Oaxaca! (Pronounced Wa-Ha-KA). Warning: do not read while hungry.

Still celebrating el Dia de Guadalupe (who we finally found out is also the Virgin Mary, oh).

I'm still sniffly and pretty congested, but we've stayed an extra night at this quaint beachy paradise to help me get over the cold (an overnight bus and crossing the Guatemalen border while sick sounds far from ideal), so I have no excuse to put this off any longer.

Oaxaca!

The Water Man, Oaxaca City

What can I say. Ever since hearing about the city's culinary traditions from a co-worker at Nittany Notes way back at Penn State - she was doing her honors anthropology thesis on traditional Oaxacan food- I've known I wanted/needed to go. We'd also had a few recommendations from friends who had done Central America previously, and Oaxaca was always on the top of everyone's lists. The food. The art. The city's preserved colonial beauty.

Chili row at the mercado

The food. From the tacos to the aguas frescas (refreshing sweetened fruit waters) to the sorbet (a whole plaza full of sorbet stands!) to the market (burlap sacks overflowing with chilis!) to the street food (lime and chili jicama!) to the chocolate (hot, served with sweet bread!) to the cafes (locally grown coffee beans!)  to the much-hyped mole (35 ingredients!), we were in food heaven. Even our pretty basic hostel had a great breakfast included. Among other things, Oaxaca is known for its cheese, a stringy rich mozzarella, if I had to compare, and they put it on everything. The tortillas ooze with the flavor of locally grown maiz, and the salsas! Well, most tables are graced with a green and a red, both usually picante, but the green being a bit fresher with cilantro and parsley, and the red being smoky, with chipotle. We've been known to finish off a bowl or two of just the salsa, especially if there are extra tortillas hanging around. We had some amazing juices and aguas frescas (from the standard watermelon or hibiscus to a refreshing lime and parsley), discovering that parsley brings a whole new dimension to a juice. We saved some dollars eating at many hole in the wall taquerias or market stalls, but we did splurge our last night. It would have been a sin not to.

Chocolate, the real way.

After a bit of googling, we took ourselves to the supposed best margaritas in Oaxaca (served with lemon and pepper spiced jicama slices on the side) and then to a different venue for the supposed best mole. We were drunk off of the one margarita each, and the mole had us licking our fingers. Internet, you served us well. The restaurant we chose offered a mole tasting dish so we could choose between the six types they offered, and we went with the popular black mole. How could you not? We also adventurously dove into a plate full of fried grasshoppers, because again, how could you not? The mole was great, with the traditional smoky chocolaty flavors, but the grasshoppers I could have done without. They were fine at first, but after five or six bites, there was just this lingering aftertaste we couldn't pinpoint. Before we left the city, we made sure to stop and taste some of the chocolate Oaxaca is also known for. Grown locally (apparently cocoa beans were used as currency before the Spaniards arrived), crushed, mixed with cinnamon, sugar and crushed almonds, and added to warm milk. Served with a side of sweet-anise bread for dunking (the one fail of our whole culinary tour- it was too stale!).

Inner courtyard of the textile museum

Wall of ceramic leaves

The art. There was the textile museum, the graphic arts museum, the Oaxacan art museum, the art galleries, the artisanal market. Artists in the street. Graffiti art. Neighboring towns full of artists. Oaxaca is an art-lovers haven. We happily spent the stupendously hot midday afternoons in the cool shade of the museums, and visited the artisanal market twice, having decided on a few kitschy wooden animal souvenirs after scoping the whole city out. We checked out the Botero exhibit at the Oaxacan Painters' Museum, getting a reality shock and visual history lesson on the ongoing Colombian civil war. We also stayed an extra day to get to the neighboring town of Teotitlán, renowned for its Zapotec textiles (a spearate post on this to come - as Matt calls it, "the best day yet.")

Oh! We also happened to be in the city for their carnival! No, not carnaval, but carnival! Like carnies! Of course we had to walk through, reminiscing on our old carny days (see www.chiliconcarny.blogspot.com for more of that action). I have to admit, Mexican carny food is way better than ours. But their rides look sketch as hell.

Mexican Carnival

Between the cafes, the restaurants and the art scene, we felt we were in a Mexican cocktail of San Francisco mixed with Melbourne and a dash of Palermo, Buenos Aires on top. Suffice to say, Oaxaca lived up to its reputation.

Poor burro at the Mexican carnival. He was not happy.