Celebrating the New Year in Oaxaca, Mexico

From Mexico City, we went to Oaxaca to stay at Mazunte Beach. We ate a lot of mole and tasted the best Mexican meals. We saw more pyramids and felt the warmth of the Mexican people. It was one of the most memorable New Year's I've ever experienced.

Quick Tips:

All you need in Mexico is an open mind and a sense of adventure!

Best Way To Get Around:

We rode the collectivos to Mazunte from Pochutla and the corroded buses from Mazunte to Bahias de Huatulco--it's the best and least expensive way!

At 11:30pm we were at the TAPO terminal with the rest of the world. Fifteen minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart, we joined the Equipaje line to check our bags in. The UNO bus is $45 for a one-way overnight bus ride to Oaxaca. It's the most expensive for two reasons: comfort and safety. We highly recommend this first-class bus. The seats recline like nobody's business. There's a footrest, a small pillow, and a blanket. There's a bathroom in the back and a kitchenette if you want some hot coffee or tea. The bus heads straight for Oaxaca so you can sleep for six hours without worrying about a thing. The driver assured us of a 6am arrival in Oaxaca. Sure enough, the elevator music started to play at 5:45am as we pulled into the Oaxaca terminal.

Our cab ride to the Paulina Youth Hostel was P25. The receptionist at Paulina let us in and stored our backpacks in the storage room. Check-in time wasn't until 11am which sucked big time; six hours to kill before we could actually settle down. Luckily, Cafe Alex across the street opened at 7am where we had an amazing breakfast of tamales and huevos rancheros under the morning sun.

Oaxaca City is definitely more beautiful than Mexico City. The cobblestone streets, the colorful houses and wrought-iron window gates give the neighborhood more character. Unfortunately after 10am, it's as smoggy as Mexico City because of the big buses belching black smoke. Walking the city before 9am is best for getting a feel for the neighborhood and the city's Zocalo.

By 9am, we had to take care of business--we want to go to the beach! Oaxaca City depends on tourism. They are very serious about helping people with questions. The Oaxaca Tourist Office is one of the most organized departments we've seen in Mexico. An older man who worked in the office laid out our options for traveling to Mazunte Beach or to Puerto Escondido. At this point, we were vying for Mazunte to avoid the big tour groups.

Our cab driver earlier that morning had told us about the suburbanes that take you to the city of Pochutla. From Pochutla, you can catch a ride to the beaches. At the suburbanes station we reserved two round-trip tickets. We scheduled the next four days at the beach. We walked back to the bus terminal and reserved UNO bus tickets back to Mexico City on January 2 at 12:30am. We also reserved our hotel rooms for when we get back to Oaxaca City from the beach. It wasn't even noon yet and we already had most things taken care of. We only have one more thing to worry about: where to sleep when we get to Mazunte.

To reward ourselves, we had lunch at El Meson and enjoyed their eat-all-you-can buffet for P48. I had the waitress write down the meals we had because they were all excellent. Plus, they had rice (insert Alleluia praises here)! We had the following: Guisado de Res which is like the Filipino Afritada and a super delicious sour green soup called Verdolagas con carne de Puevco; she told us the vegetable was called oja.

Before the sun set, we walked through the market in search of chapulines, grasshoppers that are fried in oil, salt, lime, and chili. Right next to the Mezcal booths inside the market was a lady with a basket of chapulines and for P10, you can have your own very bowl! I have no clue why you would want more than that anyway. They're a little bit more chewy than crunchy. And when you bite into them, you'll get that soft squish and get the juice. Que barbaridad! It's not the first time we've had insects but for experience's sake, we had up to about fifteen of the little suckers. We took them with us when we sat by one of the outdoor bars on the Zocalo and ordered sangritas to push them down. Sangritas, not to be confused with sangrias, are tequila shots in brandy sniffers followed by a shot of tomato juice.

For dinner, we sat at one of the street food stalls all over the Zocalo where we had more flor de calabaza and championes tortillas. They added some kind of cheese in there and oh my, they were yummy! They're bigger than the normal tacos we've been having and you can watch the vendors toast them on their flat pans.

Just a little note about taking photographs: ask for the vendors' permission before you start shooting. They are a little bit shy and would laugh at your request. Don't just take their photographs without letting them know first. You don't want a bad start before your food is served. Also watch out for people who stand too close to you when walking around the Zocalo. It was the holiday season and Oaxaca City was busier than ever. If you choose to buy jewelry from one of the street kids, be forewarned that their friends will follow you after your first purchase. It's difficult to say no but usually a simple, No, gracias, No, thank you, will do.

Stops:

TAPO - Mexico City
Via Metro Linea 1 or pink line
San Lazaro stop.

Oaxaca
Wah-ha-ka. Oaxaca City is a six-hour bus ride from Mexico City.

Paulina Youth Hostel
Trujano 321 col. Centro
Oaxaca, Oaxaca 68000
E-mail: reservations@paulinahostel.com
Web: paulinahostel.com
P100 deposit each person.
P180 per night for a private double room.
Check-in time is 11am.
Check-out is 1pm.
Facilities: The place is a ranch-style building with a garden. We didn't like its dorm-style setting. Your rooms don't lock so you keep your stuff locked in a safe. There are no private bathrooms, only a communal bathroom and showers. There's an open terrace with a TV but no pay phone (you have to walk two blocks away and talk with all the street noise) and no Internet access. The girls at the desk are not very friendly like at Hostal Moneda in Mexico City. But the hostel does get four pluses from us: the place is clean all the time plus there's strong water pressure and hot water for 24 hours. Also, orthopedic beds.

Cafe Alex
Our cab driver from TAPO recommended this place. They have amazing Mexican breakfasts that are not too scary for tourists. As we were eating, a lot of non-Mexicans started to walk in ordering pancakes and toast.

Oaxaca Tourist Office
Inside the Palacio Municipal on Independecia opposite the Alameda

El Meson
On Hidalgo 805 from 8am to 11:30pm. How can you say no to a buffet this good? Avoid the "American" stuff. Ironically, it's what the Mexicans go for.

By 4am, we've checked out of Paulina Youth Hostel and cabbed to the suburbanes station for our 4:30am departure. The SUV seats eleven people and we two were the only non-Mexican passengers. We talked to a family in the back of the van who were curious about where we were heading. When we mentioned Mazunte, they remarked Que bonita, how pretty it is. They confirmed that there are a lot of tourists but that it shouldn't stop us from going. Nothing was stopping us at this point: we've gone very far in our adventure to get ourselves to the beach.

The drive from Oaxaca to Pochutla was equal parts awe-inspiring and horrifying. The landscape is impressive but as we entered the mountains, our driver's, shall we say, nonchalance at passing trucks on curvy roads both impressed and scared us. So when we rounded a bend and ran over a dog, we both leapt out of our seats. We looked at the other passengers and they smiled at our reaction as if to say, Couldn't be helped, with a shake of their heads. Our driver drove on like it was only a hump.

We were parked in front of the Hotel Sta. Cruz in Pochutla before 11am and made sure we were on the Oaxaca City return trip passenger list for noon four days later. As always, cab drivers solicited us to take their cabs. We've already crossed out Puerto Escondido from our list and have decided that Mazunte was going to be our destination. The Mexican store owners told us to wait for a collectivo which would take us to Mazunte or Zipolite. Collectivos are pickup trucks with makeshift rooves to cover the back. They seat about ten in the back but they are always filled as long as passengers can still stand. We stood throughout the thirty-minute ride and finally caught a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

When the collectivo passed by Mazunte, we immediately saw a lot of tour buses and decided to stay on board to check out the scene in Zipolite. A VW minivan full of hippies (complete with dreadlocks and tie-dye shirts) drove by us in Zipolite. We decided that Mazunte full of Mexican tourists was better than Zipolite full of hippies. Later, we found out that the tour buses were only day-trippers visiting the Tortuga Museum (Turtle Museum) next to the Mazunte Beach entrance.

First order of business was to get a place to stay for three nights. Dona Porfiria was slicing vegetables in her kitchen when we asked her if she knew of any available cabana. It turned out that she owned the three blue cabana right outside and one was just vacated. Our cabanas a small studio with its own bathroom and ceiling fan for P200 a night. From reading our guidebooks, we expected a fee of about P30, but we couldn't give up what might be the only available place on the beach. We later realized that P30 only buys us space to pitch a tent or to set up a hammock! For $20 a night with our own bathroom and fan? We shouldn't even have winced at the price. Hot water? Not in 80-degree humid weather. Mosquitoes? Plenty. Our room, the middle one in a set of three, was the only one with windows. We were able to leave them open with only a bed sheet to try keep the mosquitoes out. At least we had a draft coming in at night and some light in the morning.

That afternoon happened to be when the Tortuga Museum put on a turtle release fundraiser. You can sponsor your own baby turtle for about P30 each. You then free your turtle and watch it crawl on the sand to the ocean with the other turtles. Although a hundred eggs hatch per clutch, sea turtles are still considered endangered.

Stops:

Atlantida Suburbanes Station
Oficina Martiz is on La Noria No. 101. They mean SUVs when they say suburbanes. From Oaxaca to Pochutla, the earliest departure is at 4:30am. The six-hour ride cost us P120 each making our round trip ride a total of P480 for two people.

Dona Porfiria Cabana
P200 per night for a one-bedroom with private bathroom, just right for two people. Dona Porfiria also washed our dirty shirts for P25 when we ran out of clean clothes. She told us P15 but upped her "fee" when we picked up our laundry. Tiene mucho, she said. Too much. Dona Porfiria might look ninety years old but she was a true business woman.

Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga
Web: www.tomzap.com/turtle.html
The four-hectare complex distributes information regarding conservation and legislation for turtle protection and conduct scientific and technological research for turtle management, development and conservation. They have crazy and short hours I wish I wrote down for you. We never made it in.

There are plenty of family-run restaurants along the beach and off the main road in Mazunte. They offer Mexican dishes, American meals, and Italian. You should only stick with the Mexican food and the American breakfasts. Spaghetti, hot dogs, and hamburgers are all equally awful. I don't even know why you'd want to eat non-Mexican food while in Mexico! Some of the best meals we've had were huevos con arroz (eggs with rice), pulpo con arroz (octopus with rice), fish Veracruz style with squished tomatoes and onions, and anything con bistek, beef steak. I missed rice so much, I would order fried eggs for breakfast and for lunch just to get some.

Vendors also walk up and down the beach selling tacos with pescado and puerco, fish and pork, for modest prices. So reasonable in fact that we ate at least five times and drank three to five bottles of beer a day.

Dona Porfiria shares her space with a couple of young Mexicans who run Coco and Gin, the beachside bar that serves fresh coconut juice with, yes, Ginebra Gin. They even have two swimming Labradors named after their bar. You can bring beer bottles closer to the water on your beach blanket as long as you promise to return them and help keep the beach clean.

As far as drugs are concerned, we heard that there were plenty in Zipolite. But we were also warned by the locals that if you get caught, the police will confiscate everything you've got, including cigarettes, to punish you. If you give them a hard time, they'll throw you in jail. Mazunte was beautiful enough that playing with drugs just wasn't worth all that trouble.

A memorable dinner was at Restaurant Savoy where they grilled some steaks to match the Cabernet we brought with us. The mosquitoes feasted on our legs even with DEET, but at least for an hour, we got used to them.

Dona Porfiria rents hammocks on the roof of our cabana, a good place to catch up on your reading and take an afternoon nap. Other than our trip to Pochutla to exchange more money and to buy fresh watermelons from a husband and wife team set up in the back of their pickup truck, all we did was eat, swim, sunbathe, sleep, and eat some more.

Stops:

Coco and Gin
Corona and Sol are the two brands of cervezas that you will be able to order all over Oaxaca. A bottle is P10 each. Coconuts are about P15 each, 20 with gin.

Collectivos
From Mazunte to Pochutla, the fare varies from P 7 to 10. The ride is about thirty minutes and it stops to pick up anyone who can fit inside and outside the truck. You press a buzzer to let the driver know he's approaching your stop and you pay him when you get off. Pochutla is the last stop from Zipolite.

For a change of scenery, we jumped in a collectivo to Pochutla to catch a bus to Huatulco. The Bahias de Huatulco are 36 bays along the coast and are somewhat of a big tourist trap. At the bus stop we asked the kids working for the tourism office under an orange umbrella for a map of Huatulco. We picked Maguey Beach from the sketch and cabbed the 15 minute ride for P40.

Maguey is beautiful and we arrived before noon which gave us enough quiet beach time before the moneyed Mexican families arrived. When they did, all the vendors and restaurants arrived and opened, too, making the place a whole loud resort that wasn't exactly our preference. Only one good thing can come out from a tourist trap: better choices of food. We had fresh lobsters, oysters, and shrimps for lunch. Beware when you order ceviche; our shrimp ceviche was not actually just cooked in vinegar but was slathered with mayonnaise and heavy cream. We will find out later in most of the restaurants we went to that served comida corrida, daily lunch buffets, that a lot of Mexicans love their salad with mayonnaise. The lobster was grilled and as fresh as our oysters. Valentina hot sauce is always on the table and even I got used to adding hot sauce to everything.

Before the screaming kids start running along the beach, Maguey is a good spot to watch the locals. Women walk with their umbrellas picking up shells and small stones to sell and iguana owners will let you take photos with their pets for P10.

Our bus back to town broke down in the middle of the highway. We couldn't help but laugh when they told us we had to find our own ride back to the beach. Fortunately there are several bus lines that run the same route. We caught another bus heading to Pochutla, followed by the collectivo back to Mazunte. We enjoyed our last night in Mazunte with our second bottle of red wine and more bistek by the water and under the stars.

Stops:

Bus to Bahias de Huatulco
P12 per person for an hour-ride which stops to pick people up along the way.

Collectivos
From Mazunte to Pochutla, the fare varies from P 7 to 10. The ride is about thirty minutes and it stops to pick up anyone who can fit inside and outside the truck. You press a buzzer to let the driver know he's approaching your stop and you pay him when you get off. From Pochutla, get off at Mazunte before it heads to the last stop of Zipolite.

We gave ourselves enough time to catch our suburbanes ride back to Oaxaca City. Lunch at Restaurant Lichita in Pochutla offers simple yet flavorful home-cooked Mexican dishes that came in all sorts of orange and brown sauces. Alejandro, the owner's son, introduced himself to us after I asked the kitchen staff about getting my hands on one of the Lichita tote bags they had hanging near the sink. Only the best customers get the bag, but Alejandro liked my idea of taking photos of my bag all over New York City. He studied in Chicago for a year in 2000 so he spoke a little English and I promised to send him an "I Love NY" shirt in return.

Six hours, one rest stop (where I said hello to a donkey) and one police inspection in the middle of the highway later, our suburbanes pulled in its station in Oaxaca City. We checked in Hotel Francia and got ready for the 7:30pm mass in Santo Domingo. The hotel staff is extremely helpful, even lending us an iron to get our clothes ready for New Year's Eve mass.

Templo Santo Domingo glows with a wealth of art, with its ceiling covered with saints, cherubs and Bible-story paintings. Almost everything is in gold, a sign of its times. We sat through a 30 minute rosary session and an hour mass, all in Spanish.

After the mass, we walked around the public market, Mercado Juarez, to buy Mezcal, Valentina hot sauce and some chili powder to take with us back to the United States. Inside you will see booths full of fresh fruit and vegetables (try the Oaxaca bananas!) and some food stands where Les Halles New York chef Anthony Bourdain sat to eat in his TV show, A Cook's Tour.

There are a lot of outdoor tables by the Zocalo's restaurants. We sat there to welcome in the new year while watching the fireworks and drinking more Mezcal. There were a lot of street vendors selling luces (means "lights"; sparklers like you've held on Fourth of July) and egg shells filled with confetti and flour. One of the vendors gestured hitting the egg over her head when I asked what they were for. When the clock stroke midnight, strangers cracked their eggshells on our heads and soon, everybody was running around the plaza play fighting with eggs, flour, confetti, and foam sprays. Some of us got into heated battles, spending P100 for more eggs. Waiters were running around to make sure bills were paid, restaurant managers were trying to keep their party pooper customers from leaving and sorry policemen tried their best to stop those who took aim at the richer Mexicans in the balconies with prime spots and table reservations.

There was no official loud countdown or a Waterford crystal ball being dropped from a skyscraper, but our Oaxaca City new year was unlike any other we've ever experienced.

Stops:

Restaurant Lichita
On Lazaro Cardena #79 across from Hotel Sta. Cruz. Ask for Alejandro. We ate some amazing Mexican dishes here by nodding to everything our waitress recited to us. They have excellent melon juice! Highly recommended.

Hotel Francia
20 De Noviembre 212
Oaxaca, Oaxaca 68000
Phone: (9)516-4811
E-mail: safer@prodigy.net.mx
$49 per night for a double room with private bath, TV, phone, and fan.

Templo Santo Domingo
Behind the Plaza Santo Domingo on Macedonia Alcala. Open daily from 7am to 1pm and 5pm until a service ends, only closed during siesta.

We spent the first day of the new year in Oaxaca City at the Monte Alban site. Hotel Francia charges P230 an hour for the use of their van. We flagged a cab driver who took us to the site for P70.

Archaelogists say that the great city on the hill reigned for at least 1,200 years between 500 B.C. and A.D. 750 as the capital of the Zapotecs--the dominant civilization between Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico and the Maya empires of the south. Our guidebook says the name Monte Alban was probably coined by a local Spaniard because of its resemblance to a similarly named Italian hill town.

Postcards of Monte Alban will usually show you a ball court sprawling with green grass. We came during the dry season so the whole site was mostly dry and dusty. We explored the tombs using our map; the excavated artifacts are now housed in the museum by the visitor's center. One of the most impressive is Building J, an arrow-shaped base unearthed generations ago. Monte Alban's chief excavator believed that it served as an astronomical observatory.

By 11pm, we were ready to say goodbye to Oaxaca City and catch our 12:30am UNO first-class bus ride back to Mexico City. It's the same scene at the bus terminal on our first morning in Oaxaca where every member of the family is waiting for their son or daughter to board the bus back to the big city.

We closed the curtains and slept like logs all the way back to Mexico City. Happy New Year.

Back in Mexico City for the last day of our 11 day trip. We just wanted to catch up with some of the sights we had missed during the busy holiday week.

We took the Metro to the Palacio de Bellas Artes for the Luis Barragan exhibit. The New York Times featured the architect's work in their House & Home section before we left for this trip. There is also Casa Barragan, the architect's private house, which reopened for the new year but unfortunately required an appointment for a guided tour.

The Torre Latinoamericana is right outside the Bellas Artes. It has a viewing platform with telescopes on the 44th floor. We chose not to go up as we've already seen the smoggy city from Monte Alb. Around is Alameda Central, once the Aztec market and then the place of execution during the Spanish Inquisition. We missed the Museo Mural Diego Rivera at the park's west end. It houses Sueno de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda Central which was removed from the Hotel del Prado after the 1985 earthquake.

We did get to visit the Museo Frida Kahlo in Coyoacan. Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul or blue house is where she resided while married-slash-separated from Diego Rivera. They were remarried but lived in separate houses to allow private times with their queridas, or concubines. Frida Kahlo had an affair with Leon Trotsky, who has his own museum down the street. It has been said that Diego Rivera ran after Isamu Noguchi when he caught him with his wife.

Most of the original house plan remains intact. The kitchen still has their names in mosaic tiles. Her wheelchair is eerily parked in front of an unfinished canvas. Her bookshelf houses some of the most interesting titles. Her small bedroom is also arranged the way she left it, with photos of Communist leaders (including Mao Zedong) on the wall, some of her doll collection, a mirror on the ceiling of her bed's canopy and her plaster chest cast she painted after one of the accidents in 1951 that impaired her for the rest of her life. There is a reproduction of The Two Fridas (1939) out in the main hallway. Her journal rests inside a glass case showing some of its colorful pages. The tondo-shaped Still Life (1942), commissioned by the wife of Mexico's then-president Camacho and rejected because of its sexual references is displayed. Alongside it is Viva La Vida (1954), Long Live Life, painted before she succumbed to pulmonary embolism (or suicide, whichever you believe).

Before midnight, we checked out of Hostal Moneda and they arranged a cab ride to the airport the next morning.

All in all, Mexico was a whole new experience for us even though it's the fourth Spanish-speaking country we've visited. It's the kind of place where our being Asian did not come into play. No one cared and no one stared. We fended for ourselves using our little knowledge of Spanish. We planned what we could ahead of time and left the rest to adventure.

Stops:

Palacio de Bellas Artes
10am to 8pm, P30 each

Torre Latinoamericana
9am to 11pm, P35 to go up

Museo Mural Diego Rivera
10am to 6pm, Tuesday to Sunday

Museo Frida Kahlo or Casa Azul
Allende and Londres 247, Tuesday to Sunday for P35. No photos allowed.

Reads and Resources
I read Hayden Herrera's Frida Kahlo: The Paintings before my trip and brought with me Sandra Cisneros' inspiring Caramelo. As for guides, we used Footprints' Mexico Handbook and Moon's Oaxaca Guide. Google and hostelworld.com were both indispensable.