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Published: April 1st 2014
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Hello again. Condensed blog since I have to rewrite the one I wrote but lost. We arrived in Oaxaca at 8am after 14 hours through the mountains. Arriving it looked like another big city that we prob wouldnt like. We were wrong. Oaxaca which we were still having trouble pronouncing was laid back and like all places we have been to very family orientated. They also love their churches and they are on every corner.
The next day we decided to get out of the city. There were heaps of places offering tours out to the Mezcal distillaries. Mezcal is kind of the brother of Tequila but from the Oaxaca area. Fun fact true Tequila bottles will never contain a worm, Mezcal will. We were told we could get a collectivo from out the front of the stadium. We walked over there and spent ages looking round for the white/silver vans we were used to flagging down. We eventually figured out that Oaxaca collectivo are different in that they are just 4 door cabs with the name of the town they go to on the windscreen. We knew we had to get to Matatlan for the Mezcal but could not
see any cabs with thst name. We eventually flagged down one with Mitlar which we knew was close to Matatlan. With our now well advanced espanol, and hand gestures, we figured we could get to one town where we would have to change to another collectivo to finish the trip. Not completely sure thats what we interpreted but we jumped in anyway. We were the only ones in the cab but by the time we got to the place we had to swap there were 4 of us in the back and 3 in the front including the crazy driver. We switched collectivos and ended up in Matatlan about an hour from the city.
It is a pretty small place with the main hwy going through lined with Mezcal shops and tastings. We dropped into one where Daz tried a few and even I had a taste of some sugar laced sweet ones. We had a good chat to the guy who was 3rd generation Mezcal maker. We headed off to explore the tiny town when the Mezcal man came cycling up to us. He offered to take us to his families Mezcal distillary which happened to be in
their back yard. It was a small place where they did everything traditionally including crushing the agave plants by a stone pulled along by a horse. It was great to get this private little tour and all his first hand knowledge. We were about to leave and he offered to take us to his disters place where they make this drink from scratching a particular plant after it has grown for 15 years. It is apparently very hood for you, I was polite and drank half before giving to Daz who actually really liked it. Was a really good day.
That night we gound a great bar area and there was a big promotion of a rally going on. They had a great band on one street corner and an even better dj on another. We continued our Mezcal tasting although I dont think I am a fan.
We left the next day for a not so fun bus trip back to Mexico city. Apologies for the spelling mistakes. My phone cursor not working so can not go back and correct.Next stop Tequila! Adios.
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