Oaxaca Pictures

We had a balcony with a Dr. Seuss tree at Casa Pereyra. 

Women carry all kinds of things on their heads. She's got padded boards--might be kneelers for pews. 

She's got a load of garlic.

This is a giant tlayuda in the municipal building. A tlayuda is a great big crispy tortilla--think small pizza--filled with--whatever. But this tlyauda is the biggest in the world--the sign even says it's in the Guinness Book of World Records. It's about seven feet across. In the center is a rendition of the Tule tree, which is nearby and the biggest tree in Latin America. 

It's got scenes from Oaxaca history. Tlayudas are cooked right on the coals and somehow are both chewy and crispy. We're going out later for our last meal, and it's going to be at the Tlayuda stand. But we have to wait because it doesn't open until 9 p.m. And then it's open until 4 a.m. Mealtimes have yet to make sense here. 

Too bad dogs can't read. 

Steve took the pictures of me. Here, looking at the sunset. 

Pictures of Oaxaca

Zapata and marijuana leaves

Did I mention Steve likes park benches? 

Paulina Salas teaches me Spanish. She tries to get me to use past and future tenses. I'll work on that, but I'm ducking the subjunctive. 

Funeral parlor with classic Mexican dog out front. 

Little kid and Benito Jaurez in Lllano Park. 

One of the complicated patterns of stone in Mitla, the Zapotec/Mixtec archaeological site outside of Oaxaca. 

Fence made of cactus in Mitla.

The mighty big tree at Tule. It's dwarfing that big church. 

Bright flowers, bright walls everywhere. 

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Bought these in the market for 15 pesos. About $1.20

Cool fruit. Anyone know what it is?

Maiz Virgin of Guadalupe car. 

Steve and rabbit. Great street art everywhere. 

Torta men at the Llano Park. They're there every Friday. So am I. 

We walked up into the hills today. 

Pictures of Oaxaca

Paseo time on Alcalá

Brass band in the zócalo. Lotta brass bands around. 

Wiry person observes the paseo. 

 Cactus in courtyard of a restaurant, held straight with burlap and guy wires. 

Dusk doesn't last long, but while it does, magic. 

Steve likes oatmeal wherever we go. This is our little apartment for a couple of weeks. 

Steve likes park benches wherever we go, too. 

If that tree really wants to escape the schoolyard, I don't think the fence will hold it. Yes, there are  Volkswagen beetles all over the place. 

They light up the trees in the zócalo.

The Throwback Hotel

We stayed a few days at the out-of-place-and-time Hotel Victoria--anachronistic because it had a grand 1950s Miami feel like nowhere else in Oaxaca, and placed on the side of a hill above town, had wide views of the Oaxaca valley and the mountains beyond. (Most rooms I've seen in Mexico open onto courtyards.) With signs of wear (some peeling paint, a rattling van that made round trips to the Centro), the hotel has an unpretentious feel, and with a big sparkly pool, it provided a nice mid-century interlude. 

My favorite bit of mid-century architecture was the massive spiral staircase. 

La Isla Encantada

Thrilling opera broadcast in a grand setting, Teatro Macedonio Alcala, in Oaxaca. 

On the ornate stage, the screen showed the tiers of balconies at the Met in New York. 

Met in Mexico

Going to our first live broadcast of the New York Metropolitan Opera today--El Met at the Oaxaca Teatro. 

It's The Enchanted Island, a mash-up of Shakespeare's Tempest and Midsummer's Night Dream and Vivaldi and Handel and 3 + hours. 

Oaxaca, Mexico

On our first day in Oaxaca, we were startled to see hundreds of these near-life-size clay sculptures standing and reclining on a public street.

They are part of an exhibit, "2,501 Migrants" by sculptor Alejandro Santiago.

Santiago's hometown, Teococuilco, in La Sierra Norte, lost half its small population in recent years to migration to the U.S.

These figures represent those people who left.

Police and schoolkids lounge around the figures every day. The kids are not visiting the exhibition, they're hanging out regardless of what hunk of clay is watching.

The exhibition will eventually come to Central Park in New York.