Tdiddy12

[QUOTE=crellston;17611434]A few Oaxaca pics:


Katrinas everywhere

View from Museo de Cultura

Museo de Cultura

Cathedral

Wedding party


View from Museo de Cultura

Cantina near market - known for its in bar urinal!!

Monte Alban

Bugs anyone?

Zocalo, morning after the night before

Zocalo statue alley

Tdiddy12

Love seeing your pictures of Oaxaca. Elizabeth and I have stood in the same window that Carolyn is standing in. We spent 2 weeks there last year. We head to Yucatan in 6 weeks!

crellston

Looking back we didn't actual do much in Oaxaca except eat drink and hang out with the nieces. We wandered the markets as we always do, mainly to search out ingredients to take back home. Lost count of the number of varieties of chiles we now have in the pantry! We did revisit Monte Alban using the local minibuses. Worked well. Somehow the site itself didn't seem quite as impressive as it did first time around but still highly recommended fr a first time visit. One place that did stand out waste cultural museum which was pretty special even if half of it was cordoned off (still charged full entrance fees though!

We hung around the area for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants in the city. Sitting in a close by, rooftop bar we had a prime viewing platform for a number of weddings taking place (it was the Saturday before DDM) That evening we counted a total of 8 weddings that day including one televised 9presumably some sort of celebs?). The wedding parties were coming out of the cathedral and all then paraded around the streets led by a couple of big giant heads , papiere mache modelled on the bride and groom. these were followed by the bride and groom and the whole wedding party, all dressed in the wedding finery and all sipping mescal from bamboo tubes as they walk. Look like a lot of fun and as the night drew on, it all became a bit raucous. Our nieces later told us they joined one of these parades thinking it was a dia del los muerte parade. Apparently they were welcomed just the same and handed tubes of mescal!


We took a decision to leave most of our shopping at the end in CDMX. Big mistake! prices were higher in the capital and we struggled to find the items we wanted. Oaxaca is definitely the place to go for artesania (though from our last trip, better still in san Cristobal de los Casas.

Oaxaca is one of the prime cities for celebrating DDLM. Certainly they take it very seriously . We were there the week before and already hotel rates were sky high. Katrinas were everywhere and the parties and concerts were beginning in earnest. Would have bet a great place but we were off to the Yucatan. We enjoyed Oacaxa. Yes it is quite touristy , but there is lots to do, see, eat and drink. When we were full time travellers we would often spend several weeks to a couple of months a place as a break from changing locations every few days - Buenos Aires, Lima, Cusco, Quito to name but a few just in South America. Oaxaca is certainly a city we would have been happy staying for a a month way back when.

Planning this trip , part of the difficulty was that flights between cities didn't always run every day. The one that fitted in was Volaris on Tues and Saturdays which saved us te 20 hour bus ride. A budget airline, which always causes me concern, but I neednt have worried. Online booking was dead easy, choosing seats, checking in - all very good. On departure, the boarding procedure was model of efficient management. I was very impressed. Turns out that was the last positive thing I would have tp say about this airline....

yestravel

Oaxaca is best for just hanging. Last trip we did have fun taking the first time visitors around and sowing them the small villages nearby and they did quite a bit of shopping.
Years ago in Zacatecas there was a big wedding party running around thru the city with music & drinking mezcal. When they approached us they pulled us in and gave us shots--I still have the shot glasses. We danced along with them for a bit -- fun times. I dont thinkthat area is safe these days, but it was a nice city to visit.

bald0ne

Crellston, b4 we moved to Mexico we'd spend about a month every winter in Oaxaca. That went on for like 6 years. After we moved to Mexico, we'd still visit. I think we've been to Monte Alban 5 times, taking friends over the years. I think that contributed to us having a bit of ruin burn out. In Mexico, Palenque & El Tajin were the most impressive. Teotihuacan we enjoyed, but the crowds & the urban setting kind of took away from the experience. And after Perú, we probably won't try to see any more ruins anywhere. Which is probably why we've not experienced the Yucatan other than when we wanted beach time. Merida & Campeche still interest me, but after your & yes's experiences maybe that has diminished somewhat. I'd prefer to drive, but that's a really long trip that I'm probably getting too old & tired to undertake. And like you, I prefer the central highlands of Mexico.

crellston

We loved Zacatecas too! Seems incredible that we have been to so many of the same places and have not met up! A link to our blog post fro that visit https://accidentalnomads.com/2018/11...-with-donkeys/ as you can see it is entitled "Dancing with Donkeys" referencing a street party we joined led by a tequila carrying donkey!

We didn't really have time to get out to the villages this time but agree that O is a great place just hang out. Indeed eo the options I considered was to just use that as a base and do wise trips to the coast.

I did consider it for this trip but as you say, it is now pretty much a no go area

crellston

Baldone, well put, I feel we have perhaps reached the points where ruins are no longer a reason to visit a place. Much as I love Peru for instance and would love to return , it would be for the natural wonders of the mountains, jungles and deserts not the ancient civilisations. That said we spent several months living in Cusco and Ollantaytambo one time and it was great place just to hang out,

Travelling a lot less than we once did I have become much more selective (and indecisive! ). Back home now to an English winter and wondering where next? The nieces were loving Guatemala and Belize and we were quite keen. It seemed the type of place we would lik,e but then after a few days the trip was decimated by a tropical storm, floods etc. Seems like November is not. great time for Central America!

ekscrunchy

Crellston this is great!

The vibrancy of Mexico really comes through in those great pics.
The one with the raw fish looks like a smiling mouth with the pulpo tentacles as the teeth.

Signing on for the visit to Merida. We spent about 10 days there right before Covid. I loved the city although it was too bloody hot in January to do much in the middle of the day.
Mexico City (to me it's still El DF, so I'm showing my age) is just too huge for me; I can't stand the traffic. So I think a re-visit to Puebla might be in order for me....

Baldone--what do you think of Guadalajara as a destination for a week or so?
I need another city to combine with Puebla (not Oaxaca--been many times). Any ideas? Zacatecas? I would be traveling alone and don't mind bus travel if the bus is one of the luxury lines.

crellston

Thanks eks. I like big cities and found Mexico to be like London in many respects, more a collection of individual districts with their own distinct, very different identities. We were staying I Roma Norte which was very pleasant . One day we walked from there to the Zocalo in the historical centre - big mistake she districts were not so nice and didn't realise how far it was!

I am sure baldone will come back with suggestions but FWIW , we loved Zacatecas see. https://accidentalnomads.com/2018/11...-with-donkeys/ for some photos. Sadly, I think it may now be off limits due to cartel activity. Boaldone may have more info. Of the other replaces we visited on our last trip we loved Morelia and Guanajuato but not Guadalajara where we spent Christmas. It was totally dead. I mentioned this to a Mexican friend here in London who was from there and who said he would advise travelling there as many parts of the city were just not safe.

bald0ne

Eks-I was not a big fan of Guadalajara. But we visited at the end of a longer trip that included cdmx, (¡más bien, El DF!) & Morelia & surrounds, (which we enjoyed very much and have been back a number of times) so maybe we were simply tired. That was before we moved to Mexico. If I were to go today I'd probably spend very little time in Guadalajara proper, but rather visit some ofthe Pueblo Mágicos in Jalisco. Where we really haven't experienced much at all, save for Ojuelos de Jalisco & Lagos de Moreno, neither of which are near Guadalajara.
Zacatecas is a beautiful city; we've been there 3 times. It'd be a longish bus trip from Puebla, but you could break up the trip with a stop in San Luis Potosi, which we very much enjoy. Or even Aguascalientes, which was OK for 1 night. I'm not current on the security situation there right now.
Going into broken-record mode, a closer destination and maybe just as rewarding might be Veracruz state. With a week or so, you could easily visit Xalapa, Xico, Coatepec, Heroica Veracruz (Veracruz city) Córdoba & Orizaba. An easy loop from & returning to Puebla. Tons of history & Veracruz city has a culture unique to the rest of the country.