Sylvie's Travels Home

October 31 2022

Happy Halloween! Max finally heard from the owner and she was going to send a truck to bring water at 9am.
Pogo brought more laundry to be washed and at 10am we decided to go for breakfast. We went to Rupestre Café, another cute café Max had discovered last month, another 5 minutes walk. Pogo and I had pancakes and fruits and Max and Hernan had chilaquiles with chicken and eggs. The portions were really big so no one finished their plates. There were a few stalls in the back of the restaurant so Max and I went to look at them. I had tried a dress in a store a few days ago with a hummingbird print but I didn’t like the fit. It just happened that that company had clothing at the restaurant and I couldn’t resist getting a little jacket with the hummingbird print and a top with a rabbit print. And…bonus….they were half priced!

We came back to the house at 12:30pm and we still had no water!! They arrived at 2:30pm to make sure there was indeed no water in the tank…we already had told the owner. The water trunk arrived at 3pm. One guy on the rooftop had to pull the hose from the other guy standing on top of the truck. They finally filled the tank but the pressure of the water being dropped in, disturbed the sediment at the bottom, at least we assumed, so dark brown water started coming out of the tap. What the freaking heck! Max and Hernan went to get big jugs of water and a water heater so we could wash ourselves. What an ordeal. Pogo and I were thinking of getting an hotel for our last few nights. Max was told by the evil owner ( I have a few other choice words I would call her but I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling Mom!) that by tomorrow the water should be clear and that they will come to install a filter but at this point, it’s probably another lie. A plumber came to look in the tank and he said it was disgusting and that the tank should be cleaned up before putting a filter. At least we can flush the toilets. The taps from all sinks are blocked, probably from the sediment.
After losing a whole afternoon of our precious time, we took a « sponge bath », got dressed and finally went out. We drove to the mirador and realized how big Oaxaca really is.
After that, we had a mezcal and mole tasting about 20 minutes by car from our place, in a new section of town but at the end of a dark alley. Someone came to open the gate and we walked up to the 2nd floor of an unfinished building. Once inside, the venue was really nice. We tasted 7 mezcals and 7 moles. I really love all the moles and we bought our 2 favorites to bring home. We thought it was a dinner but since it wasn’t, we stopped at a fair on the way to visit a cemetery, and had memelas. The cemetery was closed so we went to another one further out of town.
The place was so busy! There were buses full of people parked everywhere. The cemetery was so crowded, you could hardly walk. It felt so intrusive going around people sitting at the site of their deceased family members. I guess they are used to it and apparently it brings good money for the community with all the stalls of food and other stuff all over the streets. It was also very beautiful with all the flowers and the candles.
We didn’t stay very long and decided to skip the 3rd cemetery we had planned on seeing.
We stopped in Centro to have hamburguesas because I was really hungry by then. It was the best hamburger I have had in a long time! They first cooked the patty then they cooked sliced bologna (or maybe ham?) added American cheese then Oaxaca stringy cheese on top of it. Then they cooked small pieces of pineapple, put the bottom bread on top of it, flipped it, added the meat and cheese on top, then added cubed tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup, mayo and mustard. So good! Even Pogo who had said he wasn’t hungry, devoured it in a second.
We heard a parade starting so we walked over but it seemed like it was just a spontaneous one without any costumes and since it was almost 1am, we just went home.