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Published: August 1st 2008
Oaxaca
Catheral located at the Zocalo in Oaxaca.So I finally took a trip out of Puerto Escondido and traveled to Oaxaca city. Aimee and I decided to visit our new friend Javier for his b-day. Funny thing, when we got to Oaxaca, the city was having their biggest annual festival (Guelaguetza). The city was FULL of people! There were foreigners, street performers, parades, tons of food, fireworks....everything that Mexicans do to celebrate. The city felt so alive! It was awesome! Ate at the mercado pretty much everyday. Kept it real, you know. The mercado had all of Oaxaca's regional food and it was cheap. Got to eat grasshopper quesadillas and yup, a 'live' worm....why not? My friend Aimee left early, so I traveled to other towns around Oaxaca. Before she left though we all visited Monte Alban. Ruins just outside of Oaxaca. Back in the day, the ancient city was buried by the local natives in order to hide it from the Spaniards. The site has more than 170 tombs which were all buried with several pieces of gold. Most of it can be found at Oaxaca's local museum. The ancient site is only 20% unburied. They say that 80% is still undiscovered and due to little funding
Oaxaca
Iglesia de Santo Domingo from the Mexican government, it's gonna take a while. I also traveled to El Tule. A town where they have the world's thickest tree. Pretty freakin' BIG. There I went off to go see the Mitla ruins. Walked into the tombs. The ruins weren't as impressive as Monte Alban, but still pretty cool to see. One of the buildings is still in really good condition despite Oaxaca's 300+ earthquakes they have annually. For the final destination on this tour, I went to Hieve El Agua. It's a place where they have petrified waterfalls. The site is in higher altitude and the view was impressive. The photos do not do it justice. Finally, the fun active kid in me wanted to do some hiking and mountain biking. I decided to travel to Santiago Apoala for a couple of days. The town of 200 people is located north of Oaxaca. Took a little time to get there since the road that leads into the town was all dirt. It was worth it. The town is located in the middle of a valley that is surrounded by impressive mountains and cliffs. Pretty funny too, when I arrived in town they also were having
Oaxaca
At the mezcal festival. Tasted a lot of mezcal! one of their biggest festivals of the year. They had a band, rodeo, food, and games (soccer and basketball). You read right, they had basketball games and the dudes totally sucked. The games were well organized and the teams were playing for a championship, but man...they stunk! I felt like dominating the court. I also felt like a giant there. The locals were very short. It was a trip. Anyway, I got to hike through a river full of rocks and visited a canyon. On the way back I joined a few other tourists and a guide who were exploring one of the town's caves. It was cool. From there I headed off to the waterfalls. WOW! They were awesome! I got to swim at the bottom of one of the falls. You could feel the force of the water...powerfull and really cold. For my final excursion, I decided to mountain bike to the top of the mountains. The climb reached about 7000+ feet above sea level. I was dying on the bike. When I got there, the view was amazing. I stayed up there for a while. I enjoyed Santiago Apoala. The folks here were really friendly. Overall, my
Oaxaca
Craziness in Oaxaca! Cool party. entire trip was great. Met some really cool people and learned more about Mexico. For example, learned about different dialects that are still alive and well in the Oaxaca area. The dialects they speak are Mixteca and Zapoteca. This was news to me. The experience opened my eyes to new things and made me realize what little I know about my culture, history, and the world. Gotta keep going. Gotta keep learning. Love and miss you all. - alex
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Andrez
non-member comment
Grasshoppers ??
Grasshoppers huh?? Well if it tastes good they why not. Those places look amazing.