way up." We spent the 4.5 pesos ( 45 cents ...

... is. So yeah, I have to move out of the posada. Even though they cost only $1 less a night, it´s back to hostel dormitories, full of stinky backpackers, for me. ...but only for a few more days. I´m going to finish up Spanish classes to make it an even week, and then (hopefully) I´m off to a farm in the middle of nowhere (actually, here) to WWOOF. Have to finish this blog entry so I can e-mail them. Time to get uncomfy.

... and I saw this glass room one floor up that looked like it would have a great view of the city so I walked over to the elevator to see if I could go up there but the button was only for down not up. After I finished waiting on the guys we were standing by the elevator and so I decided to take it down, so I pressed floor one but it opened right back up onto the floor I was on which was the 2nd floor. There was ...

... tea, and rose-petal ice cream. It was an interesting walk back to the room. Later in the day, we were directed to the best textile shop in town by Aurora, the B&amp;B co-owner. The shop is owned by Remigio, told us about textile patterns, colors and materials, indigenous languages and cultures, and his business, which helps continue the crafts in the Oaxaca region. Nancy bought a huilpe (top). We were so full from lunch that we just had drinks and soup on the main square.

... at this site, maybe a lot, no one can be sure. It sits atop a mountain that shoots up out of the middle of the Central Valley with panoramic view of the entire area from every side. It´s breathtakingly beautiful. The odd thing for me was once I stepped into the main plaza of the ruin, I could not believe how dead silent it was. Nothing. There weren´t many people there, which helps, but until I turned my head and my ears caught some wind, I heard ...

... it is worth the 8 pesos.<br><br>The village of Black pottery is amazins the clay makes the pottery black no dyes You can watch them through a pot. and buy some beautiful things but getting them back home is hard to do unless you can have them shipped, bummer <br><br> Hierve El Agua is a day trip from Oaxaca but worth the time plus you can swim and cool of in the beautiful pool on top of the mountain <br><br>