Oaxaca, Mexico

Our first city was Oaxaca where we stayed from 15 to 28 January. We attended Spanish classes for two weeks to refresh our language skills to help us with the rest of our trip to South America.  It was somewhat effective.  We went from speaking Spanish poorly to speaking Spanish slightly less poorly.

We slowed our pace down in Mexico compared to SE Asia where we were constantly moving to a new place every couple of days.  

Our outdoor classroom where we studied Spanish 3 to 4 hours per day in small groups.  The weather was perfect!  A little chilly in the morning, but it warmed up to the low 80s in the afternoons.  Never saw a cloud the entire time we were there!

Sporting a Christmas present, Kassie was truly a "happy camper" to be away from the cold and snow of the Northwest.  At 5000 feet elevation the weather this time of year is perfect.  

Some hand-woven rugs for sale.  

On our tour outside of Oaxaca we learned the entire process of creating these impressive rugs.  It starts with combing the wool from sheep, spinning it into yarn, dying the wool with natural dyes, and finally weaving them into rugs on looms.  Fortunately, (unfortunately from Kassie's perspective) we didn't have any room for these in our backpacks!

Testing out the coffee at one of the many small coffee shops.

In the center of town there are lots of people walking about and plenty of things for sale on the sidewalks.

Lots and lots of churches in Oaxaca.

Among the most famous churches in Mexico is Santa Domingo.

There is nothing "small" about Santa Domingo! It goes on and on with its countless corridors and courtyards.

The courtyard inside our hotel was a great place to hang out and meet guests from all over.  This is typically how we figure out where we're going next.  Sometimes it's difficult getting the conversations steered away from the US presidential election and back to the task at hand.

Only a few miles from Oaxaca and 1300 feet above the valley floor are the Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban.  It dates back to 500 BC.

Although similar to the more famous Myan ruins not too far away in the Yucatan peninsula, the Zapotecs were different.

A common theme with ancient civilizations is they all loved their big steps! 

Cobblestone streets and the colonial architecture throughout Oaxaca make it well worth visiting.

It eventually became more cost effective to just buy bags of coffee beans from the numerous coffee shops as opposed to trying a cup at every one.  The state of Oaxaca is known for their excellent coffee and I was determined to validate that assertion.

We took a tour to visit the sites within an hour's drive from Oaxaca.  Our first stop was the Tree of Tule.

It boasts the largest circumference of any tree in the world.  It is estimated to be 1,200 to 3,000 years old.

The next stop was Hierve el Agua.  The formation is created from spring water that is over-saturated with calcium carbonate. 

Hierve el Agua has an impressive natural "infinity swimming pool"

The final selfie with our SE Asia Ray Bans.  We're going through a lot more sunglasses this trip.

Our next stop was the Mitla ruins. Also Zapotec. Mitla was the religious center.  When the Spanish Conquistadors came to town, they used the carefully engineered stones to build the church in the background.

An interesting fact is that they engineered these structures to withstand the many earthquakes in the region.  Impressive building technology for 850 A.D.  Turns out a lot of Spanish churches didn't fare quite as well. 

Oaxaca is known for their various mole sauces. And all this time I only knew of guacamole.

Modern life coexists with the very old architecture.

On our tour we visited a mezcal factory.  Very similar to tequila since both are made from agave.  Neither one of us has a discerning palate for hard liquor. So, we can only tell you that it burns going down.

Quite an involved process of smoking the agave "pineapple", grinding, fermenting, and then distilling.

These incredibly brilliant purple flowers are everywhere in Oaxaca.  Overall, Oaxaca was a great place to visit.

Heading South!

After over a month at home with cold and snow it was time to head out again.  Our original departure date of 11 January was delayed by three days due to near-record snowfall in Portland.  Finally, we were off to Mexico for a month with tentative plans to visit Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru before returning to Oregon in May.