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Published: March 11th 2012
Wednesday:
We had a nice evening in the Zocalo....the state marimba band was playing again, but this time for dancing! Lots of couples of all ages...we watched while we ate, and then danced the last dance, before strolling back to the hotel. Unfortunately, there has been a large group of Mexican high school students staying here, and they came in around 11:00 and woke us up with their antics....and then there were explosions of some sort around 6:00am....
Thursday morning Bill got to sleep in while I got up, dressed, breakfasted, and headed off to my new school: Oaxaca International. It is small, inexpensive, and a ten minute walk away from our hotel. There are two main teachers. I was in a class with a man from Germany. My competitive side came out as I found I knew more answers than he did in most of the lessons....cheering inside my head! Despicable! School is three hours with a ten minute break.
In the afternoon, Bill and I walked to the regional museum, located in the cloisters of a church built in the 1500s. The most spectacular exhibit is of the treasures found in Tomb 7 at Monte Alban.
There is a botanical garden on the grounds visible from the terraces. We ate lunch in a small place we found behind an artisan market. The special was soup, pasta salad, quesidillas with green mole sauce, tamarindo drinks, and tortillas...for about $3.00 each! Afterwards, we strolled around and sat in the zocalo once again to people-watch.
After a nap, we headed out for a beer in the zocalo....under a full moon!
This weekend, we have tickets for the Russian State Ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet and have booked a tour to the ruins at Monte Alban.
On Friday, I had a private lesson, and made some good advances in my use of verbs...I was a few minutes late to class because I realized that I had forgotten to wear earrings, so stopped to buy some in a small market that was just opening....some of you will understand!
After lunch with Bill, I walked to the indoor market area; one of my favorite places in Mexican towns. You can literally buy anything there, including fried grasshoppers ( a speciality of the region). The sights and smells are overwhelming after awhile....This part of town is crowded and
noisy, with narrow streets and few tourists.
Time for a siesta!
Friday night turned out to be great fun, and totally unplanned. We headed out before sunset to see the interior of Santo Domingo, the most impressive church in Oaxaca. After viewing the interior, we walked out a side door and saw a stage and seating at the end of a street. We asked and were told a free contemporary dance performance would take place in an hour. We walked around the neighborhood (which, in contrast to the area by the market, has wide streets, upscale shops, and more tourists) and returned for the performance. The dancers were young and very good.
We walked back to front of the church and came across the wedding of an obviously wealthy couple, watched for a few minutes, and went for dinner at rooftop restaurant, where we could see more wedding guests arriving (the women in Oscar-worthy gowns). After dinner, we went back to watch the wedding procession leave the church, led by giant puppets of a bride and groom, traditional dancers, and a fanfare band! They proceeded down the street and off into the night.
We are now
"home" and watching the Daily Show on one of our laptops...
We walked to the main municipal market this morning after breakfast. Saturday is the big market day here, and the usual giant rabbit warren of stands was even larger than during the week. The whole market covers many blocks. We wandered for few hours, buying hats for both of us, headphones for about $2.00, and then ending up (I think I have an instinctive pull towards used clothing....) buying some used clothes...A dressy jacket for the ballet tonight for Lynn and a linen shirt for Bill, along with some t-shirts and a sweater. The prices were between 5 and 35 pesos or $.60 to $2.70. People were crowded around the bins, and were both shocked and amused to see me looking along side them!
I spent the next few hours trying to solve the problem with my memory card in the camera...about $50 (mostly wasted) later, problem solved....
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Carol McClain
non-member comment
language school
I attended Spanish classes in '98 at a school on Alcalá. You had to walk through a restaurant and then across a patio to reach the entrance. It was run by a woman named Yvonne. Is it the same one as yours? Qué aprendas mucho! Carol Love your photos!