Just walking around the neighborhood was an adventure. We found this mural on the way home from a coffee shop.
I loved my visit to Oaxaca in 2012 with a group of friends and two guides. This was different, as we lived in the apartment, shopped in the open air food market, cooked with our hosts and really learned some things about daily life in this busy city.
One evening, as we were walking to a nearby restaurant for supper, we passed a man with a wooden cart full of ripe mangoes. He peeled and cut them up, added chile, salt and lime juice, and handed me the plastic cup. It cost 5 pesos, about 35 cents, and it was heaven! I would have had another for dessert, but he had wheeled away by the time we came back to that corner. |
This shop had charts for the counted cross stitch that is typical of Michoacan, seen in the stitched yokes of the blouses and belts hanging there. Several ladies were discussing the patterns when I went in; I was more interested in the shelves at the back where every shade of wonderful thread was displayed. They had perle cotton which I can get at home, but mainly featured a thinner and softer cotton thread wound in squishy balls.
I haven't seen this sort of thread in the US. If it hadn't seemed pretty greedy, I would have carried home a ball of every color and value.
Maybe next time I will.
We visited the cathedral in the center of Morelia on Saturday evening, when they have fireworks. There were costumed "Spanish ladies" and pirates who would guide tours following the spectacle, and there had to be over a thousand people there, just walking around and enjoying the fine evening.
Also visited the zoo, which is a short bus ride from the apartment. Very pleasant zoo with one elderly elephant, one rhino, giraffes, hippos, llamas and a fine reptile exhibit. We were time limited, so did not get to see it all.
I would certainly visit this area again. We felt very safe. We didn't see a single traffic accident--even though most intersections had no stop signs. People mostly slowed down and yielded appropriately. It was amazing.