February 27
We slept in…yum and had planned to see another house this morning but found out it would be this afternoon. We watched the Michael Cohen hearing aka circus with the Republicans on a rant and we were thoroughly disgusted by the antics.
We walked to Biblioteca to see if there was a good map that defined the various neighborhoods to help us in our real estate search. No such luck. We came back home and had lunch from various items in the refrigerator. Ron had a plate of veggies and I made myself a tossed salad with some leftover quinoa salad.
We were picked up at 3:00 and went to the Independencia neighborhood which is further away from centro than we desire. It is 2 km from the Jardin-dead center of centro. The house was enormous, palatial actually, with six bedrooms each with its own bathroom. The master suite had two showers, one with a bathtub. The double sized lot afforded room for a lovely open courtyard with an abundance of plants and flowers. The view from the roof was expansive, probably 240-260 degrees. The owners kept it dark inside and had heavy classic Mexican furniture. It also had a casita in the back. It would make a great B and B but we are not interested in starting a business.
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We then left for a house in centro. When we arrived, our agent got a text from the showing agent that she couldn’t find her keys…sounds like an agent I wouldn’t want to have. We waited for about 15 minutes with no luck. When we got home, we looked at it online and it was gorgeous with a beautiful courtyard planted with tall cylindrical cacti and other plants. Every window was tall with arches at the top. Two bedrooms and two baths with a small kitchen that could be expanded. It looked like what we want but it also looked like the stairs to the upper level was outside which is common here. I was glad we didn’t see it since we are not ready to buy. I have a feeling I would have loved it. We think it would be best to live here for six months and do a thorough job of learning more about the area, the neighborhoods and what it is like to live here permanently.
We started packing for departure before dinner, another ‘let’s eat up what’s in the refrigerator’ meal. We had leftover spaghetti and tossed salad and cleaned out the refrigerator. I wiped down the shelves as another couple arrives for a three-month stay on Friday.
After watching the News Hour we headed upstairs to bathe since we are getting up at 0 stupid 30…5:20.
Feb 28
We popped right out of bed when the alarm went off. After dressing we went downstairs and made some toast and packed some fruit to eat at the airport. Nicolas, true to form, was right on time. It took 90 minutes to get to the airport in Queretaro. The toll road pay station is usually backed up with only two stations open. Many semi-trucks were backed up. This added about 30 minutes to the trip. No problem because Nicolas had told us we needed to leave by 6:00 to make our schedule.
We got checked in quickly, went through security in a flash and found an espresso bar. We got coffee and sat down to our breakfast of toast. The flight was quick, really quick, to Mexico City…just enough time to be served a bottle of water and a small pack of two cookies. No time for picking up trash.
The airport in Mexico City is huge but then so is Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world. Unfortunately, we had a four-hour wait. There was an earlier flight but we had checked bags. So, we grabbed a coffee and muffin and I worked on the blog while Ron read a novel.
Time for lunch so we chose a Mexican place and it was pretty bad. I ordered a mushroom and cheese omelet thinking that would be hard to mess up. Surprise, I think the cheese was plastic because it didn’t melt. Strange. I pulled it out of the omelet and ate a few more bites and gave up. Ron’s lunch wasn’t any better.
We arrived in Oaxaca after another short flight of one hour. We took a group taxi to town which was a short 10-15 minute ride. We were the first drop off at an air bnb (private one bedroom apartment). It is quite spacious and well furnished so no complaints at $42 a night! We are about six to eight blocks from centro.
We were both tired, so we rested briefly then headed out to get some items for tomorrow’s breakfast. I was a bit shocked at the differences from SMA. It is a much bigger city, it is hotter here although it is about 5000 ft in elevation, it is louder with honking horns, cars do not yield to pedestrians and the streets outside the World Heritage core are dirtier. It is more crowded with many street vendors who daily set up stalls in the street and on the sidewalks.
We walked up to the zocalo which is a large square and it was a bit overwhelming with an abundance of large sidewalk cafes, roving vendors some who held a huge bouquet of mylar balloons making me wonder how they stayed earthbound, more stalls with every description of textiles, tables of cheap jewelry with fake strands of amber and turquoise. It was a bit disconcerting probably because I was tired and it was an assault to my senses.
We popped into a crafts gallery and found some black pottery but it paled in comparison to what we had seen in SMA. We are hopeful that when we go to the village where it is made we will find a higher quality since we passed up buying the pottery we had seen in SMA.
We use Trip Advisor to find restaurants that have recommendations. Not too far from our bnb was a recommended restaurant, so we headed there only to discover they were closed for a private event. It was late so we stopped at a place across the street. No English was spoken here and the menu was in Spanish. We took a wild guess. Ron had a luncheon meat sandwich and I had a veggie sandwich with a patty made of scrambled eggs, diced potatoes and onion, a carb lover’s dream on thick crusty bread. Off to home and to bed early as we were both exhausted.
March 1
Up and off in search of breakfast. We found another recommend place and had muffins, Americano and latte for breakfast. We wandered in the centro area before going to Santo Domingo Church. Originally build in the late 1500’s it is a massive Baroque structure. The Dominican sect of monks took a vow of poverty but the church was anything but modest. The gold leaf throughout was amazing as was the décor. 
In the adjacent monastery was an incredible history museum. The displays exhibit the history and cultures of Oaxaca. My favorite part was the remains of an excavated tomb of a former Mixtec king at Monte Alban. Monte Alban is a pre-Hispanic site located a few miles out of town and we will visit it on Monday with a guide. The tomb contained the remains of the king and his sacrificed servants, with a stash of beautifully worked silver, turquoise, coral, jade, amber, pearls, finely carved bone, crystal goblets, and a skull covered in turquoise. The tomb was discovered in 1932. We could not see the entire museum due to its size. Our feet could not handle any more standing on stone surfaces.
We walked around looking for a grocery store that might have some soy milk and found a tiny organic outdoor market. I saw two women who looked like ex-pats and asked if they knew a place to buy soy milk. Off we went in search of the recommended place. We couldn’t find it so we popped into a local eatery and I had a salad and Ron had an omelet. We inquired about the grocery store and quickly found it two blocks away. We found soy milk, the kind with 15 ingredients but decided it was our only choice. I bought apple juice as a back up in case the soy milk was really bad.
In the heat of the day the best thing to do is what the locals do; have a siesta. Back to the room we went and got in bed in our undies, turned on the floor fan, read and dozed. Earlier we had asked the housekeeper if she could do a small load of laundry for us. We brought limited clothing so we need to do laundry every five days. Just as we were dozing off there was a knock on the door and it was the housekeeper delivering our laundry.
After Ron had a call with our son David, we headed to the textile museum. On the way, I felt someone trying to open my backpack purse. I swirled around a grabbed a young woman by her arm and asked if she was trying to get into my purse. She didn’t speak English, acted innocent but I discovered the zipper was open about six inches.
I have traveled to over 60 countries, most of them are developing countries and I have visited crowded cities with over 14 million people. Only once has someone tried to steal my purse and that was in downtown Portland at dusk in front of St Mary’s High School for girls. HA! When traveling I always use a backpack purse to keep my hands free. I buy purses that are difficult to open without using two hands because I think of it as a safety feature. I also am always aware of my surroundings and the potential for a problem with theft. But here we were in broad daylight on a busy street. This particular purse as another safety feature that I have not bothered to use: I can lock the zippers by attaching the zipper tab to a ring, literally making it impossible to do what this woman had just done. Time to employ that device! I also later removed all the money and credit cards from my wallet and put them in a secret zippered compartment which cannot be accessed without fully opening the purse then finding the compartment and unzipping it. The purse would have to be stolen. I also learned here that a knife is sometimes used to slit the bottom of the purse while on your back and the contents would fall out. So that was my incentive to move the money out of my wallet. It is my responsibility to take care and not invite trouble.
The textile museum was a two-room display of wonderful cotton fabrics, all hand woven and dyed with natural dyes. One room had an exhibit of indigo fabrics used in a ceremonial dance. There was a video playing showing about eight characters in costumes on high stilts swirling through Brooklyn NY. It was absolutely spellbinding even without any information to explain it.
Afterward, we sat in the zocalo and watched life in Oaxaca. There were hundreds of people, mostly locals playing with their children, buying and selling goods, young couples courting, and multiple stands where you can get your shoes shined. The square is lined with restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating. It is a busy place from early morning to late at night.
We revisited the restaurant we tried to get into last night and had a rooftop seat eating two different mole dishes. Negro mole is a wonderful sauce with a dark chocolate base and multiple spices. How could we go wrong with a sauce like that? Oaxaca is apparently famous for its mole.
On the way home, we lucked out and ran into a fiesta de quince años (fiesta of the 15th year). This is widely celebrated in Mexico and it is to mark the transition from childhood to womanhood. It is somewhat akin to a debutante ball in the US. Here is it celebrated in the street with a loud brass band playing so people can parade and dance down the street, two large puppets on stilts dance in the lead and another man carries a large balloon-like thing that he twirls while dancing. The balloon gives the name of the girl and announces that it is her 15th birthday. We watched for two blocks then the white Hummer stretch limo showed up to fetch the family members. It was a joyous occasion and we felt very lucky to have witnessed the cultural event. It is happenings like this that make traveling so incredibly rewarding.
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