Steven L. Smith, Bellingham, WA Home Inspector (King of the House)

The state of Oaxaca, which is almost as far down in Mexico as you can go -- getting near Central America -- is known for having some of the best artisans in the whole country. That includes weavers, carvers, potters, silversmiths, jewelers.

Below was a street scene of some handcrafted baskets that were in the park at the ocean resort area of Huatulco. My wife has bought a number of items down there and they are all excellent quality. There is something of interest for just about everyone in this part of Mexico.

This class is just so much fun. One of the proprietors of the B&B where we stay "La Casa De Mis Recuerdos (House of My Memories) is also one of the top cooks in the city of Oaxaca.

Nora Valencia teaches cooking classes weekly.  She teaches some of the great recipes of the region, including moles (a type of sauce, not the little digging critters), that were passed down to her by her grandmother and her mother. Nora speaks wonderful English and is fun and a delight. Whether you stay at one of her lodging establishments or not, cooking classes are available to anyone. The day starts with Nora meeting the participants at a local market where she explains to them how to buy only the best fresh ingredients.

Nora has been featured on television in Japan and here is a photo of the poster for her class.

Although I find spam annoying, like everyone else, sometimes it intrigues me slightly. Now, granted, most of the time when I get spam, they want to sell me viagra or medical supplies or some other product that, like Nigerian scam endowments, hopefully, I do not need.

I got this one spam, over and over again, the last few days. This was the text:

"A few days ago I unearthed obama is awarding out there green notes

This reason for this is they are striving to frantically help people
out.

Simply just type "gov wemp" into Yahoo then see how to get your cut of
this.

Sincerly, Bill Diershow"

So, in just looking at it, I could not figure out the point of their pitch. Having an extra minute, I went to yahoo and typed in their key word. It ends up that it is this cheesy site that, they want you to believe, leads to people making money in your town. The page I got was a woman named Julie who lives in Miami, Florida, Bellingham. Huh, guess I never have seen that spot in nearly 60 years in this town.

And, if you followed their page to the bottom, this is a real concerned and ethical lot. They do not want to let others scam potential clients of theirs. The message said:

"Sadly, a number of scammers are preying on the American public's growing interest for Grant information. Julie warns:" Be wary of companies that ‘guarantee' you Grant money if you sign up with them. Someone can't just guarantee you Grant money. You have to apply for it first."I ask you, what possible reason would the spammer have for sending this out? There is usually a reason for someone to go to this ridiculous effort, but I cannot figure out what it would be for the life of me."

It is truly a strange world when the spammers are accusing others of being the spammers. Far as I can tell, the hook here is the same -- they want people to send money so they can send out what is probably bogus grant information you can search out for yourself on the internet.

The next Fundamentals of Home Inspection and 40-hours of field training courses will begin at Bellingham Technical College on February 28, 2011. These are Washington state approved courses and successful completion of the courses qualifies a student to sit for the state licensing exams.

 Since my wife and I travel to Italy and Mexico most years, we see lots of churches. Both societies are long associated with Roman Catholicism and the Catholics build spectacular cathedrals.  I would say that, between the two countries, the homeland for the church, Italy, has the biggest and the best. After all, nothing can really compare to the Vatican and St Peters.

However, here is a very quaint and pretty church near Oaxaca, Mexico. The lush flowers around it, in the middle of January, are quite the selling point to a guy from northwest Washington. I think this is a very pretty smaller church. It is small, at least, compared to some of the churches in Italy and Mexico.

I have been looking at my Qwest phone bill closely the last few months. I have simply been getting so many weird and high-pressure sales calls that I keep an eye out for any unusual charges.

This month my phone bill had $49.99 added onto it. There was a fee to a firm called "Online Green Pages."

I called the dispute number and someone, in customer service with Online Green Pages, said that my firm had approved the charge. Right, like I need marketing help from such a firm. I have outstanding SEO as is at Google, Bing and Yahoo.

I recall this firm calling repeatedly in the past and not being willing to take "no" for an answer. I told this guy, who was handling my dispute, that fact of life. And he told me that it was not me but another person, my daughter, who had signed me up for the service while I was away on vacation.

I was unrelenting in my griping until the guy agreed to remove the charge. End of story. But, when my daughter came by the house today, I asked her about this so-called commitment that she had made on my behalf.  She said:

1. She could barely understand the Online Green Pages representative on the other end of the line, poor English

2. She told them, over and over, that she could not make business decisions for the firm

3. She told them to call back in three weeks, when her dad was home

4. They told her that she was, in their humble view, able to make business decisions for the firm

5. They would not take "no" for an answer, no matter what she said

6. She unequivocally did not agree to this charge, but they, obviously, put the charge on my bill anyway. 

So, word of advice, if you get a call from the Online Green Pages, be very careful and wary. And, no matter how strongly you resist their sales pitch, make doubly-sure that you check your phone bill the next time it comes in the mail or online. Online Green Pages just might have signed you up for their service despite your best protestations. And, by the way, as of the time I am writing this, the firm has an F rating with the Better Business Bureau.

 In yesterday's post, I wrote about a lady who is considered to be one of the top weavers in Oaxaca, an area known for artisans. Actually, her shop is in Teotitlan, a small village just outside Oaxaca. This village is noted for having a population of world class weavers and fabric artists. They raise the animals for the wool, shear the animals, card, spin and dye the fibers. You can see yesterday's post here.  

In the comments yesterday, it was requested that I display photos of some of this artists work. I was blasting away, so I did not get the greatest of photos, but these will have to do.

I do not have the lady's name at the tip of my tongue but, if anyone is interested in buying any of her work, I can get her name. She ships her work all over the world.  I can come up with her name because she is a friend of our friend Nora, who runs the wonderful B&B La Casa De Mis Recuerdos where we stay when down Mexico way in Oaxaca.

This first weaving is the one that we bought and, when we decided to get it, they (weaver and husband) finished the weaving by putting fringe around it, hence this shot of their handy work. This piece was colored with all natural dyes -- the red is from a worm they squeeze and the other colors are derived from plants and minerals from the region. We got quite a treatise on, and a demo of, the whole process.

This is one of two posts I have prepared featuring this artisan. This lady is one of the most respected weavers in all of Oaxaca, Mexico. When you purchase one of her pieces, she made it all. She raises the animals from which the wool is spun, she makes the dyes from natural plants found in the region and she does the weaving. My wife is a weaver, or used to be, and she feels that the lady does gorgeous work.

This was the third time that my wife and I have visited Oaxaca. We really like the color, the flavor and the people in this part of Mexico. The heat is a real plus too. It is down, almost to Central America. Since we stay there for more than a week at a time, we tend to find places we like to hangout. I like the zocalo, the town square. But there is another part of town, not far from our B&B that has great restaurants and pleasant coffee shops. The photo below is from my favorite part of town, which is only a couple blocks from where we stay.

We got back from our latest Mexico trip last night. It was a great time.

I think that many of us who travel look forward to going out to lunch or dinner in a foreign land. It is an adventure every day and, if you are around an area long enough, you find favorite spots.

Oaxaca does not specialize in what many think of as typical Mexican food. You know, tacos, burritos, enchiladas. You can get those items but Oaxaca is better known for moles which are sauces. They range from spicy sauces. made with chiles, to one that is made of chocolate.

Below is a small cafe outside the main city of Oaxaca. We have, when touring ruins, dined here on two occasions and it is a great spot. In the back there are woodcarvers and you can watch them at work. Nearby is an artisan shop.