One Constant Fiesta

We are in our favorite Mexican town, Oaxaca, for one day. Tonight at midnight we take the all night bus to Veracruz, on the gulf coast. But today was a great day, as most days in Oaxaca are.

Friday morning at 1am we took the 3 1/2 hour flight to Guadalajara, where we had a 10 your layover before our flight to Oaxaca. So we took a cab into town to check it out. Downtowan Guadalajara is very nice. Lots of pedestrian streets, nice churches and public buildings. The great Mexican painter, Orozco, has some amazing murals here. In one building, he painted all over the ceiling and the walls and it looks like a Mexican version of the Sistine chapel. But his paintings are pretty rough...lots of revolutionary themes, conquistadors, military conquests, etc. But his art is pretty amazing.

From there we went to Talaquepaque, an artsy-fartsy town nearby, kind of like the Mexican version of Carmel. But getting there turned out to be dramatic. We were told where to get the bus, but none came. Then a guy standing nearby told us where to go to get the fast bus, but we kind of messed up on his instructions and were standing in the wrong place for a half hour. We asked four different people and got four different answers. Finally we found the spot and as Amy was running to it, BAM!!!! she tripped over a curb and did a face plant on a metal fender of a horse drawn buggy that was right in front. Very lucky for her, no major injury except a huge purple and blue bruise on her chin.

So Telaquepaque was anticlimatic after that, but it´s a nice town and has some good food.

So we finally got to Oaxaca last night and after checking in at our favorite hotel, Las Golondrinas, headed down to the Zocalo, where there is always something happening. On the way there, we were walking by a gallery and heard the beautiful strains of a guitar trio. Indeed, there was one inside as there was an opening of a local artist´s exhibition. The art was so so, but the music was wonderful. Classic Mexican songs and great guitar playing.

The zocalo is now all decorated for Christmas. There are literally thousands of poinsetia plants in the square. They are making large creches that have all sorts of interesting characters in them. The market, a block south of the zocalo is loaded with bright flashing Christmas lights. We haven´t found any of the wonderfully kitchy Virgin of Guadalupe flashing light things like last year, but we´re still looking. This is kitch to its max...the Virgin of Guadalupe on hard paper, surrounded by three rows of flashing lights...blue, red and yellow. It´s so bloody awful, it´s fantastic. We bought one last year and it was the most admired of all our Christmas decorations.

For dinner we went to our favorite restaurant, La Catredral. We were the ONLY customers for dinner, although this is one of the best places to eat in Oaxaca...not too many tourists in town now. This is what we had...a Cesar salad, made right at our table. The waiter must have taken 10 minutes to make it and it had all the ingredients, olive oil, anchovies, garlic, basalmic vinegar and many other things. I had this wonderful roast pig that was cooked to perfection and it came with some potatoes in a kind of curry sauce. Amy had chile relleno picadillo...peppers with minced meat. I also had a Herredura reposado tequila and we had two margaritas. All of this for a grand total of about $38!! This is fancy eating in Oaxaca and the price is definitely right.

Today we decided to go cheap on the food, so we headed to the big local market. We went to a stall in the middle of the market, one that has been there for many years. The proprietress inherited it from her mom, Candita. Amy and I split a Tlayuda, a kind of Mexican pizza...a huge flour tortilla that is grilled and on top of it they put refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes and any kind of meat. It was really good....

Okay, so I see Amy is writing about our food experiences and the quincenieras and all the good stuff we saw today, so I won´t repeat too much. But tonight we went to a folkloric dance where some local dancers in full costume danced all sorts of classic Oaxacan dances. After each dance they throw food into the audience, small bags of bread and candy that is a tradition here. The music was a lot of fun, that good old slightly off key oompa-pa type stuff. It´s pure joy to listen to.

So we are off tonight at midnight for the all night bus ride to Veracruz. It´s a first class bus, which are wonderful. Much, much more comfortable then an airplane ride.