Woke up Sunday morning to find the Napoli Suite in turmoil. Empty Tequila bottles and dozens of squeezed limes lay on the floor next to an overturned ice bucket - carpet looking slighty damp! By the bed two glasses each with the dregs of our magnificent margaritas!! Hey, that's Oaxaca Weddings for you. For us the honeymoon period was already over as we had to check out of Palacio Borghese by high noon and were yet to find Sunday night accommodation!
After several strong black coffees David booked us in at City Centro Hotel - a newly opened Boutique Hotel owned by City Express (Mexican Hotel Chain) of which he's now a Premios Card Holder!
But first, and still nursing hangovers, we returned to the magnificent Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, venue for yesterday's wedding, and looked in awe at the intricate gilt designs swirling around a profusion of painted figures - this time without the Bridal Couple and their thousand guests!
And on to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca nextdoor, where as well as admiring the beautiful monastery buildings we hoped to see the Mixtec hoard from Tomb 7 at Monte Alban. Sadly most of the hoard, including it's star attraction, the Turquoise covered Skull of a 14th century Mixtan King, is on loan to a museum in Mexico City! We saw a photo of the skull, and several rooms containing typewriters, bakelite phones and film projectors, so our 70 Peso admission fee wasn't wasted.
(Ed's note: Mexican citizens get into the Museo free on a Sunday, but not Gringos who pay full whack to joust with armies of bored schoolchildren and screaming toddlers whilst nursing their sore heads!)
Monday: borrowed bikes from City Centro and cycled around the backstreets of Oaxaca Centro - stopping off at a traditional Molino de Maíz where local people take their Maize for grinding into Tortilla ready powder, and their Molle ingredients for mixing into one of Oaxaca's many Molle specialities! Stopped too at a very un-touristy market where David bought (yet) another hat, plus a bottle of Mezcal and a kilo of fresh Limes. Yes hangover fully shaken - time to try the local brew!!
Cycled dangerously across town for late lunch at Mercado 20 de Noviembre - a huge food market with dozens of Comodores serving up traditional Oaxacan staples - we're headed for El Pasillo de Carnes Asadas where a dozen or so stands specialise in grilling tasajo or cecina enchilada over hot charcoal. Select your meat stand, choose your meat cut, find a seat at the busy shared tables, decide which of the many salad hawkers should provide your spring onions, prickly pear cactus and chille peppers, call over the cerveza boy for a couple of chilled Coronas, grab some guacamole y salsa picante, see all of this arrive together at the table, which you're now sharing with three generations of a local family, including a small child who's asleep on the table, next to the tortillas, and dig in! Yumbles!! And as soon as you're finished, each of the independent suppliers is back to collect payment for their part in your lunchtime feast. 235 Pesos total for the finest BBQ meal ever, complete with ice cold Coronas!!
BTW - the smiling ladies at the main entrance aren't selling herbs and spices in those large red baskets! Those are insects - mostly grasshoppers - of varying sizes!! They have been cooked whole and are sold by the kilo as a meal, a light bite, or just a tourist curiosity!!!
