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Mountain Biking on the Tequila Trail near Oaxaca, Mexico.[/caption]
I love Mexico. There, I’ve said it. I love the people, the landscapes, the food (oh, the food!), the history, the pace of life, the cities… I could go on.
One place, in particular, for which I have a special fondness is Oaxaca. One of
our fabulous mountain biking adventures explores the state of Oaxaca, taking you high up into the beautiful Sierra Norte mountains, but it’s Oaxaca City itself that I’d like to focus on, to share with you a splendid day I had there, just going with the flow and taking in everything this gorgeous city has to offer.
Oaxaca City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is fantastic because it means that the beautiful, multi-coloured, graceful, Colonial buildings will be preserved for us and future generations to enjoy.
Early morning in the city is a special time. I strolled through the streets at my own pace; admiring, thinking before, as if by the flick of a switch, the city bursts into life, with traffic, people, carts everywhere. On my first morning in Oaxaca City I was intrigued by the elusive little bird that kept tweeting tenaciously on the corner outside our hotel – much to the amusement of my husband, who pointed out that it was the pedestrian crossing signal. I did feel slightly stupid; but how nice to be led safely across the road by the chirps of a [mechanical] bird than the usual non-descript beeping heard in most other cities!
Oaxaca is world-renowned for its fabulous cuisine, and breakfast menus in the city’s many cafés and restaurants are replete with local specialities such as tamal, omelette oaxaqueño and, of course, delicious corn-based hot chocolate.
We chose a café on el Zócalo, one of the main squares in the city, and sat down to enjoy a breakfast of champions, with a side order of people watching.
Every time I come to Mexico I’m touched by the care with which even the simplest dishes are prepared. The food doesn’t need to be fancy – although Oaxaca City does do fancy, but we’ll come to that later – because the ingredients are so good and it’s cooked so well, with all the little salsas and garnishes, that it just tastes fantastic and is a joy to eat.
A big part of life in these sorts of squares are the street vendors. Almost every square inch of real estate in the square is taken up by someone selling something: clothes, souvenirs, shoe-shining, and lots and lots of colourful inflatable objects. Inflatable toys on wheels, inflatable cartoon characters, unidentified inflatable objects (UIOs), and the old favourite, the balloon. The Oaxaqueños seem to be crazy about helium-filled toys and balloons, possibly because they are absolutely mad for a good party and love celebrating loudly and wildly, which we were to experience in all its glory that evening!
When we could no longer claim to be ‘finishing our drinks’ we reluctantly left our people-watching post and headed off for a bit of culture and retail therapy. We stopped first at the Mercado Benito Juarez, situated just behind Zócalo, which is largely a food market, but also has local art products and general souvenirs. There’s plenty of fresh fish, fruit and veg, sweets, and poultry which, if you’re not of a strong constitution, might best be avoided. If you’re looking for traditional, high quality arts and crafts, this isn’t the place. There are many other shops in the city that will cater to your tastes, such as an amazing little gallery we stumbled upon, called Javier Servin, where they made the most exquisitely designed and crafted ceramics. Perhaps it’s a good thing that airlines have such stringent baggage allowances.
All that walking and shopping really works up an appetite, so our next goal was to find somewhere for lunch. There’s almost too many choices in Oaxaca, but we opted for a little place near the Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, where we had some lovely tacos and salad. Since we were so close, it seemed rude not to make a visit to the Church of Santo Domingo, perhaps Oaxaca City’s most lavish cathedral, which was once a monastery, but now forms part of the cultural fabric of the city, along with the museum and Ethno-botanic gardens. Run by the Dominicans, you can take a guided tour of the cathedral or simply admire the work that must have gone into creating the grand interior and exterior of the church, and what’s required to maintain it in such a way.
Oaxaca is a great city in which to just walk around. You don’t have to have a great purpose, although there are plenty of things to see and do, and there’s always something going on, like the coffee festival or the festival of local Oaxacan arts and crafts.
Festivals and celebrating are a large part of Oaxacan culture and they love any excuse to break out the fireworks!This we discovered during dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Los Danzantes, which specialises in traditional Oaxacan dishes with some modern international twists, and has an open roof so that you can watch the fireworks over your rosemary-scented crème brulée (highly recommended)!
On stepping out of Loz Danzantes after a fabulous meal and onto the main pedestrian precinct, we were almost blind-sided by an enormous papier mâché bride and groom who were leading a long procession making its way loudly down the street. This was just the first in a conveyor belt of weddings pouring out of the churches and cathedrals, each more elaborate and with more fireworks and musicians than the last. I did say that the people of Oaxaca loved to party, and what better reason for celebration than a wedding?!
After dodging fireworks and brass bands, we eventually followed the last procession towards our hotel, giving silent thanks when they headed off in the opposite direction at the last second (we were pretty tired). It was certainly a very happy way to round off a day in Oaxaca City and served, rather aptly, to reaffirm my love of Mexico.
If you’d like to experience the wonder of Mexico for yourself,
join us in October on our magnificent mountain biking adventure in Oaxaca! Catherine Shearer, co-owner and operations director H&I Adventures. This blog originally appeared on H&I's blog here. .
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Mountain Biking on the Tequila Trail near Oaxaca, Mexico.[/caption]