Oaxaca with side trips

We had decided to spend the week in Oaxaca so we grabbed a taxi for an outrageous US$ 18 for the Hotel Victoria. They have a real racket with the taxis out of the airport but there is nothing much you can do about it.

The weather was very bright and sunny. We drove through an industrial part of town and through narrow streets, up the hill to the hotel.

Oaxaca is built in the center of several valleys that come together and the view from the hotel, which is near the top of one of the valleys, is spectacular.

If you stay at Hotel Victoria, which I would unhesitatingly recommend as it is about perfect, request an upper story junior suite, and you will have a balcony with the marvelous view of the whole city below you.

The room was spacious, clean, and high quality. The hotel facilies including a marvelous pool and tennis court, bar and restaurant, were fantastic. The food was very good, service perfect.

The hotel runs a bus into the town, a short 10 minute ride, and they took us to the town and picked us up whenever we wanted. Or, sometimes we took a taxi back, for US$ 2.50.

Oaxaca is a neat town of one and two story buildings which thrives on tourism, but never seems unreal or overly "resorty." The town centro has a Zocalo, square, that is an incredible series of market stalls, and surrounding the zocalo are other markets.

The first day we visited the centro, after going through the zocalo we found another market that is frequented primarily by locals. Old peasent women were seated on the ground near the entrance, weaving baskets, and we purchased some.

Another old woman was drifting through the front of the market offering a large basket tray of what looked like small insects. There was a lot of din and this was only the front of the huge market.

As we were negotiating and browsing amongst the baskets, my hand was suddenly covered with what I quickly saw was bird excrement. So I tried to find a restroom to wash it off.

My son and I waded into the market and entered another world. Everything offered in Oaxaca, from the famous moles, to fresh vegetables, to huge mounds of dried chiles, to Mexcal, to clothing and drygoods, were sold there. As we waded through, old women would open a burlap sack in front of them to display handmade tortillas they wanted us to buy. The place was wall to wall people, stalls, customers, sellers.

We finally emerged from the market onto another street and I ended up buying some purified water after discovering that finding a restroom was going to be very difficult. I washed as best I could using the water and then we waded back into the marketplace to find the rest of the family where they were waiting for us at the basket women's.

The next days we would wake up and eat a marvelous breakfast buffet at the hotel, including omellettes, at least four traditional dishes such as pork, tongue, moles, etc., along with huge amounts of fresh fruit, great breads and rolls, and surprisingly good coffee. Then we would go explore.

Speaking of food, that night I ordered a side dish of chapolines and guacamole. My daughter and I looked at the chapolines and tasted it. She thought it tasted like dried mushrooms. I thought it tasted like dried pork. We put some in tortillas with guacamole and it was delicious.

We asked the waiter what it was and he raised his arms in imitation of some animal. Finally it dawned on us that chapolines are deep fried grasshoppers. The old woman at the market was in fact selling them. I ate some more and ordered them another time as I really liked them (to an extent -- hard to get over what I was eating).

side trips
We visited Monte Alban, which is a large archeological site that was once a city of 30,000 people over 2000 years ago and is very well preserved. You can easily spend a day at Monte Alban as there is a lot to see and a lot of intersting ground to cover there, amongst the dozen or so awesome structures, buildings built on other buildings.

Two days we negotiated for a taxi driver to take us out to the countryside. One day we went east and visited Mitla, another great archeological site, and came back and visited some other villages and ruins including Yagul. Yagul is not just a ruin but also includes an amazing stone labyrinth that was not somehow written up in the guidebook, and is about 1000 or 1500 years old.

On the way back we stopped in the famous village of Teotitlan, where tapetes are made. Tapetes are hand made carpets. The best have handmade yarn and use fine dyes of local vegetation or insects.

We encountered a great sales pitch for carpets that included a hands on demonstration that had us all making yarn and dying it. We ended up buying a nice carpet of course, and gained great respect for this artform.

Another day we went south and visited much poorer villages including Ocotlan and San Bartolo Coyotopec. Ococtlan had a big marketday going on, which was a thrill. I bought another carpet and we got a great dose of how people there live.

Coming back we stopped at another village famous for handmade table runners and placemats. Women were working outside in the sunlight, weaving with a traditional hand technique.

We stopped at another village famous for dark black pottery, and finally got back to the hotel.

General observations
There were more police around than I have ever seen anywhere. Policia Turistico, Policia Preventivas, Policia Municipale, Tranit, etc. etc.

No police I ever saw were actually doing anything. They would hang out and watch, or joke amongst themselves. I never saw anyone getting cited, getting a ticket, or talking to the police.

On the roads out they have military checkpoints that you have to go through. It all reminds you of a state under occupation, although we never saw any outward signs of resentment or unrest.

We always felt completely safe even late at night. We saw single women walking late with no concern for safety. I think there is a lot of petty theft, but we never saw any aggressiveness or encountered any, and we never had even a shred of concern for our safety.

I have heard that it can be more dangerous away from the touristed areas of Oaxaca, but did not see any of this.

We had dinner a few nights out, and some at our hotel. One notable place was Casa Oaxaca at Hotel Oaxaca, an immaculately fixed up bed and breakfast with a few tables serving food that would have been notable anywhere.

Aside from this the food was good but not incredible. Everyone buys their moles at the marketplace, where it is offered in huge mounds. A few people such as Rick Bayless have researched Mexican cooking and there is probably better cooking elsewhere, perhaps in Mexico City but certainly in Chicago.

The trip back home
UA had routed us through MEX-SFO-IAD but waitlisted us on the nonstop MEX-IAD, and they came through with the nonstop.

So we took a codeshare prop plane at 7:00am to MEX, which was uneventful. A long tramride takes you into the terminal where we had to claim our bags as they would not interline from Mexicana to UA, due to 9/11 they said.

So we had to check in again at UA. There was a huge line but we had virtually no wait in the 1K line. They searched our bags thoroughly, every bag including all the carryons and the luggage, and we checked in.

We breezed through the metal detector security and visited the RCC. They have a self serve bar there with excellent liquor, not much food, but a decent facility, and we stayed there for a while and then went to the gate.

At the gate, we weren't finished. They searched everyone's bags once again, quite thoroughly, and wanded everyone. I thought this was a bit excessive but it was certainly thorough.

The A320 was completely full but I got a roomy bulkhead E+ window seat with the only empty seat next to me. Tons of legroom.

The service was very disappointing, the reverse of our trip out. The crusty UA indifferent attitude was in full force. One beverage service, then the FAs sat in the back and yacked. No second beverage service, no attempt to be engaging or friendly.

There was a considerable weather pattern and a bit of turbulence, and channel 9 was very interesting to listen to as we had to steer around quite a bit. Nearing IAD, we had to do a quick change because a runway was closed because of bad visibility, and our approach had to be changed. The flight was about 45 minutes longer than it should have been because of the weather.

Nothing interesting at customs and we were home. For the first time in weeks, it was pouring in the Washington DC area, and we took a cab home.