Days 6-7 last day in Oaxaca and onwards to Puebla
Friday
Our last day in Oaxaca and we'd kept plans open. Got out early to make the most of the day but nothing was open (think Nov 2nd might be a public holiday?).
(not sure if this is Santa Muerte or just another skeleton adorning an altar, cool either way though!)
We had a coffee at the rather hyped Cafe Brujala near Santo Domingo (didn't feel much different to a Starbucks to me though!) then headed to the postage stamp museum which had been recommended as a quirky little museum to visit. It was a pretty courtyard building but not a great deal to see; an exhibition on surrealist art relating to baseball, and the stamp archive itself.
altar outside the artesan market
the Stamp Museum courtyard
We continued on to the suburbs of Jalatlaco, which is known for its street art and where it was clear there had been a lot of partying the night before!
Found some cool graffiti but failed to find anywhere for us to just sit and have a drink, so we carried on to Mercado de la Merced, a food market back near our hotel, where we had a couple of monster sized freshly squeezed fruit juices.
Next destination was the main cemetery, Panteon General, which wasn't publicly advertising any Muertos events, partly due to damage from last year's earthquake and partly down to it being too crowded to accommodate tourists, but we'd been told we should go there ourselves during the day time.
The place was crazy busy! We were in the minority of tourists, but there was no issue with us being there and it was wonderful to experience truly how the people of Oaxaca commemorate Dia de Los Muertos, without all the costumes and tour groups. Families gathered around graves, with picnics, drinks, musicians. Vendors going around selling everything from crisps, ice creams, tostadas, through to grave decorations! I got caught up in the moment and bought a beautiful Catrina statue. Probably paid over the odds, being too British to barter but it was still ridiculously cheap for such a lovely piece.
Outside there were so many stalls selling food, drink, toys, amusement arcades, fairground rides and all so busy. I needed the loo, so followed a sign and was rather bemused to be led through a grave memorial shop, into somebody's house, where we all queued in the corridor to use the loo in this lady's bedroom! It seems that the people of Mexico always like to make the most of an opportunity, as well as wanting to help others. ;-)
We dropped our shopping back at the hotel and went out for dinner. As we wanted somewhere nice for our last day in Oaxaca, we set out early, to a restaurant just off the main tourist drag. It was a seafood restaurant called Marco Polo and it was just beautiful, set in a plant filled courtyard, with a massive altar in the entrance and all the staff in Halloween costume. :-) It wasn't cheap but it was amazing. Fish dishes cooked in an outdoor oven, I had a massive portion of Marlin, smothered in prawns, vegetables, sauce and cheese, baked in foil; Rob had something similar but his consisted of four salmon fillets! Given the portion sizes, maybe not so expensive after all.
We headed over to Santo Domingo for some last minute shopping at the artesan market only to find it wasn't open, gah! We weren't the only ones caught out by this as it was advertised to be open all week, so instead we strolled back to our hotel via a little Bread and Chocolate festival and a few more shops to do some final purchasing before getting dressed for the evening.
Started off our evening with the usual look out for comparsas but surprised to find it was quieter this evening.
Every Friday there was a mass cycle ride, themed for this week!
There was a folkloric ballet performance outside Santo Domingo and it's a shame we didn't get there sooner, as it was rather good but too crowded to see the stage properly.
So instead we wandered just beyond the artesan market area back to the bread and chocolate festival, for a hot chocolate and wee Pan de Muerto. It started to rain, so that was good timing for us to head to the goth night I'd seen advertised. The flyer had noted it was free entry for anyone in “authentic” goth attire but it took some explaining to the door staff that we were in fact goths! In fact, we doubled the goth numbers inside, the only other two being the DJ and her friend. It was a fun night though. The venue was beautiful, we spent our time in a side room covered in quirky graffiti art and they had a great range of cocktails and beers. The music was all 80’s / new wave and amusingly, all British! We didn't plan to stay late, as we still had to repack our cases, but it was gone 1am before we finally departed, sad that our time in wonderful Oaxaca was ending.
(my attempt at stick-on sugar skull bling didn't work so well!)
Saturday.
We had breakfast, finished packing and sat by the pool until it was time for us to head to the bus station for our 11am bus.
(our luggage had grown somewhat!)
The walk to the station took us back through the Jalatlaco area, spotting more graffiti art on the way.
The bus station was surprisingly modern and comfortable, and the process to get the bus was quite straightforward. Our bags were given a rudimentary search, although the lady laughed and just let me through when she realized my hand luggage was crammed full with carefully wrapped alebrijes! Security is quite high on the buses, random ID checks were made and everyone was photographed upon boarding.
(one of the many altars in the bus station)
The journey took 5-6 hours to get to Puebla, through beautiful countryside, on a road high up in the mountains.
Puebla CAPU bus terminal was a lot greyer and shabbier than Oaxaca, as was the surrounding area and we were starting to hope we'd made the right choice coming here. Whilst we were in the station, we booked our tickets to take us to Mexico City in a couple of days, and I felt rather accomplished to managed this entirely in Spanish!
We got a taxi to our hotel and whilst we were relieved to see the environs improve as we got closer to our destination, it was also crazy busy. We were dropped off outside our hotel amidst a maelstrom of noise, crowds, market stalls. We were greeted by the doorman, who took our luggage up to our room, taking us through the busy restaurant courtyard, which had musicians playing on the stairs. Our hotel, Meson Sacristia De la Campania, was quite something. Just 8 boutique rooms, situated on a balcony overlooking the bright pink restaurant courtyard, antiques and religious artefacts everywhere. I was impressed that we were allocated the room I hinted at on their Facebook page, which was a rich green hue with a beautiful peacock design mirror behind the massive bed and a wonderful peaceful oasis from the noise and bustle outside.
(Rob wondering how the massive room key was going to fit in his pocket!)
We were staying on Callejon Los Sapos (Street of Toads) and there were froggy and toad figures everywhere
We went for a walk, to see the city light up as the evening drew in and it was quite a culture shock compared to chilled, laid back Oaxaca. The was a rock band playing in the Zocalo and the place was packed with families in party mood.
Around the Zocalo were lots of fun painted skeletons and we joined in with the masses in getting our photos taken with as many as possible.
We had dinner that night at our hotel, which maybe I was looking forward to too much, so it ended up being a bit of a let down. More of a daytime restaurant, it was pretty deserted at night but we did get very attentive helpful service to start with. Ordered fried parsley with chapulines to start and some delicious veggie tacos.
My main course of mole enchiladas helped me decide I'm really not a fan of mole - fine in small quantities but a bit cloying when your food is drowned in it. Robs meal of steak with huitlacoche (corn fungus!) was a work of art.
Things started to go askew with dessert. We ordered a dish of local sweets but it wasn't clear on the menu that the cost was per sweet not per plate.
Then when our (slightly higher than anticipated) bill arrived, the waiter who'd been so helpful to date suddenly couldn't speak any English, leaving me floundering when querying the bill, particularly as he insisted on cash payment when we thought we could pay by card. I counted up enough cash to cover the bill and tip, then he came back to say I hadn't paid enough - it seems 100 pesos disappeared between our table and the cashier. :-( Leaving me unable to argue this in Spanish and with barely enough cash to pay the extra, I counted out the exact total in what coins I had left then retreated to our room, our lovely meal somewhat spoiled (to add insult to injury, I found when we checked out of the hotel that they added our food to the hotel bill too. Thankfully the hotel staff were more honest and deducted that as soon as I queried it). Our only sour experience of the holiday.
The full gallery for Friday - with more graffiti art and cemetery pics - is here
The full gallery for Saturday - mostly Puebla by night and some more pics of the route - is here