Walking around Oaxaca

The city and life

There are no tall buildings here. Three stories seems to be the maximum. The cathedral of Santo Domingo is the tallest building in town, I think. I know they have earthquakes here, maybe that is the reason. All of the buildings are made of stone or concrete, no wooden buildings at all.

The rhythm of the days is different here. In the morning it starts out slow. There isn't much going on before 9 a.m., then people go to work and the streets and busses are busy, but it still seems like most businesses aren't open. I think Chedraui opens at 10.

There seems to be a slow pause about 2 or 3, then it is busy til around sunset, when everything really comes alive and people are all out in the streets or doing things and the hustle and bustle goes on until midnight or so. Then, in the middle of the night, absolute silence except for the dogs, who are mostly quiet themselves.
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I walked along today behind a family that was about 4 foot 5 each.
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I left class about 4 and went to the Internet cafe for 45 minutes. It wouldn't have taken so long, but it was a very slow Internet connection. The computer screen kept flashing and changing colors from blue to magenta -- not a good sign, but at $1 per hour, I couldn't complain.

I walked around a bit, taking photos of the protestors, who are in town for La Guelaguetza. It is exciting to see so much political activity going on.

They are protesting for several reasons. One is that they think that La Guelaguetza is too commercialized. Another is that the dancers at La Guelaguetza don't get paid, even though tons of money is made off the event.

Then others are protesting because political prisoners are locked up in Guadalajara. There was a protest on a flatbed truck of GMO corn - a bunch of corn stalks with signs on them saying "Transgenic corn is death." I took a bunch of photos of the different protests.

They spray-painted big black letters right on the tourist buses saying "Fuera de Oaxaca" which I assume means "Get out of Oaxaca," I think because the tourist buses don't belong to the bus owner's union.



I had to go to the bathroom (that is the story of my life) and went down to Santo Domingo, thinking I could use the museum bathroom.

But there was a protest there too, with a big banner out front - the workers were protesting against the lack of bathrooms at Santo Domingo! I guess they have been broken for a long time and the workers are mad and embarrassed.

Then it began to rain. First a little...I figured I could duck into a cafe, but I was lost and wanted to find my way back to familiar turf. By the time I did that, all the cafes looked closed. No one eats out until 9 or 10 p.m., so the early evening is the quiet time for restaurants.


Elotes sellers on the street


I bought an umbrella at a Chinese store. I never thought of there being Chinese stores in Mexico. There are a lot of things I didn't think of!

Then of course it began to rain sideways, so my umbrella, though pretty and purple, was useless. It was pretty funny. I kept switching it around different ways and kept getting just as wet.

I ended up pausing in several doorways and just watching it come down with some other pedestrians. The rain doesn't cool anything off. I was pretty wet and tired by the time I got home at 6.