(Post 34 of 193. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

My final day in Oaxaca, I had some work to do and I was rather exhausted and foot sore, so I stuck pretty close to the apartment. Late morning, I did go out to the Mercado de la Merced to get something quick to-go for breakfast, as well as some juice.

This market is impeccable, very similar in ambience to my market in Chuburná, just bigger. The first lady who said hi to me in the foodcourt got an order for a torta with cecina.

An Uber driver in Mérida originally from Oaxaca had warned me not to eat at market stalls and to instead have meals at restaurants. I finally understood what he meant — a pretty basic torta plus a juice cost me 55 pesos, what I paid for a two-course breakfast Friday morning! Still not an expensive breakfast by any means, and I was glad to take my food home, but it just goes to show where value is in dining out in Oaxaca.

For lunch, I had to go try out El Morocco, which my friends had raved out. Oh… The ambiance was like eating at Tea for Two in Sarajevo.

I ordered the menú del día First up was a basket of not very good bread and a glass of cantaloupe water!

Next up was a beet, mango, and mint salad. OMG. This was a culinary genius-level entrée. Even if the rest of my meal wasn’t very good, there was the full value of my meal right there. So, so, so good.

The main was chicken and veggies over couscous. The ratio of topping to couscous was a bit off and there was way too much parsley, but this was absolutely delicious.

I thought this was going to be super hot sauce, but had just the right amount of heat for me. The meat and veg had plenty of flavour on their own (lots of cumin, yum!), but this sauce mixed into the couscous really elevated it.

Dessert was a disappointing pretty stale cake with raisins and orange flavour — must be very good fresh, but wasn’t great as it was dry. Still plenty good enough to finish, though. 🙂

I returned to the apartment to do more work and to start packing. Late evening, I was hungry again and decided to try a pizza and pasta place right around the corner from the apartment.

I finally got to try some local beer — this had citrus undertones that were perfect with a pizza.

Garlic sauce, smoky spicy sauce, and chimichurri.

The sauce, cheese, and super fresh tomatoes were great — like the pizza I got used to in Europe. The crust was a bit meh, but once I figured out the perfect ratio of sauces to make one savoury dipping sauce, it became a great vehicle for all those flavours.

I got in, finished packing, and went to bed early for a 5:45 wake-up time. OF COURSE this wound up being the only night the whole week that the building was loud. I pretty much just dozed and was up at 5:40. I did the last little bits of packing and tidying up, dressed, and called a taxi. I had been a little concerned that it wasn’t possible to call a cab ahead of time and very worried that I wouldn’t get one quickly, hence why I was trying that early for an 8:30 flight at an airport about 15 minutes away. There are many cab companies in Oaxaca and most are poorly rated, so I just called the first one in the list. They got a cab out to me so fast that I wasn’t even downstairs by the time the driver was honking for me! So I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

The airport is where I finally saw for the first time since all this coronavirus mess hit how the world had changed while I was away. For the first time ever, I was not allowed to travel on my Mexican residency card. Thank goodness I always travel with my passport, even in Canada!. In fact, it was like the lady at baggage check-in had never seen that card. She asked me when I had last entered Mexico from Canada, and when I said about 2.5 years, she was taken aback and said “That might be a problem.” I pointed out that the card, good through this time next year, is proof that I’m here legally. She then asked if I was continuing on to Canada, because there are no international flights out of Mérida at this time, and I told her that Mérida is home. She finally agreed to check me in.

The next stop before security was a brief interview to check my health status. That was fine. Security was easy and I didn’t set off the metal detector for once, but my head was “wanded” because I wear a scarf. I offered to remove it (what Canadian airport security prefers), but he told me that would not be necessary.

I then had plenty of time before my flight to get a coffee and some yogurt and get part of a job done. We boarded and left on time, and I slept the first half of the trip. The second half was really sad — there were new parents in front of me on their first flight and they were not prepared for their baby having a problem with her ears. So the poor child was wailing and wailing and wailing. I’ve had two flights like that in my life, one as a child and one as an adult, and my heart broke for her. Someone finally found a lollipop at the bottom of her purse and offered it to the parents. It took about a minute for sucking on it to work so that the baby’s ears popped. After that, she fell into an exhausted sleep. This was a short flight, so I can’t imagine it took that long from the first wails to resolution, but it sure felt like it. So glad it all resolved.

We arrived in Mérida on time at about 10AM. I collected my luggage and headed out to get a cab. The driver looked a bit panicked when I told him we were heading into the labyrinthian streets of Chuburná, a reaction I get all the time, but he followed my instructions and we got home in record time.

I was so happy to see Bonita! She wasn’t quite as happy to see me as I’d expected, but by the time I’d unpacked and crashed, I understood why — she was exhausted too! After we both got in a nap, she was back to being my little shadow. 🙂

Thus ends my amazing week in Oaxaca. I will have one final sum-up post with a table of contents!

(Post 33 of 193. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

I was so grateful that the taco place by my apartment was open Monday night after my very long day and hike. I was super hungry and not in the mood to hunt for food. I don’t know if it was having had chapulines, all the mezcal, or the fresh mountain air, but I decided it was time to try buche, pork maw (stomach), tacos. I don’t know how many Mexicans from all over have told me that if I haven’t had buche, I’ve never had tacos. I’m put off by the thought of offal, but there was something about this place that instilled trust in me that they would do it right.

Buche wasn’t horrible to look at — it was chopped small. The texture was similar to lunch meat, maybe a bit chewier. There was none of that expected “offal taste” that I’d been bracing myself for. It was almost disappointing how spectacularly inoffensive and not a big deal this taco was!

I also wanted to see what an al pastor taco is like in this part of Mexico — the tortilla is morel like what I’d get in Sinaloa, but the meat is more similar to what I get in Yucatán. The salsas also differed. I realised just how much I love the garlic sauce that comes with tacos in Yucatán.

Besides the two tacos, I ordered a quesadilla on wheat tortillas, just to guarantee myself at least one final date with quesillo, which is “Oaxaca cheese” in the rest of the country — a fresh, stringy cheese very similar to mozzarella that melts and browns beautifully. This quesadilla was game changer in a way that warranted a face palm — they put the cheese right on the grill to give it a crispy brown crust on both sides, then put it in the tortilla. This really elevated what would otherwise have been a very boring base for salsa.

The prices at this restaurant are so reasonable — this includes beer!

I have a tray at home that matches this one — mine’s a lime and bit bigger, though.

I’d say that I exceeded my culinary goals for my trip to Oaxaca — I tried every kind of mole (thanks, buffets!) and chapulines, fell in love with mezcal, and even got buche off the bucket list!

(Post 32 of 193. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

And now, for the day’s pièce de résistance, what everyone was on board for and apparently annoyed came last instead of first, but which made the most sense to go last: Hierve el agua (the water boils). This is a popular recreation site where you can swim in shallow pools, observed calcified formations that look like waterfalls, and hike.

Contrary to west of Oaxaca, the highways on the east side are beautiful. So after a day of easy driving, it was a bit of a shock to learn that most of the way into Hierve el agua is very sandy and twisty.

The guide told me to go “a la derechita” from the parking lot, so I headed to the right and the rest of the group followed me like the Pied Piper. But she meant derecha as straight ahead and not derecha as turn right. “You’re trying to confuse the ones with little Spanish!” I exclaimed indignantly. To which, in a wonderful show of solidarity, most of the rest of the group piped up, “We would have gone right too!” Heh! It was a very good group on Monday! Oh, and I forgot to mention that my seatmate and I had been stumbling along in broken Spanish until something happened that made us realise we’re both from the Montreal area and French-Canadian! LOL!

There is a very long and very steep path down to the pools. I was very cognisant that I had to leave enough energy to get back up it!

Everything at Hierve el agua was breathtaking. I won’t bore you with any more bla bla bla than these pictures absolutely need. I am so glad I made it to this place — I haven’t gone on a proper mountain hike like this since Bulgaria.

After what would be a relatively short hike following these signs left me very breathless, which was surprising because I’ve been working out daily for almost a year now, I realised that it must be the altitude. Turns out Hierve el agua is at 5,666ft while Mérida is 33ft. So I am giving myself a HUGE pass on how hard it was to do all that climbing yesterday!

I made it all the way back up to the top of the path with about 15 minutes to spare. All the food vendors were packing up, but an agua lady was happy to take two minutes to sell me a watermelon water.

Three members of our group were late and the guide was not having it. She told us to vote on how long we would wait. Her vote was not at all! Thankfully for the stragglers, we gave them the 10 minutes they needed!

We left Hierve el agua just past 6:00. I had been told we’d be coming back in around 7:00, but the guide said it would be an hour and 40 mins back into town. Google Maps concurs! And, sure enough, it was coming up to 8:00 by the time we got into the city proper.

It was quite a long drive back in since it got dark fast. Once that happened, I could not relax as the driver seemed to be driving dangerously, although I’m sure he wasn’t! As we got closer to the city, I started to track our route and figured out that we would be going about three blocks from my flat. I asked if I could be let out at the corner of my street, and that was not a problem. So instead of a 1KM walk home, it was just three blocks, plus a detour for tacos. 🙂

What an incredible day Monday was! I can’t believe how much we packed in. Again, this was just $200, plus lunch and entrance fees. I’d say such a tour is the best way to see the best of what the region has to offer.

(Post 31 of 193. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

The archeological site of Mitla was my only disappointing stop in both of the Lani tours I took — first, because I had such a hard time following what the guide was saying and second, because we didn’t get quite enough time.

Mitla is the second most important archeological site in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico and the most important of the Zapotec culture. The most interesting fact I learned about Mitla is that about 90% of it is original and 10% reconstructed, while the opposite is true for Monte Albán.

Mitla is known for its mosaics, but not mosaics like I was expecting. They are made of tiny bits of stone that just fit together with no mortar and from a distance look like fancy brickwork.

I could have used an extra 20 to 30 minutes at Mitla — there were just so many people waiting to get into the tombs that it was do that or explore the rest of the site. But I still got to enjoy the mosaics and get a sense of what a complex built for habitation more than governance or worship was like.

(Post 29 of 193. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)

Our next stop, on an “empty stomach” to boot, was the artesanal Mezcalería El Rey de Matatlán, complete with tasting. This stop was surprisingly free (I guess they expect to recoup the cost from sales).

I knew nothing about mezcal, other than it’s made from a different type of agave as tequila, which I am not fond of.

Now, the tasting!

We would get four shots:

1) Rot gut basic mezcal that you do as shots, chasing with a slice of orange and chile powder. Very meh, like lighter fluid.

2) Mezcal with the worm added, which adds flavour and body to the liquor. This one was tasty!

3) A lightly aged mezcal. This immediately transported me back to the Highland Park Distillery in Scotland, where I discovered peaty whisky. This mezcal had a similar profile. A few people thought I was nuts, but the guide agreed with me.

4) A well-aged mezcal. OMG. That was SO good! This felt like drinking a good Scotch neat.

And then, we had a mezcal mango-flavoured liquor. Surprisingly, I wasn’t feeling it. I’d been told mezcal was less “deadly” than tequila — true!

Well tippled, it was time to head to lunch!

Where we had to have another shot of mezcal before eating! *hic*

Lunch was very good, similar to Saturday’s setup. No pickled mangoes this time, but I did get some lovely guava in syrup that was quite the treat!

We still had two stops to go. What a full day this was turning out to be!