Showing posts with label Landon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Landon. Show all posts

Friday, February 28, 2020

Adios Oaxaca! Pyramids, Market Stroll, and Lucha Libre

After spending several days in Oaxaca, for our last full day most of our time was spent outside the city at two nearby attractions - the historic ruins of Monte Alban, and the huge Sunday market in Tlacolula.

We started the day around the kitchen table with some great pastries our friends picked up from Pan: AM. We had arranged with our AirBnB owner to get a driver for the day. It is possible to get to the ruins and the market by mini-bus, but they're in opposite directions and we wanted the flexibility and convenience that comes with a personal driver. Our driver, Hector, was great. He didn't speak English, but we managed and even had some conversations about sports teams in Atlanta.

We went straight to the ruins before the day warmed up too much. There's no shade, and we read the morning is the best time to go, and we second that advice. Monte Alban is a vast complex of ruins, a UNESCO world heritage site built by the Zapotec people and occupied from about 500BCE to 500CE. We spent a couple of hours walking around the impressive ruins.

The courtyard of our AirBnB, complete with weird tree.
A ballcourt. Those aren't bleachers, but were originally smooth surfaces the ball would hit.
The vast central yard.
View towards Oaxaca. Unfortunately it was hazy.
Carvings in the rock.
More carvings on the observatory, showing vanquished enemies.
The giant set of stairs up to the south platform.
Panoramic view from the top of the south platform.
Cactus and a pyramid!
A large pyramid on top of the south platform.
Looking out across the courtyard form the north platform.
Our group!
Tree pose with a tree. I know, original.

After leaving Monte Alban, Hector took us to the Tlacolula Sunday market, about an hour drive to the east. It's a huge market that takes over the whole center of the city, with blocks and blocks of clothes, food, and a variety of goods for sale. Most of the market is just set up along the streets, but the permanent installation in the middle has a large hall famous for smoked meats. Hector took us to his favorite little stall, where we all had goat soup and beer.

David looking out at the agave fields.
Part of the market, which stretched on an on and on.
The church in the center of town, right next to the covered market.
The inside of the church was over the top.
Part of the covered market. Pick some meat, grill it up!
Colorful flags and a decorative goat head.
Paul with goat soup!
David at lunch.
The place for chilis!
Selling veggies in the market.
Smoky hall of grilled meat.

After eating and walking around for a while, we went back to the car and started back toward Oaxaca. On the way we made a brief stop in the small but cute center of El Tule. There's not much to it, but it's a pleasant stop and has a ginormous tree, which some claim is the widest tree on earth.


The center of El Tule, with the church and the huge tree on the left.

Back in Oaxaca we relaxed for a bit then visited the inside of the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzman. This is the church that we saw a lot of weddings in front of the past few days. The inside is impressive, with loads of intricate decoration. Next we continued walking south of the central district to grab a drink before our big plans for the night - a lucha libre match! We found a hole in the wall bar called Bony's and enjoyed a couple of drinks.

Inside Santo Domingo.
Dramatic lighting from the windows.
The main dome.
A neat building - Oaxaca has a few gems like this.
Owl art.
Looks like Cuba!
Drinks at Bony's!

We made our way to San Francisco arena, a small indoor facility on the south side of the city center for some good old fashioned Mexican wrestling. We saw the event advertised on posters around town. Lucha libre is over-the-top, scripted wrestling. We were surprised how much the wrestlers went in to the audience - at one point a whole row of people in seats was taken out by a wrestler being thrown out of the ring! We went to lucha libre in Mexico city, which was very different. In Oaxaca it was a smaller affair but with a lot of audience interaction, while in Mexico city it was in a giant arena and was more like watching a game. Lucha libre is definitely an interesting cultural experience.

They had 6-packs of beer for sale. Of course we got one.
There was an over-the-top gay wrestler named Rasputin, who was teamed up with a police wrestler. They won!
The crowd watching the wrestling.

We had to leave a bit early from lucha libre to walk to our dinner reservations at Origen. We had a really good meal here, probably our second favorite place in Oaxaca behind Los Danzantes. Great high-end Mexican food and excellent service. We ended the busy day with a leisurely walk back to our Airbnb.

A delicious cocktail.
Lots of delicious fancy-looking food.
Duck mole dish.
Super fancy dessert.
A cool door on our walk home.
After a short night of sleep, we woke up before dawn to go to the airport, and bid farewell to Oaxaca. We hope we'll be back to Mexico soon!

Flying over volcanoes!
The outskirts of Mexico City.
Flying over more cool geography.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Sabado Gigante en Oaxaca

After a great first day in Oaxaca, on Saturday we had another adventure-packed day. Paul took a short walk just after sunrise, and then we all went for some breakfast chilaquiles before hitting up several markets. Oaxaca is full of markets of all types and sizes.

Sunrise from in front of our AirBnB.
The streets are quiet in the morning - perfect for appreciating the architecture.
Street art.
More great sunrise lighting.
Breakfast drink!
David at breakfast.
The mercado Benito Juarez and mercado 20 de Noviembre are right next to each other and feature everything from produce to Santa pinatas.

Leaving the markets, we walked around a bit, passing through Zocalo and the cathedral, before going to the Textile museum. It's a small, free museum with a couple of exhibits and interesting architecture. Definitely worth a quick stop.

Zocalo during the day.
Inside the main cathedral of Oaxaca.
The textile museum has a neat courtyard.
Exhibits in the textile museum.

Next we split up, with our friends going shopping, while we spent a couple hours in the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. It's an impressive museum housed in the former Dominican convent of Santo Domingo. There's a bit of everything: interesting historic architecture, exhibits from various time periods, and great views out across the botanical gardens and the plaza of Santo Domingo.

Exterior hallways in the old convent.
An old map on display in the convent's former library.
View to the courtyard.
An impressive jade mask.
Botox? Bee sting?
The view out over the botanical garden.
Cool breezes through the arches of the museum.
Looking out over the plaza.
Another wedding!
Drunk last supper?
David catching bubbles in the museum courtyard (they were floating in from the wedding outside).

We met back up with our friends for some snacks and drink at Los Danzantes, a restaurant a few blocks from the museum. It was excellent; one of our favorites from the trip. It's a cool indoor/outdoor space in a historic building with upscale food and drinks. After we had a couple of paletas on the street and stopped by an Artisan market to do some shopping.

Octopus at Los Danzantes.
Fresh watermelon salad.
Trying a local beer.
The impressive dining area.
Popeye's paletas!
Happy paleta Paul.

We made our way back to the AirBnB for a siesta, before going out for the evening. On our way to Flor de Lupulo, a small brewery a few blocks away, we stumbled across Oaxaca brewing. It's new and very small. We stopped in for a drink and it was great. They only had four beers on tap but they were all good. We continued down the street and had another beer at Flor de Lupulo before walking to our dinner reservations at Casa Oaxaca. It was good, but seemed to be coasting on its reputation as one of Oaxaca's better restaurants. We finished the night with excellent cocktails at the stylish Selva, the upstairs bar of Los Donzantes.

The beers at Oaxaca brewing.
Magic mushroom street art.
Some decent beers at Flor de Lupulo.


An appetizer at Casa Oaxaca with grasshoppers, ants, and agave worms.

The next blog post will cover our last day - a trip outside of Oaxaca to the ruins of Monte Alban and  a stop at the giant market in Tlacolula.