2017 Oaxaca

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All photos for this trip can be found in our
2017 Oaxaca Mexico Photo Album
Some are also shown in our weekly blogs.

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It has been over 15 years since we were last in Oaxaca. While living in Calgary we spent about a month of a number of winters from the late 1980's to the early 2000's. We had probably been to Oaxaca at least 8 and as many as ten times. Time for a revisit to see what has changed.

As we had on many of our previous trips to Oaxaca, we flew to Mexico City, took an Estrella Roja bus directly from the airport to Puebla, stayed a few days then a bus to Oaxaca. The ADO buses from Puebla to Oaxaca are very comfortable and it is a beautiful drive especially through the Tehaucan Valley where you have a chance to see the large cactus forests (here's a great picture borrowed from another travel blog LivingAndWorkingInMexico)...

We stayed in Oaxaca for six weeks. The house we rented provided us with lots of room to spread out, laundry, kitchen, large screen TV and DVD player. The DVD player was especially appreciated since all of the available TV channels were in Spanish. We did watch numerous old CSI Miami episodes in Spanish but that gets old in a hurry even if it does provide an opportunity to brush up on the language. We rented lots of DVDs from the Oaxaca Lending Library including series such as Luther, Justified and 30Rock.

While in Oaxaca we visited museums, went out into the valley for market days in Etla, Tlacolula, and Ocotlan, took cooking classes in Etla, Teotitlan and Oaxaca, shopped in local markets, walked a lot, ate a lot, shopped a lot, and spent many an evening enjoying glasses of wine at outdoor cafes in the Zocalo.

Although the Centro Historico has not changed that much, the rest of the city has grown a lot since we were last here. The population has more than doubled and there are now big box stores such as two Walmart stores, Home Depot, Office Depot and many luxury car dealerships. There is one Starbucks but it is outside the historic area. Within the historic area there are a few new coffee places that could easily give Starbucks a run for their money.

The food was as excellent as we remembered it. There are some nouveau cuisine type places with new takes on old favourites and there are the old standby places such as the Quinta Real (we knew it as El Presidente 15 years ago) that provide an oasis in the city and a great place to go and have a margarita in a beautiful courtyard maybe even beside their pool.

The house we rented was pretty good; comfortable and spacious; lots of water (well, except for one episode at the end of week 5) and fabulous sunrise views over the Santo Domingo church...

.... since our living room faced east, by about noon, the balcony off the living room was in the shade and by early evening it was nice to sit out and many an evening, after returning from the Zocalo, we were rewarded with some spectacular fireworks...

All in all a nice revisit to Oaxaca. Will we go again? Who knows? .... BUT if we do we will probably spend some of the time in a place with a pool. Man it was hot in the afternoons!

Here's our weekly breakdown of our trip...

Week 1: Courtenay BC to Oaxaca Mexico
Week 2: Oaxaca
Week 3: Oaxaca
Week 4: Oaxaca
Week 5: Oaxaca
Week 6: Oaxaca
Week 7: Oaxaca to Courtenay BC