More on Oaxaca

Oaxaca is a pretty cool city, and we spent a good amount of time here before we headed off to the Sierra Norte mountains this weekend. There are quite a few tourists but we can see why that is warranted.

One of the big draws to Oaxaca are the towns in the surrounding area known as the Valles Centrales. There are 3 valleys that intersect here, and there are a number of towns and villages in the valley you can easily access from Oaxaca. Many of the villages are known for a particular craft such as pottery, weaving, or wood carving.

This past Thursday we visited two of them. We took a Colectivo, which is basically a bus you wave down at the side of the road (you can do the same with basically any bus... they stop a lot). The first was called Santo Tomas Jalieza and it is a weaving village. ¨Village¨ is a generous term because when we got there we were amazed at how small it was. There was nothing more than a tiny town center where women worked on old fashioned looms and sold some of their goods. There were some farms... plenty of livestock and chickens roaming about. We were the only tourists in town, children gave us some pretty good stares as we walked around (two blindingly white people is a rarity there). Kendra made a few purchases there, but moreso it was an amazing experience to see such a small town surrounded by desert with the mountains in the background.

We walked the 1.5 miles from Santo Tomas down the main road to San Martin. We also stopped along the way and had an awesome lunch at a restaurant made out of wooden posts (Rich´s Enchiladas on the right).

San Martin is a bit bigger but is still very small. They are known for a particular wood craft known as Abrijales which are these super brightly colored fantasy creatures that are particularly psychedelic in nature (hmmm). You can find them in markets all over Mexico, but they originate here, and people sell them from their homes. We visited a few of these people´s homes where they literally had hundreds of carvings for you to look at. Very very cool. Check out the ¨Our Pictures¨ link.

On Friday, Kendra took a relaxation day while Rich took a cooking class. The class was with an Australian chef (pictured) who specialized in Oaxacan cooking (Oaxaca is famous for food). Funny enough, nobody else signed up for the class so it ended up being only Rich. Funnier, the kitchen was double booked so the class moved to his apartment. Nonetheless, Rich cooked up Mexican Sopes and Mole Coloradito (Oaxaca is famous for Mole) as well as Horacho, the most amazing drink he´s ever had (and no alcohol even!). It was a really cool experience and we´re looking forward to impressing you all when we get back.

All in all, we spent a bit more time in Oaxaca than we expected, but with good reason. We hiked all weekend (see the next post) and can´t wait to hit the beach!