Forget the Beaches: Do Oaxaca, Festivals & Mexico You’ve Never Seen
There’s the Mexico you see in the travel brochures – white-sand beaches shaded by palms, hotels that look like washed-up cruise ships, people glugging margaritas in bars.
And then there’s the other Mexico. The wilder, the rawer… the one dolloped with smoky Oaxacan mole, pine-coned with agave, and as fiery as a red-hot habanero salsa.
When it came to designing our Mexico adventure, we were determined about one thing – this was going to be about the other. We weren’t interested in chalking lines from some Mexican bucket list or lazing around in Cancun. We wanted to jolt the taste buds with spices they’d never encountered, gaze up at Mesoamerican ruins from eras long gone, and meet the people – the dancing, smiling, mirthful people.
Here’s a little look at what we came up with.
The route less travelled
You won’t find us making a beeline straight for the powder-fine beaches of the Caribbean. It’s not that they aren’t amazing. They are, to be honest. It’s just that Mexico is such a world of adventure, myth, intrigue, and mole that it would be a great shame to not try to get under the surface a little.
We do that by plotting a course that goes south and north, not east or west. The vast majority of trips to Mex will be a journey to either the Pacific coast or the Caribbean. This is neither. Yes, we’ll dip our toes in the frothing salt spray of Oaxaca, but we never linger.
To push a metaphor a bit too far – our rendezvous with the ocean is just a thin sliver of salty, pickled habanero in a tortilla of ultra-enthralling cultural hubs – the cobblestone streets of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas state on one side, the cantera-stone facades of Oaxaca City on the other.
We move through those on zigzag high-mountain roads, passing beneath smoke-spurting volcanos capped with snow, and whizzing through highlands peppered with cacti. It’s a wild ride.
The standout moments
Choosing to go the way less travelled means choosing a different side of Mexico. We can’t promise big hotel buffets and sunbeds reserved on the beach. We can promise twirling folk dances, ancient pyramids (yes, in Mexico!), and sauces infused with chocolate and capsicum.
Oaxaca
You’ll notice the colours first – bright wall murals, even brighter goods in the markets, bottles of mezcal glowing like little lanterns on every street. Then it’s the people. Their warm hearts and ear-to-ear smiles that say “welcome home”. Finally, you smell it… a whiff of chocolate mole and chili, that earthy tinge of maize flour in the air.
This is Oaxaca, a corner of Mexico that’s just different to the rest. We knew it would be impossible to “do Oaxaca,” as some destination-counting bloggers like to say. The state is 36 times larger than the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)! But we had to have our taste. Specifically, we had to have a six-day-long taste that included the dance troupes of the Guelaguetza festival (more on that below) and several nights of getting lost amongst the cobblestone mazes of Oaxaca City.
Here’s something else to boggle the mind – Oaxaca City is 1,555 metres above sea level, but we drive there in a single day from Salina Cruz, which sits right beside the ocean. It’s a journey that goes up and up and up, through canyons and dusty mountain ranges that sprout spiny cacti. Start with the salt foam of the Pacific, end with a salt-rimmed mezcal cocktail in a city above the clouds.
Whenever we take groups to this country-sized region, they wonder why we didn’t hang around longer. We often wonder the same.
Guelaguetza
For two Mondays in late-July, the eight regions of Oaxaca come together to open their hearts to the world. This is La Guelaguetza, a festival that’ll lure you in with dancers all geared up in clothes more colourful than a parakeet, only to leave you with pineapples in your hands, feathers in your hair, and a distinct taste of mezcal in the mouth. It’s heaps of fun!
We’ve timed this trip perfectly to coincide with the very peak of the Guelaguetza. Events take over the whole city of Oaxaca but we ensure you’re right in the thick of the action for the main parade, which gets rolling through the handsome, colonial heart of town in the early afternoon. It’s the starting whistle for a party that refuses to stop all night long, with ad hoc dance shows and sprawling food bazaars fuelling you through an evening you’ll never forget.
Speaking of food bazaars…Guelaguetza is a foodie’s dream come true. It’s probably one of the best ways to taste your way through everything Oaxaca has to offer (which is a lot), simply because all corners and communities of the highly diverse state will be represented. Look one way and there’s a piña loca, or crazy pineapple, packed with chilli-topped fruit salad. Look another, and there are toasted tortillas with refried beans and Oaxacan cheese.
Teotihuacán
If there was going to be a big-ticket drawcard on this trip, we knew it had to be Teotihuacán. Older than Chichen Itza by about 600 years, it’s one of those places where you can feel the history pulsing through the old rocks and the uneven ground below your feet. Athens comes to mind. So does Rome.
As you step in, you’re instantly swallowed up by the Avenue of the Dead. It’s a wide thoroughfare where colossal pyramids rise on both sides – the Pyramid of the Sun right ahead, the Pyramid of the Moon up to the north. Those grand structures are woven together with homes and workshops. Stand and imagine people living their lives one and half millennia ago, moving between the forums, the residences, and the great shrines; chatting, shopping, gossiping.
The finale of Teotihuacán is the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It’s writhed in carvings of snake-like creatures that would once have peered into your soul with their glittering eyes of obsidian glass. Today, the spine tingles for a different reason – this was the site of multiple mysterious human sacrifices, evidence of which was discovered in great group graves below the main altar.
See why this one couldn’t be missed?
The food
We’ve already touched on just how enticing the culinary situ is on this here trip – the smorgasbord of La Guelaguetza would be enough to sate even the Anthony Bourdains among you! But don’t go thinking that Oaxaca is the only place with world-famous cuisine. Puebla, one of our final stops, is perhaps even more legendary on the food front.
You will never forget your first dollop of mole poblano. It is to Puebla what chicken parma is to Melbourne, only way, waaay better – sorry parma fans. We’re talking a viscous sauce of slow-toasted ancho chilli and pumpkin seeds, brought to life with zesty roast veg, and made smoky and brooding with the addition of tangy dark chocolate.
Of course, that’s just a taster (no pun intended). One-dollar tacos packed with jalapenos, coriander and lime, dreamy quesadillas glued together with stringy cheese, the best darn avocados you’ve ever tasted, and leathery-earthy hits of mezcal all combine here. Tummies do not rumble in Mexico. Not when we’re around.
Mexico City
Be in no doubt: Mexico City (or CDMX, as it’s known to its proud residents) isn’t just a convenient arrival point. It’s one of the undisputed highlights of our trip, and of Mexico as a whole. Yeah, a lot of visitors jet in and jet right out again, looking for the bath-warm Caribbean sea or whatever. But that’s not the Fencox way, it just wouldn’t be right.
This is the city that gave the world Frida Kahlo, and her blazing, bright-blue-painted house still beckons fans in the funky quarter of Coyoacán. It’s the city of Roma, a vintage neighbourhood where flamboyant Art Nouveau buildings rub shoulders with jacaranda-blooming parks and plazas. Where the sounds of mariachi flow through the oxygen-thin air. It’s home to Centro, the historic core, where ancient shrines dedicated to the serpent god Quetzalcoatl lurk below the weathered cobbles of later ages.
It’s rare that someone doesn’t fall for this great city. Very rare indeed.
Curious about the rest of this itinerary? You can find it here.