Oaxaca – You Are the Best!

I know I have said this before, but I really mean it this time! The art, music, dance, weather, people and hills make me believe that Oaxaca is the best city I have visited.

First “Home” in Oaxaca

“La Calera is a former limestone factory now functioning as venue for social and cultural events, complemented with lofts available for short stays through airbnb.” This was an unusual, and delightful, place to stay! Staying home was enjoyable, but the centro was a 45 minute walk along a busy street, so we really had to want to leave. No worries, as Ellen wanted five days of tours!

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A Day off from Tours

Ellen wanted to keep really busy during her five full days here, so tours were booked for each day. One day Ellen went by herself to see several different different artisans at work. She came home with an alebrije (Mexican folk art sculptures of fantasy or mythical creatures) and paints. Her Sunday tour was canceled due to the instructor being ill, so we had a slow morning and walked into town. Along the way we followed some music and found folks dancing in a square. It looked like they were practicing. They all wore similar sandals. The women had full white skirts over their jeans and their hair braided in bright colored ribbons. We ended the day going out for dinner at a restaurant with a terraza that overlooked the Santa Domingo church and the beautiful hills beyond.

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Tour to Hierve de Agua and more

Hierve de Agua (the water boils)

This eleven-hour tour through Coyote Adventures (https://www.coyoteaventuras.com/) was one of the best I have been on. We started at 6:30 am and enjoyed a traditional breakfast along the way in Roeguia – hand ground corn, dirt floors, goats in the back, great coffee, amazing food. The early start allowed us to get to the first stop before most of the crowds. We walked down to the first area, called “cascada chica,” also called the Amphitheatre. The two pools are artificially formed but continue to be “decorated” by the water which is oversaturated with calcium carbonate. The bubbling water appears all over this area as it comes to the surface through cracks or fissures on the mountainside. As it mixes with other mineral, like silver, barium and iron, different colors are forms. We went down to the second section, la cascada grande. We had a local guide accompany us and showed us remains of the extensive system of irrigation and terraces built by the Zapotecs as many as 2,500 years ago. It was also most likely a sacred site to the ancient peoples of the Oaxaca valley. We made our way back up to the top and enjoyed chatting and having refreshments.

At this point, Ellen and I left with the driver and the rest of the crew hiked down to the valley floor. The driver was fun to talk to and added a stop to sample “agua miel” a non-alcoholic drink from the juice of the agave. It was a long ride and the walking crew arrived at our destination before we did!

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Las Salinas Watering Hole

This was a treat! Seemingly out in the middle of nowhere we came upon this lovely watering hole! A quick trip to the changing room to get into our swimsuits and we were ready. We were assisted by hand and a ladder to navigate the rocks into the water stream we walked through. I placed my phone in a waterproof container, so the photos have an interesting filter. It was so refreshing in the heat of the day – what a delight. We saw the same bubbling as before, along with rich colors and formations. Upon our return a cooler with refreshments was produced and I enjoyed a beer.

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Artisanal Mescal

On the way home we stopped for an amazing lunch at a family run mescalería who have developed their process since the 1800’s. It was fascinating and pretty much all outdoors! They use their donkey, named Wendy, to grind the piñas (roasted hearts of the agave plant) using a tahona. These are placed into large wooden vats to ferment. We could see the bubbles and smell the resulting flavor very close to the end product. The liquid is then placed into copper containers embedded in a brick structure where the distillation process takes place. It is distilled a couple of times until the flavor and alcoholic content are deemed appropriate. This business did not yet have a bottling process. So, when I bought my bottle, it was poured into a recycled tequila Souza bottle – yum!

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