And now the tour really begins!

Friday, July 26, 2024

What? It's only four a.m.? Oh, that's right; my body thinks it's six! Okay, so there's plenty of time for yoga and organizing and stuff before breakfast at eight! Looking back at last night's shots, maybe this one should have been included, with its flying sparks. And Ginger says I got the flowers and the dish confused last night. The food is the Tlayuda and the lily is the asucuana. And I only had one beer!

And here's Jan enjoying the morning air and anticipating a beautiful day!

In order to get to breakfast, we go down to the main floor across to the pool, and upstairs to the solarium! You place your order at the counter and get your coffee or tea and/or water and orange juice and have a seat. Eventually there's a place of fresh watermelon, cantelope and papaya! I ordered the Huevos a la Mexicana and it comes with chips, black beans and cheese. Yum!

To prove I was there!

View at breakfast

Ginger's room opens on to the pool

Juan tells us about Oaxaca's history before we set out. (Barbara is a major contributor
to the photos in the blog! Thanks!!) We learned that "oaxa" is a vegetable and that's where the name of the city and state come from. The Aztecs controlled this area and if it hadn't been for the Spanish, the Aztecs would have conquered the Mayans. the city of Oaxaca was designed by the same person that designed Mexico City. The Dominicans were the most important religious group and this was the richest area because there is gold! Oh! And there are 64 native languages in Mexico.

Lynette gets one last glass of orange juice.

We go back up to the room just long enough to leave a tip for housekeeping and gather our stuff for the day. It's going to be a walking tour of the historical part of Oaxaca, centered around the zocolo, as all the towns were that the Spanish established or conquored. We visit the church of Santo Dominico and the cathedral, and a textile museum. Then there's lunch at an outdoor restaurant that faces the zocolo with delicious food, margaritas made with mexcal, and great people watching. There are a lot more people than usual because of the festival. (Blogger is so weird! I don't know why it's underlined the above!!)

How much is that doggie in the window??

(Barbara's great eye!)

Barbara's great shot of her mom, Betsy!

and me!

The Church of Santo Domingo. You can see the two saints who founded the church and the dog who appeared in a dream to Santo Domingo with a scroll in his mouth, telling him to build the church!
One of the most surprising thing I learned is that Santo Domingo invented the rosary! You will often see the Virgin of the Rosary.

Part of the church has been converted into a library housing the books which the Spanish brought with them to Oaxaca. Some date back to the fifteenth century!

(Thanks, Barbara!)

Another part is now a museum. These are Olmec art.

This was orignally thought to be a dancer. In fact, he is dead. You can see
his intestines outside his body and his arms are down, instead of up.

Next we got to see the contents of the most amazing tomb found at Monte Alban. Tomorrow we'll visit the actual site but today we were able to see all the jewelry and artifacts that were discovered there!

Intricate carvings on bone!

If you look closely you can see that the top portion of this pendant shows two persons playing on a ball court. Next comes to sun god, for whom they are playing. Then there is a butterfly representing transformation, since the winner will be sacrificed to the god. They whole story is here.

So many cases filled with wonders in gold and jade and amber and turquoise and obsidian.

Inside the Church of Santo Domingo (Barbara's).

So much gold!!

Many kinds of fruit juices

Well, it is the year of the rabbit!

The statue to the left is composed of little people!

The zocolo

One of the exhibits in the textile museum! The artist is Alforja Chotana

Others are much more traditional.

Lunch begins!

Juan's chicken mole

Duckie's margarita with mexcal

Barbara's cheese plate

Karen and my nachos

After lunch we visit the mercado, or permanent marketplace. It is Oaxaca's version of the Grand Bazaar and you can buy anything there! There are flowers and spices and clothing and meats and jewelry and baskets and fresh vegetables and and and!!

Ice cream selection

Making mole, mixing chocolate with spices

Barbara's selfie of our churros

In case we weren't stuffed enough Juan takes us to a chocolate shop and while we're waiting for our hot chocolate (some with water and some with milk so we can taste test the difference) he goes off and finds us churros! Jan and I decided to do the taste test and she liked the water one better and I liked the milk, so that worked out well!

We give the cathedral another try because we want to see the Black Jesus. There are many of these throughout latin America, but we don't find him.

Next stop is a store that sells food and refrigerators and water and stoves! We're looking for big bottles of water to be sure we're all well hydrated. It isn't that hot, probably in the 80's, but there's no humidity!

Everyone but Karen heads back to the hotel. She's going exploring and gets to see a parade that we missed. But four of us opt for the pool and the cold water to cool down and get fresh. Others opt for a bit of a lie-down.

We reconvene at seven, but only six of us make the call! We intrepid travelers head out again and find the world's most disorganized parade! It's fun to watch but when five of the participants decide to run back toward the starting point we figure it's over and head out to dinner.

Betsy, Barbara, and I decide to split the dessert sampler. But then Barbara also orders a mushroom bowl with goat cheese and tomatoes and Karen, Ginger and Juan all order real food. Juan's has octopus in tortillas and Ginger has shrimp cerviche. Betsy and I just want lemonade with sparkling water but the others all have cocktails with mexcal! Well, it winds up with pretty much everyone sharing whatever they have and Barbara playing the clean-up batter!

We're all sitting there thinking about heading out when our waiter comes over with little shot glasses and a bottle of mexcal! Everyone gets a taste and it's really good! We're thinking that was a lovely treat when he returns with a second bottle and more glasses! This one is made with grapefruit! But wait! there's more! He returns with a THIRD bottle and this one is mexcal made with cannabis!! Holy cow! It's a good thing that we only have to walk home!! Kind of wish I could go straight to bed - but then I'd never get caught up on this blog, so if there's anything weird in the spelling or syntax, it's really not my fault!!