Day 7 17.07.15
Today we had an entire day to explore Oaxaca as we were taking an overnight bus in the evening.
A good nice brunch lifted our spirits and set us up for the day. Because human beings are creature of habit, we went to the same place we had already gone for dinner and breakfast. Yes it was still great food J. We checked out of our hotel at about 12:00 and then made our way around Oaxaca. Since the day before we hadn’t really managed to see much of the town, we went straight to the city centre to have a look at the local cathedral.
We were shortly distracted by a parade on the street celebrating the Mole festival. Yes, there is proof and there is a festival in Oaxaca that celebrates a Pueblan dish.
Next to cathedral there was a – so we thought – small museum where small indigenous statues were on display. We walked in and were greeted by a beautiful colonial courtyard with a fountain in the middle. A very relaxing image.
We headed to the actual museum where there weren’t just normal little statues on display, but pretty much indigenous porn. A large quantity of statues depicting genitalia, intercourse and that on intricate pottery, as well as on ordinary cups, bowls and jars. We moved on and found out that the in our minds small museum was actually really large and displayed several indigenous artefacts from early on to just before the Spanish arrived, as well as indigenous jewellery, some art pieces and also a whole section dedicated to the arrival of the Spaniards as well as what religious emblems they brought with them to Latin America.
Unfortunately we weren’t really in a museum mood and so headed out to enjoy a bit more of our stay or better said, head back to the hotel to use the wifi. Yes, we do still keep up to date with what is happening back home…
Before our night bus we decided to meet up with our friends from the night before. As we had expressed the wish to learn some Mexican cooking, they went out of their way and brought us to a very well put together art gallery that had a little restaurant and kitchen linked to it. Here their friend showed us how he does mole – all 3 different kinds, and we spent a bit of time at this gallery and talked about this and that.
Now their friend had been, similar to us, enjoying quite a large amount of Mezcal the night before and so wasn’t really in the mood to cook us some food. We said our goodbyes and headed to a nearby food market where the ladies cook in the open everything ranging from tacos to empanadas, to quesadillas with mixture that were quite foreign to little ears and that unfortunately I am unable to recall.
We headed back to the hotel and of course left Oaxaca how we came: In the rain, walking to the bus station. Again I secured my luggage – this time with the pocket knife in my hand luggage and we stalked up on snacks. This time we were boarding an overnight bus. These busses are a little larger, there is more room and the seats are a lot more reclinable. They even offer you free of charge refreshments when you enter the bus. They are not too happy with you carrying glass bottles into the bus, these are better left with your big luggage. Now I have been doing some shopping in that sense and I was carrying a couple of glass bottles that I could not have quickly added to my main luggage (especially as I had just secured it in the white bag). Somehow I got through with it and was on the bus. Again the bus had the option of watching a film, even offering headphones so that you can watch the films without disturbing others. If I can recall it was a Mono Aux opening so the normal iPhone headphones could fit as well. We were quite tired and quickly got comfortable and drifted off to sleep. The overnight busses really do get quite chilly so we will be stacking up on warm sweaters and possibly blankets when we go on our next ride. It is also always better when you sleep through the ride as the drivers were mental! It was really foggy, everyone else was driving with indicators and our bus driver kept on driving as fast as he could, as if he had a race to win. Therefore it is better when you do doze off, as you hopefully won’t get to witness any of that…
