Saturday, 10th October, Oaxaca: a new arrival back home and famous black pottery
Yesterday was a long day of driving to get to Oaxaca from Mexico City. When we arrived in the city, it started to rain and I became increasingly venomous towards Mike. Good days and bad days – and invariably we only have each other to take our rage out on. Basically, we take turns. Extended periods of time in the sidecar make me volatile; Mike tends to be pretty distant and snappy in the mornings. Fun fun fun.
Saturday in Oaxaca, we head to the Dona Rosa pottery workshop, south of Oaxaca in a place called San Bartolo Coyotepec. Valente and Rafaela have been married for around 46 years (it took them a while to remember). Valente is the son of the famous Dona Rosa who developed the process for making Oaxacan black pottery, famous around the world. The local clay, used for pottery since pre-Hispanic times, cooks to become a matte grey. What Dona Rosa realised was that if the clay is rubbed with the flat edge of a quartz stone when it has been drying for a fortnight or so, the top layer of clay comes off to reveal a shiny surface. When cooked in the kiln for 8 hours (less than the usual 15-20), it comes out a beautiful and totally unique shiny black. No varnish, no paint needed. The workshop sits behind a large courtyard lined on all four sides with hundreds of items of all styles, shapes and sizes made of this pottery. Some gorgeous stuff. Mr Clear firmly told his wife that the lovely fruitplate she was coveting (for $15!) was definitely not joining Team GTD.
The biggest news of the came from back home: Mike’s elder (only) brother, Phil’s wife Bex gave birth to a baby girl, Eva Louise Clear. The first Clear girl to be born in over 100 years (the last one, Peggy Clear, was born in 1908). Much jubilation and tears from a little, homesick outpost in Oaxaca. Thank God for Skype, at least we could talk to Mike’s parents – the brand new grandparents – and we hope to meet little Eva on Skype in the next couple of days.
That night we stayed in Oaxaca with yet another representative couple of the US ex-pat community – a friend of a friend of a friend (remember our whole connection with this warm and generous community started with a 3 minute conversation outside a bike shop in a cloudy suburb south of Seattle, when the kind Janis offered us a place to stay with her sister, Barb (the wonderful!), in Mazatlan). So, to Patty and Don. Married for 35 years – and they took off on a BSA motorbike shortly after that marriage, so they were ripe for advice. Originally from Missouri, Patty prepared a mid-Western feast for dinner of pot roast pork, mash, biscuits and gravy. Followed by pumpkin pie. Took a while to get to sleep, we were so full.
