Tumbleweed

We finally made it to Oaxaca! Before we even started our Mexican travels, Oaxaca was the one place that we knew that we wanted to visit. I had been here nearly 30 years ago as a backpacking vagabond and remembered the vibrant fabrics, lively markets and incredible food. What I didn't remember was that this city is swarming with tourists - just like cicadas rising from the ashes!  While I can't remember if it was this way in 1994, Oaxaca is certainly on the gringo trail these days. Despite all of the tourists, Oaxaca is still a very magical place worthy of a visit. There are 16 different groups of indigenous people each of which have their own language: Amuzgo, Cuicateco, Chinanteco, Chocho, Chontal, Huave, Ixcateco, Mazateco, Mixe, Mixteco, Nahuatl, Popolaca, Trique, Zapoteco y Zoque. The strong presence of indigenous people creates a vibrant and dynamic vibe to this city. There are tons of local artisans, street vendors and musicians on almost every street and the markets are ...

It has been another amazing week traveling in Mexico! We spent most of the past week in Puebla which is the 4th largest city (3.25 million) according to most sources. You would think that this would be a straight forward exercise to figure out the largest cities in Mexico but I came up with many different lists that had Puebla anywhere from 4th to 6th largest - the only thing the lists all agree upon is that Mexico City is always the largest by far!  Puebla was founded by the Spanish in 1531 and has a long and storied history of battles with many different countries including the Spanish, French and Americans. Cinco de Mayo is a big holiday here to commemorate May 5, 1862 when Mexico was victorious over the French in the Battle of Puebla. In this battle, the French were much better armed than the Mexican army but many of them had contracted cholera and were severely dehydrated so the Mexicans were able to defeat them despite their smaller, poorly equipped forces. We learned this al...