First Impressions of Oaxaca City

Intro

We knew we wanted to visit Mexico for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) a joyful holiday to remember lost loved ones, but the question was, where in Mexico did we want to celebrate it? A quick Google search came up with the same answer over and over again.

Oaxaca City.

A colourful, lively, and traditional celebration of the holiday in a gorgeous city full of heritage, culture, and great food. What’s not to like?

We were excited to see if it lived up to the hype! Here, I’m going to detail our first night and day in the City before the festivities begin and share our first impressions.

First night

We didn’t have the best start to our time in Oaxaca. Someone rudely canceled our accommodation booking a week before and because of the festival, there was absolutely bugger all left. Panicking, we somehow found another room on Airbnb, just in a different neighborhood further from the city center than we would have liked.

We arrived in the evening and our neighbor warned us against going out late at night because during the festival some people opportunistically rob tourists. Apparently, someone she knows got mugged by guys with machetes just around the corner. We went out for dinner and even though it was only 7 pm, everything was open and kids were playing in the streets. All I could think of was “men with machetes.”

There was only one restaurant close to the apartment, which was a grim, concrete nightmare with football blaring on a big screen. To add insult to injury, it was called “El Negro” accompanied by a picture of a racist cartoon of a Golly Wog.

Needless to say, it was not good. The food was stone cold. We learned that Mexican chorizo is a completely different and uglier beast than Spanish chorizo, and most of all, never nonchalantly add the onions and peppers on your table to your dish without examining them first. I accidentally ate raw habanero peppers. I don’t know if you’ve ever accidentally eaten a raw habanero pepper, but I don’t recommend it. I spent the rest of our time at the restaurant, eyes bulging, unable to speak, and wondering if this pain would ever end?!

We got a pizza on the way home, ate it quickly on the balcony, and hid the evidence in the bins because we felt like bad tourists.

First Day

By the light of the day, the fears of men with machetes dissipated, and we wandered down to the center of town. Things were not only brighter by the light of the day but also more fun, colourful and vibrant. Trees with fuchsia flowers contrasted with tangerine walls and vice versa. We stumbled across a gigantic street art piece of an iguana. It was so long that I needed to take a panoramic just to fit it into a photo.

We joined a free walking tour, which is what I usually do whenever I go to a new city, but this was honestly the best free walking tour I’ve ever done. It was a delight to marvel at the colonial architecture whilst listening to the history of the city.

To learn about the 300-year occupation of the Spanish, recent political conflict, and, of course, the many different indigenous cultures and languages of the area.

Oaxaca is rich, complex, and diverse.

The churches here are unbelievable. Every church is so grandiose and elaborate that they feel more like cathedrals than churches. Inside each, I am stunned by the detail, the gold gliding, and numerous statues. They all seem to have an extortionate number of Jesus statues. I’ve never so many in one church before, and they all have a life-size Jesus inside of a glass coffin. (I thought this was unique to Oaxaca, but then I saw this in other parts of Mexico and Central America.)

It’s the prettiest city, every home and building is painted in a different colour. There are deep reds, rich terracottas, burnt yellows, cobalt blues, dusky pinks, and light turquoises. Remarking on the colourfulness of the city, we were told that it is a UNESCO heritage quality and that they’ve planned the colour of every building to be the most harmonious melody of colours. No one colour is repeated in a street. If you want to paint your house, you have to apply for planning permission and your choice may not be accepted.

In one charming neighbourhood they took us to a local chocolate shop to try out traditional Oaxacan chocolate. Typically Mexican chocolate is drunk and not eaten, but we tried some bars that were delicious. I didn’t think I would like them because they don’t have any dairy in them, but the crumbly, nutty texture and the cinnamon-like flavour were a delight. We also got to try a raw cacao bean, which was bitter as hell but the fruit surrounding it tasted like lychee.

Speaking of food, they gave us some fantastic recommendations for local dishes to try, and later in our trip, we took a wonderful cooking class where we got to try Oaxaca’s famous specialties, which I’ve written about here.

Our last stop was in a really cool art shop on a street full of even more cool art shops and street art.

Here it was explained to us that public protests are banned in Oaxaca, so the people took to using art as a form of protest and that’s why so much of the artwork and street art here is politically striking and poignant. One stood out to us in particular, a school girl crying, holding various dates and numbers representing the deaths and disappearances of protesting students. She says “Mum, I don’t want to go to school because I will disappear.”

It left us with so much to discuss and think about as we strolled back to our original meeting point, the Santo Domingo Church.

Santo Domingo Church is in the center which is stunning. It was even more when we headed up to see it from a rooftop bar, cocktail in hand with the sky painting a streak of dusky pink behind it.

Final Thoughts

Does Oaxaca live up to the hype?

Absolutely!

If this was only the beginning, just a taste of what was to come. From the Day of the Dead Festival to an incredible cooking course and to seeing petrified waterfalls in the mountains. Oaxaca is incredibly unique and has a hell of a lot to offer. Just skip the habanero peppers and stay in the center and you will be golden. Out of our 6-week trip, it was one of my favourite places in Mexico and I would happily go back in a heartbeat.

Thank you for reading! Hearts and tips are always welcome and your support is very much appreciated.

This story was originally published on Medium

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