Leaving the beach and another successful accomplished job behind, we followed the recommendations to the “culinary capital” of Mexico, Oaxaca.
Oaxaca, which is pronounced something like [waˈhaka] is not only a state, but also its capital. It is located in Southwestern Mexico. We arrived quite early in the morning after another overnight bus ride. Our AirBnb was really amazing: we had a huge room, a private spacious bathroom and even an own balcony! The owner, an old man called Carlos, was really nice and his pets, a dog and a cat, were so cute! 🐶🐱
Oaxaca de Juárez
We wanted to get to know a little bit more about Oaxaca de Juárez, the full name of the city, and its history. So we took another free walking tour. It was really interesting and our tour guide was really nice. She also gave us some recommendations about what to do and told us about the carneval in a nearby town we should visit. The tour ended at a small local food market, where we tried some specialities.
Culinary specialities
A famous dish around Oaxaca is “Tlayuda”, a Mexican pizza. 🍕 It is made of a big tortilla (of course) with black bean puree and some local cheese on it and other toppings like meat or vegetables, avocado, tomatoes etc. Another speciality is “Mole”, a marinade or sauce containing chili pepper, a fruit or nuts and many different spices. In Oaxaca you can find 7 different moles! We tried some of them. 😅
We also tasted some local beverages: “Tejate” is a non-alcoholic drink made of corn and cacao with a weird foamy layer on the top… What we liked better was “Tepache”, a fermented beverage made from the rind and peel of pineapples, seasoned with cinnamon. It doesn’t contain much alcohol and reminded us a bit of hard cider. Speaking of alcoholic beverages, one really popular drink around Oaxaca for sure is “Mezcal”, but more about that later… 😉
Cultures and history
Oaxaca is also well-known for its indigenous people and cultures. There are about sixteen different indigenous groups that are officially recognized. Most of their cultures have survived well preserved until today. Therefore you can find many important archeological sites, such as Monte Albán and Mitla and various native cultures and crafts in the nearby region. To learn and see about it, we visited the “Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca”, the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures. It is located in the stunning monastery buildings adjoining the “Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán”, the Santo Domingo Church. The museums most famous artefacts are from “Tomb 7” at Monte Albán. Mixtecs reused a former Zapotec tomb at Monte Albán to bury one of their kings and his sacrificed servants. Along with several objects of silver, turquoise, jade, finely carved bones and a skull covered in turquoise.
The Carlos family
After some day trips around Oaxaca it was already time to leave. But not without a last day full of Carlos and Mezcal! 😅 Our AirBnb hosts invited us to a breakfast with the family. We got to know the son of the old Carlos, who is called Carlos, as well as his wife and his young son, Carlos! You see the pattern?! The family was so nice and made us a big and super delicious breakfast. As already mentioned, Oaxaca is famous for its Mezcal and the middle-aged Carlos loved Mezcal! It is a smoky, double-distilled roasted mash made from the heart of the maguey plant, which belongs to the agave family. Tequila, by the way, is a specific type of Mezcal made from the blue agave. He told us about his plans to produce his own Mezcal and of course we drank some…for breakfast! 😅
As our bus down to the coast was only at night, we still got some time after packing our stuff. We strolled around in the city one last time. Then we got invited again for a dinner with the Carlos family and some friends. We had some burritos, freshly handmade tortillas filled with meat and cheese, some guacamole and beer. Of course some Mezcal was also involved. 😋 The friends were from Chihuahua in the North of Mexico and really hard to understand. But we tried our best to talk in Spanish and really had a nice last day. The Carlos family even gave us one whole bottle of Mezcal as a gift when we left with full bellies and a merrily mood.
