Oaxaca 2020 Week 5

2/12/2020

Day 29 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

Simply had to get out and about. Today involved scaling steps to a few rooftop restaurants. Didn't eat at any (iced coffee and a Coke at one) but had some nice tours by staff as we're still scouting for some dinner spots for a few of our bird tour group who will be free for dinner one evening.

The rooftop restaurant at Los Amantes Hotel offered a nice view of Santa Domingo Church. It even had a hot tub. But it looked like more of a party spot in spite of the nice view. La Olla is a family owned restaurant offering organic foods and authentic Mexican cuisine. Reasonable prices and an attractive layout. And the mezcal margaritas looked good.

Terra Del Sol Restaurante was another rooftop experience but again, a bit pricy and some folks questioned the food - our neighbors when asked.

Why, we even found an Irish pub although a doubtful destination given that our guests will want Mexican fare. We’ll keep looking.

Apartment relaxation, happy hour, dinner and a movie (last half of The Martian) then on to bed.

Day 30 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

It’s Thursday and Thursday means we have to vacate our apartment for the weekly cleaning that starts at 11:30. We’re never quite sure how long it takes but we know from past experiences we need to be out for at least two hours. Sometimes longer.

Today our plan was to stop for lunch at La Taviche, a small cafe serving “la comida dia”, a three course meal consisting of a soup, an entree, and desert plus a beverage. The menu changes daily but the cost remains constant at $98 Pesos, about $5.50 USD. Several smaller cafes in town serve la comida dia making it very inexpensive to eat out.

Since La Taviche doesn’t open until 1:00pm we busied ourselves with a walk to LLano Park, then a swing over to the Alcalá. We encountered a loud processional - a parade of sorts - that appeared to be celebrating “Princess 2020”. A young woman wearing a “Priness 2020” banner was accompanied by several dancers in costumes and a brass band.

We followed the dancers to the Zocala where we encountered dozens of young men all wearing straw hats. They were loading into dozens of pickup trucks, apparently winding down a peaceful protest. They were protesting mining in a nearby pueblo - mining which was going to pollute their water.

Sitting on a park bench it was interesting to observe people streaming by. Street vendors, gringos, local business people…sometimes it’s just enough to sit and watch the world pass by.

After lunch at La Taviche, we walked a bit further north checking out a few more restaurants for possible places for an evening meal with some of our bird tour guests.

Nearing Bloulenc, a restaurant that also has a bakery, we bought a loaf of sourdough bread, far better bread than what we can buy at the large supermarket. Also couldn’t resist buying a large brownie which would be our evening dessert with tea.

One restaurant that has impressed us with seating, ambiance, and ease of location is Maguey & Maiz just off the square at Santa Domingo. While we’ve not eaten here yet, we did stop for a “mezcalita” a Margarita using mezcal instead of tequila before heading back to the apartment.

We’ve now been in Oaxaca for a little over five weeks. In that time we seen and experienced much of what the city has to offer. We’ve also managed to complete three jigsaw puzzles and finish reading a number of books including two by Clive Cussler (Valhala Rising, Medusa), one each by Steve Berry (The Maltese Exchange), Tom Clancy (The Cardinal of the Kremlin), and Nelsen Demille’s sequel to The Gold Coast (The Gate House). There is a small lending library here at Villa Maria which we’re going to have to checkout more closely. We’ll leave our books behind for others to enjoy.

Happy hour turned out to be quite lively with 14 people. Claire and Jim’s son, Brian, is visiting for a week. Sometimes we do need a larger table on the rooftop. And more chairs.

Evening meal was the rest of the lasagna and slices of sourdough. Started watching another movie “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, another of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Unfortunately not able to stream either Acorn or BritBox in Mexico.

Day 31 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

    Valentine’s Day. Balloon vendors with heart-shaped balloons. Fresh flowers galore for sale on the streets. Chocolates and other sweets selling out at shops and convenience stores. It's as commercial a holiday in as in other parts of the world, but it's not only Hallmark that sees the proceeds.

Although the roots of Valentine's Day may be in ancient Rome in Mexico the holiday is celebrated with much joy and enthusiasm as El Día de San Valentin, but it's more commonly referred to as El Día del Amor y la Amistad, the "day of love and friendship." Valentine's Day in Mexico isn't restricted to romantic love, it's also a day to show appreciation for friends. People give flowers, candies, and balloons to their romantic partners, but they may also give cards and gifts to their platonic friends as well.

If you'd like to tell your special someone how you feel about them in Spanish, saying I love you in Spanish can be a bit more complicated than in English because there are two different ways to say it. "Te quiero" is said freely among friends and family members but "te amo" is used to denote a stronger feeling.

Early in the day our neighbor Jim, along with his visiting son, Brian, dropped off a single red rose. An hour later, Tio dropped off four tamales that Maria had made by hand. People were exchanging flowers and at happy hour, barb brought a box of delicious chocolate candies.

Carol managed to finally get her haircut at a shop just up the street. For a mere $150 Pesos the stylist spent about an hour cutting then shampooing. The result was quite nice.

We ventured out in late afternoon to pickup some chocolates for Maria as well as some treats for ourselves. Carol also had found a store containing tons of glassware where we bought a replacement glass (one of our glasses had mysteriously disappeared) and a new cup. Marge visiting required we have another cup for her tea.

At happy hour we met Erin (niece to Larinda) and her husband Dan from Syracuse. First time visit to Mexico, they’re delighted to be out of winter for a few weeks.

Otherwise another lazy day in Oaxaca…

Day 32 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

    Saturday - Sábado - when everyone is out shopping. Not unlike anywhere else in the world where people work but weekends are left to get out and do things with the family.

There is a silversmith a few blocks from the apartment where Carol had found a pair of silver earrings. The silversmith would be at the shop at 10:00am today so we stopped at 10:00 to find the shop closed. “10:00am Mexican time” means sometime after 10:00. At 10:10 the store opened and Carol was able to purchase her earrings.

Other than the earring purchase we didn’t have anything lined up for the day aside from some shopping downtown for a few veggies and to replenish our supply of Minero mezcal. Note to selves: avoid shopping on the weekends when there are hordes of people shopping.

Back at the apartment Tom realized he needed to buy some pesto. We’d been told there are a couple of places to buy pesto - one nearby and at Boulenc, well beyond the Alcalá. Nearby sounded good but alas, the shop was “no tengo” - we don’t have any. Carol wasn’t really dressed to walk to Boulenc so I headed out on my own.

On the way I was distracted - more like attracted - to music coming from the plaza in front of Santa Domingo Church. Turned out to be a wedding celebration and I arrived just in time to watch the happy couple, accompanied by a band, dancers and the rest of the wedding party, start a procession down the Alcalá.

These people really know how to celebrate. Not only did the bride and groom dance their way down the thoroughfare, but they frequently stopped, formed a circle with the wedding party, and toasted doing shots of tequila. Or maybe mezcal. Or possibly both. A lot.

At one point some of the dancers with elaborate headdresses adorned with fireworks, put on a brief fireworks display. All this much to the amusement of passerby  locals and tourists. The procession lasted a good hour and I could only imagine what kind of shape the happy couple and their wedding party would be in for the formal wedding reception/dinner to follow.

Having picked up the pesto (and a couple of large brownies) at Boulenc, I wandered back to the apartment.

A bit of time reading, doing the jigsaw, then happy hour.

Day 33 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

    Sunday. And another meet up with the local bird group. The destination today was Bosque del Tequio, a park on the north end of Aeropuerto Internacional Xoxocotían (the Oaxaca airport). This was a place we’d hope to visit so convincing the group to go there wasn’t difficult.

A shared taxi ride (total of three taxis to accommodate the group size) brought us to an expansive park where we walked all morning netting 33 species including an endemic Gray-breasted Woodpecker. We added a handful of other new for Mexico birds like White-tailed Kite.

A simple bus ride back to Llano Park where while walking along the northern edge of the botanical garden we encountered a Yellow-throated Warbler, very unusual for the city. next Sunday we'll be attending the monthly bird banding project that takes place in the botanical garden.

Oh, crickets. Another bird outing followed by beer and food at Berlina’s, our go to post-birding place. A very bad habit we picked up from our birding pals in the Northeast Wisconsin Bird Club. “Bad” being a relative term.

Walking along the west side of the botanical gardens, we came across an art installation, itself within the walls of the gardens, in a courtyard where Francisco Toledo’s sculpture was found on the day we had toured the gardens.

Hardly visible, access was through a narrow wrought iron gate tucked between two street venders along the west wall of the gardens lined with several more venders. Normally the gate is closed but today the public were being beckoned inside to view a recently installed art display of clay sculptures created Bosco Sodi. For the past several years, Sodi has been making fired clay sculptures at his residency program and art center, Casi Wabi, on the beach in Puerto Escondido.

His creations take on several basic geometric shapes: cubes, cuboids, spheres, cylinders, slabs, and beams. Fired in a makeshift sand-dune-and-brick kiln in the tropical beach scrub outside his studio, these throwback building blocks are the equivalent of corn seed, adobe, and pi. Sodi calls them “prime objects” representing “the most elementary of mankind’s organizing and construction principles”. They are, he says, the product of an “abiding desire to produce a culture of reconnection”.

Under the shade (shade?) of the courtyard’s magnificent Guaje tree (Leucaena leucocephhala) for which the courtyard is named, and set against a backdrop of a thirty foot high wall of climbing Pitahaya (Hylocereus undatus), is where we observed Sodi’s works (as well as inside an adjoining anti-room).

The small tree incorporated into the installation is the endangered Guayacanes (Guaiacum coulteri). Antonio, a young man on station (possibly one of his students), explained the works saying that Sodi’s inspiration was to contrast the “perfection in nature” against the “imperfections of man”. A bit of a stretch for us to take in but enjoyed learning something new - as it seems we do every day out in Oaxaca.

Many miles of walking and time for a brief nap. Then happy hour. The gang will get a bit thin over the next few days as two couples will be off visiting the beaches along with visiting family members.

Day 34 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

The White-winged dove nest directly across from our apartment door, at eye level, has finally produced a couple of young birds. Usually hidden under the parent, we managed to capture them at feeding time. The adult regurgitates food while the young stick their bills into the base of the adult's beak for their portion. Probably accounts for why on average there are only two young per brood. There's only so much seating room at feeding time.

Monday has become laundry day so on our way to Chedraui we dropped off laundry. Then a brief shopping stop for food and back home again.

Lunch. But we can’t sit still for very long so out we go again. A bit further afield west of the Alcaléa, we quite by accident came upon the Museo Belber - Jimenez. It houses a stunning collection of jewelry and textiles. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any literature to indicate what the items were (age or origin). So a little digging on the internet helped flesh things out. The museum, by the way, is free (donations accepted).

  It came about as a result of world renowned Federico Jimenez. He was born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1941 in a Mixtec Indian community. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in science and art at the University of Benito Juarez in Oaxaca, Mexico, he went to the United States in 1967 to study and work.

In 1970 he and his wife, Ellen Belber-Jimenez, took a trip to the Southwest and fell in love with the American Indian Culture.

He admired the Indian craftsmanship and technique so much that he was inspired to start a collection of Folk Art. He first opened a gallery on Main Street in Santa Monica, CA and then moved to Abbot Kinney Ave. in Venice, CA. His most important Gallery was opened on Montana Ave, in Santa Monica, CA where he specialized in Antiques and Collectibles, carrying Folk Art from Mexico, Latin America, and the Southwest.

Important collectors and museums were costumers of his during the 25 years of his business. He and his wife amassed a big collection of Mexican jewelry: Pre Colombian, Colonial, and Contemporary, as well as Southwest art like baskets, kachinas, Pottery, Navajo, Zuni and Hopi rugs and jewelry.

In 2008 he and his wife donated their Mexican collection along with a building (the museum) to house it in to the city of Oaxaca.

Now he lives in Venice CA, and is designing his line of jewelry. What’s pictured is just a small sample of what was on display.

Winding our way back home we hit another 10,000 step day. Caught up on email, some reading, the daily jigsaw, then happy hour.

Day 35 - Week 5 Oaxaca City

After sharing a short video clip at happy hour last night, several of our neighbors stopped at our front door to view the active nest. Helping them get a closer look, we setup our spotting scope. many “oohhs” and “aahhhs”.

The forecast was for a warmer day we got ready to get in a long walk a bit earlier than normal, heading to a new location based on some street murals neighbors witnessed. The exact location wasn’t very clear as we headed south and east toward another shopping market, Soriana. Unfortunately we didn’t come upon the exact street murals our neighbors had seen but we did find a number of others.

Not exactly getting skunked on seeing murals we had the added benefit of walking through a new shopping store. Quite large and somewhat better stocked than the other supermarket we frequent. Plus we go tin our 10,000 steps for the day.

We discovered we have a mouse problem - a small rodent has been helping itself to some of our bananas. We informed Manuel who brought not one but three baited mouse traps. One the size of a small bear trap, another a medium sized trap, and a small trap, all baited with some form of meat. In addition to the traps he also brought several ant traps - just to cover all the bases we guess.

To date no mouse has fallen for the meat but we still see signs of mouse droppings. The bananas are kept in the fridge for the time being. Thinking we should rebait the small trap with a peanut butter/banana compote since that’s what the mouse seems to prefer.

More time chatting with some of the neighbors, naps, reading, jigsaw puzzle, emails…got to engrossed in so many other things we forgot to go pickup our laundry. Looks like we have something to do for the next day already in place…