Kicking It In Oaxaca

Oaxaca is a large city – the terrible traffic and the giant American chain stores on the periphery are a testament to that. The downtown Centro area is quite lovely though, and a nice walkable town. There are definitely more indigenous people around, mostly selling their handicrafts in the zolcalo or at the artisans market, than in other large towns. And there are more embroidered clothes and tablecloths than anywhere.

I’m not sure what I was expecting in Oaxaca City. We’ve been through so many small villages at this point and we’ve already seen towns almost completely inhabited by different indigenous tribes. I guess that is why I was not as impressed with Oaxaca as I had hoped. Still nice. Another beautiful old colonial city.

We took the bus into town every day. Bode was again getting lots of attention and stating to tire of it. When he tired of old women touching his head and teenagers taking photos of him, he found his vampire teeth and showed them off whenever someone got too close. I was pretty proud of this inventive move, but I suggested he remove the crown too.

I so wanted to capture the beauty of the women in their traditional dress, but they don’t like having their picture taken. Some believe it will take their soul, so I wasn’t about to mess with that.  Perhaps some plastic fangs….

There are about 8 markets in Oaxaca. One market has leather goods and fruit, another has household supplies and underwear. They all have fried crickets. My favorite was the artisan’s market, where there were almost no shoppers.

Oh, and there is chocolate making! They let us try the unsweetened stuff, which isn’t really that good. It’s better when it is coated with sugar. What isn’t?

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