Back to Oaxaca 6 January 2023

 Mitla and Oaxaca

As you can imagine after such a big party the previous night, it was a slow start the following morning.

When we surfaced there was a large wreath type of bread to have with our morning coffee.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, January 6, Three Kings Day is celebrated most in Europe, Spain, and Latin America, ‘El Dia de los Reyes’, as it’s called in Spanish, marks the glorification of baby Jesus by the Three Wise Men. This is the day that the children wake up with excitement and open their presents. Santa is not popular and we were lucky enough to be here on this day. 

The bread wreath is called ‘King’s Cake’ and holds a token or tokens deep inside it, just like we used to have sixpence in our Christmas pudding when we were kids. In Mitla the cake holds small skulls and we were warned that me could crunch down on one. Early on Sarid’s friend Teresa found a skull in her cake and kindly gave it to one of the children. I was desperate to find one, but didn’t want to appear greedy as there were many people joining us for brunch.

Brunch was ‘babacoa” a traditional food where the meat is cooked underground, a bit like how New Zealand Maori cook a hāngi and Pacifica people cook Umu etc. The babacoa arrived in a small truck and two young men unloaded it and explained the process. They had been to the market and bought a live sheep, slaughtered it and placed the offal aside to cook separately. This is like the entree.

 A fire had been prepared and the wood and stones were placed in a pit, followed by the meat with spices, and then covered by agave leaves. Now I am sure there are is a lot more to the process, but that’s all I’ve got. If you are gagging to find out more you will need to google it. He said it had been cooking for 6 hours.

The entree was a little confronting to me, but I did try some. It was all a tasty dark colour, but I could make out vessels and liver so only had a we bit. Lance got stuck in and polished it off!

The babacoa was delicious! Not hot spicy, just really tasty, almost like a peri peri flavour. It was served in lovely clay bowls and topped with shredded cabbage accompanied by tortillas. The meat just fell apart and it all sat in a hearty broth.

Babacoa

When I finished I thought I would grab another coffee and saw that there was still plenty of Kings cakes left so went to cut a bit off! It was quite difficult to contain myself when I saw the side of a black skull poking out of the side of my piece. I didn’t want to make too much fuss as then I might have felt that I should give it to a small child. And selfishly the small child in me won out, I really wanted for myself! 

The custom is that if you find one of these then said Sarid, is that that you have to make tamales for every one on the 2nd of February. I think I will just settle for our annual lamb on the spit that we have every 6th of February, it’s close enough.

After brunch we made our way back to Oaxaca to our previous hotel Quinta Real where we had been upgraded to a ‘superior’ room. The room is similar to the last but has a large wardrobe with drawers which is quite handy as we are here for 5 nights. And it is on the ground floor, which is also handy as the stairs to the first floor last time were quite hard going. I know! Only one floor up! But the height of stair rises was different for each stair and they got higher as we ascended, by the time we were at the last five it felt like they were up to our knees!

A little bit about the hotel:

It was built in 1559 as a house for ‘secular’ women who later became nuns. In 1577 it became a convent, by 1833 it was being used by the military and in 1862 the Liberals used the official decree to reduce the number of convents and they asked the President to change the convent into a prison and offices for the municipality. It was many things for many years until it felt into ruin. In the early 1970s some hoteliers acquired it and began renovations, experts restored the frescos and interior decorations including flooring and other ancient treasures. 

This looks like somewhere the nuns did the washing.

Today the hotel is very beautiful and oozes history. The service has been exemplary, including finding a very flat pillow for Lance. Google translate was required for this request.

Not long after we arrived back there was a tap at the door and we received our very own little Kings Cake. It was delicious and I got a baby Jesus which is the custom in motion other places rather than a skull. Double lucky!

Located a stones throw from the Santa Domingo Cathedral we are surrounded by food and markets. Some high end and many that are more affordable.

Some friends from home were on holiday in Mexico and we had a couple of days in Oaxaca at the same time, so true to form we met up in a roof top bar over looking the cathedral. 

We applied our google maps and started following the route, directions are not my long suit and I had not put the route into walking mode. There are many one way streets here so we ended up walking completely around the block rather than 2 minutes around the corner to the bar to meet Rose and Jasen!

On the way there we got caught up in a wedding parade!

And because it was Three Kings Day things were happening in the square below and the Cathedral was lit up.

After a couple of drinks we wandered out to find some food, but alas as we left I didn’t see a step and had a wee fall. I didn’t fall over, because that is what you do before you are 60. Once you are 60 you are close to being elderly so now we ‘have a fall’.

Anyway, down I went onto my knees but only my pride was damaged.

We dined at Mezzaluna and had the most delicious pizza. I know, we are in Mexico but there was a band playing Mexican music while we ate!. And the pizza was delicious.

We made plans to meet up the next day and be tourists.

Toilet report:

The toilets here are pretty clean. Sometimes you need to pay 5 or 10 pesos (50cents or $1) for a postage stamp of paper but generally not in the cafes or bars. Most have a seat. No incidents or accidents to report.