Oaxaca

We arrived in Oaxaca yesterday and spent the evening walking around. A cold front came in when it got dark and we had to put on a sweater and a fleece, and Luke wore his winter cap! It had to be below 60F, a cold that we haven't been used to. we were sorry to hear about the weather in Fairbanks.... -40F!

We checked into our $20 per night posada and walked to the zocolo to listen to music and find some food. The zocolo had been the scene of recent protests and strikes for the past 6 months. Teachers were striking over low pay, schools were closed for months, and many people wanted the governor of Oaxaca to resign. A few months ago, the feds came in and started arresting protesters and cleared the area out. Now the area is open up again the only signs of the unrest are the police monitoring the entry to the zocolo and the grafitti, much of which has been painted over with primer. There are few tourists, the cafe's are kind of dead, but it seems like the tourists are starting to roll back in, especially the budget travellers, because our hotel is full. It looks like some of the fancier hotels are pretty empty though. Later that night we got some hot chocolate at one of the chocolate 'factories', Oaxaca is renowned for its chocolate and mole. We'll have to figure out how to carry a few kilos back (we need to get rid of some books).

Today we awoke to warmer weather (75F or so) and we got fresh fruit and Oaxaca cheese for breakfast. We walked around looking at the colonial architecture and peaking in the art galleries. For lunch we walked around looking for el menu del dia. We have been trying to eat our main meal of the day around 2pm, like the Mexicans do, and then eat a lighter snack around 8pm. Today we found a place with a 4 course meal for $4.50. We had a pork chop in mole verde and chicken enchiladas in mole coloradito. They were good, but honestly, we really liked the Puebla mole poblano alot better.

We checked out the large church, Santa Domingo, which was beautiful, covered in 3 dimensional golden designs and murals. We wanted to check out the botanical gardens, but they were charging $5 per person, way over our budget!

So we decided to head to a town 20 minutes outside of town called El Tule, to find the so-called largest biomass....a 2000-3000 year old tree. We hopped on a collectivo to El Tule, instead of going to the regular bus station to catch the bus......big mistake. It took about an hour to get there because the collectivo would wait at each corner to fill the bus up. Finally we arrived saw the large tree, which was pretty amazing and actually nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city. On the return, we took the regular bus which was alot faster.

Tonight we'll probably hit the chocolate shops again for hot chocolate, we love the smell of the chocolate when we walk past! Tomorrow we'll probably go to the nearby ruins of Monte Alban and head to the artisans market. We would love to buy one of the Oaxacan rugs, but not sure we can really afford one, but they sure are beautiful.