Random things to enjoy about Oaxaca.
Santo Domingo, the museum-monastery in Oaxaca. I had forgotten how exquisite an experience it is, to go inside. You see it every day as you wander but I didn´t make time to go in til the last day here. It´s made of green-gold-yellow stone, 2 stories, and it's huge, it spreads out over a half mile in all directions, with several open courtyards and many long, tall, wide hallways which end in open-air windows that look out across the Oaxacan town to the mountains that encircle the large valley. The monastery is surrounded by large walled-in grounds which are planted in geometric plant designs that match the cactusy prairies nearby, it is a sort of botanical garden but it has stonework which is sculptural, too, including narrow zigzags of water and this time of year because of the day of the dead some are filled with yellow and orange marigolds which streak in cool lines across the land. So looking from the large open windows you see this colored landscape then the yellow stone walls then the distant green mountains and the blue sky. Meanwhile, there is a breathlike wind that is very softly blowing in or out of the stone monastery depending on the temperatures. it´s very cool. The rooms are filled with archaeologic treasures including gold, turquoise, pearl and seashell necklaces found at Monte Alban, and other artworks too. Sometimes the hallways meet in arching domes and-or stairways, and there they have traced the carved lines in the stone, with thick gold lines and they look pretty great.
Another thing that´s great about Oaxaca is adventures that can happen to you on local buses. If you start at the bus stations, you get a seat, then as the bus winds on the Periferico around the downtown towards whatever small town you are headed to, people get on, and on, and on. I like Oaxaca because there are modern young folks, stylish career ladies, and a fair sprinkling of tiny old ladies who like to wear green plaid aprons and have a grey and black woven rebozo wrapped and piled around their heads. Many times they have long braids wound around their heads too with turquoise purple or rose colored ribbons. Oaxaca also has a fair number of people in from the outlying areas to sell stuff to tourists and they wear bright costumes which they are often quite proud of. One lady was trying to sell me a gorgeous dress like hers for about $250 dollars, not able to, and she said, ´look at mine, it lasts, it is 12 years old and it still looks new.´she was right. One very unusual thing that happened to us on a bus is we were riding back from Teotitlan on a bus that originated in the large market town of Tlacolula, which is a huge market on Sundays. Our bus had a number of small wellbehaved mexican kids on it, american kids would have been going nuts. Anyway soon we heard a squawk like a parrot and I thought, wow these kids are talented. It was answered by another squawk. and a third. Turns out that on the bus were 3 different small parrotlike birds, we could not see any of them and they were being brought home from market in paper lunch bags. Sad for the parrots and ecology but how interesting for us! squawk squawk squawk. Hope they all got home ok.
We´ve been really enjoying Oaxacan food as before. When we were last here in about 2004, it was quite the culinary destination! After the political upheaval some restaurants have changed hands and one of the old haute cuisine-nouvelle cuisine places, El Naranjo, got sold.So we went there last night and had the following: a little appetizer plate for free of two fresh sauces one made from chiles cooked in a molcajete, one of ´pasilla chiles from the state of mexico´as opposed to ´pasilla chiles of oaxaca´, and a dish of butter with sour orange peel and chile, to dip with either tortillas or bread or crackers. then we had a soup of ´cream of baby corn with cilantro´ layered next to a soup of ´cream of chile poblano and epazote´. Then we had meatballs made of minced beef and pork in a bed of ´charred tomato and chipotle´sauce. Then we had fresh pasta with squash blossoms, goat cheese,mushrooms, herbs and fire roatsted chiles. Then we had red mole with roast pork, the sauce included chiles, peanuts, herbs, sesame and other flavors. We were quite pleased. The new owner is a gringo from Connecticut, Andrew Peterson, we wish him quite well. Earlier that same day for lunch, at the Flor de Oaxaca restaurant which is more traditional, we had had ´chile pasilla filled with picadito which is minced meat, that day it was chicken, another day we´d had beef, quite sweet and savory, the chiles were coated with fluffy batter and then lay in a savory orange-red tomato sauce that was really good, and also one of our favorite moles, Coloradito, which is a lighter not choclatey red savory sauce, over chicken. We were offered great desserts but kept being too full. We drank limonada with gas, bubbly water, and for dinner in addition to water, mostly margaritas since red wine is too costly here compared to its quality.
Another big treat here is music, and unorganized or unexpected musicians. A few nights ago after eating at another great restaurant, Los Pacos, we had come down to the Zocalo and found ourselves dancing romantically with a bunch of other tourists on a street corner of the Zocalo, to this marimba band that includes 3 marimba players, a percussionist, wind instruments and a few others, playing caribbean-cuban-mexican oldies. So last night, a similar band was set up on the bandstand in the center of the square, with rows and rows of chairs holding locals listening, and the first two rows of chairs contained older couples who got up to 1920s hits and did elegant foxtrots when it was slow and elegant latin dancing when the music bridged into something a little more rhythmical. it was very nice to see these older couples with their affection and practiced dance steps.
There are a few marimba players who set up their 2 marimbas in the daytime and move counterclockwise around the square one direction, taking tips, and there is a saxophone player who is very good who plays The Girl from Ipanema and I left my heart in San Freancisco and moves clockwise, at the same time. At times there are some other odder musicians. There is a guy in dreds who plays bongos. There are a few guitarists playing peruvian-charango hits. There are one or two traditional Zapotec musicians playing solo guitar or solo horn then singing the same tune, both offkey whether it is on the wind instrument or singing. Those we could pass on. There are some mariachis, always welcome but not as much fun for us as the marimbas. And every now and then, some street vendor of some kind has to let steam out of whatever machine he has, and it lets off a big loud steam whistle. This is often happening at the same time as loud fireworks explode. Sometimes also there is an accordion player. Right now at this very moment I am writing email in the Zocalo and the marimba guys have set up again. Also they are building a small stage in the street for another unclear event. The big festivities ended 2 days ago for day of the dead and it´s only Tuesday, and the foxtrot dancing was on MOnday, so we don´t know. Oh yeah, Saturday night also there was a pretty good violinist playing beethoven on a stage in the square with a sort of moog synthesizer playing the rest of the orchestra.
Some other good food we had includes one day, we took the 2nd class bus out to Teotitlan del Valle, the rug town, for 12 pesos out, 8 pesos back. The bus stops at the highway where taxis come by and take you into town for 5 pesos per person. Some of the taxis are tuk-tuks. Anyway we recommend going to Teotitlan this way, because if you go with a guide or a tour, the rugs cost 20 to 40% more due to the kickbacks that go to our guide. Whereas we went to see our favorite rugmaker, Bug in A Rug on Hidalgo, and we were able to negotiate prices down about 10% for no guide, and 10% more for paying in cash. Anyway, while in this town we ate at the very overpriced but very good small restaurange, Tlamanalli, which is run by some women in town. There we had the lightest, flakiest blue corn tortilla chips i have ever imagined, browned on a clay comal, with extremely fresh guacamole and salsa made from the local tasty savory roasted chiles. We had soup made with local herbs and a small fresh quesadilla with squash blossoms and epazote, and some kind of tasty tamales du jour.
Craig is wanting us to go out for our last meal here, meanwhile I will just say one more thing about hot chocolate. We used to always get hot chocolate frothed with hot milk, but lately I have a taste for ´chocolate de agua´which is made with water instead. So it is freshly ground chocolate, cinnamon, almonds and sugar, frothed up with water. Such a great clean dark chocolate flavor. Amazing.
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