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.