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Published: August 26th 2010
Oaxaca: The Zocolo 1
Showing some of the banners from the recent protestsJust like the trip from Mexico City to Puebla, the journey down to Oaxaca was on a modern, comfortable bus, again with the drop down TVs subjecting you to the films you don't want to watch. We feared that the Big snore, who had joined us on our trip from Mexico City, might follow us. But fortunately it was not to be.
The drive down to Oaxaca is through a very green landscape (in August anyway) which includes amongst other things palm tree forests and a large cactus forest. These are in rolling hills, on a well maintained highway for some of the way, but as we approached Oaxaca city it became clear that road maintenance is less of a priority in Oaxaca state.
On arrival in Oaxaca we quickly and easily transfered to a taxi. This time we booked a Hotel in advance. Again, we took the advice of reviews in Trip Advisor and this time we were not disappointed. The Hotel Azucenas is up on what could be classed as the outer part of town - although its only a few minutes walk down to the Zocolo and the rest of town. Since it is on a
slight hill, it has a view from the communal terrace, over some of Oaxaca and its suburbs and hills beyond. It is a nice, friendly small Hotel with 10 good sized rooms and an unusual honour-system of filling out your own bill if you want a beer or anything else from the well stocked fridge. The building is pretty, with a little fountain stocked with Turtles being the centrepiece of the little courtyard. It also offers an optional breakfast, which costs about USD4 extra but is worth it if you have time - unless you want something cooked.
Our main reason for visiting Oaxaca was to improve our Spanish and that was going to take up most of our weekday time. But since we arrived on a Saturday, we had a little time to explore the town, before we went back to School.
Since we had arrived late afternoon, our first visit was to Oaxaca's Zocolo, to check out a potential candidate restaurant for dinner. When we arrived there was a union rally ongoing, with impassioned speeches from the leaders being watched by a few people on the 40 or so chairs in front of the stage and
Oaxaca: The Zocolo 3
View down one of the streets leading away from the Zocolo observed by many more all around the Zocalo. The previous month had seen some violent clashes between the police and protesters in the Zocolo and some of the banners from that were draped over some of the Zocolo's arches. Politics and a clear socialist leaning appeared to be more in evidence in Oaxaca City and State that we had noticed in Puebla or Mexico City.
Politics aside, the Oaxaca Zocolo is a hub of activity and there is always something going on. It seems to be a real town centre where people come to congregate in the evening. There are lots of street sellers selling food, large quantities of balloons, locally crafted toys, clothes, jewellery and so on. There are also street performers, magicians and musicians - so entertainment aplenty if that is what you are looking for. Although there is plenty of entertainment in simply just watching.the world go by.
There are a number of restaurants in the Zocalo. They have a variety of types of cuisine, but this being Oaxaca most of them headline Oaxacena specialities. Depending on the season these can include grasshoppers, worms and mole. Unlike the first two, the latter isn't animal but
rather a sauce based cuisine which can, but doesn't have to, feature chocolate as its base, often combining chilli, garlic, onions, nuts and other herbs and spices. It may seem a bit weird to have a chocolate-based sauce on a main dish, but a good mole can be very tasty.
The Zocolo restaurants had reasonable interpretations of Mexican and Oaxacan food, but just like in Puebla, we found better places out in the side streets of Oaxaca. One of the notables was Las Quince Letras which was a fairly basic looking restaurant in terms of decor, but served the most tasty Oaxaquena dishes including a Qaxacan plate that included Chillis rellenos - stuffed with tuna, meat and raisins,- plus steak and chicken Fajita in a mole sauce. I stuck with the chicken Quesadillas in a mole sauce and those were really tasty too. Plus the friendly waiter served us good sized glasses of reasonable house red wine.
The good thing about the location of our Hotel, was that we could walk off some of the eating excesses. However, the beers in the fridge that awaited our arrival, often meant that any lost calories were quickly put back on
Oaxaca: The Zocolo 5
View onto the Zocalo from one ofe arcades when we got back.
But we had come here to learn and on Monday morning we got up at 7:00am, so Felicity could have her litre of coffee before we left for the school. We had chosen the Academia Vinigulaza for no other reason than it appeared first on the list on the google search for spanish schools in Oaxaca, was mentioned in lonely planet and seemed to offer small classes for a reasonable price (USD8 per hour). This school was about 20 minutes walk from the Hotel, so maybe not the most convenient choice - but at least the walk helped to wake us up before the 4 hour course began.
When we arrived we had a little test to prove how bad our Spanish really was, before being added to a class. We were officially classed as 'Intermediate' and joined a great bunch of 4 other people. David and Elena, both from the US but unrelated, had already done 5 weeks with the school. Meanwhile Juanita, originally from the US but living in a suburb of Oaxaca City for the last couple of years and Justine a fellow Aussie (like Felicity) who was escaping Pommyland (UK)
after 9 years to head back to the fatherland, plus ourselves, were new to the school.
The class was led by 'el maestro' Guillermo, who was a fun teacher and competent in English and German as well as Spanish of course. His German was useful for me as my tiny language brain kept selecting the German word when I knew the Spanish was required.. As well as a significant concentration on grammar and some conversation, we played some word games and learned about grocerias. These aren't, as we initially thought, anything to do with groceries, but rather rude words in Spanish. Useful, but I couldn't possibly reproduce any here.
At the break we got to know of a great café 5 minutes walk from the school which did nice strong coffees and wonderful 'postres del dia', which was usually a home cooked fruit cake such as apple and raisin or pear and ginger. For lunch after classes we also visited them for some great sandwiches. The café is run by two sisters and is called Cafeteria La Principal - see recommendations below for more details.
Every night we had a couple of hours of homework (la tarea),
Oaxaca: Our Spanish Class
Me, Felicity, Juanita, Justine, Elena and el Maestro Guillermo which we'd do on the Hotel terrace and reward ourselves with a beer from the fridge after we had completed everything.
However, we did still have some time to explore after classes were over. One day we went to the Museo Culturas Oaxaca, which is the ex convent of Santo Domingo de Guzman and is a huge building overlooking the Botanical gardens. This is very well organised with exhibits on a wide range of topics the majority of which are not specific to Oaxaca but are about the history and development of everyday aspects of life. Its the first Museum I have seen that has an Ipad as one of its library exhibits on the development of communication.
One day, for lunch, we went to the 20 Noviembre Market where you can get tasty Oaxacana food that the locals eat at very cheap prices. There are a number of markets in Oaxaca and all are worth an explore, since the market is one place that reflects real local life.
On the Thursday the taxi drivers made local life a little more cheerful by adorning their cars with bows and bunches of flowers. We found out later that
it was the taxi driver's fiesta. What they were celebrating was unclear, but apparently the Oaxacan's don't need much excuse for a Fiesta where the norm is to let off fireworks throughout the day. This was the second day in our short visit that we'd experienced all day fireworks.
One of the other colourful aspects of Oaxacan life are the travelling salesman who drive around in their trucks, cars and in some cases bicycles, advertising their wares. The water salesman drives around shouting „Agua“, whilst the tortilla salesmen might have a pre-recorded message with music that he blasts out of speakers on his car. By far the most bizarre though is the Oaxacan gas bottle salesman who has a pre-recorded message, accompanied by what sounds like the mooing of a cow. The prize for most ingenious method of advertising goes to the guy who rides around on a three wheeler bike which has a steam engine-like contraption on the front, from which he sells a steamed banana dish. He alerts his customers by tooting his steam whistle.
A great aspect of travelling in general is the various interesting people you meet. A couple of nights before we left
Oaxaca we had the pleasure of another fellow Aussie's company. Margaret was in her late 50s and travelling on her own around parts of the North and South American continents. She was arranging to meet people along her route, occassionally people she'd met via on-line dating websites. It was clear she liked to talk and we were treated to the details of her nightmare overnight bus trip from Puerto Escondido - our next destination - and rather too much information on how she reacted.to being attacked in Rio. Despite her colourful tales, we had to get to bed - but it was difficult to find a gap in Margaret's tales to politely escape. Eventually we did, but since we were going to be back in Mexico City on the same day, maybe at the same hotel, it was likely the tales would continue at a later date.
The next day we finished our spanish course and said our goodbyes to Guillermo and our course mates. The Academia Vinigulaza does a good job with finding you activities where you can practise your Spanish - such as Cooking schools, dancing, visits to local sites and so on. They will also arrange
accomodation with a local family for you, which was highly rated by those that used it. Given that we were only at the school for a week we needed more practical spanish, with less focus on the technical grammar rules - essentially 'spanish for travellers'. We made this suggestion in the review that they asked to do and hope that at some stage they may offer this.
We'd had a pretty busy 5 days and decided the next week would be more relaxed down on the Pacific Coast. We bought two minibus tickets for the winding road journey to Puerto Escondido, where we would stay for at least 7 nights
Places we have visited and can recommend Hotel:
Hotel Azucenas
Profesor Martiniano Aranda, 203, Centro Historico, Oaxaca
Restaurants:
Las Quince Letras, Abasolo 300, Centro Historico, Oaxaca
Cafeteria La Principal, Pino Suarez 504, Centro Historico, Oaxaca
Museums:
Museo Culturas Oaxaca, Calles Macedonio Alcalá y Adolfo Gurrión,
Centro Historico, Oaxaca
Language School:
Academia Vinigulaza, Abasolo 503, Centro Historico, Oaxaca
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Tom Hofmaenner
non-member comment
Oaxaca
I hope you knew you were in the middle of 'shroom country and stayed away from blue tea... not that it is bad, it just alters your mind a bit.