Wednesday dinner and Thursday!

Hola!

 

Dinner on Wednesday night was wonderful, even though I’m writing about it on Thursday morning!  I’d somehow managed to make a reservation at Tr3s 3istro, which happens to be on the Zocalo, in the center of town.  (When I say somehow managed, I mean that they had a reservation form in Spanish that I somehow managed to fill out correctly, and voila (don’t know the Spanish equivalent – Katy??) we were in!  As we weren’t exactly sure where we were going (and thankfully, Google Maps directions always does!) we headed out about 6:30 to take our time.  (Had to wait until after 6:30 so that we could get our second and last load of laundry back from the Lavanderia across the street.  Now, hopefully, we won’t have to have anything done until we get home!)

 

Lots and lots of activity all over the streets, and when we arrived at the Zocalo – WOW!  A party – fiesta? – was taking place!  There was a very large Mariachi orchestra in one corner of the square, and lots of people dancing to the music!  It was really wonderful!  I was hoping that Robert would want to dance – hope does spring eternal, even though it has been 40 years since that happened…but no, dinner was calling us.  I did figure, though, that as we had breakfast around 8 am yesterday morning, and nothing until 7 pm last night, that was a considerable length of time without food!  

 

Love the jaguar head on a building!

Zocalo with party going on!

More dancing with musicians in the background

So – Tr3s 3istro was on the second floor of a restaurant right at the corner of the Zocalo, and we had a table one row back from the balcony overlooking all the activity below.  And, I know I shouldn’t say it – but they had a menu in English, and it was a very nice change!  (Shame on me…). For starters, R ordered their shrimp and crab soup, and I ordered their corn and poblano soup.  For mains, R, ever the shrimp guy, ordered them flambeed with Mezcal and served over rice.  I ordered my forever comfort food:  Pasta Bolognaise.  Everything was GREAT!  We both thought the corn and poblano soup was wonderful, and R is now figuring out how to make it —a corn chowder on one side, and the spicy poblano soup on the other.  They also had a wonderful looking dessert cart, but there was absolutely NO room for anything else after dinner!  We also had a bottle of lovely Santo Tomas Sauvignon Blanc from Baja California.  They certainly know how to make wine here, that’s for sure!

 

Me and Santo Tomaso!

My wonderful corn and poblano soup!

R's shrimp and crab soup

R's grilled shrimp with rice

Spaghetti Bolognaise!

View of Zocalo from balcony of restaurant!

More Zocalo at night

Me by the fountain!

Then, a slow saunter home again, and I think I went straight to bed.  It was really warm in our room, and about midnight we turned on the A/C, which really cooled things down quickly, I’m so happy to say.  

 

Today is our “Oaxaca” Day – starting with the Oaxaca Regional Museum that we tried to get in the other day.  Then some aimless window shopping for me, although I would like to find some cute Tequila glasses.  I’ve told R he can stay here at Na Na Vida and relax, but he says he’ll come with me to the museum, and then find some nice quiet, shady corner and read his Kindle while I aimlessly wander!  What a deal!

 

More later!

m

xxx

 

It is now later!!  Hola!  

 

Our lovely hotel!

Mezcal-mobile...incredible!

I really love all the street decorations!

We went out around 9:30 am to hopefully finally get into the Museuo Regional Culturas de Oaxaca, and were among the first people there.  The museum is inside what had been the old priory for the Dominican church of Santo Domingo de Oaxaca.  There are frescos on the walls and ceilings, and the ornamentation is really lovely.  We were able to spend time in the Monte Alban Tombe 7 rooms, which details everything from the discovery of Tomb 7 in the 1930’s, through its excavation by Mexican archaeologist Caso and finally, the cataloging and presentation of many of his finds.  There were thousands of beads, that have now been restrung, but not authentically, as there is no telling how the beads were strung, if they had characters or patterns, etc. as all the stringing had dissolved over time.  There were several really stunning (albeit scary!) gold pieces – several of which have been identified as various gods of the people at that time, as well as an incredible (real) skull that had been decorated with turquoise mosaic tiles as well as shells and other things to represent the face of yet another god.  One of my favorite pieces is a beautiful drinking cup made out of pure rock crystal.  As the Zapotecs had no metal at the time, the entire surfacing of the cup had to be done by hand with sand.  When I think about the patience required to produce such a work, I am fascinated by the patience of the craftspeople.  Trust me – I could NEVER do it!  

Some stunning ceilings in the old priory

Very serious about masks!

Beautiful frescos from old priory

Also some lovely paintings

Library

Central Prior staircase

 

From the Tombe 7 rooms, we traced a path that led us past lots of open windows overlooking an incredible cactus garden.  We hoped to be able to stroll through after the museum, but of course, the garden is only open to tours, and we had missed the English-speaking tour that left at 11 am.  No other entrance!  So – once again, oh well!  What we saw from the windows was so beautiful and peaceful!  Hard to remember that all this space was once propriety of a single priory!

 

Some of the thousands of discovered beads restrung

Same thing with the bracelets

Pure rock crystal glass

This is one of the guys who scares me!

...and his friend...

The Biblioteca was open as well, and had a display of textiles and patterns which was very well presented.  Most of the books, however, were behind locked cases, and while we could read the titles, they were not open to inspection; perhaps as it should be.  

 

Such a beautiful garden!

View of front garden to the museum

Cloister fountain

We did notice that many rooms on the second floor of the priory were closed, and wondered why.  Back on the ground floor again, there was a really HUGE exhibition on Xolos – which turns out to be actually Xoloitzcuintle, a kind of Mexican dog that is basically hairless and weights 11-18 kg.  The various Mexican cultures – Zapotec, Mexica and Aztecs – modeled many artifacts after the dogs, and they are still extremely popular here in Mexico.  Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, among others, both painted and owned Xolos during their lifetimes.  As we were leaving this exhibit, we were asked by an English-speaking employee of the museum to answer a few questions about the Xolos exhibit.  When that was finished, I asked why so much of the museum was closed – and, you guessed it – the answer was Covid; they were not able to find good employees to hire to help to keep the galleries open.  Basically, the same response we got at the National Archaeology Museum in Madrid, when we inquired there – although they blamed first Covid and then the government for not providing enough $$.  Oh well!

Ancient Xolos sculptures

This was our favorite!

From the museum, we next headed into the church, attached to the priory – and that brought us to a full and complete stop.  Honestly, the Church of Santo Domingo seems to be covered in gold from floor to ceiling, and we agreed that we hadn’t seen that much gold since we last visited some of the churches in Andalusia, Spain!  Hopefully the photos will show you what I mean – absolutely jaw dropping!  I did read up about this particular church, and it turns out that it was basically the main Dominican church in Oaxaca.  It was constructed between 1575 and 1731.  After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1812, it was used – get this! – as a military barracks and was considerably vandalized!  Surprise!  When the church was eventually returned to the Dominicans, it required massive restoration work to bring it back to original condition, especially since many of the altars were burned in the process.  (Honestly, I shake my head at such things.)

 

Entryway ceiling

Center aisle of church

Main altar

Haven't seen this much gold in years!

Nowadays, as noted above, it is absolutely stunningly beautiful – as long as you don’t mind gold as your base color!  R is convinced, and I agree with him, that we’re talking an incredible amount of gold leaf used as decoration, as gold paint just doesn’t reflect like leaf. 

 

We then tried to get into the botanic gardens without success, so opted instead to walk down to the Zocalo to see it during the daytime, and hopefully have something cold to drink.  Nice walk, especially as several streets leading to it are pedestrianized, making it easier to walk – easier, I mean in the sense that you’re not dealing with traffic – but you are still dealing with uneven sidewalks, chipped concrete, cobbles and holes in the ground.  (We have found in our later years that it is critically important at all times to watch where one puts one’s feet, as steps are sometimes hard to see and a false step could certainly ruin one’s day!  Take it from one who knows, as R’s broken leg in France put a direct and sudden halt to any further sightseeing for quite some time!)

 

Time out for a rest!

One aisle of the Zocalo

We found a nice place to stop for a rest directly under the restaurant at which we dined last night.  I got a Coke Light (only my second of the trip) and R had a Modelo Negra, his favorite Mexican beer.  Rested up for a while, and then headed to the Cathedral.  This wasn’t nearly as impressive as Santo Domingo, and Mass was actually being held, so we discretely took a photo or two and left quietly.  

Oaxaca Cathedral

 

From there, back to Na Na Vida, and now with something like 8,000+ steps on our legs so far, we are in for a rest before dinner tonight – back to Las Cinque Letras.  Our boarding passes for our flight back to Mexico City are in and we have a small hard copy of them – would rather use the originals, if we can, if only the WiFi signal holds up at the Oaxaca airport!  Heading out about 9 am tomorrow via cab, and will write more tomorrow!

 

Much love,

m

xxx