In the age of Instagram, Facebook, and social media, Oaxaca was never on my radar to visit if it wasn’t for a new friend I met in Mexico City who put the seed in my head.
For the time being Oaxaca’s tourism is growing pretty rapidly year to year, and my wishes is for the people of the city to grow in prosperity from tourism, but still somehow keep its charm.
This post only really scratches the surface of Oaxaca, but perhaps will give you some inspiration to explore the unknown.
Where is Oaxaca?
Oaxaca is one of the states in Mexico. However generally when people mention Oaxaca, they mean more specifically the main city area.
Is It Safe?
I never felt unsafe at any part of time, but I generally don’t stay out too late. I walked at night through the zocalo to my hotel, and really had no problems.
The only thing I hear a little bit though is to be careful of being pick pocketed at Central de Abastos Mercado.
Taxi Survival Tips
At the current moment there aren’t any Ubers, so you have to take a taxi. There pretty much are 3 types of tais
Yellow Official: These are yellow official taxis, and you can tell because in the front passenger’s seat you will see their official photo and license. These are considered the safest taxis.
Yellow Unofficial: These are yellow, but unofficial. You can tell by looking at the front passenger’s seat as you won’t see any license.
Red and Blue Taxis: These are more known as colectivos which pick up multiple passengers on the way to a destination. If you don’t specifically as to be alone, you can assume passengers will also fill up in the car.
Many taxi drivers speak limited English so before you go in a taxi, always get a predetermine rate by asking
Cuanto cuesta ir al ___? (How much does it cost to go to ____). You will notice the official ones will charge you more, and the unofficial ones will always be about 20% less. Agree on the price, then go to your destination.
Do I Need To Speak Spanish?
Knowing basic Spanish will make your trip easier. Expect fluency in fancy restaurants, and everything else you pretty much can point.
Day 1: Airport Arrival + Casa Taviche
When you arrive you first go through immigration. After immigration you most likely need to get to the city downtown.
As you walk out, you will see this big taxi dispatch, and you have two options.
- You can ride a shared van (colectivo) which costs 80 pesos. There are about 9 passengers in a van, so when it is full you take off. You first buy the ticket then go to the van area. Tell your driver where you are going, and if you Spanish is limited show a Google Map of where you need to go. This is more important if you are staying at an AirBNB where reference points might be harder to get by.
- You can book a taxi for 300 pesos directly. Booking a taxi makes sense if you have a group.
There really is no need to prebook a driver as it will actually probably cost you about 500 pesos.
For food planning on this trip I followed a lot of Eater’s Oaxaca Food List
in addition to asking some bloggers for their advice
Casa Taviche
https://www.yelp.com/biz/casa-taviche-oaxaca
It was a small, but really charming restaurant. When walking in I saw mainly locals, but a scattering of very visible English speaking tourists.
They have a revolving daily menu, and hands down Casa Taviche meets the best price point and taste combination. You can get a 3 course meal for 200 pesos (and they do accept credit cards).
In Mexico, a couple key things are key
- The salsas they serve you aren’t the crappy salsas we have in North American super markets. Instead each restaurant really expresses themselves in the custom salsa they serve to you in the beginning of the meal. Every restaurant I went to in Oaxaca had a different salsa.
- All the restaurants in Mexico make their own fresh tortillas. However, tortillas in Oaxaca are bananas out of this world good with a lot of it made out of blue corn.
- Most restaurants have ‘agua del dia’ (drink of the day). These are either fresh fruit juices, blended drinks, or teas. When you enter a restaurant and see agua del dia, ask them what it is.
Agua del Dia – Lemon Leaf Tea
Probably the first time I have ever seen anything this. Makes me wonder why nobody else has done it.
Day 2: Tierra Ventura Guided Hike
A big part of Oaxaca is ecotourism. I always like to try to do hiking wherever I travel, but if I don’t know the area, I usually try to book a tour. After googling around, I decided on booking a tour with Tierra Ventura.
There are quite a few places you can hike to, but I wanted to check out the mountains in the Sierra Norte. If you have time, you can do a multi-day hike through the Pueblos Mancomunados. I only had one day so I did the Llano Grande hike.
I was picked up at the hotel in the morning where our tour guide Claudia gave us some history on the area. Her backstory in itself was pretty interesting. She originally was from Germany then came to Mexico because her husband had some work there. They eventually decided to permanently resettle in Oaxaca.
She mentioned that Oaxaca is one of the poorest regions in Mexico and that many leave to Los Angeles and send money back to Mexico.
Pueblos Manuomunados are a set of self sustaining towns that used to be quasi independent from the government. These towns only had 500 tourists a year, but now get 25,000 a year. That still isn’t a ton, but relatively speaking that is a huge spike of growth.
Wherever I hike, I like using the All Trails app. It gives you the a map where you can check where you are even if you don’t have a cell signal. When I did some solo hiking in Death Valley, those maps on the app were invaluable for me to not get lost.
When we arrived at base camp, a local guide who lives in the town came with us. I opened the All Trails app, and was surprised to see no trails mapped in the area. I was going to hit ‘record’ on the app and perhaps be the first one to record a map for the app in the Sierra Nortes.
But for some reason, a part of me chose not to record the trail head. I guess I might be selfish because I didn’t want random tourists to hike these trails without a local guide. With that, I closed the app and we trekked off on our 4 hour hike. Eventually someone will map out this area and publish it out for the world, but I guess I’ll delay it for a bit longer.
On the hike we would stop every 15 minutes to look at a flower or an herb that I would have walked past. Claudia would point to an herb and mention that the indigenous people would use it to help with their medical ailments such as sickness, headaches, pregnancy, etc. The specificity of the usage of the herbs were quite interesting.
Probably the most interesting part of the hike were these huge agave plants called Century agave plants. They live for about a 100 years and produce more oxygen than pine trees!
When we finished the hike we ended up at a “restaurant”, which kind of resembled someone’s house. As I poked around the house before the meal, I noticed that they had Christmas decorations with a tree that looked like it had a lot of peat moss. Given it was February I was a little curious why they didn’t take it down, but it reminded me of the projection of what Hollywood dictates a Christmas tree should look like. In the rest of the world, pine trees might not be readily accessible, so why not use what you have locally?
We ate together with our hiking group which was pretty small. There was someone here from DC who had time off because of the government shut down, and a couple from the UK who were in their 70s! Really I would aspire to be like that couple still hiking in their 70s.
Las Quince Letras
Website Link
This restaurant is one of many great mole restaurants in the city. Service is pretty mediocre, but prices are pretty good for what you get.
What seems to be pretty common is variations of mushroom soup around the city
They had a 3 mole sampler plate, and I was speaking in Spanish and asked for it “sin cerdo” (without pork). Perhaps because of my intonation or something, they didn’t understand what I was saying. I talked to some people later and they said I should say “sin puerco”.
Well the whole moral of this story is I ordered the mole amarillo de res (yellow beef mole), to make sure I didn’t get pork. Oddly enough, that’s the memory that sticks out when eating at Las Quince Letras
Day 3: Hierve El Agua
While browsing other blogs, I came across a guide to Hierve El Agua. I messaged her and she gave me the number of a private driver she hired. I got his number and we began chatting on WhatsApp. I decided to book a car as a private tour to explore the region of Hierve El Agua (petrified waterfalls).
Jose (named change for privacy) arrived at lobby of the hotel I was staying out and we took off to Hierve El Agua. Being that it was just him and me, we had a couple hours to chat.
On the drive we shared where we were from, and he mentioned he used to live in Los Angeles. I asked how he got there and he said via a coyote (human smuggler). I was surprised, but he indulged me in all of the details of his journey.
What people in Mexico first need to do is to get to Tijuana. Since Oaxaca is quite far, he flew there. When Jose exited the airport, officials asked him his reason of visiting and he would say visiting family and his ID was checked.
When he walked out of the airport he mentioned that there were several chatty and friendly people asking where you are from, and where you are going. These people were pretty much the coyotes trying to strike a deal with you.
The coyotes then would negotiate a price with you to go over the border. A coyote first said it would take $800 USD to cross the border, but he bargained it down to $600 (these are 1993 prices mind you).
After the deal was struck, Jose was ushered to a safe house, where he was separated into different groups. Each group was specific to the destination city such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc.
In the middle of the night, Jose was taken to the border, and then when the time was right he entered a hole dug underneath the border fence. He then walked about 3-4 hours where another car picked hi up and drove him into another safe house.
The coyotes called his family in Los Angeles and said, “I have Jose, are you okay with the payment of $600?”. Fortunately they agreed over the phone.
From the drive from the safe house to an agreed meet-up point of a gas station in Los Angeles, Jose was able to talk if the radio was on. Whenever the radio was off, he and the other passengers needed to stay silent to not get caught by immigration.
At the gas station, the family gave the coyotes the money and then left. Jose worked at a fancy restaurant in Beverley Hills for many years after that.
The oddest part of the story, is that when flying home to Mexico, he didn’t need a passport, only a Mexico National ID card which I thought was a little strange.
One thing that I still remember to this day how in English he referred to the border as “the frontier.” I find that quite an apt description as the frontier often means opportunity, unknown, and danger.
Hierve El Agua
After that most interesting chat, we arrived at Hierve El Agua. Apparently there are only 2 places in the world which have petrified waterfalls (the other place is Turkey). Typically there are tour guides where you can just pay a small tip to guide you around the trails, but since I was so early nobody was there.
At the base of the trail head 2 pools. I thought they kind of looked perfect, but after Googling, it does seem these 2 infinity pools were constructed. There is a pretty great and short hike, and fortunately All Trails had this area completely mapped.
When you reach the lowest part of the hike, you have this spectacular view of the petrified water fall.
And unfortunately, lots of people did a lot of tagging in the agave plants
After the hike I took a dip in the pool. It was pretty cold, but since it was a hot day it felt quite good.
From Hierve El Agua, most people visit Mitla. This is an archaeological site similar to Monte Alban.
I looked around for an English tour and didn’t see any so I wondered on my own for a little while. Eventually I saw a tour in progress and I asked if I could crash the tour. The tour guide that that Mitla was used primarily by a family of mystics (?). I think it was so hot I wasn’t paying too much attention.
After Mitla we went to another archaeological site Yagul. It was pretty abandoned and dilapidated. The good thing is that I was the only person there other than a school bus full of kids. There were no guides, only a couple signs on English. You can hike to a high point though.
Continuing the journey we went to Teotilan del Valle. I specifically asked Jose if it would cost money and he said no. It was one of those places where they make rugs the traditional ways.
When I entered the shop, the owner gave me a free demo of how the rugs were made. The owner talked about how they get cotten from sheep in the mountains and natural dyes from local ingredients. It was oddly super similar to a demo I had seen in the sacred valley in Peru.
Afterwards I looked around their rugs, and noticed some rugs with unique designs. I asked and they said they do make custom rugs for 8,000 pesos and it would take about 3-4 weeks.
The final part of the day was a stop by the Tule Tree which is estimated to be 2,000 years old. Kind of strange to see a tree so old.
Mercado 20 de Noviembre
Google Maps Link
This market, just slightly south of el centro had some pretty interesting stuff.
Walking around, I saw one of my favorite fruits, a Sapote. It looks ugly, but as I say in the market, “si es mas feo es mas delicoso?”
Outside the perimeter of the market was a guy selling Cherimoya. When I came back he literally was gone! I realized he had a moving cart so I found him a gain in the centro.
Restaurante Casa Oaxaca
Google Maps Link
Restaurante Casa Oaxaca is a pretty popular and well known restaurant. You definitely need to make reservations in advance, and they are English friendly.
What I remember most is when they were making the salsa, they asked in Spanish, “How many crickets do you want?” I did a double take and asked them to repeat and said a little.
The salsa tasted pretty good as it was made fresh table side. Also I didn’t really taste the crickets at all.
Day 4: Oaxaca City Touring
Rito El Chocolateria
Google Maps Link
Oaxaca is a city with no shortage of coffee and chocolate. I ordered a Chocolate El Agua (hot chocolate) which was made by melting chocolate with hot water. What I learned was that it was not traditionally to have an iced chocolate drink and that only really came in the past couple of years.
Mercado Sanchez Pascuas
Google Maps Link
Mercardo Sanchez Pascuas is a more mellow version of Mercado 20 de Noviembre.
Highlights of the market were Sapote Negro (Black Sapote – a fruit that tastes like pudding), along with some sweet mangoes
Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca
Google Maps Link
At 11am I attended the tour at the Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca. I didn’t expect that many people, but there were at least 100 people there. They were all pretty pale an pastely colored which leads me to believe they were from Canada or such region without sun.
The thing that intrigued me the most was quelite herbs. I always thought quelite referred to a particular herb, but it refers to a class of edible plants. Each herb is used for a particular dish.
Imagine that instead of a bay leaf, oregano, etc, an entire class of herbs existed in Mexico you never knew of.
One of the main attractions is this cactus reflecting pool.
Tacos de Comal
Google Maps Link
Tacos de Comalwas recommended on Eater and has been around since 1974. I am generally pretty wary of street food, but I saw them keep food super hot, and they even wore masks.
I ordered an ’empanada’ which I thought was weird because I got a big tortilla filled with chicken stew meat instead of a triangle.
This empanada was phenomenally good. You can tell the tortilla was freshly made, and the filling with piping hot with herbs. I still dream of these tacos to this day.
Monte Alban
Google Maps Link
From Tacos de Comal I booked a taxi to Monte Alban. When I arrived I asked if there were any English guides and said there wasn’t anyone available.
I saw another tour guide speaking English and decided to shadow the group. One of the ladies introduced herself and asked “are you joining the group?”. I said yes if you don’t mind and I pretty much crashed the party as a fly on the wall.
Monte Alban was some type of capital back in the day, and they don’t know why it was abandoned. The guide talked about some of the rituals and the significance of the buildings. All things considered, I thought Teotihuacan in Mexico City was more impressive as that site seems more intact.
Criollo
Google Maps Link
Criollo is a restaurant run by Enrique Olvera. When you arrive you enter in the kitchen which was kind of weird. I ordered a menu without pork and shellfish and got
1: beef taco, camote, pineapple, leaf of the prickly pear
2: garbanzo bean soup, chayote
3: tostada de mushrooms
4:fish with confit tomatoes
Eggplant and local fruit
5:ribeye with huitlacoche, corn salsa fried mushrooms
6: cacao pulp
I kind of felt that the pacing of the food was way too long, and surprisingly this wasn’t my favorite restaurant in Oaxaca.
Day 5: Food Explorations
I had to do some work on this day so I did some further food explorations.
Itanoni
Google Maps Link
Itanoni is a taqueria which serves tortilla which is made from rare corn varietals. Their menu is pretty simple and has tacos, memelas (like a tiny taco with beans), and tetelas (triangle shaped with beans).
What I found in Oaxaca was that tacos aren’t the small flat tortillas you fold up. Instead when you order tacos, they always seem rolled up.
Destilado
Link
I managed to snag a last minute reservation at Destilado and ordered a 6 course vegetarian tasting. By far, Destilado was my favorite meal in Oaxaca, and maybe one of my top meals ever. My tasting had:
1: cucumber drink
2: sope with guacamole and blue corn – squash flowers
Mushroom sope
3: tortilla leaf tomato stew, rice chicharrón
4: blue corn ferment tomato filled with giant black bean
5: beet mole tart with puma queso and flowers
6: wheat from the mountains, tomatoes, Parmesan Oaxaca from Chipías , fermented chayote
7: avocado leaf ice cream
It was similar to the vein of Criollo, but the aura of the restaurant was more cozy and the food more relatable.
Day 6: En Via Micro-finance Tour
I booked a tour with En Via, but in the morning I had the opportunity to check out some tourist spots.
Museo de Contemporaneo (MACO)
Link
This was a super small museum with some odd art exhibits. I was done in about 30 minutes.
Museo de Las Culturas
Link
This museum talks a lot about the history of Oaxaca and its people. It has a really untraditional layout has it seems to half be in a castle. This museum will take you quite a bit of time to go through as there are many small rooms.
En Via Micro-finance tour
https://www.envia.org/
One of the things I saw on Tripadvisor was En Via’s micro finance tour. En via specifically gives micro loans to women. Microloans are small loans that are issued to individuals to help start businesses.
We left at 1pm and our guide Ida rode to visit people who previously had received micro finance loans. On the trip she explained a lot of things to us about the system.
In Mexico there are a lot of micro loan non profits. One of the crazy things is that the average interest rate is 76%! The reason it is so high is that clients have no collateral so they are not involved in the regular banking systems.
En Via specifically targets women as according to their data they are more likely to pay the money back. They don’t do explicit advertising into villages, and instead are approached via word of mouth for people to apply to them.
Women have to form a group of 3 to apply. The reason for the group of 3 is for support, and to help each other if they have problems paying the money back.
The women also have to take 8 compulsory training sessions before getting their first loan. The classes range from the basics of financial literacy to how to calculate profit.
Type of businesses range from a mezcal bar, restaurant, a reseller, or a cafe owner.
We first stopped at a restaurant, to eat, but I didn’t realize this would be the first tour stop.
After we ate, the owner (the lady shown) gave a talk on how En Via helped. She said her husband was working in Los Angeles working, and the loan helped her expand her restaurant.
The odd thing I learned was that small businesses don’t have to register as an entity to the government nor pay taxes. It makes me think when your government is corrupt and inefficient on how it leads to fewer opportunities for people.
The next stop was to someone who makes traditional dresses and aprons.
The last stop was someone who got a loan to buy cacao to make chocolate.
Origen
Google Maps Link
Tucked the way on top of a hotel is Origen. This restaurant is more French/Mexican based by using French techniques for Mexican food. I ended up asking them to change to a vegetarian menu and got:
- Tomato salad
- Mushroom taco
- Risotto
- Some dessert
Overall, I wasn’t too thrilled for the meal after going to Destilado the day before.
Day 7: Farmer’s Market
Pochote Farmer’s Market
Google Maps Link
Everywhere I go, I really love going to farmer’s market. As expected there was some pretty interesting stuff.
What kind of intrigued me the most was there was this Asian person selling momos who spoke fluent Spanish. I just kind of wanted to sit down and ask her. How’d you get here? How did you end up cooking momos at the farmer’s market?
Stamp Museum (Museo de la Filatelia Oaxaca)
Google Maps Link
On the way to a meal I walked by the stamp museum and decided to go on. Lucky for me it ended up being the 20th anniversary of the museum so there was free food and drink.
The stamp museum was pretty intriguing as they showed stamps from all time period and all over the world.
Meson Jalatco
Google Maps Link
A low key restaurant recommended by quepasaoaxaca.com
Overall, probably not one of my favorites. Their mole was pretty good, but vegetables were pretty overly smoked or undercooked.
Day 8: Cooking Classes
Casa Crespo Cooking Class
Link
Last minute, I decided to take a cooking class. Oscar took us around the market to buy ingredients and we headed back to the kitchen.
As part of the class, most things were prepped, but we got to do minor things like cut, and do minor sauteing. I have to admit, the class was pretty smooth. We cooked these dishes
Overall I had a splendid experience and would totally recommend it.
Nieves Manolo
Google Maps Link
Just around the corner from the cooking school is a really interesting ice cream stand.
I ended up ordering the mushroom ice cream.
For my last day, I wandered around the zocolo and saw a wedding. Not sure what the significance of the giant people are
Voces de Copal
Google Maps Link
After randomly wandering around I walked into this art gallery which had some stunningly beautiful pieces.
Zandunga
Google Maps Link
Zandunga is a restaurant that serves food traditional to the Ixptepec region. I ordered the the stewed beef, chicken soup, and hot chocolate. The meal was good, but a bit too heavy.
