¿Que Pasa Oaxaca?

Mexico is always on our list of places to visit. It's right next door and has amazing culture, food, cities, and nature. We've been to Mexico City, Tijuana, Ensenada and the wine region in recent years, and we've been eager to add Oaxaca to our travel list. In early fall we arranged a long weekend friends trip for David's birthday in December to take in this gastronomically renowned city in southern Mexico. We were joined by Shayna, Todd and Landon for this four day Oaxaca adventure.

Our party of five flew in on a Thursday. The trip isn't super far from Atlanta, but takes a bit of time with a layover in Mexico City. We arrived around 7pm and had enough time to run to our AirBnB and then spend the evening out on the town with drinks and late night snacks. Oaxaca is very walkable. Most of the main sites in the city are within a 15 minute walk from the city center (Zocalo). Our AirBnB was about 10 minutes northwest of Zocalo in a small compound of a couple different residences. The owner greeted us and gave us the tour and suggestions for food/drink in town. The AirBnB was Frida Kahlo themed and full of color.

Oaxaca from above.

Lots of little treatments to make the AirBnB special.

AirBnB Shrine...

It was called the "Frida Kahlo House" for a reason.

It featured a lofted hanging net for resting above the living room. Shayna is taking advantage of it.

The first evening in Zocalo we found lots of vendors for the Christmas festivities that were underway, along with a giant tree. It was very festive. We snacked on some mole tamales and elote from street carts and wandered around the atmospheric streets for a bit. Our next stop was mezcal and cocktails at Mezcalogia before grabbing a bite to eat at Don Juanito. Oaxaca is kinda famous for a few different types of food/drink; and mezcal is near the top of that list. Mezcal is basically a smoky tequila made from different agave plants native to various regions of Mexico. David isn't a fan (he doesn't love smoky-flavored food or the harsh alcohol-forward nature of mezcal), but most of the group were pretty happy with it.

Christmas tree in Zocalo.

Chicken mole tamales, Oaxacan style (steamed in banana leaves).

Colorful pedestrian street near the city center.

Mezcal cocktails.

David got a tlayuda, a regional food. Think Mexican pizza.

Friday morning we were all woken up at 6:45AM by the most confusing sound you can possibly imagine. At first we thought it was an obnoxiously loud alarm clock from a neighboring apartment. Apparently, gas trucks drive around the city delivering propane at all hours. They have a special horn they blow to let people know they're nearby. It's super annoying cross between an ice cream truck, a siren, a cow mooing, and a cell phone on vibrate. This happened every morning we stayed in Oaxaca except Sunday (ugh). Local charm, I guess!

After falling back to sleep and then gradually one-by-one waking up and showering we started our day with a quick coffee and pastry at a nearby cafe called "cafe cafe" before meeting up with some other folks for a five hour cooking class. The instructor's name was Alfonso and the business he runs is called Que Rico es Oaxaca. Alfonso is great and we'd highly recommend you book with him if you're interested in taking a cooking class in Oaxaca. The class included a trip to the nearby Sanchez Pascuas market to buy ingredients before taking a car to go to our instructors kitchen above his family's home a 15 minute drive from the city center. The experience included lots of music, mezcal, food and some time with Alfonso's lovable kooky parents.

The market was really neat, and fairly typical of markets we've been to in Latin America. There's lots of vendors selling fresh food, some stalls with prepared foods and juices and lots of interesting spices and odds and ends.

A beautiful morning in Oaxaca.

Landon enjoying a latte and some pastries to share.

At the market we were given jobs. Landon's job was to hold the onions.

Shayna helped pick some squash blossoms.

Paul's untrustworthy face left him in charge of holding tupperware.

There were tons of fresh veggies at the market!

Joining our group at the cooking class was two people visiting from New Zealand and a couple from the States (Miami and San Francisco). All four of them were very chill and fun to chat with. No one was too overpowering or bossy so deciding the menu and cooking was actually really fun. Alfonso made sure we didn't mess anything up too bad and the end result was a lot of delicious food. Our menu consisted of mole coloradito pork ribs, salsas, stuffed plantains, squash blossom huaraches, fresh tortillas, and custard for dessert. For snacks there were fried grasshoppers (another thing this part of Mexico is known for), chips and guacamole and plenty of mezcal and beer.

Adorable little garden in front of the kitchen at Alfonso's house.

Shayna and Paul getting ready to cook!

Group shot.

Alfonso knows his way around some chilies.

Mole has so many ingredients! These are just the dry spices and nuts.

David smashed plantains for about 10 minutes.

Huaraches with hand-made tortillas, Oaxacan cheese, freshly made salsa, and the squash blossoms Shayna picked out at the market.

Alfonso's parents are sandwiched between Todd and one of the New Zealanders.

Landon and Paul pretending to look busy. Paul was in charge of the custard.

Red Mole pork rib.

After the cooking class, we went back to the AirBnB for a mid-afternoon food coma siesta. Paul woke up earlier than the rest of us and took a little stroll around the neighborhood. A few blocks away was a nice old cathedral (Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad). After the rest of us woke up we went to check out a different nearby church (Templo de Santo Domingo). The church is apparently where everyone wants to get married and on Friday evenings and all day Saturday there seemed to be one wedding after another. All the weddings featured a spinning globe with the bride and groom's names and giant puppet effigies that were danced through the square and down the pedestrian street. There was music, dancing and fireworks. These were a welcome fun little discovery for us! We highly recommend you spend some time in this square; it's a great place to hang out.

Paul discovered the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad at sunset on his stroll.

Spinning globe and effigies.

Closer pictures of the effigies. We saw several weddings over the weekend and the quality really varied.

Agave plants growing in the cathedral courtyard.

Our next stop was a mezcal tasting at La Mezcaloteca. They offered a guided tasting with explanations about the mezcal production process, the different types of agave plants and the different notes you should taste in each mezcal variety. Most of their mezcal is small-batch and artisanal. The experience is a good deal for the price, especially if you're interested in learning more about mezcal without taking a day trip out to the agave fields or distilleries. David still wasn't a fan, but appreciated the experience. The mezcal flavor word of the day was "astringent."

After the tasting we made our way back through the church courtyard where we watched another wedding procession before trekking to the south of zocalo to find a hole-in-the-wall bar named La Giralda that one of Shayna's friends recommend as having great micheladas. It wasn't too far of a walk, but it was certainly in a quieter neighborhood that was non-touristy. The bar/restaurant was a lovable dive, with white plastic furniture and fluorescent lighting. Here Paul was introduced to the suero (a combination of lime juice and beer) and he was converted to the suero life for the rest of the trip. Similar to Spanish fashion, at this bar small bites of food came when you order some drinks. So after ordering our first round of drinks we were treated to tepid shrimp soup and some cut up veggies. The shrimp were very "fresh" with antennae and all still attached. David avoided, but everyone else seemed to like (or tolerate?) the soup. After the next round we were treated to some chips, peanuts and eventually even some rolled taquitos. Not a bad deal for what was essentially $1.25 beers!

While at the bar, a few of us decided to use the restroom... which was a mistake. No toilet seats, no running water and lots of stuff was being stored in the bathrooms. Shayna perhaps had the best experience. She found two buckets of water in her bathroom and since the sink wasn't working she assumed the bucket was for washing her hands. She came back to the table, hands wet with bucket water in somewhat of a panic over what she instantly decided was a bad idea. 😅

After leaving the bar we were ready for some more food, and we saw there was tlayuda place near by. It turned out to just be a street cart, but a very popular one named Tlayudas de la Chinita that is only open after 9PM. Despite being in a very quiet neighborhood, the cart was bustling with locals. We waited and got a ginormous tlayuda to share. Worth the wait and a fun off-the-beaten-path experience! Finally we walked the 25 minutes or so back to our AirBnb. There were still ongoing little festivities around the city center, including some teenagers who had set up a pinata in the street just a few blocks from our AirBnb. We settled in for some sleep, ready for two more days of exploring the city.

Tasting glass with an agave plant map.

Mezcaloteca bottle... there were lots of tasting experiences around Oaxaca.

Another wedding procession after dark, complete with a full band.

This one with 50% more fireworks.

Lots of people hanging out in the plaza on a Friday night.

The main water feature in Zocalo.

Drinks and shrimp soup at La Giralda.

Street art

The tlayuda line!

It was a well-oiled assembly line.

Well worth the wait! That's one giant tlayuda cut in half and each piece folded in half again.

Long Weekend in England & Scotland

In early November, I (David) took a four-day-weekend jaunt across the pond to visit my friend Thomas who lives in England. The trip was a bit of a whirlwind with half a day in Manchester, 1.5 days in Edinburgh and another half day in London at the end. I'm generally not a fan of crossing oceans for less than a week's vacation - but this was a special situation - the flight was free (skymiles sale) and I was more focused on visiting with a friend than really accomplishing any sightseeing....so overall I would do something like this again if the opportunity presented itself.

First stop - Manchester! We arrived in the early afternoon, checked into our hotel and wandered around the city center. The Christmas Market had just begun that weekend so there were lots of people meandering around. I really wish we did these in America! There are tons of food vendors with chocolate, booze, and typical Christmas foods. There are also a lot of different Christmas decorations and events to enjoy.

Manchester itself seems like an interesting city. It really grew up in the late 1800s so there are lots of buildings from that time period - not unlike Chicago or Pittsburgh - but with a small older core that you can't see in America. That evening we grabbed dinner and visited a bunch of bars in the gay district. There's one main drag that hosted more than a dozen bars that people seemed to move between. We spent a good while talking with a group of English 20-somethings that were camp counselors in West Virginia. Pretty random. All-in-all a fun Saturday evening/afternoon.

The Christmas Market in Manchester. The weather is typically British.

Inside joke store name... ;) It burns!

Old pub in central Manchester.

Manchester Cathedral...not too impressive on the outside.

Lots of cool late 19th century buildings.

Probably the best meal of my trip...fried gnocchi! I took the opportunity to eat lots of mushrooms since Paul wasn't around.

A bar in Manchester. English bars tend to have a cool cozy interior theme.

The next morning we got up and set out to catch our train to Edinburgh. Unfortunately, our train was cancelled! In all my travels I think this is probably the first time that's ever happened. Luckily, there was another train heading to Edinburgh from Manchester's other train station (about 1 mile away) in a couple hours. We made our way to the that station, stopping for a late breakfast along the way at an Italian cafe nestled in a department store.

The train ride to Edinburgh passed through some lovely English and Scottish countryside. The route passed just east of the esteemed Lake Country - with it's hills and pastures. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours. Since the previous train was cancelled, this train started very full. There weren't enough seats for everyone and a group of middle-aged "Spice Girls" didn't have a seat for about the first hour. They parked themselves on their luggage near the doors and were about the most stereotypical drunk British women you could imagine - heavy northern English accents, short skirts, spilled Prosecco, and lot of profanity. It was like watching a live episode of the Kardashians. Delightful!

We arrived in Edinburgh later than expected, so by the time we reached our hotel (the historic Waldorf Astoria which Thomas was very excited to visit) it was already nearly dark (which happens at this time of year and at this latitude at around 4:15 PM). It was Sunday evening, drizzly, and cold so we wandered around the city center for a bit and found dinner at nice cozy pub/restaurant before turning in for the evening.

Bucolic England near the Lake Country.

Meals in Edinburgh mostly consisted of large pieces of meat (chicken here).

The central Edinburgh train station built in a bit of a gully in the city center.

Lots of cute Scottish streets.

The next morning we wandered around some of the same areas, but this time with more lighting, and visited the free National Museum of Scotland - a hulking confusing mass of buildings regaling visitors with all the highs and lows of Scottish life since prehistoric times. The rooftop terrace provides excellent views over the city center, obscured only by the persistent freezing rain.

Edinburgh Castle from afar.

Victorian stuff abounds.

Breakfast of champions (oatmeal)!

More cute Georgian style streets.

Interesting alleyways galore.

Cathedral in Edinburgh near the castle.

A splash of color is always appreciated in gloomy climes.

Edinburgh from atop the National Museum of Scotland.

This just looked very British to me.

Whiskey!

The local coca-cola replacement. Tasted like Inca-Cola in Peru too (bubble gum).

Fall in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is a really delightful city. The streets are quaint and full of charm. There are tons of pubs and restaurants and the mass scale of the Georgian architecture makes this city fairly unique. The people here were also very friendly and helpful. I'd recommend a visit in the summer though, when you have less of a chance of it being rainy and freezing cold.

The next morning we set out early again for our train trip back to London. This trip, since it wasn't cut into two, was a very long 4.5 hours on a train. There were some interesting sights along the way though - old English towns, the North Sea and more countryside. When we returned to London, we made our way back to Thomas's flat where we hung out for a bit before going to dinner and calling it a night.

Last meal in London - seafood risotto.

Peace out UK - I'm sure we'll meet again...just maybe not in winter.