Continued from Oaxaca Day 3 Part 1.

Down down down we go.

Didn’t get a picture, but I did see some little plots of land where they grew agaves to make mezcal and tequila.

All along this downhill, we saw cyclists in various states of struggling to bike up this long hill.

Lots of trash on this road.

There are also rickshaws here in the burbs of Oaxaca City.

Some even have spoilers!

Almost back to Centro. We are hungry, we’ll get back and go straight to lunch somewhere.

Lunch spot…nope. They were still only serving breakfast. We noticed that they eat lunch late here. I would say most places don’t open for lunch until noon or 1pm. We really had to look extra hard to find places that would serve lunch at 11am.

Second lunch spot try.

This one is serving brunch, I guess that’s good enough. We could have sat outside, but after being on in the sun all day, we’ll take the fully covered table please.

The weather is so nice here. Cool and dry.

Something a little bit different for lunch today. Still very much yum.

During the past few days ,they’ve been setting up stalls around Templo Santo Domingo. Our hotel said that it was a seasonal marketplace.

Alright, time to head back to the hotel to take a nap and get out of the harshest sunny part of the day.

Alright, it’s about 4pm in the afternoon. Time to get out and walk around and explore some more. But first, we need to go visit a sporting goods store to buy some soccer jerseys for our son. RL was able to get some local outfits for the girls, but we figured a soccer jersey would be a better choice for our son as a souvenir.

Haven’t seen one of these in a long long time. Odd to see this here, because this is the only one we’ve seen here in Oaxaca as well.

993! Aircooled is still very much alive here in Mexico. We see VW Beatles all over town still.

Keeping that aircooled heritage alive baby. And they are usually in very good shape.

Alright, here’s the sporting good store we are looking for. The outside looks like any other building here in Centro.

I actually took a video instead of a photo so here’s the screen shot. But inside the building it looks like a straight up modern sporting goods store. Two very expensive authentic Mexican soccer jerseys later, we’ve got a souvenir for our son. We tried to buy the local Oaxaca team jersey but were told that it’s only sold at the stadium.

Then a visit to the textile museum.

Free to get in.

This was my favorite part of the museum, this really awesome wall.

The museum was small, and just ok…nothing to write home about.

That floor though, chef’s kiss!

Not sure why there are textiles with Chinese writing on them.

Crushed/ground up glass made to look like embroidery

They also had these avant garde section that was odd, much like any modern art museum.

OK….I guess time to go check out something else.

Walked by this beautiful courtyard and saw it from the street. Saw that they had mezcal, so figured we’d walk in for a drink. We booked 5 nights here when we only really needed 4 nights in Oaxaca to do everything we wanted to do. Now we can to take extra time and do extra things that we otherwise wouldn’t have planned for.

I wonder what’s the purple spice. We didn’t ask, as like most places here, English isn’t really spoken fluently or at all.

Crushed up insects? Either way, we ate it.

This is a mezcal that we drink semi regularly in Austin, the Joven one at least. We haven’t had the other ones so figured we’d do a tasting.

Apparently, you can get tickets and do a whole tasting tour here.

We eventually walked to the Zocalo, this is the main city square of Oaxaca City. Lots of trees here and lots of people just hanging out.

Oaxaca Metropolitan Cathedral right next to Zocalo.

A helicopter flies by, everyones looks up, me included.

Let’s go inside and have a look.

This was stenciled on the door of the cathedral. I looked it up afterwards and it’s a protest regarding a missing activist. Some stereotypes of Mexico are absolutely true, as far as all the missing people goes.

This was a little unexpected. The interior of Templo Santo Domingo was so ornate, this one is surprisingly sparse.

RL said this felt much more of a working church though.

Church or not, it’s a wall that can be graffitied.

There’s some sort of festival/celebrating happening soon. Lots of decorations popping up just during the past few days of us being here.

Smoke em if you’ve got em. We did smell some of this around town a couple of times. Nothing like being in America though where it’s everywhere.

Think it’s a mezcal tasting tour bus shaped like a bottle.

Too lazy to fix the slant and recrop.

Lots of beautiful colonial buildings in Centro.

Walked around and decided here for dinner spot.

Another spot, another…Sotol.

I ordered some sort of tinga tacos…which apparently doesn’t come with meat on the tacos. I’ve never had tinga tacos that’s vegetarian.

On the other hand, RL ordered chicharrones tacos and absolutely loved them. We should look for some chicharron tacos when we get back to Austin.

In the evening, street stall sellers come out. This one is selling some sort of crepe dessert. After my all vegetarian taco dinner, I need some more food. I don’t think this will cause tummy troubles…right?

It’s a banana, strawberry, and nutella crepe thing. Yum.

This kid stood around the whole time we were there, so we thought that we’d buy him one. We saw him the next day out on the street wandering by himself as well. Speaking of kids, we usually see the really poor beggars with one child with them and the children holding the cup in hand for money. Some play accordions and I’m always a sucker for accordion players.

This motorcycle’s only purpose is to push around this cart. How does it brake? Does it go down the street 50mph with the cart in front? So many questions.

Walked by this spot on the way back to our hotel. Is this the mezcal tasting bar we’ve been looking for?

There’s a bar, so maybe this is it?

Turns out it wasn’t the place we were looking for. But while we are here, time for a drink.

Cozy little spot. I love all these cool bars here in Oaxaca.

Another bar, another mezcal. I will say these words of wisdom, different mezcals tastes…different. RL said her drink was way too sweet for her liking.

Back at our hotel to chill in our private courtyard. Catch up on some blogging.

While RL proofreads the blog, I’m feeling the affects of the mezcals. The higher elevation is definitely making the affects of alcohol hit harder.

To be continued at Oaxaca Day 4 Part 1.