My last day in Oaxaca

So here I am, sitting in the Los Angeles Airport... camped out right next to the Delta check-in. Which is closed. As was the connecting baggage section of customs. So I have my luggage with me. And I found a plug-in, but it doesn't work. And I can't actually enter the airport until 4:00, and they won't take my luggage until 4:00. So I here I sit. So I figured I would put together a blog post until my battery dies. :)

So I had lots of time to wander around Oaxaca before I had to leave for the airport. I found the Saturday market, some great architecture, and spent some time in my favorite park, on a shady bench.

One of my favorite things about Oaxaca is the colors. The buildings are all brightly colored. And the doors are amazing. They have huge wooden doors with smaller doors inside them. Or they have standard sized doors, but they are intricately carved. Or they have doors with some beautiful iron work on them... they just don't have plain doors anywhere! So I took some pictures of buildings with doors.

I took a picture of the display in the bakery... I can't eat it, but man it looked good!

The Saturday market was housed in the plaza outside of one of the cathedrals. I will admit I lost track of which one, but it is an incredible building with beautiful architecture and details.  The market has food vendors, people selling handmade wooden toys, clothing, music... everything! There was even a perfume stand.

They had barrel vaulting in the ceiling, and medallions...

This was some graffiti that was definitely worth photographing.

And an artsy cross outside of a school...

 The flowers are beautiful. I got lots of pictures of flowers. :)

And this is the amphitheater at the top of the hill, where the cultural dance celebration was going on all week.

 It's actually a pretty cool structure!

And I had to include the lamppost because I like it.

This is the Cathedral de Santo Domingo. It is the same place I visited on the first day, and I walked by it every day of my stay here. A large part of the cultural celebration was happening here.

They have a botanical garden in the square. Not exactly sure what these plants are, but they are some sort of succulent, and they are really cool!

 Then I spent some time in the park...

More crazy succulents...

And that about sums it up.

Three more hours until I can go in search of some coffee.

The Sidewalks of Oaxaca

I realize you all might think I am a little bit crazy, and maybe I am, but I actually am writing a blog post on the sidewalks of Oaxaca. I have shown you pictures of the street fair, I am hoping to get some good pictures of the street art to show you in the next day or so, but I really do want to show you the sidewalks.

Remember this picture from an earlier post?

Well, it is just scratching the surface of why walking and texting, or pretty much walking and ANYTHING, is a challenge in this city. Here are some more examples. I know that part of the disrepair of the sidewalks is due to the earthquakes, but there was some seriously poor planning when they planted the trees here.

As the trees grow, their roots just move the sidewalk aside. In the picture above, the tree is actually pushing the slabs of concrete up. Below is another example of the same thing.

You can actually see how the tree root has grown above the curb and pushed the sidewalk up at least 6 inches! When you walk along this stretch of sidewalk (about 1 block from the office I have been working in all week), you find yourself walking sideways!

And then there is this example. This tree is actually pretty small, but it has a shallow root system and it has just cracked and pushed the concrete out of the way. 

So as you can see, if you are looking anywhere but down while walking, you are definitely taking a risk of falling flat on your face! You can also see why I did not where the shoes with heels while I was here. That would have been taking my life into my hands with every step!

On a happier note... I was fortunate enough to run across a birthday party at the restaurant where I had dinner last night. They had a mariachi band, and I enjoyed it greatly!

 And last but not least... dinner last night. It was amazing. Seriously wonderful. I know I have been raving about the food, but just look at this:

Seared duck with avocado, and a sauce of honey, lemon and chili pepper. Such a fantastic combo of flavors!

I have another 24 hours here in Oaxaca, so I will try and find more to share with you! Thanks for reading...

A Oaxacan Street Festival

So last night I went out for my standard evening food foraging experience, and I stumbled across more of the Oaxacan Street Festival that I have been seeing. It is apparently part of a bigger celebration called Guelaguetza, which is a cultural festival, but the last three days of July have lots of celebration including mañanitas, calendas, religious activities, music and fireworks at the church of Carmen Bajo. So this is what I keep stumbling across.

There are lots of people out and about, with food stands, vendors, and music.

Under long tents, there are all kinds of handmade goods for sale, many of them with cultural roots in the 8 regions of Oaxaca.

There is a large stage with live music.

And there are people pretending to be statues. What a way to make a living. :)

These botanas are complimentary with the meal. The brown ground meat in the upper left is actually fish... very good!

After all that, though... I did manage to find some dinner at Zandunga. I had some garnachas (no cheese), and some cochito horneada, a pork dish.

This is a picture of the garnachas with cheese (thank you to Foursquare for letting me use the picture). I ate mine too quickly to show you mine!

This is the cochitos horneada. I couldn't eat the corn-based dumpling because it had dairy, but the meat was delicious! (This photo is off the Foursquare site as well, because my photo was too dark)

And then the star of the evening: Mezcal. Zandunga specializes in their large list of available Mezcale. I only had the one, because boy it is strong! Mezcal is distilled from the agave plant (the maguey) and has a strong, smokey flavor. Very good! It is a local specialty of Oaxaca, so I had to give it a go!

While I was at the office during the day, we went out for lunch to a local restaurant that makes everything from special heritage corn. Not exactly paleo friendly, but since I don't have a problem with corn, it works out fine for me. :) I was lucky enough to try the heritage corn tortillas with fried egg on one (so good... definitely trying this at home!), and grilled mushrooms, onions and garlic on the other. 

I wonder what foodie adventures the next day will hold?