I arrived in Oaxaca at 6am, just as the sun was creeping up. I was not sure which of Oaxaca's bus stations I had arrived at so I just started walking the same direction as the car traffic. I had to present an air of confidence as I exited the terminal or the taxi drivers would smell confusion and pounce with no mercy.
As the sun rose over the city I eventually got my bearings and tracked down my hostel for the night, Hostel Don Nino.
I could have grabbed a couple hours sleep as my bed was available, but I opted to head back out onto the street to make my rounds. Oaxaca is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city. The city, similar to Mexico City has a main square, or Zocalo, surrounded by cafes, bars and restarants. It is the beating pulse of the city, with artisans, musicians and shoe shiners dominating the landscape. Oaxaca city survives on tourism. People flock to the colonial city for the food and architecture.
A comment about the shoes. Mexico has some obsession with Zapaterias (shoe stores) and keeping them clean.
There are about 20 shoe shiners surrounding the main square and they must be getting enough business to keep them coming back. I sat and watched some guy roll up to one with a new pair of Timberland boots, ones that were tan. After 30 minutes of polishing, they were as black as military issue boots. I did not understand that one, why not just buy black boots? I digress.
I made my way over to the Noviembre 20 local market around 8am to get some breakfast.
I walked through a variety of stalls but did not see anything resembling breakfast. I was corralled at the meat section, whre I was advised to select a type of meat and have some lady haul it off to cook it on the grill in front of me
While I was waiting for a steak taco breakfast they brought by a tray of condiments (avocados, salsa, onions, etc) I thanked them and tried to pull some of the trays, but after much back and forth I realized this was an alternate vendor offering to sell each tray to me.
I bought a fair amount and put it all together into this beautiful representation.
It was actually a pretty slick deal, getting to pick out your food and having them cook it right there. By the end of the trip I was getting tired of tacos all day and night, but at this point the novelty was still going strong.
Leaving the market I saw big bushells of grasshoppers. They are known locally as chapulines.
I tried them, but did not taste like anything special. Here is a description of how they are typically prepared.
•After the chapulines are clean, they are sorted by life stage, nymph or adult, and by size.
•Now, bring water to a boil (with garlic and herbs).
•Then add the chapulin (quickly!)
•Remove the chapulin to a comal for toasting.
•Add one of two flavors:
◦Limón y sal de gusano (worm salt)
◦Roasted with garlic
•Eat them hot with a fresh tortilla.
After the market I walked a bit more waiting for the Expeditions – Sierra Norte office to open.
I stopped in an Artisan market to look for some memorabilia, but was only able to locate a bag of coffee for a friend of mine back home. I liked some of the below pieces but none were conducive to backpack transport.
Back to the hostel for a shower and drying my clothes on the roof
By now the Expedition office was open. The company is Sierra Norte Expeditions and they are a main reason why I ventured in this direction. Website Link
They help tourists explore the Pueblos Mancomunados de la Sierra Norte, which are a group of 8 or 9 small villages scattered throughout the mountains just north of Oaxaca. The villages sit around 9K feet. They offer a variety of tours on foot or bike, all provided with a guide. I customized a path seen below (follow red lines) based on reviews of the different villages and the hiking. While I was in the office another girl about my age was also looking to do some hiking and we decided to go off for the 2 day together thereby bringing down the cost and providing someone to talk to as neither of us were fluent in Spanish. The local guides were not too strong on the queens english.
After paying about $75 for 2 days hiking with 5 or 6 meals and lodging we decided to get a few drinks and check out more of the attractions. We went into Santo Domingo, which was an old monastary converted into a museum, located next to the church seen below.
This was a botanical garden they offered tours of, but after seeing the bird's eye view I decided to pass.
An old library within the monastary
Next stop was touted as the nicest hotel in the city. El Camino Real websiteIt was definitely high end. We were able to walk around a bit before it became apparent we had no business being there.
It was back to the Zocala for a drink at a cafe next to the square.
Below is a shot of my favorite addition to the alcoholic beverages from the latin culture. It is a michelada. There are a varieties of ways to make it but it is basically a beer version of a bloody mary with the primary ingredient other than beer being clamato.
People were hoking wares all over the place. These guys carried around a mega version of the xylophone and sought out donations from anyone in the vacinity after they were done. I was thinking how that would not fly in the states, walking up to people at nearby restaurants holding out a cup for donations, but here it was just part of the culture and poeople were not put off by it much.
A couple beauties I came across during a photo shoot
They wanted to hang out and buy me drinks all night but I told them I had a big day tomorrow and kept going. After grabbing some food back in the market area we stopped by La Casa del Mezcal. Mezcal is a distilled alcohol made from a type of Agave plant, the maguey, famous to the Oaxaca region.
we ordered a couple different varieties seen below. One was very smokey tasting while the other was more of a black licorice taste.
They were not smooth. I am not sure if it was better to sip them or shoot them, but they cautioned me not to slam it becasue it was described as quite potent. They were right. My new friend was struggling so I had to take down both and by the time we were back on the street I was a lot lighter on my feet.
Next stop was a chocolate shop. Another claim to fame for Oaxaca was chocolate. In fact chocolate was discovered in Mexico and the Oaxaca region takes it to a new level.
Many drink hot chocolate in the colder nights, some just straight chocolate bars but their specialty is something called a Mole sauce which they drape over steaks.
It was an early night as I had to be up by 5am to get some food and catch the bus out to the mountains.
Until Tomorrow
Darren
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