Oaxaca Review

Oaxaca has a certain organic intensity to it that defies easy description. The culture is richer here, even if the people might be poorer. The coffees taste earthier and roastier. The cocoa tastes deeper and chocalatier. The colors seem more brilliant, and the sun shines hotter. It's a place where Mexico's ancient cultures seem to forget that they were subjugated by the Spaniards 500 years ago, and it's a place where the worst restaurants in town serve food that tastes better than the 5-star restaurants of larger cities elsewhere in the world. It's a place where artists find inspiration. It's a place where modern tourists find a whole lot of substance for not a whole lot of money.

Oaxaca's history stretches back thousands of years. It was established long before that Christopher Columbus dude took his first vacation to the "New" World. Reminders of the region's ancient history are as close as the downtown museums, or as far as the hilltop outside town where you can climb the ancient temples of the Zapotec cloud city of Monte Alban. Downtown though is full of classic colonial-era architecture, with elaborate churches and cathedrals, hacienda style homes with stunning interior courtyards, and people whose Zapotec and Mixtec heritage is as plain as the nose on their faces. The cultural depth of this city just can not be overstated. It was the home of Benito Juarez --- one of Mexico's most revered founding fathers, as well as the home of Rufino Tamayo --- one of the masters of contemporary international art. Oaxaca is also where you find some of Mexico's most stunningly distinctive traditional folk art traditions. It's Oaxaca where the best black-clay ceramics are made, and it's Oaxaca that created the fanciful animal carvings called alebrijes.

Allow at least a few days to see Oaxaca. There's too many sights to cover in a short time. A good trip suggestion is to visit Oaxaca as part of a cooking or spanish language class, and then explore leisurely over a period of a couple weeks. I would definitely make a point of hitting the major museums and some of the churches and colonial buildings. The two top museums in town are the Museo Regional de Oaxaca and the Rufino Tamayo Museum. The Museo Regional de Oaxaca is actually inside one of the most spectacular colonial-era monasteries in all of Latin America, the Templo de Santo Domingo --- it's a place where the building itself practically eclipses the precious artworks contained within. The Rufino Tamayo Museum, oddly enough, contains few works by the maestro himself (you can find a better collection of Tamayo works at that OTHER Rufino Tamayo Museum --- the one in Mexico City). In Oaxaca, the Tamayo Museum features artworks by the pre-Colombian civilizations that inspired many of Tamayo's great works. After a day of busy sighseeing and shopping in the city's excellent galleries and boutiques, head over to the Zocalo where a cup of locally roasted Oaxacan coffee will hit the spot while you do some serious people watching (all the locals will be there...you should too!)

The question of where to eat is tricky in Oaxaca. There are too many great restaurants to cover them all. I like the casual downtown feel of Casa de Abuela, where I had a spectacular grilled chicken breast topped with mango salsa and queso fresco, though the best meal I ate was at a restaurant called Los Danzantes, which is shockingly contemporary for such a traditional venue. The dishes are rooted in antiquity, but updated to 21st century tastes. Best of all --- dinner for two (including drinks) came to under US$50!! Yikes! I'd have easily paid $200 or more for a meal of this caliber in Washington D.C. or New York. I will mention that Oaxacan cuisine tends to be spicier and richer than food in the rest of Mexico, and while other states prefer beer or tequila with their meals, artesanal mezcals are the drink of choice for sophisticated Oaxacan gourmands --- it's a taste you won't be able experience anywhere outside the local region.

There are some very elegant hotel properties in Oaxaca, as well as a range of choices for the budget traveler. I stayed in the Camino Real Oaxaca (a fabulous historic property in its own right), though next time, I might think about some of the upscale boutique bed and breakfast inns, like the Casa Oaxaca or the Casa de las Bugambilias.

If you've been thinking that you need to see "the real Mexico", and not a big, glitzy beach resort area like Cancun, then Oaxaca is exactly the kind of place you're looking for. It's historic, rich in culture and tradition, with affordable prices on some of the VERY BEST food and artistic works in Mexico. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, but for the more cultured traveler, not necessarily the unwashed masses (they'll honestly be happier sticking to the tequila shooter beach parties and all-you-can-eat buffets of Cancun).