Oaxaca, Mexico

Two blocks from we stayed in the Historic District is the Cathedral Santa Domingo . An ornate old monastery and church from the 1570's that combines baroque and gothic beautifully.  The old convent now houses the Cultural Center and botanical gardens.  A very pretty, peaceful church, the light through the stained glass windows was particularly pretty.

We weaved our way down the streets through the very busy Zocola.  Yet another protest or demonstration of some kind was occuring. This one had quite an audience, more organised with chairs and microphones.

We found the local food market 20 Noviembre which was amazing.  A burrow of food stalls selling local chocolate and cheeses, some crickets or course.  Stalls displaying various meats packed the place, next to each stall was a hot grill where you were able to pick the meat you wanted and they cooked it on the grill with onions, chili's and vegetables. Smoke filled the corridor as did the people packed in trying to get their lunch.  Further along were tiny kitchens offering tamales, enchilades and mole's.  We picked one and i left it to El Grinch to order a platter consisting of two moles (Mole Negro and another i cannot recall that was red in color!), Oaxacan cheese and grilled meats.  That, the warm tortilla's and a couple of cold beers made for an amazing lunch for about 100 peso's for both of us.

For dessert we stopped by an icecream parlor called Popeyes that El Grinch would go to as a child (he has not been back to Oaxaca as an adult).  We shared a delicious flat sugary cone filled with a scoop of chocolate and and another scoop of milk chocolate and nuts. Yum.  Delicious but definitely best shared. 

After a quick siesta back at the hotel and we were back on the streets of Oaxaca City.  Neither of us had done too much research into the nightlife, earlier on in the afternoon we were handed a flyer for a bar on the west side of town so we decided to go there. It offered two for one Mexcal's..

En route, we took pictures of the only decent graffiti that i had seen in Oaxaca.  Some stenciling of Mexican hero's and characters.  The city is full of graffiti but it's mostly terrible reckless tagging done by inexperienced teens, not skilled or artful at all.  It was also not usual to see protest rhetoric sprayed across the front of beautifully painted buildings. Very harsh and stark. 

We also stumbled on a great little jazz bar La Nueva Babel. As the band played in a tiny space the size of a bread box, we sat upstairs on cushions and drank yet more Paloma's.  It was so close and comfy i felt like we were at a private party at a friends home with the stereo playing.

It was strange to see people smoking inside, the global smoking ban has not reached Oaxaca yet, although El Grinch tells me it has reached Mexico City. Much to his lament, he is a smoker. A smoker with morals who could not bare it if i even picked up a cigarette.

A couple of blocks up was Cafe Tamarind. Another tiny space, this time starker add bright with cubes for chairs, local art for sale on the walls. I guess it looked pretty young and hip yet the crowd was very diverse. Many of us sat around on the cubes trying not to look at each other. The music was good, electronica but the place lacked atmosphere and after a beer we moved on.

On to Fandango. A backpackers favorite (although it was also busy with locals) that is also a rock music venue. Last night a band played English/American rock covers, the one that stuck in my mind was 'Another Brick In The Wall'.   The drinks were cheap, hence the American backpackers drinking margarita's made with rank tequila.  I mock but 10 years ago that was me in Asia, it bought back memories. It wasn't a bad bar at all but after a couple of drinks we decided to see what else Oaxaca had to offer.

We ended up at a bar called La Divinia. No backpackers here, all locals head banging to another cover band, this time it's Nirvana.  It had more of an atmosphere, people are really rocking out in the next room where the band is on an elevated stage.  It was around 2am and El Grinch decides to get me a litre of Paloma (tequila with grapefruit soda), he a litre of something wicked and coke.  It was definitely the straw that broke the camels back. I recall us sneaking the drinks out of the bar and staggering up the street towards the hotel, after spotting a couple of intimidating gardi (police) further up the street we opt for ditching them instead of hiding. Probably a good thing. We both woke with wicked hangover's this morning.