Mexico! Oaxaca

The second city of our Mexico trip was Oaxaca, pronounce Wah-HAH-kuh. J and I traveled from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca (the city of Oaxaca; both cities are in the state of Oaxaca) on a Saturday. Meanwhile, Cute W had flown in from the US the night before, and so he met us as we walked toward our hotel.

One of the things I loved throughout Mexico, but especially in the second two cities (because the weather was milder: Puerto Escondido was a bit hot), is that almost all of the architecture is very open to nature, with tons of courtyards for outdoor space. Most of the common spaces of our hotel in Oaxaca were open to the elements, so there might be gorgeous art and furniture, but also plenty of growing plants and sunshine. The next group of pictures are all taken from inside the hotel:

Among the cities we visited, I thought Oaxaca was the most charming. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and took a walk around the historic center of the city and the main square called the Zócalo  (or Plaza de la Constitución). Immediately we were surrounded by celebrations: it turns out that in Oaxaca, if you have something to celebrate, you host a parade of partiers complete with lots of music and giant papier mâché heads. When we were there, a parade celebrating recent graduates was intersecting with a parade celebrating a wedding that had just taken place in the church of the Templo de Santo Domingo. Here are a few pictures I took of the wedding celebration– notice that someone has thoughtfully brought along white sneakers for the bride to change into after the ceremony.

I tell you: this place is a vibe. For the rest of the day we wandered around, shopped market stalls, and, of course, ate.

The next day began with one of the most delicious breakfasts I’ve ever had in my life at Boulenc. Is that two different pictures of the same sandwich? Yes. Literally in the middle of eating it I paused and took a picture because I was like, “I want to remember this sandwich.” Sadly, I can’t really remember the specifics, and finding the exact correct item on a menu is a struggle. But even that carrot side salad was amazing. And I don’t typically like carrots.

Then we did some more wandering, and it felt like everywhere we turned, there was something beautiful to see. For example, we passed through this little doorway (below, on the left) and found our way into a marketplace.

In the afternoon, we headed to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. The museum is housed in a former convent, and the building itself with its historic collections and view of gardens are impressive. . .

But what I really couldn’t get enough of was the Manuel Jimenez exhibit; he’s known for traditional colorful wooden animal carvings called alebrijes. They’re just awesome: beautiful and so fun.

And check out the detail! Here’s a close-up of that center animal:

I also loved-loved-loved the pottery.

After the museum, we headed back to the market to refuel. Here’s one of the many things that we ate, and you may notice a book in the background: J found a Spanish-language chemistry book that she had to have. I love this nerdy young woman!

Before we’d gone to Mexico, there had been a bit of a debate, because some people said that we absolutely had to see Lucha Libre, the popular Mexican professional wrestling. Others said to skip it, in part because the place we’d need to go in Mexico City might be sketchier than we’d like. We can’t really imagine heading to professional wrestling in the USA, but when we saw that there was a one-night-only event happening in Oaxaca, we decided that it was a Sign From The Universe that we needed to sample the cultural experience. It was goofy and fun, and definitely worth checking out, although with a long marathon of different bouts, we didn’t stay for the whole evening. In the middle picture below are a bunch of masks on display: the wrestlers all wear masks, and tons of the fans do, too. We skipped the masks, but I did take a home a small plastic wrestling action figure that came perched on the enormous drink I ordered to go along with our spicy peanuts.

After the wrestling, J headed out in search of one of her favorites, marquesitas (sort of Mexican crepes, and her favorite varieties mixed cheese with tropical fruit) and Cute W and I found a rooftop bar for drinks, snacks, and a view of the cathedral.

The next day we spent time exploring the Mercado Benito Juárez with roughly a jillion variations on mole, a mariachi band, a few beaded souvenirs that we couldn’t resist, and tons to gawk at.

Then we had a fantastic lunch at Los Danzantes. Again, the place itself had that gorgeous indoor-outdoor vibe happening.

The food was super-delicious!

We went to a couple of extremely fancy restaurants in which the server would explain about the food, and then J and Cute W would translate for me. For example, the dish directly above included five different kinds of mole. From left to right, it was amarillo, or yellow mole; chichillo mole, which tasted herby & smoky; some kind of fruity mole; red mole, made with mostly nuts and seeds; and mole negro, which is made with 45 ingredients and considered to be the most important one. 

The dish above is called Childes en Nogada, and it’s a traditional Mexican dish that’s served particularly in August and September, when walnuts and pomegranates are harvested. It’s a poblano chile stuffed with meats and other stuff, with a white walnut sauce (the nogada), and sprinkled with pomegranate arils. The green chile and herbs, white sauce, and red pomegranates recall the Mexican flag.

With this dessert, when the waiter walked away, my family explained that the one on the left was dusted with actual gold flakes. I said, “Actually gold flakes? Why?” And Cute W answered, “To charge us a shit ton of money,” and then we all laughed so hard that I wrote it down to remember it . The lovely thing about Mexico is that the unit of measurement is different, so while in the USA, we absolutely could not afford a restaurant that charged an American ST, in Mexico, we can manage a Mexican ST. And worth every US penny.

After lunch, we walked around some more… once again, we appreciated the murals…

…And the gorgeous flowers everywhere.

Before we left, one or two people said, “You’re going to Mexico? Be careful! They hate us now.” Not true: everyone was extremely friendly and kind. But we did see clear evidence of opinions about politics in the US:

We stopped at a chocolate shop with extremely friendly ladies who taught us about Mexican chocolate with the help of beautiful displays and plenty of samples.

We wandered into a courtyard displaying woolen rugs made by a women’s collective.

We admired the larger-than-life statues scattered around the city, displaying traditional ethnic clothing.

By evening, and Cute W and I had separated from J as we explored. As usual, she kept going like an Energizer Bunny while we had found a rooftop bar to sit and listen to music over drinks. To help her find us, I photographed our pathway to the bar.

Then I had to take a close-up of one of those floral arrangements, because it was so cute.

It was always fun to reunite after a little separation. On that evening, Cute W and I were excited to show J some art that’s we’d bought on the street.

What a coincidence! J laughed. She had also bought a couple of works of art:

Two little girls were hawking their hand-drawn souvenirs to tourists, and J obviously admired their hustle.

On our last day in Oaxaca, we started with a yummy breakfast at PAN:AM.

Then we headed to Masea Trigo Y Maíz, a place entirely devoted to savory and sweet corn items.

Then, while J explored on her own, Cute W and I toured the Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca, which was gorgeous. In order to visit, you need to take an official tour, which seemed mostly like they just want all visitors to be supervised so no one hurts the plants, but I don’t know that for sure since it was all in Spanish. We were advised quite sternly that photos were for our personal use only, which is a bit of a conundrum for me, since this blog is out in the world, but it’s not like I’m advertising or expecting to go viral anytime soon. So here are just a few images: one overview, and then two different views of one of my favorite plants. I have so many more. But I’m already possibly breaking the rules and you’re likely running out of patience with me and all of my pictures at this point, anyway.

It was almost time to head to the airport when we came across this artist…. look, he’s making this with thread! Amazing!

We hadn’t realized that our last day in Oaxaca was the Día del Taxista, when cab drivers decorate their cars and parade through the streets. Cute W briefly freaked out, fearing no one would take us to the airport, but it was easy to hail a cab, and as we left the driver for our flight to Mexico City, Cute W took a quick picture of his decorated cab.

Next stop: Mexico City.