Anyhow, life keeps flying by. And speaking of flying by, I thought you might be interested to see photos from our recent trip to Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico. Matt and I traveled down there the Friday after Thanksgiving with our friends 'the Gartons' (Eric, Jamie, Palmer, and Katie the babsitter). It was a whirlwind trip and a lot of driving along crazy Mexican highways and through the Sierra Madre Occidental range. But it was worth it!
This is a photo of main street in Mata Ortiz:
OK - so it may not look like much.
But it is a quaint little Mexican town nestled in a beautiful valley with towering Mountains in all directions. Most of the homes are made from adobe bricks (which I love!) and the people are incredibly friendly.We stayed at the only hotel in town where we enjoyed fresh tortillas and other Mexican favorites for every meal.
The local church - decorated for a boda (wedding) or Quincinera. We weren't sure which!
But Mata Ortiz is not just a cute Mexican town with yummy food...it is also famous for its pottery! They estimate that about 700-800 people live in Mata Ortiz and up to 500 people make pottery!! One of the best parts of our trip was walking down the dusty streets and being invited into people's homes to look at their pottery. Everything is priced in American dollars and you do get a tour bus the rolls in every once in a while...but it is still an incredibly authentic, Spanish-speaking experience!
Eric has been there a number of times, leading trips for the Desert Botanical Garden (where we both work). He and Jamie bought an amazing, very unique pot for Jamie's mom (shhhhhhh - don't tell!) from one of the more renowned potters in town. 
The story of how Mata Ortiz became a 'potting' town is a fascinating one...I recommend you check it out: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/mexico403/index.html
Basically, one guy - Juan Quezada - was hiking around the hills day when he came across a cave with ancient pottery inside. He started to try to make his own pots by copying the ancient pots, mastered and improved upon the art, and then taught others to do the same.
There is actually a wonderful museum featuring that ancient Paquimé people who had a triving settlement in the area and became fantatsic potters. It was kind of strange to find such a high quality museum in a place like that...but very cool.
There are some of the escavated ruins of Paquimé:
Palmer and Eric exploring the ruins:
And, of course, the one photo of Matt and I posing in front of the ruins:
Posts
