Mexico Adventure Sourcing Tile and Murals: part II

We spent two days perusing a Mexican handicrafts trade show where we searched for hand-painted tiles and gorgeous murals for our store.

Of course we also had to equally explore the incredible food and drink, including sampling the regional specialty of Tamarind Margaritas.We all liked them but preferred the traditional lime (and green vs. brown color!) and also had to sample shots of all the varieties of great Mexican tequila. In fact, the state of Jalisco is known for being the birthplace of “tequila,” which is made from the blue agave plant, native to the area.

On the way out of town, we stopped for a brunch of gorditas muy ricas! and other street food in the giant street market in the little town of Tonalá.

Despite the four hour drive we still had to make to get to Guanajuato before dark, we dawdled way too long perusing the hundreds of vendors stalls selling all manner of ceramics and tiles.

Although we had detailed directions for driving into Guanajuato in the state of the same name, our trusty guide and amiga, Teresa shook her head when we arrived at the Glorieta statue at the entrance to the city, repeating the oft heard saying, “if you don’t get lost in Guanajuato, you haven’t really been to Guanajuato!” This is because most of the cities navigable streets are underground in a series of ancient man-made tunnels lined with hand made bricks. Soon after uttering those fateful words, we entered the subterranean warren of streets which are crisscrossed by narrow alleys too small for a car, and stairways by which pedestrians climb into and out of the streets. Although we thought we were faithfully following the directions, we were, in fact, hopelessly lost, until Andy called out—“there’s a little blue building” (among thousands of little blue buildings) but which actually, and nothing short of miraculously, turned out to be our destination: a fantastic little bed and breakfast called Villa Sueno Azul. The first thing Teresa and I did was get a luscious corn on the cob from a street stall!
More of our adventures soon!

Mexico Travel Adventures Sourcing Tile

Wow, what an amazing trip down to Mexico sourcing Talavera tile, sinks, and murals for the website www.MexicanTileDesigns.com! I’ll attempt to give you the highlights in this and subsequent entries, but the whole thing was pretty incredible! Our first stop was Guadalajara (pop 1.5 million). We spent most of our time there shopping in street stalls and searching for more great tile to bring you . We spent several days exploring the trade show, meeting new tile and ceramic vendors and exploring the stores, workshops, and amazing FOOD of Guadalajara.

Here’s a photo of Andy, Rich and Teresa (our angel, interpreter, guide, consolidator and good amiga) discussing our finds over a coffee. 

Along the way, Andy and Rich made the acquaintance of some very interesting ladies who gave us some good leads on a line of Day of the Dead Tiles we will soon carry!  Watch the website for these and other exciting changes.

Choosing Mexican Tile at the SOURCE

Andy, Rich and I are super excited to go to Mexico next week on a tile hunting expedition! We are flying into  Mexico to attend a  Mexican handicraft trade show.  We’ll spend four days there searching for the very best Mexican hand-painted tiles, sinks and murals to bring home to you. http://store.mexicantiledesigns.com/index.php?c=9 It will be a fun search!

After the show, we’ll drive to Guanajuato City, which will be our base. We are eager to explore this part of Mexico and sample all the food and handcrafts it has to offer!

Please watch this blog for more posts from our trip!