Too much time in Oaxaca

Hawking inflated toy balloons in the Zocalo by the truckload. But is anybody buying?
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Arriving in Oaxaca we met the taxi driver from Siberia because he sure didn't know the main street in this (small) city.We spent ages trying to explain to him that number 306 is further down the road when you are outside number 900.

Our hotel was reasonably well located in the less pretty part of town and the room spacious, but it was like being in a cave. After looking forward to having our own kitchen again, it was disappointing to find it completely bereft of any cooking or drinking utensils. What.. you want a kitchen you can use? Fortunately we managed to rustle up 4 knives, spoons, cups, one saucepan.....

Arriving in Oaxaca we met the taxi driver from Siberia because he sure didn't know the main street in this (small) city.

Just love those agaves!
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We spent our first evening at the Zocalo (town plaza) and the ambience was really fun. The space was big and colourful and a brass band was playing in the rotunda, with many senior citizens dancing the salsa together down below. There was also some kind of demonstration in front of the cathedral and very many police in attendance. In fact the Zocalo was fenced off by armed police wearing riot gear and with shields as well. Oaxaca is recovering from some well publicised political problems and deaths and the police are out in force... mainly to look after the small but growing number of tourists now venturing back, but it feels like overkill.

A sad downside of these problems has been that for several months the city was really struggling and it seems that many shops are still closed. Either that, or they have a very liberal idea of what an afternoon siesta means in this city.

Half the city is pretty ugly and workmanlike and the other half is a bit like a Hollywood movie set for a Mexican town with beautiful buildings, colourful rendered walls and wrought iron. We walked at length and browsed the local crafts and markets buying a great bedspread to somehow fit into our overstuffed bags. This is also the place to buy beautiful handcrafted rugs (if you hadn't already done so  in Peru!

Our main excursion was to visit Lonely Planet's acclaimed pottery town, Aztompa on market day. Bus ride from hell from the second (try 17th) class bus centre... speed bumps on potted dirt roads and at the end of it all... well nothing really. The market day consisted of a hall full of very ugly and amateur pottery, mostly in drab dark, olive green. Thanks L.P. for the tip.

We felt that we probably invested a couple of days too many in Oaxaca and got a bit jaded about it all. We feel a bit over the Mexican cityscape at this stage and are considering whether we can extend our beach stay at Tulum to compensate.

On our last evening we were really looking forward to our overnight bus trip to San Cristobal de las Casas.We decided to drag our suitcases ( and children ) across the city for the 20 or so blocks to the bus depot, because we could not book a wagonetta (station wagon) for the trip. That was a great idea and got the kids in just the right mood to start the long journey south east. To be fair, the boys were really good about it and we needed the exercise anyway after so many quesadillas and Coronas (for Michael).

The bus trip was special. We arrived in SCDLC needing physio and massive sleep replacement therapy. We said we would never do that sort of bus trip again. Why we then booked another, even worse, overnight bus trip one day later defies explanation. We have also noticed that we could walk to the bus station again..... keep reading.