Oaxaca City was full of pretty churches, addictive street food, brightly colored buildings, and a bit of political unrest between the government and unionized teachers (long story short: the government is requiring teachers to take an unfair test in order to force them out of their jobs, which they are protesting by occupying the streets in tents… there were violent clashes in June in which 6 people were shot).

Despite this, Oaxaca felt pretty safe and welcoming, and we spent a relaxing few days hanging out in the sunny hostel patio, walking round and round through the cute shady streets, and sampling all kinds of food including elote (corn on cob on a stick, slathered in crema, cheese, chili powder, lime juice, and salt), esquites (corn in a cup with all the aforementioned ingredients), tlayudas (Oaxacan tortilla with beans, cabbage, stringy cheese, and meat), tacos, quesadillas, chapulines (grasshoppers), mole, tamales, and the stringiest cheese you’ve ever seen.  I didn’t take too many food photos, usually  because everything was half eaten by the time I remembered my camera.  On our last night, we finally found a fruit + veggie market and were relieved to cook ourselves a tasty dinner of broccoli, avocado, sardines, and string cheese.

Enjoy! 🙂