Day 1 in Oaxaca

By TheChicSeeker, November 11, 2016

I arrived at Hostel Paulina at 2am to meet the night guard, who hablas no Ingles. And yes, even with 8 months of weekly Spanish lessons, I still hablas no espanol. Muy Malo! Thanks God for Google translate!

Pre arriving in Oaxaca I had an absolute night mare finding a place to stay, calling every single budget place in the Lonely Planet. One hostel eventually recommended a competitor hostel who was not listed in the LP. This was most likely their busiest time of year. If you ever visit Oaxaca for Day of the Dead – book accomodation earlier than I did, haha!

I made the reservation over the phone. The night guard wearily dragged the file from the desk and started to look through the bookings. My name was no where to be seen. Shit, I’m going to have to find another place to stay? OMG, I looked around the lobby. I could always sleep on that sofa I thought….

I saw a booking sheet, ‘Saira Nasa’ – that could be me… That has to be me!! Kind of replicates Tara Nash and FFS, I need a bloody bed to sleep in. Whilst doing the check in thing, a drunken English guy walked by the reception and dropped his Day of the Dead mask at my feet whilst swooping to the fridge for a bottle of water. The polite young man introduced himself, Toby, from Devon, very friendly i thought and nice to meet a fellow Brit as soon as I arrived.

I snuck into my hostel dorm, made my bed, got into it right away and went to sleep.

In the morning I woke up, to a boy and girl in the top bunk adjacent to me. Ahem! This was a female only dorm and now we have some French frog french kissing some skinny Spanish bird. Thank God, they are fully clothed! I couldn’t help find the whole thing very amusing, type of thing I might have done, in the past…!

The dorm…

I introduced myself to a couple of my room mates. Two Irish girls that seemed right up my strasse, I connected with them on Facebook and said maybe see you later for Day of the Dead celebrations.

I wondered out of the hostel to get my barings and was greeted by Manuel on the street who ended up taking me on a tour of Oaxaca for about 2 hours!

Introducing Manuel!

Mercado Abasto…

A firm favourite with Mexicans, the original VW Beetle ‘Bocho’ is seen everywhere…

Textiles Museum…

I politely told Manuel I had to return to the hostel to meet my non existent friends.

The evening drew in and I said hi to hungover Toby who was suffering from the night before. He then introduced me to Flemish friend Karrie and Scottish Sarah who had just rescued adorable Mexican puppy who we christened Taquita that night and later Karrie became Carry-On, which not only reflected his minimal packing efforts, but also comedic character.

Introducing the adorable Taquita…

We wondered around Zocola square and watched the spectacular Day of the Dead parade pass us by and decided which cemetery to go to. We took a taxi to XoXo cemetery, around 20 minutes from the town. The cemetery was quiet when we got there, but the graves were ornately decorated with flowers, food, drinks and candles. It is a large cemetery, we wondered around marvelling at all the different graves. It did not feel sad or spooky.

The parade in Zocola..

Xoxo cemetery…

Toby, and his infamous mask!

Karrie and I at Leonardo’s amazing grave!

After this we ended up in another town, ‘Etlan’ outside of Oaxaca city. It was a street party where we met many people, drank lots of Mezcal and by the end of the night I had plenty of new friends!

Scottish Sarah and Jaimie Vasquez, and I can’t remember the other lovely guys name…eek, sorry