Oaxaca : Our Guelaguetza experience

---

We travelled from Mexico City’s main bus station to Oaxaca (pronounced ‘wah hak ah’) using an ADO first class bus (430 pesos each). The bus was surprisingly comfortable and even had a toilet on board ! We arrived at dawn and strolled down to the zocola hoping to find somewhere open for a cup of coffee. There was hardly anyone around and the place was lovely and peaceful.

We had booked a room at El Quijote (550 pesos per night) but couldn’t check in till 12pm, so we dropped off our packs, now only 5 hours to wait 😞 !! We found somewhere to have breakfast and both ordered Americano breakfasts. We then went exploring, admiring the lovely colonial buildings and vibrant colours.

Luckily for us, Fiesta Guelaguetza was in full flow so there was a fantastic festival feeling in the air 😊 I've uploaded some mini vids so you get the idea, sorry about the quality, it's the website encoding. We ate at heaps of great restaurants one of which served an awesome ‘house salad’ for 65 pesos and was absolutely huge! I was craving salad and this dish was just what I needed 😊 Oaxaca is famous for it’s special sauce ‘mole’ (no, it’s not the little furry creature with bad eyesight 😊), it is a thick chocolatey sauce made from loads of ingredients and Chad decided that he was going to give it a go so ordered ‘pollo con negro mole’ (see photo attached) but I’m not sure if he will order it again ! I think it is an acquired taste to be honest. We loved that when you order a beer all the restaurants bring out free chilli nuts, bread or even chilli vegetables 😊

There are heaps of things to do in Oaxaca - shopping at many of the fantastic markets, day trips to local villages, museums, visit one of the 27 churches or just sit and people watch. We actually spent quite a bit of time in various churches but our favourite was Iglesia de Santo Domingo - it is the most beautiful church I have ever been to. It was started in the 1550s by Dominican monks and finished a century later. It is a great example of the Baroque art form, a completely over the top expression of religious feeling, which looks amazing! If we were to get married again, but in a church, it would be here 😱

We’ve noticed on this trip that we have spent a lot of time in churches, away from the hussle and bussle of daily life which is totally different to when we travelled around South East Asia where we took refuge in shopping malls and enjoyed the lovely air conditioning !

We went on a day trip to Monte Alban, the ruins with a view 😊 Around 500 bc, the people now known as the Zapotecs levelled the top of a mountain and built this ceremonial centre, if you're interested in more info then click the link in the name, if not just check out our pics.

After 5 days of festive fun, we hear the beach calling 😊 Now only a notorious bus ride through the mountains stands between us and our next destination, Puerto Escondido.

---

Comments

[Victor]

very nice
wow. I want to go there someday. my mouth was watering when I saw the food.... hahaha. good work Chad. keep posting..

[Heather]

food
well i would loose a lot of weight ,as i don't fancy any of the food you are eating ,good luck xx