Today we have 2 reasons to celebrate. We made our first sentence entirely in Spanish to a waitor & we have reached 6 months of our year abroad. Its hard to believe we are half way!
For some reason the days of blogging are 3 days behind Tom's countdown app on his phone.... We're not really sure why! Tom's app counts a new day every 24 hours, regardless of time zones, so perhaps we've lost some 'days' as we've been travelling & gaining time. Or perhaps I just can't count & lost track of time, while enjoying the holiday. Hahaha
We started our day at a reasonable time of 7am & researched a good vegetarian breakfast place.
For some reason we woke up starving! Actually, that's a lie, we've never been starving, but we thought we were really hungry.
After reading reviews, Tom picked a place that does an all you can eat buffet style breakfast for 60 peso's. It was a 15 minute walk away from the hostel & would put us close to the centre of town & close to the rest of the days plans.
We had to wait till 9am before leaving, which would put us on their doorstep at 9.15am when the restaurant opened.
Santo Sabor restaurante, was the name of the breakfast buffet restaurant. We were the first ones in the door that morning, somehow arriving nearly 5 minutes early & waiting at the door until they opened.
We were let in by a waitor called Tony, who could speak really good English & was the nicest, most genuine man.
We started with coffee, pancakes & fruit, followed by a large plate of traditional Mexican breakfast food. We ate these amazing eggs that had some sort of fresh green salsa, possibly jalapenos, mixed with them. Eating chilli food for breakfast sounds pretty strange, but it wasn't at the time. The spice isn't complicated or heavy. It's fresh, simple & really refreshing.
We ate bucket loads of vegetables, fresh, pickled & chopped up in various salsas & salads. Of course we had beans & fresh warm tortillas!
The 3rd & final plate was some fresh churros & another cup of coffee.
My Mexican style cooking has been seriously inspired in the few days we've been here & I can't wait to cook for our family & friends when we return.
We got Tony's advice on local things to do & received some local knowledge about being street smart & protecting our wallets & pockets. We tipped Tony before leaving & have since then left a fantastic review about his service & the restaurant.
Our next stop was the Museum of cultures of Oaxaca, which was located right next door to the church & inside the same connecting building. Even without the astounding amounts of gold bling, this buildings bare stone & brick features are really something special. The museum is absolutely huge & the churches presence next door is never too far from sight.
We think maybe back in the day this section of building would have housed priests & other religious members of importance.
There is stained glass windows in the roof, multiple courtyards with fountains & the roof of the 2nd floor is curved between structural pillars. Some sections of roof have similar paintings depicting Jesus, angels, saints & monks looking down on you.
Our amazing Spanish went "Olah, corona dos, gracios!" We basically ordered 2 beers in the shortest way possible.
This wasn't how we started our day, but in 6 days when we arrive in Playa Del Carmen, I'm sure it will be.
This wasn't how we started our day, but in 6 days when we arrive in Playa Del Carmen, I'm sure it will be.
For some reason the days of blogging are 3 days behind Tom's countdown app on his phone.... We're not really sure why! Tom's app counts a new day every 24 hours, regardless of time zones, so perhaps we've lost some 'days' as we've been travelling & gaining time. Or perhaps I just can't count & lost track of time, while enjoying the holiday. Hahaha
We started our day at a reasonable time of 7am & researched a good vegetarian breakfast place.
For some reason we woke up starving! Actually, that's a lie, we've never been starving, but we thought we were really hungry.
After reading reviews, Tom picked a place that does an all you can eat buffet style breakfast for 60 peso's. It was a 15 minute walk away from the hostel & would put us close to the centre of town & close to the rest of the days plans.
We had to wait till 9am before leaving, which would put us on their doorstep at 9.15am when the restaurant opened.
Santo Sabor restaurante, was the name of the breakfast buffet restaurant. We were the first ones in the door that morning, somehow arriving nearly 5 minutes early & waiting at the door until they opened.
We were let in by a waitor called Tony, who could speak really good English & was the nicest, most genuine man.
We started with coffee, pancakes & fruit, followed by a large plate of traditional Mexican breakfast food. We ate these amazing eggs that had some sort of fresh green salsa, possibly jalapenos, mixed with them. Eating chilli food for breakfast sounds pretty strange, but it wasn't at the time. The spice isn't complicated or heavy. It's fresh, simple & really refreshing.
We ate bucket loads of vegetables, fresh, pickled & chopped up in various salsas & salads. Of course we had beans & fresh warm tortillas!
The 3rd & final plate was some fresh churros & another cup of coffee.
My Mexican style cooking has been seriously inspired in the few days we've been here & I can't wait to cook for our family & friends when we return.
We got Tony's advice on local things to do & received some local knowledge about being street smart & protecting our wallets & pockets. We tipped Tony before leaving & have since then left a fantastic review about his service & the restaurant.
On Tony's advice our next stop was the Templo de Santo Domingo. A massive & very famous church. Tony told us that it's where all the celebrities & important people come to get married from Mexico right down to Costa Rica. He said there's currently a 1.5 year waiting period if you want to be married here.
With 30+ churches marked on the map in Central Oaxaca, it was nice to know we were heading to one of the most memorable.
From the outside, it looked like all the other churches & cathedrals we have been seeing in Mexico. When the Spaniards conquered the Mesoamericans all those years ago, they introduced the population to Christianity & erected thousands of churches in an effort to wipe out their previous worship of pagen gods.
There's a saying in Mexico, that I've read about both Puebla City & Oaxaca, about the towns having more churches than days of the week. This does seem to be the truth!
From the outside, it looked like all the other churches & cathedrals we have been seeing in Mexico. When the Spaniards conquered the Mesoamericans all those years ago, they introduced the population to Christianity & erected thousands of churches in an effort to wipe out their previous worship of pagen gods.
There's a saying in Mexico, that I've read about both Puebla City & Oaxaca, about the towns having more churches than days of the week. This does seem to be the truth!
From the inside of this church, your first impression is whoa! Everything is covered in gold. It is the most lavish church we have been in & to our delight we can take photographs, were just not allowed to use flash. We spent about 20 minutes inside, craning our necks in the most awkward positions trying to see every inch of every surface. Arguably, the roof was the most spectacular & we had to sit down on the pews to admire it. We do love grand architecture, culture & art, but the thing that always creeps into my mind when in churches is the wealth. I can't imagine how many millions of dollars went into this church when it was initially built or how many millions have been spent over the years keeping it pristine.
Imagine how many millions of mouths, that money could of fed... I will never understand religion.
Our next stop was the Museum of cultures of Oaxaca, which was located right next door to the church & inside the same connecting building. Even without the astounding amounts of gold bling, this buildings bare stone & brick features are really something special. The museum is absolutely huge & the churches presence next door is never too far from sight.
We think maybe back in the day this section of building would have housed priests & other religious members of importance.
There is stained glass windows in the roof, multiple courtyards with fountains & the roof of the 2nd floor is curved between structural pillars. Some sections of roof have similar paintings depicting Jesus, angels, saints & monks looking down on you.
The whole building is situated within a large garden of pathways, fountains & plants.
We admired lots of the garden looking down from the 2nd storey windows. It must features cactus, succulents, bougainvilleas, frangipani trees & some decorative grass. The 2nd storey windows offered gorgeous views not only of the garden, but also the mountains & low clouds that border the town of Oaxaca.
We spent quite a few hours walking through the museum looking at the various artifacts & the few rooms of art on the lower floor.
The list of artifacts on display is huge & features the standard things like pottery, basic utensils & tools that evolve over time.
There was clothing, weapons, daily household items, animal accessories, flags, religious icons & important documents.
There wasn't a single scrap of English, which were kinda getting use to. Sometimes it's nice to have to think about the meaning of things & what their relevance or importance is.
We spent quite a few hours walking through the museum looking at the various artifacts & the few rooms of art on the lower floor.
The list of artifacts on display is huge & features the standard things like pottery, basic utensils & tools that evolve over time.
There was clothing, weapons, daily household items, animal accessories, flags, religious icons & important documents.
There wasn't a single scrap of English, which were kinda getting use to. Sometimes it's nice to have to think about the meaning of things & what their relevance or importance is.
After we finally emerged from the museum we walked through the main streets until we came to the Zocalo, which is where we ordered our beers. I picked some chairs in the sun, where we would be easily able to people watch. This was a terrible choice. Literally every 2 minutes, someone would come over to us & try to sell us a painted wooden hair brush, a scarf, a hand stitched wallet or bag, a pack of cigarettes, a poncho, a sombrero, balloons or an annoying high pitched whistle.
It was relentless & was frustrating for the both of us, more so for Tom, when we could see them only annoying us & nobody else.
It definitely bothers me less, I can't begrudge them for trying to make a living, at least they aren't begging.
We haven't really seen many beggars in Puebla or Oaxaca & who we have seen, looks to have been in better health than the beggars we recently left behind on Cape Town. While walking to the Zocalo, we did pass about 6 beggars all sitting along a busy strip of pavement.
There was 1 teenage boy who approached us outside the museum & tried to beg money, it was hard to tell if he was actually in need of it. Tom has taken a more firmer approach than me & is not likely to give any money out now unless we see people with a disability. We're slowly getting better at saying no. We're getting better at not being the targets because we look like the big sucker tourists. It's really hard though & the guilt sits on my shoulders like the weight of a real person.
We see this teenage boy again while we are drinking our beers, I feel terrible saying no, when he's asking for peso's to buy food. As Tom reminds me, the reality is he might not need it or spend the money on food.
About 10 minutes after we say no to him & he walks away, we see him across the street standing in the park talking to another boy. He has pulled a handful of peso's out of his pocket & is looking very smug. They are both laughing. It's hard to know if he's a beggar who's had a really good day or if he's a scam artist.
Once we finish our beers, we head back to the hostel, weaving our way down the main street & past about 10 blocks. We occasionally go in & out of shops selling art, souvenirs & carpet. There are some nice, woven Aztec printed mats made in Mexico. We just haven't seen "the one" that's worth buying & carting around for the next few weeks. It's so nice to be out walking again & the weather is really nice. After we arrived home we had a couple of hours of down time before getting ready to go out again. We decided to try the flavoured Sol beer. Normally in Australia, Sol is a really nice, light refreshing beer, very similar to a Corona. The flavours we brought were Sol with Limon Y Sal, Sol with Clamato El original & Sol with michelada con salsa. They were terrible! It was not refreshing at all, they were so salty & tasted like gross pickled salsa. I can't believe the locals drink these! We have come to the conclusion that they must be used for chasers after tequila, but apparently no, the locals just drink them like this.
Today marks the halfway point in our 1 year of travel. In celebration & in true Oaxaca style we go Mezcal bar hopping. Something Tom's been talking about for weeks & I've been avoiding for weeks.
Mezcal is similar to tequila. The differences are the agave they use, the process to distill it, the alcohol content & the taste.
Mezcal is known for the smoky taste & is definitely more rounded than tequila. It lacks the sharp pang of pain & dread that I normally feel when I drink tequila, though it still leaves a very warm feeling in your esophagus minutes after it has reached your stomach.
Tom loves it, no surprise though, he loves tequila.
The first bar we go to is called Tobaziche, it's a really nice place & we are led to the window seats. It's a really nice view looking out at the street, watching a huge thunderstorm roll down into the valley. The bar staff speak English & give us some recommendations & a preview sniff & taste test.
Tom orders a large shot of Mezcal & a local craft beer, I get a Mezcal cocktail with lemon & pineapple.
The Mezcal is a bit of a shock & I'm not liking it immediately. I initially can't stop thinking that it's tequila, a drink I ruined for myself before I turned 20.
After some time, some effects of the alcohol & some dilution from the melting ice, it becomes easier to drink. We accompany our drinks with some tacos & the bar staff keep our water glasses filled. It's common when drinking Mezcal to have a glass of water with fruit that you sip at the same time.
Just before we finished, the teenage boy we've already seen twice today, appears at the window & very briefly asks for money. He isn't fazed when we say no & keeps going, he appears to be on an important mission.
Bar number 2 is called El destilado, another really nice place to sit, drink Mezcal & listen to music. It's got a hipster vibe going on & we both feel extra touristy & out of place, compared to the other patrons. The bartender & owner is from LA (according to the internet) & gave us some more pointers & a few different bottles to smell. As well as having the smoky base flavour, you can order spicy or sweet. Tom went for a spicy shot, with another local craft beer & I went for a mango & sweet Mezcal daquiri.
The Mezcal in the daquiri was overpowering & there wasn't a single note of sweet that my tongue could taste. In fact it tasted more like tequila.
Tom also commented that his tasted more like tequila, but continued to sip it & luxuriously sigh afterwards, like it was refreshing water on a hot day! He would then order another shot & I got on board with the craft beers.
Our 3rd bar was called Los amantes mez caleria & it was more of a traditional hole in the wall Mezcal tasting bar.
It only exclusively sold Mezcal & had hundreds of bottles in various sizes & shapes. He also had a chart on the bar with all the agave plants & explained which ones are used to make a certain flavour & the different distilling times. One of them had what he described as a multi layered & complex taste with a distilling time of up to 55 months. We ordered a shot of this to share, it was definitely complex & my tummy did not like it. I left that one for Tom.
It was here we met 2 blonde girls, originally from New Zealand, who had both been living in London & were on a 2 week holiday in Mexico.
They really liked the country & had not had any problems or had any unpleasant feelings. After our shot was finished, we said goodbye & ran, hand in hand through the pouring rain.
While walking to the next place, we would see the teenage boy a fourth & final time. He came up behind us & tried asking for money half he heartedly, we replied no again & he buried really loudly at us, before collapsing in hysterical laughter.
La mezcalerita was the name of the last Mezcal bar we went to. By this time we were both feeling considerably sloshed. I was now finished with Mezcal & craft beer, so I ordered a corona. We were going to eat here as well but the bar was full of people & the staff were having trouble keeping up with the demand. After we waited 20 minutes to see a menu, we decided to finish our beers & head to a nearby vegetarian restaurant.
Calabacitas Tiernas was the final venue on our night out & a vegetarian/vegan restaurant we highly recommend. The food was phenomenal & there's a library attached to the restaurant. After dinner, the rain had stopped & we walked the 15 minutes home. On our way home my skirt got caught in a wire holding up a power pole & ripped an awkward, jagged chunk out of the bottom, which is unlucky.
Right near our hostel there was a man lying face down on the pavement looking very beaten & bloody. The police were already in attendance trying to calm him down & help him. We're not sure what happened to him, It didn't look like he walked in front of a car or fell of a bike, I'm sure the police will help sort him out. The police presence even in these smaller places is still seen, however its not as full on as the police force we were seeing in Mexico city.
It definitely bothers me less, I can't begrudge them for trying to make a living, at least they aren't begging.
We haven't really seen many beggars in Puebla or Oaxaca & who we have seen, looks to have been in better health than the beggars we recently left behind on Cape Town. While walking to the Zocalo, we did pass about 6 beggars all sitting along a busy strip of pavement.
There was 1 teenage boy who approached us outside the museum & tried to beg money, it was hard to tell if he was actually in need of it. Tom has taken a more firmer approach than me & is not likely to give any money out now unless we see people with a disability. We're slowly getting better at saying no. We're getting better at not being the targets because we look like the big sucker tourists. It's really hard though & the guilt sits on my shoulders like the weight of a real person.
We see this teenage boy again while we are drinking our beers, I feel terrible saying no, when he's asking for peso's to buy food. As Tom reminds me, the reality is he might not need it or spend the money on food.
About 10 minutes after we say no to him & he walks away, we see him across the street standing in the park talking to another boy. He has pulled a handful of peso's out of his pocket & is looking very smug. They are both laughing. It's hard to know if he's a beggar who's had a really good day or if he's a scam artist.
Once we finish our beers, we head back to the hostel, weaving our way down the main street & past about 10 blocks. We occasionally go in & out of shops selling art, souvenirs & carpet. There are some nice, woven Aztec printed mats made in Mexico. We just haven't seen "the one" that's worth buying & carting around for the next few weeks. It's so nice to be out walking again & the weather is really nice. After we arrived home we had a couple of hours of down time before getting ready to go out again. We decided to try the flavoured Sol beer. Normally in Australia, Sol is a really nice, light refreshing beer, very similar to a Corona. The flavours we brought were Sol with Limon Y Sal, Sol with Clamato El original & Sol with michelada con salsa. They were terrible! It was not refreshing at all, they were so salty & tasted like gross pickled salsa. I can't believe the locals drink these! We have come to the conclusion that they must be used for chasers after tequila, but apparently no, the locals just drink them like this.
Today marks the halfway point in our 1 year of travel. In celebration & in true Oaxaca style we go Mezcal bar hopping. Something Tom's been talking about for weeks & I've been avoiding for weeks.
Mezcal is similar to tequila. The differences are the agave they use, the process to distill it, the alcohol content & the taste.
Mezcal is known for the smoky taste & is definitely more rounded than tequila. It lacks the sharp pang of pain & dread that I normally feel when I drink tequila, though it still leaves a very warm feeling in your esophagus minutes after it has reached your stomach.
Tom loves it, no surprise though, he loves tequila.
The first bar we go to is called Tobaziche, it's a really nice place & we are led to the window seats. It's a really nice view looking out at the street, watching a huge thunderstorm roll down into the valley. The bar staff speak English & give us some recommendations & a preview sniff & taste test.
Tom orders a large shot of Mezcal & a local craft beer, I get a Mezcal cocktail with lemon & pineapple.
The Mezcal is a bit of a shock & I'm not liking it immediately. I initially can't stop thinking that it's tequila, a drink I ruined for myself before I turned 20.
After some time, some effects of the alcohol & some dilution from the melting ice, it becomes easier to drink. We accompany our drinks with some tacos & the bar staff keep our water glasses filled. It's common when drinking Mezcal to have a glass of water with fruit that you sip at the same time.
Just before we finished, the teenage boy we've already seen twice today, appears at the window & very briefly asks for money. He isn't fazed when we say no & keeps going, he appears to be on an important mission.
Bar number 2 is called El destilado, another really nice place to sit, drink Mezcal & listen to music. It's got a hipster vibe going on & we both feel extra touristy & out of place, compared to the other patrons. The bartender & owner is from LA (according to the internet) & gave us some more pointers & a few different bottles to smell. As well as having the smoky base flavour, you can order spicy or sweet. Tom went for a spicy shot, with another local craft beer & I went for a mango & sweet Mezcal daquiri.
The Mezcal in the daquiri was overpowering & there wasn't a single note of sweet that my tongue could taste. In fact it tasted more like tequila.
Tom also commented that his tasted more like tequila, but continued to sip it & luxuriously sigh afterwards, like it was refreshing water on a hot day! He would then order another shot & I got on board with the craft beers.
Our 3rd bar was called Los amantes mez caleria & it was more of a traditional hole in the wall Mezcal tasting bar.
It only exclusively sold Mezcal & had hundreds of bottles in various sizes & shapes. He also had a chart on the bar with all the agave plants & explained which ones are used to make a certain flavour & the different distilling times. One of them had what he described as a multi layered & complex taste with a distilling time of up to 55 months. We ordered a shot of this to share, it was definitely complex & my tummy did not like it. I left that one for Tom.
It was here we met 2 blonde girls, originally from New Zealand, who had both been living in London & were on a 2 week holiday in Mexico.
They really liked the country & had not had any problems or had any unpleasant feelings. After our shot was finished, we said goodbye & ran, hand in hand through the pouring rain.
While walking to the next place, we would see the teenage boy a fourth & final time. He came up behind us & tried asking for money half he heartedly, we replied no again & he buried really loudly at us, before collapsing in hysterical laughter.
La mezcalerita was the name of the last Mezcal bar we went to. By this time we were both feeling considerably sloshed. I was now finished with Mezcal & craft beer, so I ordered a corona. We were going to eat here as well but the bar was full of people & the staff were having trouble keeping up with the demand. After we waited 20 minutes to see a menu, we decided to finish our beers & head to a nearby vegetarian restaurant.
Calabacitas Tiernas was the final venue on our night out & a vegetarian/vegan restaurant we highly recommend. The food was phenomenal & there's a library attached to the restaurant. After dinner, the rain had stopped & we walked the 15 minutes home. On our way home my skirt got caught in a wire holding up a power pole & ripped an awkward, jagged chunk out of the bottom, which is unlucky.
Right near our hostel there was a man lying face down on the pavement looking very beaten & bloody. The police were already in attendance trying to calm him down & help him. We're not sure what happened to him, It didn't look like he walked in front of a car or fell of a bike, I'm sure the police will help sort him out. The police presence even in these smaller places is still seen, however its not as full on as the police force we were seeing in Mexico city.
It was a very good day followed by an interesting & memorable night, finished with a drunk stupor like sleep.
- Alli
- Alli
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