Top 10 Mexican Memories from Oaxaca and Chiapas

 

Apologies for the delay everyone, but we've been hosting family and friends since mid-December in Antigua, Guatemala (more on that later). It has been gloriously busy, full of firecrackers, fine-dining fiery volcanoes, and friendship - but not a lot of time to sit down and write.

In the meantime, I realize that Mexico was short-shifted and I'd missed relaying some amazing experiences. So here's a short re-cap of Top 10 memories from Oaxaca and Chiapas.

1. Oaxacan Street Art

Walking through Oaxaca is like being a piece of glass inside a huge kaleidoscope; as you walk the colours around you shift and change with every streetscape offering a new view.

Anyone recognize this? It's the streetscape Ivan used for his painting of little Sian skipping down the Mexican street. Still the same 25 years later!

I believe this one needs no introduction.

Sign language training on the street

Just an everyday mural

And another

Ivan in the streets of Oaxaca

2. Oaxacan Street Drinks

I know they say don't drink the water, but with over 80+ traditional drinks in Oaxaca, you really have to trust the street vendors here. I only got to taste a fraction of what was on offer, most notably a rose-scented atole made with a corn fungus called huitlacoche, an agua fresca with cactus and chia seeds, and - a MUST if in town - tejate. 

I can't describe them all here, but check out this post of the 87 traditional drinks one photographer undertook to document.

Agua Fresca on the street - matching colours a coincidence!

The BEST margherita in town - the dried lime slices here dehydrating at the bar behind me as we drank 

Mescal tasting (and buying!)

3. Oaxacan Food

But a woman can't live on drinks alone. (Actually, in Oaxaca you probably can, to be honest.) The food here is world famous - and for good reason. There are herbs and plants that only grow in Oaxaca and its surrounding hills, and the care, cultivation and use of indigenous ingredients is part of the reason that Mexican cooking is recognized by UNESCO on its "Intangible Cultural Heritage" list. 

Tlayudas were a specialty of the region, but anything with tortillas were on offer everywhere we went along with sweet, fresh mangos and melons, and all types of fresh-roasted nuts and seeds. 

Meat (unspecified type) tlayuda from a street vendor

Mole dinner at a local market. Swimming in sauce, just the way I like it.

4. Going to Cooking School

A few years ago, when making a Mexican meal for my family, I swore I would one day conquer the seven moles of Mexico. I had two under my belt before hitting Mexico. But now I have learned, from chef Oscar, who taught us traditional Mexican cooking for a morning, that there are possibly hundreds of moles. Oscar himself claims to know 54. So it looks like my ambition to know all the moles of Mexico may take many more years, and many more dinners, than expected.

At the Casa Crespo, under Oscar's tutelage, we learned to make masa dough from dried corn (using the nixtamalization technique), cook Oaxacan tamales, ceremonial tortillas, use avocado leaf to flavour black bean soup, whip up a ceviche and margueritas along with three types of salsas in roughly 10 minutes, and top it all off with corn ice-cream (helado de elotes).

A stand outside the local market where Oscar told me you'll find the local, organic producers as opposed to the venders selling from wholesalers, who are generally inside. Helpful market hint if you're in Latin America.

Inside the market

Oscar leading us out of the local market. I'm holding an amazing herb, Herbo Santo, for our dinner.

Mole Almondrado - one of Oscar's 54 moles.

Appetizers and sauces at the cooking school

4. Undergoing a Spiritual Cleansing in a Temazcal

The memory I find myself returning to again and again is the spiritual cleansing we underwent in a Temazcal operated by a healer/herbalist in a small town outside of Oaxaca (Cevierum Temexcal Oaxaca) . We went with an American couple we'd met at our RV park. After a quick drink of pitiona (lemon verbena), we were hustled into a small, earthen dome where a healer walked us through the ceremony, which was in three parts. First, we had to heal the physical body, then the energetic one, and finally the spiritual one. 

Generally, what happens in the temazcal stays in the temazcal, but I can say that we slathered or breathed in at least thirty different herbal concoctions throughout the exercise, and ended in individual bath tubs, literally bathing in tea and sound. It was amazing and purifying - a great way to end 2025.

Here's our temazcal hut

In the healer's garden

5. Oaxacan Transport

Our RV park was in Thule, about 15 minutes away from town, so we soon got onto the Mexican public/private transportation system. You can always get a cab of course, but it's more fun riding the crazy-decorated re-purposed school buses  cans and cabs called colectivos. 

One such ride, not to be forgotten, involved hopping into a cab-turned-colectivo with a roughly 6-foot-tall German woman we'd met at the RV park. At first it was just the three of us, but two locals soon joined us, so we were six to a car, with one of the men curled into a tight ball beside the long-legged German, who ended up practically in the driver's lap, bouncing along trying to avoid the gear shift. One thing I can say is that the buses here were more reliable than OC Transpo  - and a heck of a lot less expensive (~10 Pesos each way).

View from inside the Thule colectivo

6. Hierve el Agua

Just outside of Oaxaca, way, way, way up in the hills are petrified waterfalls called Hierve el Agua. They're geological formations made over thousands of years of calcium-rich water trickling over the cliffs, depositing calcium on their way. 

To get to the site involves navigating incredibly narrow village streets, and passing numerous "artisanal mescal" makers driving donkeys or horses around a grinding stone, preparing agave for the mescal they sell in hand-labeled glass bottles containing not just worms but also scorpions and snakes.

Artisanal Mescal Making

Me by the petrified waterfalls

Swimming in the lagoon overlooking the highlands

Petrified waterfall

Lagoon

Another petrified waterfall, seen from below

7. Monte Albán

You can't do southern Mexico without hitting a pre-Hispanic ruin or two. Monte Alban is one of the most astounding of these sites. The former capital of the Zapotec kingdom, Monte Alban was established before 500BC and built upon for the next thousand years. The place is huge; the feeling of standing in that massive great square is really hard to describe. If you're interested, watch this video.

Monte Alban from the highway.

Palace

Descending the Palace stairs (like an old woman - it was very steep)

Overlooking the central square

Overlooking the central square with Ivan

The day we arrived, the trees were flowering, releasing this intoxicating, sweet floral odour. Like nothing I ever smelled before. When I looked the tree up on Seek, I found that it was native to the area, growing only around Mexico: ipomoea pauciflora, or cazahuate, a tree relative of the morning glory vine and sometimes called Tree of the Dead. Very appropriate.

Best smelling tree in Mexico, Tree of the Dead

We'd been to Monte Alban twenty-five years ago and I seem to recall a pretty basic operation. Now there's a detailed museum and the site is even larger than I remember. While they've excavated a lot more of the site since we were here last, there's still a lot of mystery left - many tunnels to excavate, and pictograms still to decipher. 

Ivan in a tomb 

Tomb's entrance

The coolest buildings for me was the observatory, which was aligned to the constellations, and the building bearing the "dancing ghosts", or danzantes. Archeologists originally thought the carvings portrayed dancers, but now believe they represent the local chiefs that had been captured, tortured, mutilated and offered for sacrifice during local wars. How interpretations can change...

8. Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca 

The cultural museum of Oaxaca is full of excavated artifacts and cultural relics housed in an the former Monastary of Santo Domingo de Guzman. Some rooms are simply two or three relics, with a name like "drink making", capturing Oaxacan life, but other exhibits are extraordinary, like the relics from Tomb 7 from Monte Alban.

A funeral urn

Another one

My favourite part? The views into the spectacular (but off-limits) botanical cactus garden and the view over the square to watch a Mexican wedding in full dancing-paper-mache glory!

Oaxacan wedding paper mache dolls, ready to start dancing

The view of the wedding procession, just before the bride and groom exit the church

The Oaxacan botanical cactus garden

9. San Cristobel de las Casas

Finally leaving Oaxaca, we stayed for several nights in the beautiful, rustic San Cristobel de las Casas before heading to Guatemala. We hadn't been able to go here last time as Chiapas (the state) was in revolution in 1998 following the Zapatista uprising. Now the town is awash with young, British tourists looking for cheap happy hours. 

But the feeling of revolution is still evident, particularly as the "Cola Wars" rage on, with Pepsi and Coke vying to be the drink of choice to accompany Pox, a sacred alcoholic drink, and drive electoral decisions by offering free drinks in the weeks leading up to an election. You can see the battle raging between tiendas offering one or the other beverage, while small protest stickers saying (in Spanish) "Coke is not a ceremonial beverage" try to convince locals to fight against the cola giants, particularly as they've left the region's water supply contaminated. 

Catedral de San Cristóbal Mártir

All the things you can't do outside a day care. See if you can figure them all out:)

Church doors festooned with flowers for the Virgin of Guadalupe celebrations

Town square

10.  El Chiflón Waterfalls

Finally, just before crossing the Guatemalan border, Ivan and I stayed in the parking lot of the ecotourism resort for the most spectacular waterfalls in Chiapas. A bit costly, but the one hour hike through the jungle to the top of the mountain to see the massive cascade and feel its spray on our faces was well worth the price.

El Chiflon

Down below

The colour of the water was spectacular

Downstream, where we can swim

Jumping spider in the bathroom!

And that about sums up our top 10 memories from December last year. We're now in Antigua, Guatemala and I'll be sharing news on our adventures here on Wednesday. Also, I've started posting to Instagram for those who prefer short bursts, so please feel free to connect with me there. 

Keep warm, keep well, and I will keep you all posted.