This picture was taken the morning I was pulling out of the village to head back to San Miguel de Allende. We're standing in the "living room/garage". Like most homes in the village and in Mexico for that matter it's not finished. Here is where the car is kept parked and covered. I imagine they only take it out every 8 weeks or so. Sra. Ines sewing machine is here. She makes various blouses etc. I stayed up on the roof in a small room where the ceiling was covered in black plastic to keep the condensation from the tin roof falling on my head. My bed was literally just playwood placed on concret bricks. Odd sleeping bags and blankets are thrown on top. Hey it worked and for some reason I was more comfortable than I knew I should be. I guess it's true what they say, "less is more". Outside my door you can walk right out to the roof top where the bathroom is. It has a toilet with no seat and a sheet for a door. On the floor there are several colored plastic pails and a few metals ones. To take a shower is an event. Outside of the bathroom on the roof is a metal water container with a grey lona covering it. This is for hot water. Next to that one is a large Rotoplas Tanque. This one holds the water from the truck. For the dry season there is no water and everyone buys it off the water truck. Okay so I fill up the buckets, some with hot but I'm conscious not to take to much so I fill others with cold water. After I've loaded my buckets into the bathroom I do the only thing I can do and pour water over my head to make sure my body is all wet. This reminded me when I took baths while living in a 1974 Dodge Van that I bought from some Aussie's in Harlem, New York. Then I used water bottles with sport tops so I could spray myself down.
Huautla de Jimenez is a town in the Mexican State of Oaxaca. It is part of the Teotitlán District in the north of the Cañada Region.
The name Huautla comes from the Náhuatl "cuiticaname - huautlan", which means "place of eagles". The town is called "Tejao" (also Eagle's Nest) in the Mazatec language. "de Jiménez" was added to honor General Mariano Jimenez, who was the first governor of the state of Oaxaca in 1884 and the first official to arrive on Mazteca lands. He founded the town Huautla de Jiménez, which is now the municipality's seat.
The origin of the town is unknown, but tribute documents show that it was the largest town in the Mazatec region during the late Postclassic period, when the town paid tribute to the Aztec empire.
Its principal economic activities are agriculture, ranching and retail shops. The agriculture base consists of coffee, corn, sugar cane and fruit-bearing trees. Ranching consists of goats, cows, pigs, horses and mules. Retail stores include food shops, fruit and vegetable stands, butchers, clothes, footwear, newspapers and magazines, etc. It is noted as the birthplace of Maria Sabina, a Mazatec medicine woman famous for her use of hallucinogenic fungi. In the 20th century a number of famous people visited here to try it. The municipality has a series of caverns which are some of the deepest in the world, including ‘’’Gruta Nindo Da-Ge’’’, ‘’’Sistema Cheve’’’ and the ‘’’Sótano de San Agustín’’’, which are well-known in the spelunking world. It also has natural springs with crystal-blue waters.
You can meet the most interesting people when traveling alone. My friend from Bolivia, who is native French came to the mountains to work with Salvia. Here in this photo he is pointing out a prolific plant called Dartura. Dartura can cause dementia for a few days when you consume the seeds. Not so interested in giving it a try but am very interested in how a plant can be that powerful.
This painting on a local walkway to more homes on the edge of the mountain depicts the Virgin of Guadalupe. Notice below the Nopal are the Ninos Santos.
Sra. Ines and I went for a walk in the afternoon to visit her Sister who lives on the other side of the town next door to where Sra. Ines teaches the local language to children who may not be picking as much up at home as the parents would like. Her sisters home is modest. It's full of tin can planters sprouting out tomatoes and chilies. 
We sat in her sister's kitchen drinking Cafe de Olla. I was offered pan but since I arrived in Huautla I decided to eat. I had juice, water and cafe only. After we left her sister's house we walked back through the small trials leading up and down between the houses. All the way everyone showed Sra. Ines respect. She even commented on it about how much she likes it. I guess times have changed since her teacher and Shamen, Maria Sabina was around. Sra. Maria didn't get the same respect. In fact her home was burned down and she was forced to live in the forest alone away from the people. We stop off at her mother's home to check on her. Her mother lives in the center of many other adobe and wooden houses. While we were outside they spoke in Mazatec about the water situation. The metal drums outside her mother's front door store the water but there is very little. It's May and the rains haven't come yet. It's about 7 in the evening so we head back to Sra. Ines' home to discuss plans for the night. Her kitchen is a dirt floor, The walls are rock since it's set into the mountain. Just outside the interior kitchen is a large covered patio which over looks the Casa de Cultura. Here is is cool and comfortable. We visit for a while then talk about the Ninos Santos. She leads me through her bedroom which is divided off the dirt floor kitchen by a large armoir and Christmas Motif table cloth that hangs by a small cord not unlike the make shift shower curtin on the bathroom door upstairs. From her bedroom we go back farther into the mountain rock. Now we're in a room with 2 beds, one on one side of the room and another on the other side. The floor is dirt but it's hard and doesn't seem dirty or dusty. The beds are covered with the kind of blankets you can see being sold on the streets all over mexico. One shows an image of a tigers face in a deep sea blue and black. The other bed has a blanket of a large red peacock. On the back wall is an alter. The wall is covered with pictures of Catholic saints. A table that as is wide as the wall showcases various statues and figures of saints. Rosaries, crosses and copaleros are thrown in randomly to add interest I suspect. The table is covered in Plastic. I see cocoa beans and copal as well as some flowers in a vase that should have been thrown out weeks ago. I stood there thinking about the energy this cave like room was holding. All those saints must be there to help people feel safe in thier spiritual journey. I thought about Sra. Ines and she must be here to do the same. I thought about the Chinese man she told me about earlier who just left a couple of days before I arrived. She told me about him getting scared and running out of the house. I thought maybe a few more Eastern Religious Icons might not be a bad idea. She explains in detail. How she will clean all the negative spirits and make sure I'm aligned with the good energy. I told her that morning that I don't believe in God and Jesus or any of that shit. She told me that it didn't matter if I do or don't believe. I think this prelude lead her not to talk to much about God and instead talk about energy.
To end I came back with a few new things. Some powerful and some funny. I felt a bond with Sra. Ines right from the start. Almost like a lovers crush. I loved to cook with her and talk with her about many things. She told me she was coming to San Miguel in a month. I told her great let me know so we can be together. That's when she told me she would only be passing through. I then told her she should stay a while and take a break for a couple of hours before journeying on. She told me she couldn't because she will be traveling by airplane. Hum... I told her to think of me down there when she passes over on her way to Los Cabos to see her daughter. This got me to thinking. What is it where we are and what is it to " have something". If I tell you I own the mountain and as far as you can see you might believe me. If I believe it too but it's not written on paper any where does this make it any less true? I think once a person can free thier minds they can own, have and be everywhere. The other thing more important I came back with is I am my own Shamen. I am my God, I am my light and I created my universe. This is a powerful concept. I know it's been said before but to feel it in your core is another story. This also reminds me of something Terrance McKenna said many times, " Create your own Culture".
s o' tostatas? Everything comes out of the Taco cart. I mean everything. All the cocktail glasses are washed in a 5 gallon bucket right below where the limes are getting sliced in half by a young boy and on top of him is an older man spooning up seafood from various bowls and colorful bins. In the center of every table is a motly mix of salsa bottles. Homemade salsa is offered up in recycled plastic oil bottles. We all order Medium cocktails with shrimp and octopus. They arrive at the table with half an avacado sliced and floating on top. As a garnish one large shrimp with it's head and tail still in tact becomes kinda a symbol of Camaroncito. Later as we're making our way into the sea of cocktails the waitress stops by to see if we need more avacado or more chile. Hum.... more avacado? It's Camaroncitos niche. You can get good cocktails in many places but only one serves up so much extras for so little.
Some of the best locations in San Miguel to appreciate forged iron is the Oratorio on Mesones. The Iron windows date back 260 years. On the corner of the Jardin where the new Starbucks is all the iron is forged. Also there are nice examples on the Haciendas around the post office on Correo and Corregidora.
The amazing forged hardware of San Miguel dates back 300 years! Walking around the streets of San Miguel after 7 years still astonishes me. Once you start focusing in on a particular detail in Cantera, Wooden doors,Iron work or Hardware you see the craftsman behind each piece. In this post I'm focusing on Forged Iron mostly found in window railings and gates. Forging is the shaping of metal using localized compressive forces. In San Miguel 200-300 years ago this compressive force was done by hand and heat without welding. 
and opened an account. What a great discovery! This site has only things vintage or handmade by the seller. This is cool, a bit crafty but I found some interesting items that have creative designs.
From Spanish, Moorish, Spanish Revival, Colonial, Gothic,Contemporary, Art and Crafts, Italian and French. In San Miguel there is a lantern above almost every doorway.
Typical overall shaped lantern but the rod coming out of the bottom adds interest and picks up the twisted iron work found in the framed squares.
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