Rucksacks packed and tickets printed, Galo picks us up after breakfast and drops us at Puebla’s enormous bus station for our five and a half hour journey to Oaxaca (pronounced wa’ha’ca).
It’s more like an airport terminal with various gates and departure boards and our coach is very comfortable featuring reclining seats, plenty of leg-room, on-screen entertainment and toilet facilities. With our two main bags stowed in the hold and our hand luggage in the rack above us we can just sit back and watch the world go by; a slower but hopefully greener and more interesting way to explore the vastness of Central America than flying.
Mexico’s enormous bus network is hugely important to the country, and the owners of the main bus companies hold large political sway, massively resisting any talk of reintroducing trains to Mexico. However, they do maintain a cost-effective and reasonably pleasant way to travel long distances. It’s something we have been told to enjoy while we’re in Mexico, as we will need to brace ourselves for a rather more basic and brutal approach once we cross the borders into countries further south.
The drive between Puebla and Oaxaca takes us through landscapes of mountains, canyons, volcanoes, cactus-strewn deserts, rich forests and farmland, with winding highways, impressive bridges and at times some eye-watering drops on either side of the road. Massive trucks also ply these routes delivering goods across the huge distances that connect the 31 states of the country with the capital.
It’s late afternoon by the time we roll into Oaxaca’s bus station, and the sun is setting when we finally get to our lodgings at the very nice Parador de Alcalá, right in the centre of this stunningly beautiful city. We dump all our bags and head out while there’s still some light, walking straight into a head-spinning, eye-popping, ear-busting wedding parade spilling out of the huge Templo de Santo Domingo church and coming down the pedestrianised main street, Calle Macedonia Alcalá, towards us.
There’s drummers and musicians, huge effigies hoisted high above the crowds, people in traditional costumes, guests in wedding suits dancing as they make their way down the street, hundreds of tourists gawping and at the very heart of it the bride and groom dancing and having the time of their lives. This crazy tidal wave of festivities, called a ‘calenda’, engulfs us and proves the perfect introduction to the splendours of Oaxaca, a city we fall head over heels in love with.
We walk the length of Macedonia Alcalá, from Santo Domingo at one end to the Zocalo and Cathedral at the other as dusk falls, and with the Christmas and New Year decorations still ablaze, the weekend upon us, celebrations spilling out of the bars and music and bands playing everywhere, the whole place seems to be one big, beautiful fiesta. It’s also full of tourists from all over the world with everyone smiling and happy, giving it a truly cosmopolitan air without in any way sacrificing its very Mexican feel.
Oaxaca is often referred to as the green city, due in part to the gorgeous natural valley it sits in but mainly because of the stone used for its grand buildings which has a green-ish hue, especially at certain points of the day. The first settlement was founded in 1486 by Mexica warriors sent by Emperor Ahuitzotl, but after the fall of the Aztecs less than five decades later, it was flattened and redesigned by the Spanish in 1529 and named Nueva Antequera. In 1532, asked by King Carlos I what he would like as a gift for conquering Mexico, Hernan Cortez asked for the city, and was duly given it as his own fiefdom.
It wasn’t until 1821 that it was given its name Oaxaca, meaning “on the top of the guaje tree” in Náhuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and soon after Benito Juarez, the great reformer of Mexico, was born there. It’s now both a UNESCO World Heritage site and a pueblo mágico, and no buildings above two storeys are allowed in its historic centre to preserve the character and spectacular light through the city, unless they are a church, municipal building or hotel with special permission.
We’re pretty hungry by now, having just eaten some snacks on the bus, and alight by chance on one of the town’s newest and best restaurants, Comeré Oaxaca. It’s an unassuming frontage, with an awning saying Plaza Choperia, next to a bar with a shop in front, and only a chalkboard announcing Comeré out back, but we poke our head in and the room opens out before us. A good-looking French man asks if he can help and his face lights up when we say we’re vegetarian. While he can’t give us a table as they’re fully booked, he says they have a fantastic vegetarian selection and can seat us at the bar.
It turns out Damien travels the world opening bars and restaurants for clients and has been in Oaxaca for the past three months helping the launch of Comeré Oaxaca, and in particular designing the cocktail menu. Being sat at the bar we get the chance to talk to him at length and find out he’s worked all over the world - Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Dubai and many more - and has fallen in love with Oaxaca. He’s going to Colombia shortly for a couple of months to launch a new bar there but is returning to Oaxaca straight afterwards to open a new restaurant.
He introduces us to the very cool couple - Asis Cortes and his wife Mar - who own the restaurant and Asis reveals his family have mezcal plantations in the surrounding area, so he coordinates the bar and decor while Mar designs the menus and runs the kitchen. The dining space is like an open air courtyard in a rural hacienda and even has a fire pit, and all the food and drinks are from the state of Oaxaca. For our first meal in the city we’ve pretty much hit the jackpot.
We’re served crisp tortillas with guaxachile (avocado, quesillo, onion, coriander, chilli), delicious tacos of mushroom and cauliflower, and a salad called Campo de Burros, which translates as the rather unappetising ‘field of donkeys’ but comprises beetroot, tomatoes, goats cheese, radish, lettuce and blue corn and is utterly delicious. We’re meant to be having a dry day so Damien suggests we try his signature non-alcoholic cocktail but, as all the mezcal is very special to the restaurant he also encourages us to try his Margarita Clara, .
The margarita is lovely but the signature Mariposa de Papel is out of this world. Delivered in a tall glass with the paper butterfly of its name resting on the rim, it is a lemon colour with a hint of mint. Beside it is a small glass with a syrup inside that when added to the cocktail miraculously changes the colour to a rich purple. It’s theatrical and delicious and the perfect ending to our meal. However, a digestif seems appropriate as Asis tells us about his family’s own-produced mezcal, a delicious Espadín made by his father in the nearby town of Matatlan, and we can’t leave without trying a shot.
Suitably giddy and full of bonhomie, we pose with Mar for the restaurant’s Instagram feed, which she posts within minutes, announcing we’re all family at Comeré Oaxaca. We’ve only been in the city for a a little over four hours but we’ve already been utterly seduced. We can’t wait to explore properly tomorrow!
