Oaxaca, Travel Diary

We left the capital of Mexico with a night bus around 23:30 with the usual aim of saving the money for a night in a hostel. We had decided to travel first class and the bus at first sight seemed not to betray the expectations of comfort and safety. In reality they turned out to be six hours of authentic suffering, tossed right and left in seats that were at the very least uncomfortable. We arrived in Oaxaca at the first light of dawn and once we'd unloaded our backpacks we headed toward the waiting room to gather our thoughts and figure out which hostel to go and lay our tired limbs in. We had collected a few names before leaving Mexico City but as soon as we got out of the bus station, we didn't even have time to breathe before they approached us to offer us accommodation. The price was good and given our heavy tiredness, we didn't need much persuading to accept the invitation.

The hostel was quite nice, a newly built building, divided into small rooms with private bathrooms. Once we'd dropped off our backpacks we fell into a deep sleep. On waking we went to the owner of the hostel (who wasn't a very trustworthy type!) to ask for information about what the city of Oaxaca had to offer to young tourists like us.

In reality the city isn't all that big, although very nice, full of buildings of colonial origin, with the ever-present "Zocalo" (the central square) in which stands the ever-present mega church, in this specific case a basilica. There are also two very interesting and picturesque markets in which it's pleasant to get lost and in which you can find practically everything. And that's exactly what we did on the first day; having woken up in the early afternoon we went for a hearty breakfast at the market and visited it in every corner. We then headed toward the Zocalo where a sort of musical competition was taking place: the marching bands representing all the schools of the area had gathered, to do battle with drums and trumpets. We stayed there for a good half hour, in the shade of a big tree, admiring all that interesting commotion.

Then tiredness prevailed again and we headed toward the hostel to take another quick nap and wash. In the evening we went out to dinner and given our scant economic resources we opted for a Spartan meal, a street stall that certainly didn't promise exciting hygiene conditions, but definitely cheap prices.

Since by now we had realised that the city wasn't all that big, the following morning we took it easy and, getting up in the late morning, we headed to see what we were missing. First of all though, a healthy breakfast of fruit smoothie and freshly baked pastries, consumed at the usual city market. We then headed toward the cathedral, a decidedly enormous building if proportioned to little Oaxaca. The street that led us toward the big church was one continuous succession of colonial buildings, almost all in a good state of preservation and with strong, bright colours. We lingered there in the surroundings for almost a couple of hours admiring the stalls and the many little venues we had put on our programme to spend our evening at.

By now the city couldn't offer us anything new and so we did an about-face and went to buy the bus tickets for the following day: obviously the umpteenth night bus. Back at the hostel just long enough to wash and we were back on the street to find another "dive" to have a decent little dinner at. After a digestive stroll we headed toward the so-called "zona viva", where the nightlife is concentrated, to spend a few hours in some typical little venue. Our intention was, among other things, to try a drink characteristic of Oaxaca, made with a typical herb that grows in those parts. The evening went decidedly well, the venue was tiny but packed and all the people were busy belting out songs we had never heard before.

The following day we woke up quite early (with no little effort!) because we had to check out since in the evening we had to catch the bus toward our new destination. Well said, in the evening! That meant having another whole day to spend in the city. A brief consultation and the Ritorno al Parallelo Zero association had already decided how to spend the afternoon... we had found out that about ten kilometres from Oaxaca you could admire the oldest and biggest tree in the world, a tree that even had its own name and had given its name to an entire town. It was too tempting an opportunity to let slip, another record to add to our records folder. No sooner said than done, we hopped on the first bus to Santa Maria del Tule, the town where the majestic Tule tree rises.

We can't say for certain whether it's the oldest and biggest tree in the world, but it certainly leaves no one indifferent: an estimated age of more than two thousand years, a diameter of 14.05 metres, a height of 42 metres and a circumference of 58 metres. Unfortunately or fortunately for poor old Tule, the trunk was completely fenced off and we couldn't come into direct contact with this power of nature. We stayed quite a while admiring so much beauty, taking shelter under its branches to escape the scorching sun and find a bit of peace. In the late afternoon we caught the bus that took us to the hostel (more or less!!!) where we even managed to scrounge a shower. As soon as darkness fell we loaded our backpacks on our shoulders and grabbed a taxi on the fly, heading to the bus station with destination San Cristobal das Casas.