Oaxaca, Mexico
I spent the day walking around town mostly. Zoe, my host accompanied me to the Zocalo from her place – around 10-15 minutes walk.
The whole centro is turned into camp city with teachers on strike! Every year the teachers go on strike and nobody knows how long they go for each time. In 2006, they had a strike for 7 months. The local residents get annoyed of course, because the blockades cause so much inconvenience. For travelers like me, we don’t get to see and appreciate how beautiful the centro really looks like without the tents.The sad thing is, of course, kids don’t get to go to school while teachers are on strike. Everybody loses.
Zocalo, Cathedral and Sto. Domingo
At the moment, it is not a very pretty sight. The whole of zocalo is covered with tents and vendor stalls. I checked the interior of the cathedral. After having seen the churches of Puebla, it’s not that impressive anymore. The Sto. Domingo Church felt the same, inside looks like the interior of an Italian duomo, but not as impressive as the best ones I’ve already seen in Puebla.
Markets
I think the most impressive part of Oaxaca are the local markets. There are three major markets that I visited. Mercado Benito Juarez is a dry goods, spices and vegetables market. I got to try chapolines – grasshopper. Really yummy!
Mercado Nobiembre 20 is a food market, a local food court basically. A good place to try local dishes. Following Zoe’s request, I had tlayuda for lunch. It looked like a massive pizza! It’s a thin massive tortilla, with a refried black beans as paste for the base, topped with squash flower, mushrooms, tomatoes, avocado, onion and Oaxacan stringy cheese. Mercado De Artesanias is full of crafts as well as clothing and accessories. I bought a bright orange dress for M$200.
Calles (Streets)
The streets were lined with vendors selling colorful dresses and crafts, not too different from the ones I saw in De Artesanias. Just outside the mercado is a street lined with chocolate shops. These are pure chocolcate made from cacao beans. Zoe made me a hot cuppa and they’re just heavenly!
Along the way, I saw a bookstore with English books. Came across this book “A Woman’s Journey” Sorecer’s Crossing. In the dedication page, it said “With affection to all who journey into the unknown.” I had goosebumps. I’ve been referring to my novel writing and my travel as a ‘journey into the unknown’.
I didn’t explore further as I have a few more days in Oaxaca. I can take my time. This is slow travel. Plenty more conversations with Zoe.
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