Guelaguetza in Oaxaca

After staying at Nina and Gonzalo's house, we spent a night in Puebla right before going to Oaxaca. If we had to do it again, we would have skipped Puebla to stay one more night with our friends and go directly to Oaxaca.

Oaxaca is the city that we have liked the most so far because we had the luck of being there for the Guelaguetza, wich is the annual festival in which the different towns in Oaxaca State come to show their traditional dances, cloths, music and food. Tickets were sold out since last year and we couldn't get in the main auditorium. Some people told us that there were free seats but we were happy enough with all the free events that were going on in the city such as a multimedia show projected on the cathedral and fireworks. We saw a concert in which we realized that the author of "Sabor a mi" was from Oaxaca!

We also did a couple of tours: to Monte Alban and to Valles Centrales visiting Mitla, where we entered in a tomb, the Tule tree and Teotitlan, where we learn about the natural dyes local people use for clothings. Red is obtained with "cochinilla" which is an insect that lives in the Nopal cactus.

The hostel we stayed at, hostal Don Pablo was nice but too noisy. If we had more money we had stayed at Camino Real. Actually we spent more time there than in our own hostel as we had dinner there, used that restroom everytime we were downtown and took both tours from their tour agency.

And NEXT STOP: San Cristobal de las Casas!