Dorming in Oaxaca

Trip Start Oct 20, 2008
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Trip End Jun 11, 2009


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Flag of Mexico  , Central Mexico and Gulf Coast,
Sunday, January 11, 2009

We are ready to leave Oaxaca (pronounce Wahaca) tonite after 3 days taking in the sights of the city and surrounding area.  Oaxaca is a beautiful city, it feels a little like Buenos Aires.  Lots of great Mexican food and beautiful colonial buildings.  We hired bikes yesterday and went for a (very long!) cycle around some neighbouring villages to Oaxaca.  In El Tule we saw what they claim to be the worlds biggest tree with a diameter of over 14 metres.  In another town we saw the most ornate church yet (and we've seen a few!).  It was in the process of restoration, paid for we were told by one of the workers, by the Mexican President.  The same guy told us to feel free to wander up the stairs to the choir gallery.  Nice to see the church from a height but not worth the 20 pesos another guy chased us for!  Wouldn't have had a problem contributing to the church renovation except we thought the president was doing that!  Our dosh was obviosly swiftly pocketed!  Last night we went to see some traditional dance called Guelaguetza.

This morning we had a cookery class, learning to make some of the great dishes of Mexico and this area in particular.  It was great to get the wee secrets into dishes like guacamole and we got to see tortillas magically appear from simple grains of maize into a dough simply by being fed through a machine.  God they love their tortillas here, better than our spud!  Everything is deep fat fried too...not always so great!  We followed our massive meal with some grasshoppers (chaupalines) from the market.  Actually quite tasty but just the thought of what I was eating meant one was plenty!

So last night we finally had our first dorm experience!  Our room was booked for the second night so we had to share a dorm with 4 other guys, all in bunks.  Dec thought it might be a new way to save money, I wasn't so convinced!  We also thought we'd stay out late and come in tipsy so we'd hardly notice but we ended up so tired from our bike trek that we rolled in at the crazy hour of 10pm!  The experience actually wouldn't have been too bad as most of the lads didn't show in until 6ish this morn, just one dude snored like crazy all night.  Declan was cracking up, I awoke to hear him shouting at him in the middle of the night, but there was no waking him, he has vowed never again!  So if you hear of us dorming it...you will know things are getting tight!
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