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We had originally planned to take a bus out to Tepoztlan, a hill town to the south of the city known for a pyramid on the hill and being a bit spiritual, but figured we were staying in the centro so should make the most of being there instead.  As this was our second visit, we were keen not to retrace the same steps, but at the same time there are some familiar sights one has to revisit, so toady was mainly for visiting sights we missed last time

We went to Café de Tacuba for breakfast, one of the oldest restaurants in the city, with stunning décor. Breakfast was absolutely enormous, so we really shouldn’t have ordered a sweet pastry too (didn’t realise that was an additional item) but they were happy to let us take them away with us.

Strolled back towards the Zocalo, with our first stop being the Secretaria de Educacion Publico offices to see the murals.  We asked to see the murals at the door, and were ushered in, asked to leave a form of ID at their desk and then allowed to just wander around the courtyards.  The main feature are the array of murals painted by Diego Rivera, celebrating the history of Mexico.  For me, I was more blown away by the Siqueiros mural over the staircase near the entranceway.

Nearby was the elusive gothic clothes shop Horror Boutique, that we failed to find last time.  It was tucked away on the 4^th floor of a “shopping centre” with security on the door and on arrival at the shop we had to ring to be admitted.  That was a bit awkward, being followed around the shop by the owner and her assistants (all very friendly but keen to make a sale).  All the items there were hand made and absolutely lovely, but nothing I needed for this trip or could take home with me.

Went to watch the dancers perform outside Templo Mayor, yep I know its touristy, but its wonderful to watch! And as we were at the Zocalo, we crossed over to go back into the Gran Hotel to see the stained glass in daylight, absolutely stunning.

From here we headed back up Av Francisco Madera towards Bellas Artes, stopping off at the Palacio de Iturbide (Citibanamex Culture Palace).  Free to get in, the main exhibition was on Spanish renaissance art. Not usually my thing but these were very interesting, particularly a few that had speech bubbles of a kind coming from some of the characters – renaissance comic book art!

Continued our walk past the Palacio De Bellas Artes (absolutely love this place but we did visit last time) and to Alameda Park, where we just sat by one of the fountains for a while, eating our pastries from breakfast, resting our feet and watching the world go by.

We had time for one more visit, so decided to go to the Franz Mayer museum.  Not quite what I expected from the online images, as most of the exhibits were in modern galleries and the collection felt not to dissimilar to what I’d see at the V&A at home.  However we emerged out into the pretty courtyard, decorated with Catrina statues, and decided to stop here in the café for coffee and icecream.

Walked back to the hotel, stopping off at a little crafts market nearby and then up to the rooftop bar for a drink.  As soon as our drinks arrived, the skies got darker and a massive storm broke out!  The few of us left in the bar huddled together in the one bit of shelter in the centre, screaming when a massive clap of thunder happened right above us!

For the evening, we got a taxi to my favourite horror bar, Café Bizarro in the Roma district. It was busy but we managed to get a table, and spent the evening there eating and drinking.  Their Bizzareada cocktail is to die for – beer blended with fresh fruit and ice.

Photos: Café Tacuba and SEP https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/11-04-Fri-pt-1-Cafe-Tacuba-Public-Education-Office-murals

Around the zocalo and Palacio de Iturbide https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/11-04-Fri-pt2-zocalo-Citibanamex-Culture-Palace

Alameda, Franz Mayer museum and Café Bizarro https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/11-04-Fri-Zocalo-to-Alameda-park-sightseeing

At just after 5am, we were picked up by Tanya and Ralph of Go Well Tours to take us to Aztompa cemetery.  We’d spoken online about my experience last time, that I felt uncomfortable being there at night with the coachloads of tourists, many of whom paid little respect to where they were, and Tanya suggested it would be better to go there for the sunrise, so here we were!

We got there just as sun was breaking, so got to experience this beautiful place, memorials adorned with massive candles in the dusk and then in more detail as it got lighter.  Many local residents had completed their vigils and were leaving for the day, and those who still remained had evidently been at the mezcal all night.  It was friendly and jovial, and a lovely way to experience this beautiful cemetery.

Tanya had prepared breakfast, and we sat on the steps at the cemetery entrance with our delicious morning picnic.  We then got back into the van to continue uphill to Aztompa archaeological site.  Not as complete or as well known as the neighbouring Monte Alban, it benefited however in the lack of visitors and stunning views of the hills around and Oaxaca below.  It truly was a special experience.

We were dropped back to our hotels, Rob and I saying our goodbyes to Tanya and Ralph, talking about whether we will be back a third time.  We spent a couple of hours at the hotel, Rob snoozing on one of the pool loungers and me going for a swim.

For the evening, we knew the main comparsa was going from Jalatlalco that evening but it turned out to be later than I thought, so instead, Rob and I popped to Jalatlalco for a late lunch at La Terraza del Copal and then a wander around the pretty streets, stopping for icecream of course.  We returned to our hotel early evening to apply some Dia De Muertos face make up.   As the hairdresser next to our hotel wasn’t doing make-up this year and I was slightly overwhelmed by all the options in town, I had instead bought all the makeup at market the day before and now had to work out how to apply it.

Headed into town to meet with Doreen and Kevin, Doreen was getting her face done by one of the street artists.  Once again a tad confused by the comparsa routes – one of our epic fails this time round was missing most of the ad-hoc parades we loved so much last time – we decided to go the safe option of heading to the Plaza de la Danza to watch the performance and then follow them when dancers and giant statues set off to parade.  This worked at least, we got a fantastic view and it was great to see, even if it was one of the big, organised events.  We followed the parade to the Zocalo, where the crowds got too much and we set off our respective ways to our hotels, with Rob and I deciding on a late night cocktail at Gozobi first.  Not such a great experience this time, as the service was pretty terrible when the place was more crowded.

Photos Aztompa https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/11-01-Aztompa-Jalatlalco-Plaza-de-la-Danza

Jalatlalco and Plaza de la Danza https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/11-01-Tues-part-2-Jalatlalco-Plaza-de-la-Danza

I wanted to visit one of the local villages and Zaachila had advertised some Dia de Muertos events, along with a small archeological site which apparently opened weekends, so we headed south of the Zocalo to find a collective to Zaachila.  Our first collectivo experience. Despite all the covid cautiousness still in place, collectivos still packed as many people in a car as possible, so we were squeezed in with 4 Mexicans, and the driver, for a 30 minute journey.

Zaachila was a colourful, vibrant experience.  We were dropped off near the cemetery, so we visited that first, lured in by the colourful murals outside.  It turned out that the town centre was filled with a market in the run up to Dia de Muertos, so the town was packed full of people and much fun to explore.  The low canopies of the market did make it feel like we were too tall for this place, and we were pretty much the only non-Mexicans there.  Sadly the archaeological site was closed, but there were a few murals around depicting the owl carving I wanted to see, so we went back to the market and sat in the town square for a while, with a huge agua fresca (tuna flavour of course!)

The return collectivo terminated at the Abastos market, where the friendly driver advised us to “be careful” as we departed.  Slightly unnerved, we set off in the direction he pointed to, to overshoot and end up in the red light district!  I only realised, when I stopped to check my map and noticed all the women were dressed in crazily tight clothing and high, high heels, unlike the more modest women out and about in Oaxaca.  Managed to get our bearings and was very relieved to see the familiar sight of the Mayordomo chocolate restaurant, so we stopped there for a late lunch. 

Getting a light snack is near impossible in Mexico and my “I’ll just have a small tamale” turned out to be a massive but delicious gut-filler that swamped the dining plate!

In the evening we met up with Doreen and Kevin, who had arrived in Oaxaca the night before.  We had hoped to catch a comparsa but seemed to have missed it, so instead went down to Plaza de la Danza, where we caught a “muerteada” performance by La Mera Meras.  Kevin observed that the story seemed similar to mummers plays in Europe, for which they did a little background research to learn more about.

We went for dinner at a nearby rooftop restaurant, Terraza Istmo, which had lovely friendly staff, tasty food (a recurring theme for this trip!) and interesting range of local artesan beers.

https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/10-30-Sun-Zaachila

We had breakfast at the hotel, located on a pretty sun terrace overlooking the pool.  Rob was feeling a lot better but my stomach was really bad (maybe shouldn’t have had a spicy dish last night when I was already feeling a tad fragile).  However we had booked a cycle ride for that day, so I just had to hope I would make it.

Met with our guide, Ivan, a few blocks south of our hotel.  There were 5 of us all together and once he selected suitable bikes for us all, we started off on the bumpy streets of Oaxaca to the cycle path which would take us to Tule.  It was about 10km to get there and once we got used to the bikes, it was an enjoyable way to travel through the suburbs of Oaxaca.  Tule is a pretty little town/village famous for having the widest tree in the world.  On arrival, we parked up the bikes and went to see the tree – more interesting than I expected, a fascinating old plant with so many interesting formations.  We had lunch at the local market and then set off for the bike ride back.  Although the return route was slightly downhill, a combination of tiredness, sore bum (partly from stomach problems and partly from a bike seat akin to a razor blade!) and everyone else eager to get back, did make the journey very tough and uncomfortable for me.  I guess I could have stopped, but pride wouldn’t let me be the fat unfit one of the group that was holding everyone else up, so I struggled on close to tears at one point. 

When we got back, decided we needed to treat ourselves to icecream, so headed to the Merced Market.  Couldn’t find any icecream there but eventually came across a roadside vendor where we had a cup full of the most delicious tuna icecream.  (tuna icecream isn’t fish, it’s the fruit from the nopal cactus, aka prickly pear, and is officially the tastiest thing on earth).  Headed back to hotel but a combo of getting confused by the grid street system and icecream vendor not quite on the corner shown on the map, I managed to mis-navigate us several blocks in the wrong direction, on a day when the temperature was reaching 28c!  By the time we got back to our hotel, the pool was just what the doctor ordered and we spent the afternoon either in or beside the water.

In the evening we headed to Gozobi rooftop bar, where we’d enjoyed a lovely sunset drink last time, and this time decided to have a meal aswell.  The food was fantastic, they had a wonderful range of artesan beers and we had a great view of the parades passing along the street below.  The sunset was pretty awesome too.

Photos https://vampyresheep.smugmug.com/Holidays/2022-Mexico/10-28-Tule-cycle-ride-and-Oaxaca

Sunday

And the full gallery of this day is here

Thursday

We had another tour booked, this time with Fundacion En Via, a charity who provide loans and training to help indigenous women set up businesses.  We meet with our small tour group at the beautiful Oaxaca Cultural Institute and set off back down the route towards Hierve El Agua to a small hillside village called San Miguel del Valle.

The full gallery for San Miguel de Valle is here
The full gallery for the nighttime parades back in Oaxaca are here

Tuesday

Wednesday

the full gallery for Tuesday at Hierve el Agua and Mitla is here
the full gallery for Wednesday at San Martin Tilcajete is here