Marie & Emma's Travel Journal

Oaxaca turned out to be a lovely place and super easy. Our Airbnb host spoke no English but was super welcoming, we had a little apartment (basically a bedroom plus kitchenette with a sofa bed in it) and we had a covered roof terrace, which is where we spent most of our time hanging out. Given you can’t drink the water our host had got one of the guys they had building another apartment on the roof of the house to carry a full water cooler bottle into our apartment for us. Which was awesome as it meant we didn’t need to buy water, though we looked at it and had no idea how we were going to pick it up to get water out of it (in the end we used a tip it method into a large saucepan that we then decanted into our bottles.

All checked in we first headed to the supermarket to get a supply of other drinks and snacks. It was less than a 5 min walk and on the way we found a cafe just 200m from our Airbnb. We were stoked as that was coffee in the morning sorted.

We dropped our supplies off and headed in the dark to towards the main plaza where our host said we’d find heaps of dinner options. An easy 15 minute walk straight down the first turning off our road, the streets were clean and tidy, calm and quiet (but with enough people around and lit so it felt very safe). We found everyone at the plaza which was full of life – people and music. This was no surprise, it was a Friday night and the Guelaguetza festival officially started on Monday which has parades and other activities that also take place in the build up to it.

The Guelaguetza festival is a celebration of Oaxaca’s indigenous cultures. It is a tradition that was started by the Zapotecs over 500 years ago (before the arrival of the Spanish), they wanted to bring different groups together to connect, exchange and build relationships. So they developed an annual gathering in honor of their corn goddess, Xilonen. The name “Guelaguetza” originates from a Zapotec word that roughly translates to “reciprocal exchange of gifts and services.”

When the Aztecs conquered the festival largely remained the same but they began to worship the Aztec goddess of corn, Centeotl. The arrival of the Spanish added some Christian elements and a change of date.

Today Guelaguetza brings together the communities from the eight regions of Oaxaca to share their different traditions of music, dance and art.

There was indigenous music buskers (pipes and flutes), music and dancing, balloons and glow in the dark flying toys for kids. All the restaurants were busy but we got seats at a reasonable priced one straight away, albeit inside away from the atmosphere.

By the time we had eaten and wandered round the plaza and back to our Airbnb we felt like we had orientated and we had scoped out on the way back a couple of local restaurant options on the way back.

We took a relaxed start to the morning and determined to stay on top of our laundry did the bit we had.

The weather was absolutely perfect it was sunny with highs of 26C dropping to about 18C at night, though we’d had to have the fan on while we slept as the apartment was so small we heated it up fast, particularly when we had showers, but after Houston it was pure bliss. Of course we didn’t head out until after we’d been and got coffee and eggs and fresh tortillas for breakfast.

The entire downtown of Oaxaca is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are over 1,200 historic colonial buildings, most of which are hundreds of years old. There is also the typical colourful buildings that leave you in doubt you are in Mexico.

We spent until the early afternoon exploring the streets around the main plaza, after starting with the tattoo expo that was happening as part of the festival as it was just 200m down from our Airbnb. Almost all of the tattoos were faces or skulls. We stood out both as being the only tourists and for our pale white ‘fresh off the boat’ look.

As we made our way through the streets we came to the Templo de Santo Domingo

A Baroque Roman Catholic Church it was started in 1572, but not completed until 1731. The interior is very ornate, with intricate carvings on the walls. The entry fee used to be small but we discovered it had jumped to NZ$9 per person plus another $5 for a camera. We’ve been in more than enough incredible churches in Eastern Europe that we’ll never pay to go into one, so we passed and wandered through the market just below it and got snacks to eat instead.

When we’d had enough we headed back to chill on the roof terrace of our Airbnb.

A couple of weeks before we left NZ we spotted a friend posted a smug selfie with the Mexico guidebook in hand and a thumbs up, his first destination in a 9 month trip through Mexico, Central and South America. It was our Australian friend Victor who we met, almost ten years ago to the month, on a small plane to East Timor where we got chatting and ended up travelling in East Timor together.

Victor was then embarking on his first (big) backpacking trip and we were starting a four month trip through different parts of Asia. We had both decided to start our adventures in East Timor which at that time was finding its feet with democratic elections due to be held in a few months followed by a planned exit of the UN peacekeeping force and the encouragement of a tourism industry. Not that there was any tourism infrastructure, we were the only tourists on a small plane that was one of the few regular services to the capital, Dili. We had got talking with the usual ‘where are you staying?’ ‘Do you want to get a taxi together‘ and the rest as they say is history (and a few old blog posts) but the strong bonds formed on that trip have created an enduring connection.

Victor’s Facebook post said he was going to be travelling south and when we’d finished our detours in Mexico and Cuba and reached Panama City to start our trip properly we’d be going north. We were super excited to realise our paths would have to cross, in fact we couldn’t quite believe it. We had to make a catch up happen!

Victor had a rocky start to his trip, after spending a week with his daughter and her family in Canada, Air Canada unceremoniously lost his bag when he flew down to San Diego, and didn’t seem to give a single damn about it, leaving him in limbo in San Diego for a week, before he finally gave up trying recover it and entered northern Mexico. Your gear un is everything when backpacking/travelling and you spend so much thought and time in prepping it and finding and buying the right stuff. Everything is meticulously planned for functionality and weight. Losing a bag is tough stuff, especially right out the gate. Firstly you can just go and buy the things you need to replace and secondly where you can buy replacements they are usually never as light or small as your own kit. When he’d finally given up after replacing what he could they of course found it but then refused to forward it onto him in Mexico so he spend a very long day going back to San Diego to retrieve it.

Given we were only spending a little time in Mexico we expected we would miss him there but after he got his bag he messaged to say he was travelling on night buses to make up time and get down to Oaxaca to meet us. We checked with our Airbnb host that he could use the sofa bed in apartment.

That morning he’d got into Mexico City and straight onto another bus to Oaxaca. He was due to arrive just after 4pm which would make him perfectly timed to settle in and come to the biggest Guelaguetza parade with us. The bus had left slightly late so he was a little delayed so we hung out a little longer than planned before using the DiDi app to get a taxi to the bus station. We hadn’t told him we’d meet him off the bus so he got quite a surprise.

As is his way he had bought biscuits for afternoon tea on the way so after getting back to the Airbnb we caught up on the rooftop before heading out to get a place on the parade route.

The parade was the Desfile de Delegaciones (Parade of Delegations), in other words it was all of the people/groups that were taking part in the Guelaguetza. Our Airbnb host had told us it was on like 10 streets and we’d have no problem finding it and she was right. We soon found the crowd and took up a spot before deciding to dip under the ropes and cross the road so the setting sun was no longer in our eyes. The streets were lined with people, there was a big crowd but a very relaxed vibe and space to move around. We set up near a family with a pushchair so we had a clear view but we had a natural advantage of being taller than most people anyway. It took ages for the parade to make it to us, but when it finally arrived it was fantastic.

Each group consisted of a flag/ banner carrier, dancing and a band. Some had fireworks too (and we’re accompanied by bomboderos – fire fighters). The air smelled of Mezcal (like tequila). It was a vibrant, loud and energetic parade of costumes, dancing and music and lots of ‘viva’ ‘viva’ cries as the sun set and the crowd got more excited. Each group displayed their traditional dress, dance and music often with props- one group known for growing pineapples carrying and dancing with them, another known for their cattle hearding acting out catching a cow by tackling someone to the ground, others with masks and huge baskets of plastic and cellophane flowers and fruits. It seemed to go on for hours- and in fact it took almost two for the whole parade to pass.

As the last group finally went past us we dodged through the crowds making a beeline for the square in hope of some food, but everyone had the same idea so be the time we’d hit the parade again and gone round we could get a table and the manager had no idea how long before one would be free. We again wove through the crowds and finding a place we could finally cross the parade route headed back to the Airbnb via a local taco place for a cheap and delicious dinner.

Once back we chatted excitedly as it had been way bigger and better than we were expecting. It was getting late so once we calmed down we got a loose plan for the next day. We decided to take a trip to Mitla, an hour outside of town – a pre-Columbia UNESCO site, it was built in 850CE. It is the second most important site in the state of Oaxaca and the most important in the Zapotec culture as it was one of the main religious and spiritual hubs for the indigenous Zapotec and Mixtec people, and was used as a sacred burial site.

After a big day we decided that we wouldn’t rush in the morning but would just leave when we were ready.

A taxi to the local bus station kicked us out by some street stalls and pointed that the big building through a gap was the station. A big station it was Sunday morning so it was pretty quiet, but people were helpful in pointing us the way to find the bus. We had about a 20 min wait then we left.

It was a slow half hour as the bus was crawled along heading out of town to pick up more passengers. After an hour and a half we were unceremoniously offloaded at a junction on the main road in the town.

They have tuk tuk collectivos (shared) running around from the main road but being 3 people we needed one that was entirely empty so we started to walk to the ruins, as it was about a 20 minute walk but it didn’t take 2 minutes of walking before we flagged down an empty one. It worked out well as it turned out to be up a small hill and we had to get back the same way so the downhill would make for a pleasant walk.

We were dropped off by a church and a lot of souvenir stands but it wasn’t that busy with visitors. The site is effectively a few square wall, with some fretwork mosaics in the brickwork, and a few courtyards. We found it underwhelming. We’d looked around the whole place in about 20 minutes then took a slow wander back towards there town square (there were some cool murals on the wall back) for some cold juices and lunch, where we made a decision to get a collectivo taxi back to Oaxaca, rather than take the slow bus again as we knew it wasn’t much more money and we’d rather save the time.

When we got back to the junction we were immediately touted for one and they already had to people so we were straight off. The 3 of us got the back seat while 2 other people shared the front passenger seat (and the handbrake). It was much faster and we were comfortable enough with the windows down for each of us to have a snooze.

They asked where we wanted to be dropped so we said some streets Marie had clocked in the taxi to the bus station the day before that looked like they had a lot of street murals.

It turned out to be a great place, there was so much cool street art and lovely streets. We wandered up and down them for quite saved the day with some very cool art, a stop at what seemed to be the trendiest cafe in town which restored our energy with coffee and chocolate tart and some very cool photos. There are some talented artists in Oaxaca. We walked back to our digs for some much needed sit down, quiet and the necessary of getting our plans together to separately leave town early the next morning.

At 6:45am we said goodbye to Victor who headed to the bus station towards Merida and followed him a few minutes later as we departed to the airport to fly to Mexico City.