Oaxaca, Mexico. This city is one I’ve wanted to visit for years, known for its incredible food and cultural history. Depending on who you ask, Oaxaca could be a couple things: dusty, hot, difficult to get to; a fantastic place to get absolutely blasted on cheap mezcal; the historic seat of several ancient cultures.

Thus far, we’ve experienced a bit of each of the above – fortunately, coming from San Lucas de Cabo, it’s an easy connection via Mexico City (if you count a 9-hour itinerary as ‘easy’). The flight featured gorgeous views of central and southern Mexico – from desert to mountains to the lush fields surrounding Oaxaca. During our layover in Mexico City, we also got to see a military helicopter taking off, which was neat.

Despite the 3:30am wake-up and 4am departure for the airport, we arrived in Oaxaca yesterday at around 1pm. After braving the traffic, we had finally arrived in lovely Oaxaca Centro. When we arrived at the hotel, we discovered two things: first, that the A/C in our hotel was more of an aspiration than reality, and second, that AeroMexico had kindly zip-tied my bag shut to prevent theft during our journey. Fortunately, everything arrived intact; unfortunately, my nail clippers were sadly enclosed within the locked bag. After some brute force effort with my poor tweezers (RIP), I was in and able to refresh (as much as you can refresh when you begin sweating as soon as you exit the shower).

As a quick primer, the city center of Oaxaca de Juarez (Oaxaca for short) and the nearby archeological site of Monte Albán are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the city itself being a prime example of Spanish colonial town planning, especially impressive given their ability to adapt to the earthquake-prone region between the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre del Sur mountain ranges. Oaxaca itself was founded in 1529 by Zapotec indigenous peoples, and over the 4+ centuries it’s existed, Oaxaca has been home to a lot of history (including being the birthplace of famed Benito Juarez, who was a Zapotec president of Mexico for multiple terms in the late 1870s / significant for his contributions to establishing a ‘modern’ Mexico) and now has 1,200 UNESCO inventoried sites. Oaxaca is also famed for having retained its largely indigenous identity, due to its isolated location.

Given our afternoon arrival, we had plenty of time to begin exploring the Centro neighborhood, which is relatively small – probably a ~30 minute walk in any direction from the middle of town. That being said, it packs a punch and has so much to see!

First up, we decided to grab lunch at a fortuitously located one Michelin star restaurant, Levadura de Olla. As we walked the block or so from the hotel to the restaurant, the skies darkened for what appears to be the typical afternoon thunderstorm – apologies that many of the photos are quite dark as a result! Most of the restaurants here are within historic colonial ‘homes’ and other Spanish-style buildings and therefore have seating in an interior courtyard with ceilings that retract to let in light / fresh air – when these are closed (primarily to block rain), it gets dark quickly. If anything, it added to the ambiance! The photo below was from just before we left, once the storm had passed. Given these structures are open air, A/C is basically non-existent in Oaxaca.

Given the restaurant’s focus on historic and indigenous flavors, we decided to try a number of dishes (including many which are historic ‘celebration’ dishes and some that are the chef’s creations, inspired by Oaxaqueñan dishes). We tried:

• House salsa and fresh maize ‘chips’ (almost every restaurant here has provided some variation on a house salsa, and corn-based flatbreads, many of which are crispy like a chip vs. foldable like a tortilla despite being a relatively similar size)
• Guacamole, served with housemade blue corn tortillas
• Mole negro (“black mole”), served over chicken with pozole and tortillas made with black beans smashed into them
• A ‘heritage’ (indigenous, historic) soup made from local mushrooms, serrano pepper, and ‘poleo’ (aka ‘pennyroyal’ which is an herb in the mint family)
• A ricotta tamale, served with two types of mole (negro and ‘coloradito’ aka red / brown, made with guajillo peppers) and squash blossoms
• Pulque, a lightly fermented traditional drink made from the maguey plant (a varietal of Agave, the plant mezcal is made from)
• Two desserts, including a delicious chocolate mousse served with charred bananas and a flan
• Cafe de olla – coffee made in a traditional pot, flavored with a variety of spices

Overall, the meal was incredible – it was a great introduction to the flavors of Oaxaca. In particular, I loved the soup, which was extremely unique and not something familiar to my palette, which is always a treat. The addition of the mint alongside the mushrooms was unexpected but incredibly earthy, and I could absolutely image eating something similar cooked atop a hearth thousands of years ago. The pulque was also interesting – I, perhaps foolishly, didn’t realize it was alcoholic and was surprised when it reminded me of kombucha (it’s very low ABV typically, about 2%). One thing I really appreciate about Oaxacan cooking thus far is that everything tastes homemade, with very few thickeners and less emphasis on precision (even in fine dining settings like this, I appreciated the textural variation of the maiz, the uneven crumbling of the cheese, the simplicity of the soup broth, etc.).

Fortuitously, the thunderstorm had passed by the time we ended lunch and we decided to wander the city to get our bearings. As mentioned, Oaxaca is relatively small, so it was an easy walk. It’s truly a beautiful town, with the amazing Spanish colonial architecture and brightly painted facades. Notably, many streets have festive ‘papel picado’ (‘punched paper’ or paper banners featuring detailed cut-outs). In doing some research, these are considered a “folk art” in and of themselves and originated with the Aztecs, who covered a bark-based paper with melted rubber and paint and used it to decorate significant sites. The colors also appear to have some significance, with pink signifying celebration and yellow referring to the sun.

In addition to the festive streets themselves, I also loved all the sculptures showcasing local cultures and indigenous heritage on each street. It appears that these were erected only recently as part of the Guelaguetza heritage festival a couple weeks ago (I couldn’t find much information about the statues online). The festival itself is intended to be a celebration of the city’s indigenous cultures and heritage groups (although there is now some controversy about the commercialization of these indigenous dances, meals, etc.). Since I wasn’t able to find more information, I’ll stick with what I do know – the statues are lovely and a wonderful introduction to local indigenous peoples for someone like me who has 0 familiarity. The statues below are only a subset – over the course of our wandering, I think we’ve seen at least 8 or 9.

In addition to the beautiful sculptures, we also passed several beautiful churches and a variety of amusing sites, including a street knife sharpener.

There’s a lot to take in on the streets – and a lot of great smells from the hawker stands. Sadly, there is also significant poverty here, visible through the many sellers of various knick-knacks (everything from salad servers to hats to gum and candies). Sadly, many of these enterprises appear to be family affairs, with babes-in-arms and toddlers asking for donations while parents play music or peddle their wares. Especially heartbreaking were the young children lining the sidewalks selling their drawings with no parents in sight.

As we neared the Templo de Santo Domingo (photo below), which sits at the far north of the Centro area), it was clear some kind of festivities were beginning. Given we had little else to do, we figured we’d enjoy a “free” cultural show.

We decided to stick around for an extra 15 or so minutes and were treated with not just one, but two festive events – a parade celebrating what appeared to be the graduation of the local medical college, and a wedding! I loved the beautiful local costumes, the dancing and the incredible live brass bands that accompanied each (there seem to be many wonderful brass bands in Oaxaca, many of them full of extremely talented teenagers!).

By the time the festivities ended, we opted to head back to the hotel, figuring we’d make a quick stop to sample some of the famous mezcal before cleaning up for dinner. We decided to stop in the cocktail bar Marsupial, located directly across from the hotel. On the plus side, their house mezcal was strong and served with incredibly sweet, tajin-covered limes. On a downside, their restroom did not have functional water and my husband had to have the bartender use a giant bucket of water to wash the soap off his hands. Thankfully everyone here is incredibly friendly and we got a good laugh out of it. As we’d discover, running water, A/C and a breeze are extremely rare commodities here.

Soap-free and changed, we headed out for another Michelin-rated restaurant for dinner: Los Quince Letras. The restaurant specializes in mole, so of course we had to try their versions as well. We ordered the ‘trilogy’ of moles, which included a mole negro, coloradito, and verde (a variation on the ‘black’ mole we’d had at lunch, a different type of coloradito, and green mole with a tomatillo base) over chicken and pork. We also tried the Plato Oaxaqueño, which included tasajo (a flat cut of dried beef, such as flank steak), enchilada (with coloradito mole) and guacamole, accompanied by black beans. The tasajo was covered in delicious Oaxaca cheese, which was an unexpected bonus! To drink, we continued to sample local specialties, including a “Agua de Jamaica” cocktail (essentially a spiked iced hibiscus tea).

Everything was delicious and it was also great watching them utilize the traditional ‘comal’ to make tortillas, tlayudas and other delicious grilled pastries.

After that, we headed back to the hotel to crash given our early wake up. On the way home, we got our first taste of Oaxaca’s other primary attraction – nightlife, which was just beginning to get started at 9pm or so. Ironically, a bar called Selina appeared to be a primary culprit, projecting noise blocks away. We arrived back at the hotel only to feel the bass from Marsupial late into the evening (let’s be real – it was early morning before Oaxaca went to sleep!). Thankfully, we have no firm plans tomorrow other than a basic tour through the cities museums, so we can sleep in as late as we want.