Oaxaca for the long weekend

We like to take a short trip on MLK weekend. Doreen gets the day off, it is just far enough from the holidays that you don't feel like you are cheating, and it is usually pretty easy to get flights.

So this past weekend we took a flight to Oaxaca, Mexico.

United has one non-stop a day, and it flies the little planes:

I don't really mind them too much, as long as we get the exit row or the bulkhead. You gate check your bags, and it loads and unloads really fast.

We stayed in the Quinta Real on the advice of friends. The hotel had been a convent, built in 1576. In the 1860s, Benito Juarez took over all Catholic property, and booted the cloistered nuns into the street. Since then, the building has been a jail, a storage facility for public records, the Weights and Measures department for the state, a courthouse, and much more. In the 1990s, it was converted to private use, and then turned into a hotel.

It is very pretty:

And it is on a nice street:

It still has the big chapel, which is now used for entertainment. There was some folkloric dancing in there when we arrived.

That first night, we walked to (you can walk to everywhere in the historic district of Oaxaca) a restaurant called Catedral.

It was a very nice place, and a nice meal. We started with a Tlayuda, which is sort of like a huge quesadilla. (They have quesadillas, too. Not all of them have cheese in them interestingly enough)

 We found them very delicious. We also had two different kinds of mole. One was an "Amarillo" mole, which is not yellow:

The other is called Manchamanteles, which is a pork mole (the above is beef):

We also drank several different mezcals. They serve them in these mezcal glasses:

which has a cross in the bottom. So when you are done, you are crosses up!

Earlier in the day, we stopped by the Templo de Santo Domingo and noticed this statue of the Peruvian saint, San Felipo de Neri. Notice he is holding a cacao pod, and holding a broom.

Here is the outside of that church. You can see Doreen below

The walls of many of the buildings in Oaxaca are decorated. This one uses colored beans:

An SP near the Basilica of Our Lady of Solitude,

Baby Jesus

We had a fun meal here (enchiladas and entomatados, see below. Total cost, 100 pesos. Or about $5.00. And a ten peso tip to the guitar player)

Enchilada

Entomatado

Wandering through the market (Mercado de la Merced) we saw the font of all Moles:

And Spices:

It was a good day.