After months of preparations and almost 20 hours of travel we have finally landed in Mexico. What began as a dream and continued as an adventure, is now a reality …, there's no turning point.
I don't know if it happens to you too, but when I arrive at any airport in the world, I never know exactly where I am, airports have always seemed to me as aseptic places with no personal identity at all. It's only when I finally get into a cab and into the street that a big smile of happiness brightens my face, compensating the last hours I spent inside an airplane. Looking through the window, watching life going on around, listening to the music coming out from the nearby cars, the voices on the terraces of the bars, delighted by the colors and especially with the scents of the stalls standing on the street selling traditional food of the region ..., now I feel that I have arrived to Mexico, in body and soul, and I begin to suspect that this smile will be my faithful travel company.
First thing first and even though the tiredness and jetlag begin to show, Yaz won't let me go to sleep without trying my first “tacos al pastor”..., I always knew that Yaz was the partner who would never let me down.
Sunday is a day of reunions, we are still enjoying the holiday mood …
Monday, 25th of November: we left our bags at the hotel and rush to first business meeting. After months of being in contact via Whats App, we will finally meet face to face the first craftsman and supplier and partner of xcaanda home, we are soooo excited!
The next two weeks took place between hurries, taxi, cart, truck and public transport trips, visits to artisan workshops, markets, meetings, balances, negotiations, shopping, photo shootings, etc...
Santo Tomas Jalieza, Teotitlan del Valle, Pueblo Nuevo, wherever we go they explain us how a pedal loom works, which plants, insects, herbs and roots are applied for wool or cotton; we learn that the technique of waist loom is pre-Hispanic and that weaving of the “tenates” is an exclusive work for women.... And we are getting to know amazing people, professionals passionate about their work, handmade wonders and now more than ever it makes sense that in the word craftsmanship, “artesanía” in Spanish we find "ART".
We leave Mexico and head back to Germany, but we take Oaxaca, its people, its traditions, and its art, in the heart. Now we will have to wait patiently for the merchandise that we have ordered, our designs, those we created under the concept of a contemporary decoration now made with ancestral techniques by master craftsmen. Cushions, table paths, glassware, tenates..... each product tells a story. Ours is a story of passion for the Mexican and passion in Zapoteco is said xcaanda.
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