A trip to Ticul, the pottery town

We'd heard that for the best pottery, one must make a trip to Ticul, which is located about an hour south of Merida.  We enjoy seeing the local crafts areas, so we decided to head on down there to see what we would see.

Our first stop was at Arte Maya, which was a factory and shop located in a home.  The art here included fantastic, museum quality pieces that were beyond our budget for this trip. 

A wonderful copy of Chichen Itza's Chac Mool.

Inside the Arte Maya shop, a beautiful selection of plates, statues and figurines to choose from.

Next, lunch was on our minds.  It was a Sunday and the downtown area was blocked off, so we chose a Cocina Economica called Loncheria El Tope.  (Topes are the speed bumps so common in Mexican towns, necessary to be sure drivers slow down!) There are usually several choices for lunch depending on what the cook felt like whipping up that day...... I had a chili rellano, which came in a bowl of creamy sauce.  Lowell chose the mixed meat stew, which was a bowl with pork, beef, chicken, and noodles, and a side dish of freshly steamed assorted vegetables to add into the broth as you wished.

Now that our stomachs were happy, it was on to more shopping!  There were a couple more recommended shops that we wanted to see, and also many more shops in people's homes up and down the main road.

This turned out to be our favorite shop, where we bought a few trinkets and a large colorful pot for the living room.

Lowell looks over a nice selection of pots.

The kiln, located in the back of this store.  We were given a tour of the back area but no workers were here on Sunday.

This is a common scene around here....the whole family on one small scooter.  We've seen 3, 4 and sometimes 5 family members all on one motor scooter.  It looks like the little girl on this bike is all dressed up for something that went on downtown.