"Framed" ~ Oaxaca City, Mexico © 2011 Skip Hunt Oaxaca, Mexico 2011
The bus from Juchitan pulled into the Oaxaca City first-class station that I'd never seen before. Turns out it's fairly new and this was the first time I hadn't arrived in the city via motorcycle or second-class bus. The announcements are now in English as well.
There was an electric buzz in the city since the largest festival in Oaxaca (Guelaguetza) was about to get underway. The streets were already packed with revelers and mariachi bands. It looked like it might rain soon as well so I decided to go to the budget hotel I'd stayed in before. I only hoped they weren't full yet.
The old fellow I'd chatted with at my standby hotel painted in pink (Hotel Yalalag) remembered me and my motorcycle from other trips. He smiled and told me I'd have a room as long as I needed even through Guelaguetza since they don't take reservations.
The excitement in the air was palpable and I'm glad I decided to stop for the festival, but the massive amount of indigenous families that swarmed into the city quickly became a bit trying to get around.
Every evening there would be some sort of parade with an impressive video projected huge onto the face of the Zocalo cathedral. Followed by an equally impressive fireworks display.
Each evening the crowd got more massive to the point that it was just one giant mob and you couldn't even move. The fireworks got more impressive as well to the point where it looked like an authentic war zone fire fight. That's not an exaggeration. After one night the fire was coming down from the sky burning some people. In the onslaught of explosive mayhem some of the rockets accidentally went into the crowd and exploded. The next night I watched them from about five blocks away. ;)
Oaxaca is famous for it's cheese, chocolate & Mezcal. None of which I'd had any yet. So one evening I decided to knock out the trifecta. Only, I got the order messed up.
I hadn't eaten all day before I settled on the least touristy looking Mezcal shops to sample the varieties and flavors. The boy kept telling me there wasn't any difference in the various brands in terms of quality. He said they were all the same quality and that the price differences were only due to presentation and flavor.
He just kept pouring me sample that I'd ask for and at one point I wondered when he'd cut me off from drinking for free. I had the price of the bottle I'd already selected before starting so there'd be no chance of adjusting the price after excessive free sampling. ;)
Second in the trifecta was getting my chocolate fix in. My sight had got somewhat blurry and couldn't read the labels on the Soledad chocolate factory bars. There was a large metal bin of raw putty chocolate you could buy by the kilo in a clear plastic bag. I bought twenty pesos worth and dug in. About half way through the bag my better judgement started creeping back in. My stomach also began to object, but I was now committed. It was delicious for sure, but not swimming around in a belly full of Mezcal.
Starting to feel nauseous, I decided I better wrap up the trifecta with a couple Oaxaca cheese quesadillas.
Too little too late. I don't know if the boy had misinformed me about the Mezcal quality issue or that I just drank too much. Perhaps it was adding in the rich chocolate or the order of ingestion. In short, I had the mother of all headaches all the next day and ended up drinking a papaya licuado that had been sitting in the sun and then cooled back down with ice cubes made from tap water and dug out of the ice tray with dirty indigenous fingernails.
I know what you're likely asking, "How could you be so stupid?" and I'd answer, "Good question!".
All I can say is it was one bad initial decision to sample Mezcal on an empty stomach that just compounded itself. And, as I sit here in Mexico City three days later, I'm still paying for that lapse in judgement.
Lesson learned. For now. ;)
From the blog Mexico 2011 Pt.2
Photo gallery of this trip HERE
Skip Hunt
Austin, Texas