Week #17: Oaxaca de Juarez

Our second week in Oaxaca is in the books! It's been a real treat to be in one place for multiple weeks as we can really get to know the city much better this way. After a few nights in an AirBnB, we returned to the spot where we've been parking our van and one of the locals welcomed us back letting us know that he was glad to see us return to the neighborhood. I could be mistaken but I don't think you'd get that sort of welcome from most residents in the US. 

I lost a tooth filling a few months ago and figured I'd wait until we were in Mexico to get it fixed since dental work is so much more affordable here. I had visited a dentist in Mazatlan and was going to return there to get it fixed but I found a dentist here who could fix it for the same cost. So for $400 I received a crown on one of my molars which I suspect is a fraction of what this work would cost in the US. They were also super thorough in their Covid protocols as every time I saw the dentist I got a hairnet, medical scrubs, surgical gloves and a full spray down with some sort of disinfectant...and all my belongings would go in a plastic bag to be collected at the end of my visit.

                                          

In the past week, there have been three fairly sizable earthquakes - all over 5.0 on the Richter scale. The first one, neither of us felt. The second one, I didn't feel as I was walking to my Spanish class but Ginny felt it quite strongly in the van. The third one, we felt in our AirBnB and went running for the doorway as the room was shaking pretty good. My Spanish teachers have said that earthquakes are quite common in this part of Mexico so they don't seem too phased by them at all. 

My Spanish is definitely improving after finishing my second week of fairly intensive Spanish classes (four hours each day). One day last week, my class took an excursion to a local village (Teotitlan del Valle) where we toured Zapotec ruins and learned about textile making and dying. All of their fabric dying use natural materials such as local flowers, insects and plants. Rosario, a Zapotec woman from Teotitlan, gave us several demonstrations of the yarn making and dying process which was fascinating. See photos below for more details. 

Ginny took a three-day workshop last week on hand carving a wooden spoon. It turned out that she was the only student in the class so she received one-on-one instruction from a woodworking artisan (with a specialty in mask and puppet making) who has more than 40 years of experience! He spoke very little English but was still able to teach Ginny how to make a (beautiful?) spoon which is almost certain to become a family heirloom. While in class, she was also very fortunate to see a calenda (street parade) celebrating a 40+ year anniversary of a local agricultural union. See photo below of all these shenanigans. 

To escape the heat during the middle of the day, we often seek out museums during our travels. This week we visited the stamp museum (sounds boring but it was actually fascinating!) and the Museo de Pintores Oaxaquenos. Both museums were well worth the price of admission (free!). See photos below from our visits to these museums. Note: that VW bug is covered in stamps and so is the entire interior.

One of our favorite things to do whenever we travel is to just wander the streets of the city. We find that this is the best way to discover the city's vibe and stumble upon fun cafes or restaurants. In Oaxaca, you can't go far without running into a street market or murals. Some of the street markets are so big that you wish you had a road map to navigate them. Whenever you get tired, there's always a corner taco stand ready to whip up some amazing street food to assuage the weary traveler. See photos below from our wanderings through the beautiful streets of Oaxaca.