Travel Bamboo - Oaxaca pt 3

Food.  Markets.  Cactus

Saying farewell to the sites of Oaxaca with part 3 of my travel photo series from this picturesque region of Mexico.  One thing you can not do when in Oaxaca is leave without buying an item of clothing.  Streamed through the streets are market stalls selling beautiful blouses, dresses and other embroidered textiles with colourful and intricate designs.  I managed to haggle my way to a cheaper pair of leather shoes and also bought a cool Zapotecan shirt for my Dad for only 3 quid!  If I bought everything I wanted there alone I would probably need another suitcase just for that.

Could I pull off looking like Frida Kahlo head to toe when all it does is rain and snow back in London?

This store above was a treasure trove of great traditional garments.  Located right on the side of San Domingo de Guzman church, round the corner from Acalá.

A town truly filled with artists.

These pink and white flags/buntings hung above the Textile Museum which was a nice space showing some weaving practices and traditional clothing pieces.  Best thing about this small collection was that entry to view was FREE.

In between feasting our eyes on views and ancient ruins, we also feasted on Oaxacan delicacies such as Mole (a cocoa based sauce) and Chapulines (crickets) .  Food markets offered cheap eats, fresh juices and yes...insects.  We went to the indoor food market and filled our bellies with enchiladas, tacos, barbecued meats, Mexican hot chocolate, eggs and rice for the equivalent to a fiver.  Totally stuffed.

So much meat.  And no, you don't need iron stomachs to eat this stuff.

This is the Mercado 20 de Noviembre where we ate a few times.

Yup.  No greens.  I was on Weight Watchers before I came here but obviously that has been thrown out of the window.

Mole.  Aka Chocolate savoury sauce.  Sounds weird but totally yum.

Bugs + Lime = Edible

When eating at the food market be sure to be continually approached to buy something.  Some stuff was actually quite cool and we bought some table runners and cute bookmarks.  A stand out memory was the busker above with the guitar.  He played guitar, sang traditional songs AND played the pan flute!

Below is a potato chip (crisps) vendor.  Freshly thin cut potatoes deep friends and covered in fresh lime juice and hot sauce, it was delicious.  Forget the chestnuts and hotdog stands in London, THIS is what we need.

We managed to get the last tour of the Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, a beautiful garden that can be overlooked from the Oaxaca cultural museum.  If you want to visit here you NEED to join a tour which only occurs a couple of times throughout the day.  There is a cost to tag along a tour and enter the grounds most are in Spanish but there is one tour a day in English which costs more.  The grounds were amazing and so picturesque with gigantic cactus, palms and a clear reflective pool; INSTAGRAM HEAVEN.  The downside was that you have to stick to the tour which was at least an hour long and there was one part where they talked about chillies for 15 minutes.  Once we were able to reach the cool parts and have time for photo taking we snuck away and escaped.

There was a great mix of columnal cacti and flat leaved nopal cacti.

The never ending tour you were not allowed to stray from. 

So that's that.  Oaxaca through my eyes.  We had such a great time and we were never short on things to see and do.  If you have the chance to visit Mexico, apart from the beaches and cool cities you need to visit Oaxaca for tradition and nature.  It really caters for tourist but for national and international tourists which I think really makes a difference.  They have their own airport, all the major buses go there and it's straight forward to drive with parking and car hire everywhere so access is simple.  I really recommend anyone who is reading this to VISIT OAXACA!

I am currently in Mexico City currently exploring what the City has to offer and taking Spanish lessons with Lengua y Cultura so I will write up on that soon.  For now you can keep up to date on my instagram.