So for the most part, Airbnb has worked out for us, albeit a few odd picks here and there. Our accommodation in Oaxaca was just that. After another night bus and with both of us having colds and feeling pretty under the weather, we were happy to arrive in our little self-contained room with private balcony. Our hosts however were a little odd and clearly extremely religious, thankfully we managed to keep ourselves to ourselves and had little interaction. After crashing for a few hours we ventured out in search of Libres Tlayudas, a very local kitchen serving the most amazing, and huge, tlayudas. Tlayudas are basically folded Mexican pizzas - beans, salsa, stringy cheese and shit loads of chorizo. Delicious but it won’t do any favours for my waist. The main square, Plaza Zocalo is well worth a visit. It is full of balloon venders, artisanal stalls, kids blowing bubbles, and is lined with cute cafes that overflow at lunch time or as when we visited, full of people taking shelter when the skies decided to open. We decided to wait out the downpour in Mercado Benito Juarez, a wonderful market full of everything you could imagine. Whole stalls dedicated to honey, fresh herbs, leather repair shops, piñata stands, fresh fruit sellers, juice makers, meat counters, and the list goes on. It was easy to see why Oaxaca is the foodie capital of Mexico! Boulenc, cafe extraordinaire, a quirky hipster hangout with double height ceilings, crumbly walls, and reclaimed furniture. A ‘let’s use these old doors for tables’ type of place serving the most delicious pastries, and hands down THE best pancakes of my life. We loved it so much we didn't want to leave and broke all our rules by returning the next morning to pick up some pastries! The Museo de la Culturas de Oaxaca is set in the most spectacular and authentically restored convent surrounded by botanical gardens, so not only are the interiors beautiful, the glimpses of the gardens through the open archways are green and luscious, and transport you away from the city. The convent also serves as a museum for Oaxacan culture and takes you through the years, showing indigenous pottery, jewellery, and other interesting artefacts such as the star of the show, a human skull overlaid with turquoise. There were also some bizarrely contemporary looking sculptures that were in fact hundreds of years old - most specifically a rat that looked like it had crawled straight out of Banksy’s sketchbook! To be honest, we sailed through the museum rooms and were more interested by the details of the building. A must visit! The Templo de Santo Domingo next to the cultural centre is probably one of the most beautiful churches we have visited so far, and we have visited A LOT so that's saying something! Almost every square centimetre inside is decorated in 3D relief with the most intricate gilt designs. The bright sun shining through the lightly stained glass-windows made the altar look utterly radiant. After a bit of research, it became clear that El Destilado was up there in the top ten restaurants list of Oaxaca. It did not disappoint! Lots of local produce, excellent service and the setting was laid back and easy going. Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca was also a great pit-stop, although only half of the gallery was open when we visited. Their main exhibition was a great Polke works on paper show but the rest of the space is usually dedicated to the work of local artists. Oaxaca’s main export, and locally consumed product, is Mezcal. It’s rapidly growing in popularity around the world’s hipster cocktail bars, after many years of decline in Mexico. Mezcal is produced exclusively in Oaxaca although it doesn’t have regional protection yet. We were keen to do a tour of some Mezcal palenques but had left it all a bit last minute to join one. However after a late night last minute visit to Mezcalogia Bar, we were put in touch with Zak, a barman and Mexcal enthusiast from San Francisco. At 9am the next day we set off to the countryside in a small hire car with Zak, his friend, and his friend’s girlfriend. In Mexico mezcal is drunk neat. So starting with four shots at 11am set a precedent for the day. The first producer we visited, on the side of the main road, exemplified how simple and primitive mezcal production still is. All Mezcal is made by hand, including cutting the agave with a machete, then crushing it with a stone mill pulled by a donkey. Before this the agaves are roasted whole in the ground for 24 hours using hot rocks heated by local wood, all buried under a mound of soil. There are many different varieties of agave which, like grapes, produce different tasting mezcal, including rare wild varieties which require riding on horseback into the mountains to collect. As a bonus stop we also popped in to a local pottery shop which also doubled as a pulque producer (fermented agave juice, a strange cross between beer and wine). The sweet, sugary agave pulp is then distilled in homemade copper stills also heated by wood fires. The distillate is collected in dirty plastic containers and stored in large plastic bins around the barn. The final product when bottled is worth big money in the US, but certainly tastes best straight from the vat in a smoke filled Mexican barn with views of the surrounding hills.. We were finally invited for lunch cooked by the grandmother of the producer which was a perfect end to the day. Feeling a little tipsy after our morning session and ready to call it a day by the time we got back to town, we powered through and visited the Arte Textile gallery which is well worth a stop if you are into fabrics and textiles. When we visited, there was a wonderful exhibition by a Danish artist called Trine Ellitsgaard who has called Oaxaca home for the past 20 years and uses her work to investigate age old techniques and present them in a contemporary light. I fell in love with her work! Have a google!
On the good instruction of Zack, we headed to Origen for an early dinner. Once again, a culinary delight, if not a little on the overpriced side. But it was the first time we ate dried caterpillars and cactus, both of which were delicious and made great companions! Comments are closed.
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AuthorsRob & Charlie's travelling adventures on their long journey back to London after living in Hong Kong. Four continents, twelve countries, lots of experiences. Archives
July 2017
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Robert Ware & Charlotte Nunn |