Talacalula Sunday market

We’ve got a month left in Oaxaca before we fly on to Columbia and Peru. We’ve planned to try and get out of Oaxaca each of our remaining weekends. First stop - the Sunday market in Talacalula. We’ve been told it is fun. It was basically a massive covered street market mainly running along one road. There were so many stalls selling all sorts of fruits, veg, food, drinks, toys, diy stuff and clothes. We walked along for ages, sampling mango, coconut water, Jamaica juice, tejate (yuck!), banana crisps, goat curry, ice cream, so much to eat. There was a large indoor market at the end with all different meats and foods. We had some barbecue meat, but it wasn’t a patch on the Mercado 20th November in town! We also bought a squishy toy that lasted a whole day before exploding and clay cups made from barra for each of us. The cups are famous here for being good at extreme temperatures and they are unglazed so your coffee sort of slowly leaks out the bottom!

Visiting a village

To end our Christmas break, before getting back into the usual routines, we spent a couple of nights up in a village in the mountains looking down on Oaxaca. It took hours to travel 40 miles, two buses and two taxis, but we made it to the cabanos (cabins) in Capulalpam. A really small place which felt really friendly and safe. We have been told great stuff about the surrounding villages, but the virus has meant that they have all been closed to tourists for ages and even now only a few places are open. We actually changed taxis in Ixtlan which is still closed to tourists! 

Our cabanos were in a forest, a twenty minute walk from the village. Everybody we came across took time to say hello and chat to us. On the first evening we sat in the lovely church and then some fireworks were set off and lots of local people came in and music was played, great fun and a lucky chance encounter!

We all went for a traditional temazcal which basically involved standing in a coal fired steam room in our pants and hitting ourselves with tree branches. Great! It was weird but fun and made our skin look great. Again, everyone was super friendly.

Before heading back we went to a nearby restaurant with a play park, lovely stream and a swing bridge. Very relaxing and stunning surroundings. As we were walking there a pick up from the cabanos pulled over and gave us a lift, me and Olive jumped in the back, we both loved it. 

Photos of the cabanos, village, pick up and nearby restaurant. 

The world’s fattest tree!

We went to see the world’s fattest tree in nearby Tule. We saw the world’s tallest tree, the General Sherman tree, in Sequoia national park in California, so it made sense to go see the fattest tree. It certainly is fat with a width of 14 metres. It must take a lot of water which isn’t that abundant in Oaxaca. They pulled up another massive but younger tree nearby to reduce the pressure on the water supply. We enjoyed looking at it then Selina tried the Tejate in a nearby food hall market. It’s a mixture of maize and cocoa. It was .... interesting! I preferred the Jamaica juice (hibiscus).

Mitla Christmas Lights

We have done all sorts over Christmas in Oaxaca: a mammoth baking session, tasty fish dinner at local posh restaurant, ten pin bowling, wine and cheese party at ours, pot luck Christmas Day lunch with lots of ex-pats at the library, bus tour (in Spanish!) of Oaxaca and lots of catch ups with friends. 

We thought we would treat ourselves to a few days away in Mitla which is a couple of hours away. We booked in to a friend’s Airbnb. It was gorgeous. The rooms were beautifully put together with lots of local backstories and the breakfast was yummy. Mitla has a population of 10,000 so it feels really local and small. Although it was fiesta time both nights with a ticketed centre full of people enjoying the Christmas lights and listening to the mexican bands. We had loads of fun and ate lots of street snacks: corn, tostas, tortas, punch, chocolate and a dubiously shaped waffle! We also looked round the small set of ruins with a palace and tombs. We are already planning to come back one weekend.

Routine is good!

Three weeks in and it really feels like we are living in Oaxaca. It’s a really lovely place with great people and we are already doing our usual thing of envisaging retiring here! We can add that to buying an RV in either America or Oz! Retirements going to be busy - Ha ha! Oaxaca though is a super place, we have landed on our feet. 

We already have quite a routine with Spanish classes on Mondays, cookery classes with our lovely cleaner Norma on Tuesdays, various swimming sessions throughout the week that are getting all of us into the pool, art classes on Thursdays and the regular set of play stuff for Olive in Llano Park on Sundays. We are gradually building up a bit of a network and I am constantly translating WhatsApp’s that I’m receiving then replying with translated Spanish messages. Olive is settled in to school and we have a daily lift share with a super nice family that gives me and Olive a giggle twice a day. And we are obviously eating lots of lovely food. It really is beginning to feel like home and we are starting to plan Christmas. 

Random set of photos of San Domingo church and cool street art we saw on a walking tour, Olive enjoying her favourite Jamaica juice, Olive’s art work with Vik and Boo’s first swimming lesson!

Getting to know Oaxaca

We have spent our first week getting to know Oaxaca. We are staying in San Felipe which is a lovely area, popular with expats. We’ve tried out the local Indian restaurant(!) and looked at the local church. 

On Sundays loads of fun activities come to the Parque Lleno in the neighbouring Reforma area. Olive loved it, painting, riding car, trampoline and sliding down a massive inflatable bouncy slide. 

The view from our apartment is lovely at sunset as is the view from Olive’s school. 

Adios Charl and Nev, Ola Oaxaca

We said our fairwells to Charl and Nev as they headed on to Costa Rica - thanks for setting us up brilliantly for our adventures. Then we flew across to stay in an apartment in Oaxaca and let Olive start in her school...