Arrived in Oaxaca on a Friday expecting plenty of Hotel Room availability - but no - everywhere fully booked! Found a room at Hotel La Catrina de Alcala - their last room - but for one night only. Saturday morning saw David tapping away on the Laptop and striking gold - the Palacio Borghese Boutique Hotel with only 8 rooms had a cancellation and the 'Napoli Suite' was available! Not cheap but seems like the only room in town!!
At Check-in we discover why. Oaxaca is famed for its Weddings. Mexican weddings are a time for music and dance. Oaxaca weddings have much much more! And today in Oaxaca there's a very special wedding taking place at the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán. As the travel guidebooks say, if there's only one church you visit in Mexico, make it this one! Dates back to 1575 and it's simply glorious. I'm not a religious person, but this 'Temple' is faboulous - both inside and out. What a place to get married!!
The Temple has a capacity of over a thousand, and every hotel room in Oaxaca is taken by wedding guests hoping to grace the Temple's pews today. Palacio Borghese's other seven rooms are occupied by family of the Groom! All very well groomed! Reception won't tell us who they are, but the guests at the wedding will be 'Businessmen' and 'Politicians'. He does tell us the Wedding Service starts at 13:00 hours
So we don our best togs and at 12:45 we're at the 'Temple' watching the guests take their pews. Standing room only for some - including us - door was open so we stepped inside! None of the smartly suited and booted senors or the designer frocked senoras seemed concerned - European friends they probably thought.
As the Bride (Laura) and Groom (Manuel) walked down the aisle to stirring organ music Amanda was in prime position to take a couple of quick pics. They swept past us and we quickly joined the other guests as they swarmed out onto the Plaza in front of the Temple.
There to greet Bride & Groom was an instant Fiesta! Giant Bride and giant Groom spinning round, arms whirling. Huge white globe adorned with flags and the wedding couple's names. Dancing ladies in traditional dress with flowers balanced on their heads - two with paper turkeys atop. Masked men dancing crazily, arms flailing, yelling and screeching. Bandana'd Stilt Walkers in country dress. Banda Gladiadores playing Mexican fiesta music. More traditional ladies handing out straw sombreros and bamboo shots of Mezcal to all Guests. And in the midst of all this, two rather casually dressed Gringos! Wow!
The Bride and Groom stopped in the centre of the plaza, downed their Mezcal, and danced! Not a British style smoochie first dance. They spun and jived like something off Strictly - and suddenly there was a dance troop of Mexican ladies dancing around them - amazing! Deffo a ten from Len!!
Guests and Bridal Couple partied on in the Plaza for half an hour - whilst the two casually dressed Gringos watched spellbound - before the whole ensemble set off down the Plaza steps and fiesta'd through the streets of Oaxaca Centro to the reception. We could have followed, but the 'Businessmen' in smart suits had some Hombres Grande with them whose eyes were not focused on Bride and Groom, so we diplomatically left them to Fiesta on without us!!
