Night and Day

It is so difficult to capture the atmosphere of a place in writing, but I will try...

Oaxaca is warm and bright and beautiful. Today a friend and I walked down the pedestrian street paved with large, uneven cobblestones in the midday sun. Short, native women in traditional dresses with long, black braids casually offered us woven scarves and embroidered shirts. We walked past brightly painted stucco buildings- vibrant blue, orange rust, sunny yellow- all with black metal bars over the windows and tall, artfully carved wooden doors. Once in a while I'd walk past an open door, and could peek into the sunny courtyards filled with green plants and bouganvillias bursting with purple and orange flowers.

In a small, open-air artisans market we strolled past colorful paintings of birds, jaguars, watermelons, and landscapes. We pawed through piles of beaded necklaces made with sunflower seeds, beans, beas, coffee beans, and wooden beads dyed bright turquoise and fushia pink. More women offered white cotton shirts with floral embrodiery in all colors.

Then we wandered in and out of little shops, staring, touching : little wooden animals painted with bright colors and stunning detail, shiny black clay pots of all sizes, sparkling tin ornaments of moons and suns, little skeleton figurines playing musical instruments, handsewn leather shoes, bottlecap earrings covered in glitter, blouses and skirts and scarves in bright blue, yellow, pink, green, ever color imaginable, potted cacti and yellow sunflowers, woven rugs with hundreds of colors, dazzling arrays of silver jewlery, and much, much more.

And then we found our way to the main open air market, which offered more sensory overload. It's narrow alleyways between the stalls were bustling with customers and roving vendors alike. The stalls offered everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to flowers, dried chilis, clothing, art supplies, raw meat, cooked meals, purses, beans, cooking flour, chapulines (fried grasshoppers), chocolate, coffee, jewelrey, housewares, and more. We wandered, and I found myself a nice little purse featuring a few of Posada's famous skeleton drawings as well as a little wooden spoon for serving salsa.

But if the daytime is for sauntering, it is beacuse Oaxacans save their energy for the nightime. These guys know how to party. The same friend and I went out last night for a festival "Noche de Luces", or "Night of Lights". Approaching the main downtown square, we fell in behind a parade. At the front was a 4 piece band, dancers in flowing skirts and flowery headdresses, and a large cloth globe lit from the inside being twirled about to the music. Green and red fireworks shot up from the front of the parade. The air was festive and loud. The spectators following the parade carried paper lanterns with candels, and before I knew it I had a paper lantern in one hand and a shot of Mezcal (tequila) in the other. We followed along with the crowd until the main square, where we found various bands performing. We enjoyed the music for a bit, and then sat down in a cantina for a drink.

Our waiter's official work uniform was a t-shirt saying: La virginidad es un enfermedad y yo curo", something like, "Virginity is the sickness and I am the cure". Someone at a nearby table was having a birthday, and a huge crowd surrounded him (friends and waitstaff alike), blowing whistles (yes, like referee whistles) and chanting "¡Borracho! ¡Borracho!" (Drink! Drink!). As if that wasn't enough, another waiter brought over a large pole with a small base and made the birthday boy pole dance. They then brought the pole around to several other tables and got more folks to pole dance. It was about 10:30, and the live music hadn't even started yet! Keep in mind that this was a respectable, even expensive place downtown, not a sketchy bar on the outskirts. They sure like to have fun, we just watched in amazement from our seats.

There was a sign on the wall that said:
"Como y bebe
que la vida es breve."
Which translates something like, eat and drink because life is so short. Not unlike, eat, drink, and be merry. Sometimes I think they have the right idea!