Alvin & Arlene Starkman
Your Hosts at Casa Machaya Oaxaca B & B
We´re a Canadian couple in our early sixties, retired, and just enjoying our lives in Oaxaca. When we moved to Oaxaca permanently, in 2004 (after being part - time residents since 1991), we really had no idea how we would pass the time. We built our home (stone, brick and adobe construction to ensure comfortable temperatures year round) to include a guest level for when friends and family visited. But after the first year, their visits dwindled, so we decided to offer the guest level to tourists.
In due course our initial flurry of guests began asking about touring the village sights such as craft towns, rural marketplaces, and other attractions including ruins and natural wonders in the area such as Hierve el Agua. We quickly began to realize that we knew as much if not more than some drivers to whom we were referring our clients and knew a little better what sights really interested Americans and Canadians (not just the regular stops offered by tour buses), so Alvin began offering his services, given his background in social anthropology and passion for Oaxaca.
Alvin then began writing articles about life and cultural traditions in Oaxaca, trying to give a perspecive not often provided in guide books and travelogues. He has now written over 280 articles including restaurant & cooking school reviews. Alvin is a contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca País - Imagen de México. Mexico Today is designed to stimulate investment in Mexico and return tourism to its deserved levels.
Alvin consults to documentary film production companies working in and around Oaxaca, and specializes in taking visitors to the city to more off the beaten track sights. He has become an ardent mezcal and pulque aficionado. He owns and operates Mezcal Educational Excursions of Oaxaca, and is the author of the most comprehensive analysis of mezcal's complexity and nuances. He also helps to showcase Oaxacan cuisine by arranging personalized small group gastronomic tours of Oaxaca along with acclaimed Oaxacan chef Pilar Cabrera Arroyo (http://www.oaxacaculinarytours.com). Alvin is the Oaxaca Destination Expert on a major international travel website, http://www.tripadvisor.com.
Arlene is a psychotherapist by trade, and now in retirement sees a few clients here in Oaxaca. Her early background is as an English teacher on the south side of Chicago; accordingly, she now offers private English classes to both adults and children. Otherwise she enjoys her morning exercise routine, reading, and working in the garden tending her cactus, succulents, flowering plants and fruit trees.
http://www.oaxacadream.com
[email protected]
In due course our initial flurry of guests began asking about touring the village sights such as craft towns, rural marketplaces, and other attractions including ruins and natural wonders in the area such as Hierve el Agua. We quickly began to realize that we knew as much if not more than some drivers to whom we were referring our clients and knew a little better what sights really interested Americans and Canadians (not just the regular stops offered by tour buses), so Alvin began offering his services, given his background in social anthropology and passion for Oaxaca.
Alvin then began writing articles about life and cultural traditions in Oaxaca, trying to give a perspecive not often provided in guide books and travelogues. He has now written over 280 articles including restaurant & cooking school reviews. Alvin is a contributing writer for Mexico Today, a program for Marca País - Imagen de México. Mexico Today is designed to stimulate investment in Mexico and return tourism to its deserved levels.
Alvin consults to documentary film production companies working in and around Oaxaca, and specializes in taking visitors to the city to more off the beaten track sights. He has become an ardent mezcal and pulque aficionado. He owns and operates Mezcal Educational Excursions of Oaxaca, and is the author of the most comprehensive analysis of mezcal's complexity and nuances. He also helps to showcase Oaxacan cuisine by arranging personalized small group gastronomic tours of Oaxaca along with acclaimed Oaxacan chef Pilar Cabrera Arroyo (http://www.oaxacaculinarytours.com). Alvin is the Oaxaca Destination Expert on a major international travel website, http://www.tripadvisor.com.
Arlene is a psychotherapist by trade, and now in retirement sees a few clients here in Oaxaca. Her early background is as an English teacher on the south side of Chicago; accordingly, she now offers private English classes to both adults and children. Otherwise she enjoys her morning exercise routine, reading, and working in the garden tending her cactus, succulents, flowering plants and fruit trees.
http://www.oaxacadream.com
[email protected]
