Oaxaca City (Oaxaca de Juarez), the capital of Oaxaca State was our other favourite town (pronounced wa-haa-ka).

Oaxaca hosts many Spanish language schools which house many foreign students. This would be a great place to go to learn the language. We unfortunately did not get enough time to explore all of Oaxaca. I will definitely go back, and if you haven't already been it is definitely worth a visit.

The colourful Oaxaca Zocalo

Shopping & Food
This is the shopping capital of Mexico for 'traditional' goods. Oaxaca has collections of craft from several parts of Mexico, especially from the local areas whose rich diversity in art is extraordinary. Several streets on the edges of the Zocalo house markets for : everyday goods for the locals, leather bags, swords, the local black pottery, local ponchos, stone masks, wooden masks, colourful vases and clay masks and the special coloured Oaxacan wooden toy animals. This was where we spent most of our money. You can shop for days in this place. It was wonderful. Our best buy was a stone chess set with carved stone pieces for about AU$13.

The markets

Andrew's hair
This was the place where Andrew decided to dye his hair blonde. All of those present will recall the situation and I don't think that this needs to be dwelled upon. Fortunately his hair went orange, didn't look too bad and was all cut off before he started work again.

A typical Oaxacan street and a boy with orange hair

The Zocalo is full of colour and life. It is surrounded by fine restaurants which are packed with people at all hours of the day. The atmosphere is incredible. The special Oaxacan hot chocolate which uses cinnamon and spice is fantastic as well, especially the one from the the local market which is served in a large soup bowl. The special Oaxacan stringy cheese and fried crickets are also on the menu in this town.

Architecture
The town's architecture is also delightful. I often thought that I was in a European town rather than a Mexican one. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the beautiful Iglesia de Santo Domingo as it was closed for renovations.

An example of the Oaxacan architecture

Iglesia de Santo Domingo