Christmas in Oaxaca City

After about a 5 hour bus ride, we arrived in Oaxaca City just after dark, and wandered down to our guesthouse which was only about a 10 minute walk away from the bus station. Like all the bookings we had done a few weeks prior, we didn’t really know what to expect. However, because it was almost Christmas, Cheryl had generously booked us a nicer hotel, with two double beds (!) and a pool! Such luxury!

We dropped our bags in our massive room (there was even a little kitchenette) and headed to town to search out some mole and mezcal, which we knew the town was famous for. Unfortunately, very little was open due to the holidays, and we felt lucky to be served a couple of tortas (sandwiches) before the place closed.

Wanting to take Christmas pretty chill, without a lot of moving around, we decided to use Christmas eve to head to a place we had seen on Instagram (oh yes, it was THAT kind of place), Hierves el Agua. To get to these famous petrified waterfalls, we first walked half an hour to the bus station, got on a bus that went right past our place (helpful on the way home at least) to the town of Mitla and past a number of mezcal factories. In Mitla we climbed into a camioneta, or the back of a pick-up truck that had been outfitted with seats and a roof, and a hour later we were there. Despite it being Christmas Eve, we were not the only ones there by a longshot. Luckily the site was fairly spread out so it didn’t feel overrun.

View from the back of our ride to the waterfalls

After a short walk to view the petrified “waterfalls” from afar, we changed into our bathing suits to swim in the natural affinity pools and take some Instagram worthy photos of course. By the time we got back to Oaxaca, it was time to head to the zocalo as we knew something was going on around 8 for the holiday. We wandered around the packed square but didn’t see a parade or anything of the like, so decided to settle down for a drink. We had just ordered when Alex and Chelsea, the couple we had gone to the Mexican wrestling with, showed up, fresh from 10 days in Huatulco. Soon after, the parade (of sorts) started, going right past us multiple times, with a lot of pinatas (I’m convinced they weren’t actually stuffed), spinning and paper mache. We had no idea what was going on, but the crowd loved it and so did we! All in all, a great Christmas eve!

For those of you unaware of the religion that dominates much of the world’s days off, Christmas Eve meant the next day was Christmas, aka a day when most of Oaxaca does not work. Unfortunately, this included restaurants. We managed breakfast easily enough as it was included at our hotel, but after a couple of skyping sessions home, it was time to source some lunch. I had marked a few places in google maps knowing at least one would be closed, but alas, they were all closed. So was everything else it seemed. A couple of times we saw restaurants cleaning like they were about to be open, but anytime we got near we were quickly rebuffed by the staff. Looks like it would be time to make use of our kitchen!

Our lovely hotel

We found a corner store open and bought some avocadoes, limes, tortilla chips, tortillas, refried beans and cheese and made ourselves a pretty great meal of guacamole and quesadillas. Between the search for the lost bus station, the three skyping sessions and the constant search for food, it wasn’t the most relaxing Christmas ever. But we made up for it the next day by spending the morning at the hotel pool, visiting Monte Alban in the afternoon, eating a couple different kinds of mole, and drinking a lot of hot chocolate, now that everything was open again.