On to Oaxaca City

I decided that I had had enough of Puerto Escondido as the days were becoming scenes from that movie Groundhog Day. Everyday I would walk down the main drag and see the same man opening his mini-super, the water delivery guys, the lady baking pizzas, the town drunk skateboarding with his fat dog, beer in hand, and the local psychopath sprinting down the street, waving at his fans, with a loin cloth on. I was craving a change of scenery, so I took the bus to Oaxaca City, pronounced Wa-Ha-Ka. The city of Oaxaca is super old and is the site of Monte Alban, the ancient Zapotec city dating back to 500 B.C. which now stands in ruins. Oaxaca City was founded by the Spanish in 1529.

There are two ways to get to Oaxaca City from Puerto. You can take the super luxurious OCC bus south, down around Salina Cruz and back up to Oaxaca City for $20, an 11-hour overnight ride. Or, you can take an ok bus straight up and over the Sierra Madres directly to Oaxaca City for $11. I decided to go for the $11 Estrella Roja bus. It only left at 11pm, so I figured I'd sleep, and even took some dramamine to help speed up the process. The thing is, although the trip is only 90 miles in distance, it took 8.5 hours to get there because it was switch backs all day everyday. The bus probably never went over 40 mph and stalled twice. Then Sancho Panza plopped down next to me at the last minute and snored in my ear all night, like that guttural phlegmy snore. I spent most of the night banging my head on the window for being such a cheapo.

We finally arrived, and Oaxaca City is definitely a cool town: super old looking, packed with museums, cafes, colonial buildings, and breezy squares lined with shady trees. I stayed at a hotel which was converted from an old colonial mansion. I must have gotten the servant's hole though because it was literally a box with a bed in it. Laying in bed, you could roll over and be out the door. Since sitting in my bed in a box was freaking me out, I spent the morning wandering around the city. I walked through this indoor market and the only word to describe it was pungent. Here they've got everything from statues of little baby Jesus Cristo to dead sheep that they're skinning, discecting, and auctioning off. The smell was so overwhelming I had to cover my face with my sweater. Sides of cow hanging next to whole skinned chickens, legs and feet intact, piles of dead fish, shrimp, the sheep of course, then mounds of chilies, coffee beans, spices, herbs, overripe fruit, cut flowers, cheese, and a mess of people. Every one of my senses was claustrophobic. The there's the ladies trying to get you to buy chili coated crickets because that's the popular snack here. I was still on antibiotics from the E.Coli I contracted at a restaurant in Puerto, so I had to decline. I stepped out to breathe, and there was this old lady with a box of baby chicks in her lap, but the chicks were all different colors, turquoise, hot pink, florescent yellow and orange, and she's selling them and giving them out in brown paper lunch bags. It didn't make sense to me at all. What do you do with this psychedelic bird in a bag? I wanted to take a picture to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, but she screamed at me not to. They're pretty intense about religion here. It's almost like voodoo. Whenever anyone walks by a church or cemetery, they cross themselves over and over again. There's shops selling animals for sacrifices, skeleton figures everywhere, and then they're super sketch when you try to take photos.

I took a tour of Monte Alban and spent all day walking around the ruins of the ancient city. The temples were massive and were all built with just handheld flint tools, no machines, no cranes. These people must have had some intense faith in some higher power to go to all that trouble. I spent the rest of my time in Oaxaca City scanning the museums, sitting around cafes, and watching street performers and shoe shiners at work.

Well, my Mexican adventure stops here. Now I am hopping borders to visit our neighbors to the North in Canada. I will close with: "Aimee's Top 10 Observations About Mexico and It's Inhabitants."

1. I never saw one Mexican over 6 ft. tall.

2. Mexicans put chili on EVERYTHING.

3. I never saw a Mexican holding a machete, and never did a Mexican try to cut off my body parts with one.

4. I was never hassled, cheated, robber, or drugged by a Mexican. In contrast, I was treated very fairly and kindly by everyone I met.

5. I was not abducted or kidnapped for human trafficking or sex slave purposes while in Mexico. 6. There is a serious drug trafficking problem in Mexico no doubt. But unless you go looking for trouble, you will stay out of it.

7. If you drink the water, you will get sick.

8. If you eat raw vegetables and fruits, even in a restaurant, you will probably get sick.

9. You can get any medication to fix your sickness over the counter without a prescription.

10. Margaritas are served blended unless specified otherwise.

*Thanks for coming along for the ride*