Oaxaca! part 1

It's been almost a month since I put anything up here, but for relatively good reason: we were away on an amazing trip down to the south of Mexico - down in Oaxaca.
You might be familiar with Oaxaca as one of the places that every would-be revolutionary/artistic type wants to visit when they come to Mexico (along with Chiapas). The people of the southern regions have always been all about not putting up with crap from the government (see E.Zapata, Commandante Marcos, 2006 demonstrations, others). It's also a center of rug-weaving, embroidery, pottery, and other textile-based art forms. The stuff they make is gorgeous, not to mention cheap.

We took the overnight bus to Mexico DF, killed a few hours in the city and then took another 6 hour bus to Oaxaca de Juarez (the city). I'm sure the scenery was nice, but I slept through pretty much the whole thing, so can't really speak to it.

We were super lucky to have a friend back in NY who's father lives in Oaxaca. R. had let us know that we could stay there anytime, and we took advantage. The small, but perfect house, is in a nice neighbourhood about a 15 minute walk from the zocalo. We had a bedroom with a bathroom that is right off the patio. It was great, because we weren't in his way (we hope) and we had some privacy too. The hospitality was just fantastic - breakfasts of fresh fruit, fresh yogurt, granola, locally-grown coffee (fresh-ground beans, of course), fresh eggs, and other fresh freshness. R. has a crew of friends who were all really nice also. The second night we were there, he had a holiday party and we met lots of good people both living and visiting Oaxaca. The next night, we were invited to a lovely dinner at another friend of his' beautiful house. Good times.