Oaxaca - The Adventures

Oct 31, 2024

6 min read

After being able to voice my concerns and getting support, I felt much better, but knew that dealing with this host would still be a struggle (if you don’t know what I’m talking about here - read this po st to get caught up). So, after probably day 2 or 3 my gut feeling led me to the decision of not dealing with the BS. The first solution was to get a hotel in the center of town for my days off. That gave me a chance to have a nicer, cozier room, freedom to enter and exit whenever I wanted, and to be closer into town to see all the cool sites. And so the adventures began!

Here are little snippets of all the things I got to do and places I got to see.

First night in downtown Yoli and Andrés showed me around. I got to:

Try pan de yema (egg yolk bread) which is typical for the Dia de Muertos celebrations
Drink a big ol cup of fresh horchata de tuna (tuna = cactus fruit) at the market
See a calenda (local parade to celebrate birthdays, weddings, anything really)
Accidentally get locked into the main church for a short mass (lol)
And visit a nice rooftop bar for some Mezcal (boo for having to leave early!)

Tlacolula Market

Imagine a small town that transforms into a giant market every Sunday. That’s basically what Tlacolula is all about. When Vicky offered to go with me I was all about it! What better than to visit a local market with a local? Since we were going to meet up in the town, she gave me instructions on where to get a collective taxi in Oaxaca for the 45 minute journey to Tlacolula. (FYI: I have a whole little excerpt on the adventure of taxis and buses in Mexico. See this post.) Once we found each other, she took me through the market and showed me the various specialties.

Chapulines: fried grasshoppers with salt and lime - yum! Seriously!
Barbacoa Tacos: are always better when they’re from the market! TASTY!!
Tejate: also called “the drink of the gods”, it’s made of corn, cacao, cacao flowers, mamey seeds, and ash. The fat of the cacao tends to float on top so even though it doesn’t look very great, it sure does taste good!
Huitlacoche: the fungus that grows on corn. Tastes like a mixture of mushrooms and squash and is a specialyty in Oaxaca. It's really good!
Maggots: sold alive to be fried and salted as a snack. I did not try these...
Tons of artisanal products like wooden spoons, chocolate forthers, embroidered clothes, metates, woven baskets and bags, etc.

I had an absolute blast and would encourage anyone and everyone to visit the Tlacolula market!!

El Tule

Of course I had to find a bike ride to go on! There was a short and sweet one going to El Tule, a town about 10km outside of Oaxaca City. It was a perfect day for a ride, and awesome to see a decent cycle track we could use all the way to our destination and back!

El Tule is known for one specific thing: its tree. The tree is over 2’000 years old, has the largest girth of any tree in the world, is 42 m tall, and is celebrated by the town once a year. We happened to be there on the day of said celebration, which was super neat! That meant lots of music, colors, dancing, and people being allowed to touch this sacred tree (you’re usually not allowed to touch it)

Monte Alban

This is an archeological site just outside of downtown Oaxaca. It’s about 2’000m above sea level and was founded by the Zacatecas. The entire area has multiple temples and plazas that were used to sacrifice animals, a field where a specific ball sport was played, carvings of different rituals, etc. Of this entire area only about 20% is still original.

Alebrijes

These are magical, fantastical, wooden creatures that are painted in bright colors. They are said to have come from a dream/vision someone fell into after an accident, and then started carving the figures he had seen in his dreams. These figures are usually combined with the different meanings of animals in the Zapotec, Mixtec, and Mayan calenders. Every person has one of each of the following

a spiritual animal "tonas": is determined by your birth date and guides you while you're alive
a protector "nahuales": is determined by your birth year and supports you in the after life

The wood used for Alebrijes traditionally stems from the Copal tree, which is easy to work with when not fully dried, but holds its form and becomes very firm when dried. The artisans carve the branches into the desired forms. After carving they put the pieces in the sun to dry out fully before sanding them. During the drying process, cracks form, which they fill with smaller pieces of wood. The next step is to submerge the pieces in gasoline and pesticide to keep the varmints away. Finally, the pieces are painted with a wood dust and glue mix to prevent them from ever cracking again. Once dried and sanded once again, the intricate painting process begins. I got to visit two different Alebrije workshops and wow - absolutely stunning! I jokingly asked one of the owners if she takes interns. Because I could totally see myself painting fantastical figurines with bright colors and cool patterns for hours on end! Who knows, maybe I’ll have to go back to Oaxaca to do something like that for a little while :)

Barro Negro

Another local craft that is super interesting: black pottery. On one of the tours I did we got to see a quick demonstration on how the pots are made out of the clay, why they turn black, and the beautiful designs they make. And for all my potter friends: they still use a manual pottery wheel! Here's the general process:

Day 1: make a tall form
Day 3: form into a short, rounded vase using a crescent moon shaped tool and water
Day 6: the neck is added with the help of a piece of leather to form it nicely
Day 10-12: detail work on the outside to smoothen the surface
Day 13-15: decorate with engravings
Day 23-25: clay is dry. A quartz stone is used to rub the clay to make it shiny after firing. (this method was discovered in 1952)
Final step: the pots are fired
- Pots that have been made shiny are fired for 8hrs. These are unable to hold water and are not heat resistant, so their only use is decorative.
- Pots that are not rubbed with the quartz stone are fired for 15hrs. These can be used for cooking, to hold Mezcal, etc.

Mezcal

Saying that Oaxacans are proud of their Mezcal is an understatement. It's part of their culture, their life, their identity. I got to visit a small, woman owned Mezcaleria in the Oaxacan countryside. The process is quite interesting and takes about one month to complete (not counting the growing of the plants, of course):

Once the Agave has reached the required age, the leaves are cut off so that only the piña/center remains.
The pina is cooked for 5-8 days. Imagine a stone base where the fire is, then a huge pile of piñas covered by dried leaves.
Once cooked, the piñas are then separated by variety and crushed, by hand and a wooden stick, until just the fibers remain
The fibers are then put into barrels and filled with water to ferment.
Once fermentation is complete (you can actually feel how warm the fibers are), the destillation process begins.

Hierve el Agua

This is another absolutely magical place in Mexico that I am so extremely grateful I got to visit. Hierve el Augau literally means boiling water. Why would a place be called this? Well, the water you see collecting in some of the natural pools is literally bubbling as if the water was boiling. The water is, however, not hot at all. It’s about 20C and has a super high mineral content. This is also why the location gets its second name of “petrified waterfalls”. From afar, yes. It absolutely does look like a petrified waterfall! However, it’s actually just sediment from the mineral water that has been trickling over the edge of a cliff for thousands of years - kind of like a giant stalactite. Absolutely stunning and soooo relaxing to swim in the natural pools with a view of the Oaxacan countryside!

Artsy Stuff

I also visited some cool museums and took a ton of pictures of shapes, patterns, and colors that stood out to me. So here's a little collection of those, as well as the names of the museums I visited: