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Click on trip titles for price and trip details. August 8 through 19, 2010
Travel With the Experts! Join Cynthia LeCount Samaké, expert in indigenous world textiles, on this discovery tour to the beautiful and tranquil state of Oaxaca, Mexico. As an introduction to Oaxaca's cultural traditions, the group will travel to Zapotec-speaking villages in the central valleys of Oaxaca to visit the workshops of weavers, embroiderers, pot-makers, and carvers. A comfortable hotel in Oaxaca City will be the base for day-trips to artists’ villages, local arts and crafts markets, magnificent colonial churches, and fascinating archaeological sites. Then we travel south to the Isthmus region of Oaxaca State to attend the lively Festivals of the Assumption, with Zapotec women of the Isthmus who are world-famous for their beauty and spirit, and for the splendour of their gala attire! We will also visit the workshops of the skilled embroiderers who create festival clothing. After our trip to the Isthmus, we return to Oaxaca City for free time to enjoy the charms of the shady plazas, the superb restaurants and the fascinating markets and shops. Click on trip title for details. Click to view the OAXACA Photo Gallery September 13 through 29, 2010
Fly from home on September 12. We land in New Delhi, visit Red Fort and the market, then go to nearby Agra to see the breathtaking Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then we head west to the famous textile and art producing states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, where we will visit many textile artists in their workshops and homes. Master textile artists will hold private textile workshops with natural dyes, just for our groups: block-printing, tie-dye on silk, and more! We tour the world-famous Calico Museum with its exceptional textile collections. We stay in fascinating Heritage hotels in towns, and new, traditional bunghas in the little-visited northern Gujarat area of Kutch. We meet the delightful Rabari group women who do the intricate mirror embroidery. When we have made some wonderful projects in our workshops, and have seen all the art that we can possibly absorb, we head south to relax a bit in the tropical state of Kerala. We land in Cochin and drive to the interior to visit plantations of rubber, tea, coffee and spices. Cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger all grow in the area. Finally we spend 24 hours floating in the gorgeous backwater lagoons, on private houseboats with our own chefs! Thoroughly relaxed from our houseboat cruise, at the end of our wonderful tour, we fly back to Delhi and then home from there on September 30. Trip includes 17 nights hotel, etc. Click trip title for details. Click to view the India Photo Gallery
Textiles and Timbuktu: Mali, West Africa January 3 - 19, 2011 Members' Tour for Museum of Craft & Folk Art, San Francisco or January 22 - February 7, 2011 Mali Highlights and Music Festival Planned to take advantage of cool weather, these two 17-day trips are very similar, but the second trip includes a Music Festival. Both begin in the Malian capital city of Bamako. We spend the first days in Bamako visiting the National Museum, From Segou, we drive to Djenne, home of the world's largest mud building and a colorful market. Later, we drive to Mopti,, and after a free day visiting the markets (or relaxing), we fly to fabulous Timbuktu, in the Sahara Desert. We see the library of ancient manuscripts, then visit with Tuareg people and maybe ride a camel! Next we'll visit Dogon villages along the Bandiagara cliffs, to see their masked dancers, and learn about their culture. With enormous jutting cliffs, massive baobab trees and amazing adobe architecture, Dogon country is unlike any other place on earth! This is guaranteed to be the kind of trip where you "meet the people!" Anyone may join the Museum Member's tour (Textiles & Timbuktu), which also includes exciting music performances and a couple of free days to explore on your own. The second departure includes the Music Festival on the Niger River, in Segou--a fabulous experience if you like Malian music. Click on trip title for details. Click to view the Mali Photo Gallery Easter in the Andes: Peru and Bolivia with Nancy Thomas Dates and more info to come tomorrow!
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Behind
The Scenes Adventures are
specialty trips--small groups of friendly folks with common interests
in traditional
festivals and celebrations, ethnic textiles and
indigenous costume, archaeology, cultural
history, art and architecture. If you love going "behind
the scenes" to meet the people and experience exotic destinations,
savory local cuisine, flamboyant festivals, gorgeous scenery and
remote villages where the people still make all their own exquisite
textiles, then BTSA is for YOU! 
ARTS, CRAFTS AND FESTIVALS of Oaxaca, Mexico 
Textiles and Taj Mahal Adventure, India
a marionette maker; and the bustling markets. We continue to Barou's hometown of Ségou and visit textile weavers and artists. We have a mud cloth or bogolanfini workshop in Segou and make our own mud cloth in the traditional way. We also take a relaxing boat ride on the Niger River to experience life in a village, seeing a wonderful variety of birdlife from the pinasse as we float along. 