Gringo Tour 08/09 - Part 29

Another day at Oaxaca – another bread roll and drinkable yoghurt for breakfast from the Super Mercado… Hey – it at least it was relatively cheapish…

We decided to check out the mega-market which was just beyond the bus station from where we had caught the bus and it was a huge market indeed. Probably a whole lot less touristy than the other market we had went to yesterday – but probably about 4 times bigger. It’s always fun wandering around markets in a different country and checking out the different types of produce and see how much we get ripped off in Australia for fruit and veg prices (you get about 10 avos for 10 pesos here in Mexico). The market also had the requisite pirated DVD section - which we both had a little mosey but didn’t buy anything.
We both picked up a big plastic cup of fresh pineapple and (gawd bless) rockmelon (“you can’t elope kimmy!”) for 10 pesos each.

The market was sort of broken down into sections – so all of the zombie chicken sellers would be in one area, the carne in another, the tacky touristy stuff in another, and the horse-riding equestrian gear in another… and so forth. I was on the lookout for cheap touristy gifts which I could bring back home for gifts for work colleagues. I had about 40 requests for stuff from not only Mexico – but Cuba as well (felt like I had to bring an extra bag just to bring back all of this stuff). I tried my hand at bargaining with a guy who didn’t really speak English – but what he was trying to sell was a bit of a rip so I passed. Although Ant got some enjoyment watching Drawn Together En Espanol on the guy’s TV while I was haggling.

Ant had an idea to go back to the other market for lunch at one of those meat selling/cooking places at the other market. This was a good idea on paper – but in reality – I started like I wanted to throw up everywhere like Linda Blair in Exorcist One. After wandering around the other market for about 20 minutes trying to find the “carne” section – I finally came clean about my vomit tendencies to Ant and we thought it was best to rest back at the hotel.

I had a bit of chill at the hotel (maybe it was our dodgy hot dogs the other night that was making feel like Linda Blair) – and Ant did a bit of reading. So much reading – that he had finished all of his books and needed to get some more. I actually started to feel a little better – so we headed out in the direction of the (LP alleged) “Best. English. Bookstore. In. Mexico” – which was near that cathedral from the other day. When we found it – it was closed so we went to the nearby Oaxaca Cultural Centre (which was next door to the Cathedral). It was about 40 pesos to get in and everything was en espanol – but I think it was worth it. It had a few temporary exhibits including one on Mexican “Day of the Dead” artwork (I love those wacky Mexican skeletons in drag), a “ye-olde” book and illustration exhibit – and a “ye-olde” map exhibit (Ant hearts “ye-olde” maps). In the permanent collection – there was heaps of stuff on life in Oaxaca – including pre-hispanic – and Spanish colonial stuff. The Oaxaca Cultural Centre is housed in an old Dominican monastery – which is all really neecye in a Jennifer Lopez latino video clip sort of way. On the grounds were the Oaxaca Botanical Gardens which was full of guurgezzsly manicured catci (or is that cactcus??). Although it was visible from the top floor of the museum – it wasn’t accessible to tourists today which was a bit of a disappointment.

After the Cultural Centre – we headed back to the English bookshop which was open this time. I bought a Mexican Cookbook – which was smallish – but looked great in replicating actual Mexican food (not the tex-mex variety). We had seen it at the Monte Albon giftshop – where it didn’t have a price. When we asked at the front counter – they said “350 pesos” (aka $35) which was more than a price for a Donna Hay cookbook. We said “no way joe-se” – but luckily – the same book was at the English Bookshop – but with a price of only 79 pesos (or $8ish AUD). Me thinks the Monte Albon giftshop people didn’t really know how much it costed. Ant also bought about $70 worth of books (he was becoming desperate) – but all of which were on Mexico’s history.

We dumped the books back at the hotel – and headed for another one of Ant’s patented “death march” walks around town. We walked out of the historical part of town and into the more grungier non-UNSECO world heritage parts which was interesting. Did I mention that we spotted our favourite Mexican woman’s fashion shop – Liz Minnelli…? Liza should be filing a litigation suit as we speak.

When we headed back to the main piazza – there was a local ye-olde bandstand band and several old Mexicans dancing like a comatose Gene Kelly in Xanadu. All of the old people had probably escaped from the local nursing home and all had probably missed their meds. There was an outlandish couple dressed in purple – the guy dressed like a 1930s purple pimp (sort of looked like Gene Kelly from Xanadu).

Despite it being a couple of weeks into January – a lot of Mexico still had all of their Xmas decorations everywhere. Although tonight – the locals were finally pulling down the main piazza Xmas decorations. Ant had calculated that it was 12 days after Xmas – but I always thought the “12 days of Xmas” were the days preceding xmas…?

We decided to have dinner again at the piazza – this time in a restaurant which was super close to our hotel. This restaurant was actually pretty good and probably one of the best meals we had in Mexico. And despite the prime location (and mariachi band playing at the restaurant) – the prices were fairly reasonable – and the service was pretty good too (the trifectta).
After dinner – I was doing my last minute dash to buy some more cheesy Razzie movies. Stuff that I got included the Bodyguard, Indecent Proposal and amazingly – “Roller Boogie” – I couldn’t wait to watch it.