DawnO and I decided to hop a flight to Mexico for the Dia de los Muertos celebration! But a key part of our trip was a layover in Houston to visit my cousin Byron and stop at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Manny’s for a couple of slushie margaritas.
With that pre-game ritual completed, it was time to fly to Oaxaca and get into the thick of the Dia de los Muertos celebrations which were already underway. This festival is technically from October 31- November 2, but we arrived on October 27 to parades, fiestas, and face-painted locos.
We got a recommendation to go to “smoke alley” in one of the markets and decided to test it out as our lunch option. We walked through a smoke filled hall with meat displayed in kiosks on either side of us each with piping hot grills ready to cook the meat. Once we made our choice we were shepherded to the lady who sold the fresh corn tortillas while our meat was on the grill. Then it was off to the tables where we picked our choice of fillings… guacamole, fresh limes and salsa, por favour!
The following day we had arranged to take a bike tour to El Tule, home of the widest tree in the world. This tree is a cypress that is over 2,000 years old. At its widest, it’s 16 meters in diameter. They expect it to continue to grow for another 1,000 years!
The next day DawnO had booked us a temazcal on the outskirts of Oaxaca, so we had to figure out the collectivo (basically a shared taxi) system. We were up to the challenge and made it to our temazcal with time to spare. What is it exactly? It’s basically a sauna that begins with a ceremony and uses natural plants and herbs that is meant to restore your health. After all the Manny’s margaritas, I was due for an upgrade to my immune system.
I didn’t last for the entire time as I reached my limit before the final round of steam. DawnO, of course, loved every second of it.
That evening we did some people watching and discovered that it was quite normal for kids to dress up, lay down in the middle of the street and play dead, while tourists would fill their Halloween-style pails with pesos.
Today we checked off something from our bucket list. We got our faces painted like skulls and walked around Oaxaca taking pictures with all the colourful backgrounds and murals this city has to offer. We made sure we picked our makeup artists carefully, as there are many lining the streets trying to vie for business. We were more than happy with how it turned out.
Tonight we are back out on the town as the party heats up! We’ve got our makeup on, and we’re ready to blend in with the rest of the dead!
You had me at margarita, and then Oaxaca, and then Dia de los Muertos, and then smoke alley 😋 and the super old cool tree, and then SAUNA!!! and then Day of the Dead face painting!!! Looks like an amazing time!