This book was beautiful. Originally, I bought it for the first 60 pages documenting the Oaxaca Commune, a seven month struggle that temporarily replaced a fascist police state with a socialist, anarchist, and indigenous inspired series of assemblies. But the book is a travel journal of two years, and after some annoyance that this section was over, I adapted to the style and pacing of the rest of the travelogue.

The struggle never went away, it's just sort of bubbling under the surface, and there is so much more to Oaxaca than even the incredible feat of the 2006 uprising. I love the way that Peter Kuper takes the time to point out tiny details of his stay, especially his fascination with insects. These are truly gorgeous splash pages, landscapes, collages, and. Peter Kuper does an amazing job of keeping the book dynamic and fascinating, even as personal a travelogue as it is.

The book design is among the most beautiful I've seen. Full color, full bleed, with plenty of paintings that cross the midline. The embossed cloth cover with picture insert are gorgeous, as is the red binding, and I love the sewn-in ribbon bookmark. This is like an heirloom quality book. ( )