Tuesday, February 17, 2026
As it is everyday (almost), 7:00 a.m. means breakfast at the hotel because today we have to be ready to hit the vans at 8:45 a.m.
Today is Carnival! Our guide today is Pablo Marsch Gonzales who I have been with on tours before.
OUT THE WINDOW #7
Junk!
The Marilyn Monroe Motel (which I have photographed every time we go down this road)
Mototaxi!
The main attraction today is Carnival in the village of San Martin Tilcajete.
I am at a loss to explain how this all works. It is a village tradition to select two men each year, one who gets to be the bride and one who gets to be the groom in a Carnival wedding ceremony called a boda.
We arrived at the bride’s house in our tourist vans and watched her get ready for the ceremony. What was weird for me was the fact that we could get off our vans and walk right into the middle of the celebration without any questions being asked. This is obviously a community wide celebration (there are only about 1,600 people living in this village) that is wide open to knowledgeable tourists.
Meanwhile in another part of the village a band and some revelers have gathered and are beginning to march to the bride’s house with the groom from his house. Also throughout the village other bands and revelers are moving in the direction of the bride’s house as well.
Because we could hear the bands in all directions I left the bride’s house and headed out to chase down the bands. Besides the bands, this community has a ton of wall art.
My Hero
This artist is painting the owner's mother on the front of his house
He said she is going to cry when she sees it
One tradition special to this village are los diablos aceitados (the oiled devils). These guys cover their bodies in a mixture of burnt motor oil, charcoal, or paint which they will smear on victims throughout the celebration. Besides the oil they wear cowbells which they are relentless in playing which is a good thing—you can always hear them coming. They also wear masks of various formats and shout and grunt loudly.
The idea behind the aceitados, which is actually an ancient tradition (with the motor oil being a modern change) is that they are chasing away evil spirts by being the animalistic side of humanity--but in a good way.
I wandered for awhile because I could hear the music in the air but could not catch up until this band showed up on my route. They led me back to the bride’s home.
More bands and village parade characters began to show up. An interesting thing in Oaxaca is when two (or more) bands arrive in the same spot they do a battle of the bands. In this case, they all went into the bride's courtyard to play together. Eventually, by my count, three different bands stuffed themselves into the bride’s courtyard and the great music went on for quite some time.
Then, the actual parade to the central city begins. This red clad band was first, followed by the bride and groom.
I have to say that visiting photographers were not all that polite
Each band follows, music plays a lot and there is a lot of dancing in the streets (and some oily encounters).
Eventually the whole thing gets to the central city where the mayor (I don’t think this is the real mayor) marries the couple.
Then the parade continues off somewhere while we were gathering our scattered group.
My Hero
We got back on the van to go to our next adventure.
OUT THE WINDOW #8
San Martin Tilcajete is the epicenter for the copal version of the alebrijes. There is a whole history behind this art form which you can Goggle but by the time it is a big deal here they are carved from copal wood by the men, painted in a fantastic style by the women and exhibited and sold all over the world. Today we are visiting the Taller Loartepz alebrije studio of the Efrain Fuentes. We know his son Neti Lopez from the hotel where he occasionally sells alebrijes in the lobby. Painting for us at the studio was his sister.
You never know what found objects you might find laying around
Our group lunch was at the Palo Que Habla Bio Conservacion copal conservancy and restaurant.
OUT THE WINDOW #9
We then headed to San Antonino Castillo Velasco to visit Artesanias Vicky embroidery artisans and learn about their dense floral embroidery designs.
I found so many cool textures on the buildings--I hope to use them in my collages when I get home.
There is always one guy who doesn't ever take them down
OUT THE WINDOW #10
We then returned to the city to find a band playing pool side for a private party at our hotel.
None of us were hungry after such a big lunch. Denice and I walked down the alcala to the zocalo on this gorgeous night. I did not take my camera as my shoulder was sore from the day of photography but we did come upon my favorite street busker in Oaxaca (and a gentleman I have photographed many times on previous trips) so, shockingly, I actually used my phone camera to shoot this photo.
When we got back to the hotel I put the final touches on my project for the workshop. Denice and the Bugenhagens use the hotel pool and then all adjourned for a game of cards in their suite.
Tonight we got to bed at 10:30 p.m., dreaming of the final day of the workshop tomorrow and one of the highlights, the critique of our efforts by Michael deMeng.
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