Oaxaca City

9/6/08

We checked out galleries and museums.
The galleries and museums are small and not many But the art here is rich.
I haven't seen many photography galleries though.

Oh, It was a great joy to run in to the photographs of Livia Corona the other day when I visited M. Bravos Photography Museum.
It was a group show and she was one of those contemporary Mexican photographers.
GREAT! Way to go Livia.

Oaxaca’s traffic system is bad; it’s not people-friendly at all.
The sidewalk is narrow and crowded.
If you have to run when you cross the street how would you feel? The traffic light usually signals you to walk, but here it signals you to run: the green light for pedestrians is the figure of a person running. It’s quite a challenge to cross the street , especially at intersection where there is no sidewalk and a lot of racing cars. But amazingly the old ladies carrying a lot of stuff seemed no problem with it.

On the road we already met many great people who love traveling and know how to enjoy their lives. It’s always great to talk to them and share the interesting stories of each other, hope it continues for rest of our journey.

I having hard time to upload photos with using slow computers here, so the photos are not in order.

About Food

by yasy

A relatively large city like Oaxaca offers great variety of food: Fancy, homey, to nitty-gritty. Since we are not much into the fancy stuff, we jump right into the muddy water of the food market here at Mercado, where farmers bring their distinct products, such as fried grasshoppers or home-made fresh cheese, and locals gather and dig into their lunch and dinner without utensils. In the meat section, straps of beef , pork, and their internal organs are hanged on a string like a laundry. How do you order them? At first, a little girl hands you a straw basket with a bunch of green onions and chili peppers. You carry the basket around and pick up the meat as you wander the section. The collected meat is barbecued right in front of you along with the chili peppers and onions. Now you have a basket-full of grilled meat and vegetables. The last stop is the salad section, where you pick up Pico De Gallo (Tomato Condiment), Guacamole, and different kinds of sauces. Before you know it, you have the complete dinner in your basket you are holding, you think. But not so fast! Something is missing; a little girl of 5 or 6 years of age comes out of nowhere and grab the grilled onions from the basket. Place them on a cutting board, chopping off the unwanted ends and squeeze lime juice on it. That’s how you do the barbeque here.

Maya is hooked with the soup with chunks of pig’s feet and its internal organs. When we went back for the same soup, it was too late and the place had been closed. Instead, we had a short ribs and vegetables in the broth. I thought it was close enough, but from the next morning, she started nagging me for the internal-organ soup.

My search for the Pumpkin Soup has not been achieved yet. It is supposed be the traditional soup of the local indigenous people of Oaxaca, but I still haven’t had a close encounter with it. Once, in a small village of Teotitlan Valley, I may or may not view the soup. When I was sitting down in an outdoor market, eating tamales. An old lady was attending a large pot on a make-shift grill. The steam was coming out and rising from the crack between the lid and the pot. When she lift the lid and, with a clay ladle, she poured the liquid into the small bowl. It might or might not be my White Whale. In that distance, I wasn’t sure.