I Moved To Oaxaca

Monday, July 19, 2004

Well, I thought we'd leave Sunday, but we decided to stay through tonight in order to see the kick-off of Guelaguetza. Especially since the Llano turned into a fairgrounds, with kiddie rides and games, pirate cd & dvd booths galore, crafts, and food. They've also got the 2nd Annual Mezcal Festival set up in the middle of it, and a section of the park devoted to Oaxaca state coffee growers handing out samples. They weren't handing them out at 8am this morning, only as of this afternoon and evening -- people here think nothing of drinking coffee late at night.
 
We cruised the park last night, looking around -- got another couple of bobble-heads* -- before spotting what we were really after: tacos! G had three and I had three, then made another circuit before heading back for another trio each. Mmm. A lot of booths are selling regional sweets, which is almost always worth a look and taste. We got some toffee peanuts, as usual. But we also tried these meringue cookies -- yeah, I know, raw egg whites, with the meringue sitting in a plastic bowl behind the guy's counter -- but they were really good: fresh meringue plopped onto a wafer with another on top, like a little meringue throne. After all that we were too full to get any fried bananas or potato chips or the local version of a Big Stick, served with chamoy sauce and chili powder. Maybe tonight.
 
We went again for lunch today, and got taquitos; G had chicken and I had something called tinga. I still couldn't tell you what it was, except that it was good. We then went looking for a sweet when I saw a hand-lettered sign proclaiming Tacos Cochinita Pibil. Whoo-ya, Yucatan-style pork! A woman sitting in front of the booth asked us if we knew what pibil was, and cleared a space for us to sit down -- she was a pretty enthusiastic customer! I had pibil 14 years ago when I was in the Yucatan, and I still remember how good it was, and told Enthusiastic Customer that. She said the woman running the booth was from the Yucatan. G and I sat down and ordered a plate of little tacos with pickled onions and a very, very hot green sauce. Oh, my, they were tasty! We waddled over here to internet, swimming through the crowds of people in town for the festivities.
 
I'll blog from the road and let you know where we end up going.

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