San Cristobal de las Casas

We've just had a yummy lunch of tacos pollo which are nothing like the tacos we have at home- they're soft little rounds rather than crispy upright ones, plus we had them with salsa verde and tomatoes and lime. Yum.
Lime and chilli are everywhere here and that is just at it should be. I am a lemon girl at home but in Mexico I'm perfectly happy to be a lime girl.
San Cristobal is a very pretty little mountain town loaded with amazing churches and today we've just about covered it from head to tail-literally.
We walked up a gozillion steps to the top of a lovely church on the east side of town then walked to the other end of town to check out a house and museum where a Dutch archeaologist and his wife lived. She collected textiles and he dug up ruins. The house is lovely but sadly more a monument to them than what they found here, but her textile collection was ace.
I've watched the indigenous ladies here weave and embroider all over the place , and am a little overwhelmed by how much they produce.
There are also some truly lovely local modern jewellers and artists in San Cristobal. Temptation is everywhere but it's not as cheap as you may think, which is fair enough actually.
We're off to Palenque tomorrow, and jungle ruins, but now it's time for a siesta. What a wonderful tradition that is. Adios!

Mexico

Well, hola here I am in Oaxaca writing this after FINALLY figuring out how to make the @ symbol on the Spanish keyboard. We've managed to find a beautiful place to stay with a courtyard full of tropical plants and our little apartment has an upstairs and downstairs and Mexican decorations everywhere, including murals in every little nook and cranny.
Mexico city was full-on and crazy but fascinating as well, but I have to say I love this place more because it's so gorgeous and accessible in a more small town kind of way. Colour and bouganvillia everywhere- and music and exotic food too.
Trying not to go crazy with embroidered tops, whacky bags made from vinyl tablecloths and paper cut decorations-just can't carry too much more!
Anyway' we'll be here until Monday in our lovely little casa and we'll go and see the ruins of Monte Alban tomorrow.
Asta luega chicas!

green sigh

Imagine your job was "Paint Chip Namer"- I wonder how you would research for this. Sometimes they can be very poetic, and sometimes you just know they've had a tough week and are just picking a word at random from whatever is handy, and sometimes I think they're being naughty and choosing something really unpleasant just to see if anyone buys that colour at all.

Adventures in collage

There's something very soothing and almost meditative about collage for me, you just drift through piles of colours and shapes and textures and images and eventually emerge with ... something. And then you can sit and self-analyse it afterwards to try to work out why you did what you did. Double the fun!