July 24 - Oaxaca

Today we got a late start after spending some time on the internet and having breakfast - this time beans and eggs rather than the pancakes we were hoping to enjoy again. We set out towards the center of the city, stopped at some more craft shops, and found the Regional Museum of Oaxaca after some difficulty (our map did not indicate the brick wall surrounding the plaza in which the museum was located - Santo Domingo). We had a snack at a tiny cafe across the street, Cafe Lombardo, and then spent several hours touring the museum, which contained artifacts of the Oaxacan territory from ancient to modern times. The museum is housed in a beautiful cathedral with lots of gold embellishment.

Afterwards we sought out another crafts market which had tons of low priced black and red pottery as well as beautiful rugs and what we learned are called "portavasos" - coasters, which we hope to buy directly from the artisans. We returned to the cafe from earlier to have a delicious wood fired brick oven pizza. We then tried very hard to find the Rufino Tamayo museum of prehispanic art but to no avail (our map seems to be defective). Tired and in need of bathrooms, we returned to the hostel, took a nap, and left to find another free dance show in the plaza on Independencia. I bought an "elote al carbon," or grilled corn on the cob, from one of the many food stands. It was covered in chili powder and, though tasty, it was quite dry and cruncy - not the refreshing vegetable I had had in mind.

We headed toward the Zocalo, encountering more festivities than ever - performers playing music and dancing in every corner, a band in the central pavilion (or "kiosk" as they call them), and a huge game probably called something like 'throw the really long balloon-thingies into the air' being played by a crowd of ninos. We found an ice cream shop and I tried "helado oaxaqueno de mezcal coco" - mezcal coconut - it was delicious! Also, it was my first ice cream since breaking veganism for the trip. I hadn't been planning to eat ice cream, but after several abortive attempts to buy chocolate covered bananas, I gave in to the temptation of coconut ice cream.

We continued sitting in the Zocalo, writing in the journal and reading our history books. I bought a red scarf from a walking merchant to match the dress I had bought from one of the little girls wandering the square selling crafts with their mothers. We ate at another sidewalk restaurant on the Zocalo and ordered a "tlayaluda" - basically a huge pizza-sized tostada - which was delicious (and vegetarian). To drink we tried a "limonada," carbonated lemonaid. As night fell, even more vendors swarmed the Zocalo, weaving between the cafe tables. We gave a peso to a little boy who suddenly came up to our table and started singing almost inaudibly, since our repeated "no gracias"es did not work this time. Several strolling mariachis magnified the liveliness of the evening.