[Cob] Mexico course for half price!

[Shannon C. Dealy]

Last-minute opportunity
to do Mexico course for half price!

Last-minute vacancies have created an unprecedented opportunity to
experience traditional Mexico culture and learn about natural
building, permaculture and ecological living for half the regular
price! North Americans can now take the 12-day course, to be held
July 27-August 7  in Tlaxco, Mexico, for only $600.

During the first week, foreigners convene for an immersion in
regional Mexican culture. The area surrounding Tlaxco, with its
millennia-long history of natural building and cultures rooted in the
land, will be our classroom. Through fieldtrips, classroom exercises
and hands-on "practices", participants will learn and experience
various techniques and get an overview of regional Mexican and
indigenous cultures rarely experienced by visitors. Past field trips
have included traditional meals in the homes of local families,
visits to artisans' workshops, tours of haciendas-both restored and
in ruins, tours of the local ecology based elementary school that
Proyecto San Isidro supports and trips to homes and buildings that
display examples of contemporary, ancient and colonial natural
building techniques.

During the second week, participants from México join the group and
the bulk of the coursework focuses on hands-on practices. All of the
coursework is translated.

The course takes place on Rancho El Pardo, the experimental farm and
forest of			     the Caballero family, about four
kilometers northeast of the market town of
Tlaxco.

Carlos and Magdalena Caballero moved onto this 120 hectares (300 acres) of
heavily logged, overgrazed and severely eroded land in the 1950s with
the specific
intention of restoring it. The site is one of the world's longest-standing
restoration projects. Don Carlos also developed the "Metodo Tlaxco de
Renovación Silvícola". Today, some of the family still works to
continue the innovative soil restoration and reforestation begun
nearly 50 years ago.  Many of the course's practical, hands-on
experiences involve working on the improvements to this land and the
facilities found there.

For more information, contact the Cob Cottage Co., 541-942-2005,
M-W-F 10-5 Pacific time.