Oaxaca
de Juárez

At the airport, before clearing customs, a man told one of the girls directing traffic that he couldn't see her pretty face under the mask.

Enterprise didn't keep our reservation. We took a taxi to the Airbnb. I messaged Booking.com and got half the money back. Melanie found a local rental place.

We took a taxi to the rental. I had a hard time driving stick. I managed to drive back. It was stressful. We decided to take a cab to Centro after instead.

Dinner at Merpago Totopo. I had a mezcal drink, garnachas, and mole with pork ribs. Melanie ordered a tamale she couldn't eat so I finished it. It was okay.

We had coffee at Sala in the morning. Then we drove to Monte Albán. It was bigger than anticipated. After that we went to Zona Arqueológica de Atzompa. Similar ruins. Fewer people.

We went back to the hotel, then took a cab to Centro. Melanie ate at a tlayuda place. The food looked like it had been sitting out all day so I didn't eat there. I needed swim trunks. We stopped at a print shop and a vintage store. Melanie bought a print and a shirt with fruit on it. I bought Wilson shorts at Coppell.

Dinner at Chiliguajili. It was a small chain. It was my favorite meal of the trip. Melanie bought a scarf in the central part of Centro.

We went to Sala again in the morning. Then we got a massage and then did the temazcal. It's a small hot hut. We rubbed oranges, mezcal, cacao, and aloe on ourselves inside. I was exhausted at the end. I moaned pretty loudly. Maybe singing.

Dinner at Caldo de Piedra. Stone soup. The waitress recommended the tacos. They were okay. Melanie's soup was good. We drove back to the Airbnb. I did some work for the voter network.

We went to Centro later. More to fill in.

We went to a different coffee shop first. Then we drove to Hierve el Agua. It's a hot spring on top of a mountain. There are petrified waterfalls and natural pools.

After that we drove to Mitla. There was a mountain road I had to drive on. It was really treacherous. We got there at 4:30. We bought tickets and went through quickly. We left Sophie's fur in the middle of the temple.

We ate at a place nearby. There was a family with a baby at the next table. The baby was gross. I had tasajado, I think — skirt steak with beans and lettuce and other stuff to wrap in a tortilla. It was okay.

We drove back to the Airbnb and then went to Mezcalarita. I tried a few mezcals. One was distilled with frogs and snails. I liked it. We played Go Fish. Melanie won.

We went to a different coffee shop. It was a little further from the hotel. Then we went on a mezcal tour. We learned about the different agave species and how they make mezcal. We saw how they did it in the ancestral way. I bought a few bottles of different kinds. The tour guide dropped us back at the Airbnb.

We got a ride into Centro. Lunch at Las Quince Letras, which the tour guide recommended. I had yellow mole with beef. It was okay. We walked around. We saw the church. There were a lot of wood carvings. Not a lot of precious stone or metal.

At dinner we had a cricket tostada. It was really good. The pork belly was okay. Melanie had fish and for dessert a piece of pumpkin cake. We went to the ice cream area after.

We went to the Sunday market at Tlacolula. It was big. The vendors were kind of pushy. I bought a textile with a Matisse figure in it. Melanie bought a lot of clothes. I had chicken tinga at one stall and two tacos from another. The tinga was good. The tacos were okay.

Lunch at Mo Kalli. They didn't have a menu. They brought out a sampler of moles and you picked what you liked and chose your protein. The moles were really good. The actual dish was okay.

After that we went to the Tree of Tule. It's supposed to be the widest tree in the world. It was crazy big. There was a church there but it wasn't much compared to the tree. A few vendors selling the same stuff we saw everywhere. There was a guy singing into an iPhone setup, probably live-streaming. It started raining. We left.

That night we went to a bar. I had three mezcals — a tepeztate, a tepeztate-cuishe hybrid, and one made with a lot of citrus. The bartender said ancestral mezcal wasn't really an ancient designation. It came about after Prohibition, not before it. We talked to a guy named Brian from Canada for a bit. After that we went to Roy's for tacos. They were really good.

We went to a vegetarian breakfast place. I had chilaquiles verdes. Below average. The café de olla was pretty good.

We went to the textile villages — first Santa Ana del Valle. There was a small museum. It had some good stuff. Small but they had real artifacts. Then Teotitlán del Valle. There were a lot more vendors. They were pushy. There were a lot of tourists that day so we got all the attention. They would beckon us into storefronts and start laying carpets on the ground one after another until you left. We found a shop run by women and bought coasters. We also bought coasters from the first guy we visited. Melanie bought a pillowcase and a scarf from one place and a jaguar alebrije from another.

Dinner at Humar, which Brian had recommended. It was bad. Maybe the worst. I had a taco that was okay and a giant tostada with octopus and raw shrimp. It looked and tasted like a pile of fish counter slop.

We went to a mezcal place after and I bought a bottle for my brother. Then we went to Chedraui and bought a bunch of Mexican snacks to give away as gifts.

We got coffee near the Airbnb. It was fine. I got tretinoin at the pharmacy.

We went into town to a tattoo shop because Melanie wanted a tattoo. I decided to get a smiley face. They told us to come back at five.

We returned the rental car. Then we ate — I had a tlayuda and taquitos. Both were pretty good. Above average but nothing special. Then we went to the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. We had to move quickly. We saw the artifacts from Tomb 7 at Monte Albán — gold jewelry, carved bones, obsidian.

We went back to the tattoo shop at five. It went smoothly and didn't take too long. I got the original Harvey Ball smiley face ☺.

We went to a bakery after. They had dairy-free options. I got a matcha concha and a cacao one. I put in two ZYNs on the way home and got sick for a bit. Melanie packed.

We got coffee at Sala. Then we drove to the airport and got on the flight.