Oaxaca Photo Walks. Oaxaca Centro Historico,

Oaxaca, Centro Historico, A Mile From Here
Text and Photos by David Hilbert

Traveling all over to make photos one neglects the place where they live and work.  True for me. Same for you?
I walk each day in the Centro Historico of Oaxaca city but rarely give enough notice of the interesting sights  to make photos.
Here is some pics of the neighborhood that I have shared with G+.

  The trees Flamboyants,  according to Blanca from Cuba, are brilliant at this time, just before the rainy season.  I called them Acacia, some call them Poinciana.  What is the name for them in your country?

                 Had breakfast with the poet in the ex-convento of Camino Real

 Courtyards are typical in the old colonial houses.  Church buildings were elegant in the colonial period

The shoeshine remains a tradition but one with more than shiny shoes at stake perhaps.  A Canadian friend did a study of the shoeshine from an anthropological perspective.

The markets are also about more than just shopping, a social event for the indigenous who live in the distant mountains.

Hand made, local goods  are available in the markets.  Several artisan markets  are in the area  along with vegetable markets selling local produce.

Look up to see forgotten architectural details from a different century.

Meat roasted to your order at Carnes Asadas on Miguel Cabrerra, the Mercado 20 de Noviembre.

Meat, cheese, or mole, cactus leaves, squash blossoms, or roasted grasshoppers; what will it be.  "Diga me, que le doy," say  the market ladies.

          Galleries on the Pedestrian-only Alcala offer art and artisan works.
Text and Photos by David Hilbert

See more Oaxaca photos info
Oaxaca Artisans

Huatulco Resort, Oaxaca

Huatulco Resort, Oaxaca, Santa Cruz, Huatulco

Each year in February we head to the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca for a week-long beach vacation.  This year the destination is the resort of Huatulco and the tidiest little town in all of Mexico, La Crucecita. 

Huatulco is a federally developed resort area on the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca State built on twenty two miles (as the crow flies)  of coast within the nine bays and 33 beaches in what was once a small fishing community. 

The resort was built by The Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo, FONATUR, a Federal agency that developed the sparsely inhabited bays along the coast in the 1980s while setting aside a large bio reserve area that includes four undeveloped bays protected from further development. 

 The resorts were built to be ecologically compatible with the natural surroundings and include modern sewer systems with no ocean dumping and a fresh water system that supplies drinkable water to the taps of the resorts.  These resorts consists of five major sites, la Crucecita, Santa Cruz, Bahia Chahué, Bahia Tangolunda, and Bahia Conejo.

La Crucecita

The zocalo at La Crucecita, Santa Cruz Huatulco

Our favorite is La Crucecita, mainly because it is small, walkable, and much like many other of Mexico's small colonial towns.  Crucecita is not old, however, it was built during the 1980s development of the resorts as a low-rise village center with a plaza, church, and surrounding restaurants, clubs, and lodging inns and small hotels. 

 La Crucecita village provides low and moderately priced accommodations for visitors and provides a neighborhood for resort employees. La Crucecita includes a first class bus terminal serving ADO, OCC, and Sur Buses, and a second class terminal serving Futura Bus with two trips daily to Acapulco, Alta Mar Bus serving Acapulco, and local buses. Taxi and collective taxis are also located in Crucecita and the modern, international airport (HUX) is a 15 minute drive or 150 Peso taxi ride distant.

Santa Cruz

The bay at Santa Cruz Huatulco

From La Crucecita we catch a taxi or colectivo a mile west to Santa Cruz beach at the end of a broad bay and the village of Santa Cruz.  This beach-side community provides resort lodging, a marina, and a cruise ship terminal designed to host about 80 cruise ships annually. 

The chapel at Santa Cruz Huatulco

 Hotels here include all inclusive resorts such as the Binniguenda all inclusive and the Hotel Marina Resort. Santa Cruz offers a small wave beach and a short drive to snorkeling at the small wave beach La Entrega 

Interior of the chapel at Santa Cruz Huatulco

The beach at Santa Cruz Huatulco

Tangolunda Bay

The resorts on Tangolunda Bay are of the luxury and all inclusive variety including some major providers of luxury resort lodging: Camino Real, Dreams Resorts, Crown Pacific Resorts, and Barcelo. Nearby is the 18-hole, Tangolunda Club de Golf,  a course at the center of controversy at the moment with its new 6000 Pesos green fees (450 USD), a price that tops the fees at Pebble Beach. On a Sunday morning in March of 2014 the coarse was empty

Santa Cruz Huatulco resort, 

Bahía de Chahué 

Bahía de Chahué  (bay) is a moderate to high priced area of hotels, such as the Marina Park Plaza Huatulco and the Villa Blanca,  grouped within a walk to the beach, Playa Chahué, and  to the 80+ slip marina.

Bahía de Conejo 

Bahia Conejo is a small circular cove with a new Secrets Resort complex built into the hill that circles the cove.

Just a few years ago I would taxi to the hilltop and take a trail through the woods for a swim from the half-mile, deserted beach with just one fishing shack at the southeast end.  Now the new resort occupies much of the hillside above the bay.

Related
Huatulco Lodging
Zipolite Lodging
Mazunte Turtles

RV Trip West Coast Route 200 Mexico

The mountains between Oaxaca city and coast road 200

 pose a barrier that will require 8 hours to cross.

RV Trip West Coast Mexico

Coast Road 200

      The Coastal Highway Route 200 is  two lane blacktop along the Pacific Coast between the mountains and the coastal villages. This road called Route 200 is free of tolls and runs all the way from Tapachula, Chiapas to the area of Tepic near the coastal village of San Blass.  North of Tepic the road becomes Route 15 and continues along the coast and then swing eastward towards Hermosillo.  The road eventually connects to Nogales Mexico.

A toll road cuts through the mountains north 

of Oaxaca city.

There are also roads north of Oaxaca through the mountains.  These roads offer scenery much like you might find in Arizona and Utah. The newest road is two-lane, high speed, Cuota, (toll) from Oaxaca to Mexico City.   There is also a Libre, (Free) road running in the same direction between Mexico City and Oaxaca. This is the old road, narrow and winding, that  passes through many interesting towns.
 These roads are well surfaced. and make Mexico  an enjoyable place to drive.  The scenery is magnificent in the high country of the Mixtec Alta and Puebla while less interesting on the coast as it is flat for the most part and through dense tropical forest with few views of the ocean.  Both these routes pose a few hazards, foremost among them, topes. (speed bumps).

The road between Mexico City and Chihuahua 

goes over the Central Plateau.

Topes

Topes are annoying speed bumps that are at the entrance to every town to slow traffic.  Many of them are not marked and they present a significant hazard if you hit one at high speed.  These are sometimes indicated with a sign Tope (in the south, Oaxaca) Reductador, or Vibrador in the north round Mazatlan.  If you drive in Mexico you cannot escape hitting a tope, even the local drivers slam into them.

Gasoline
Mexico's gas comes exclusively from the Pemex station. They are standardized throughout the country.  

Regardless of your destination: Chiapas or Morelia, Merida or Veracruz, you will gas up at Pemex and the price will be the same.  On remote mountain roads such as the one from Mazatlan to Durango and on to Zacatecas and the ruin of Alta Vista, you might find gas at the small markets in an independent set up.  This might be a restaurant or convenience store that dispenses gas from a plastic jug at a slightly higher price because there are no Pemex stations nearby.

You should get out of the car and note the reading on the gas pump before the attendant starts the pump.  Make sure that the meter reads zero. Check again that you received the full amount before you pay; otherwise you might receive less than you paid for.

Pemex Rest Areas

If you are traveling by RV watch for the Pemex stations outside of the congested cities, they will have a wide paved or gravel area where you can park for an extended rest.  Otherwise the roads do not offer rest areas.  You can find the 24 hour Pemex that will be well-lit with a security person on duty.

Next: Road Trip Coastal, Oaxaca City to Nogales

Related

San Blas Longfellow Connection

Zicatela Surfing, Oaxaca

Mazunte Turtle Preservation

Bus Travel Mexico, Border Crossing, Douglas AZ, Agua Prieta

Agua Prieta/Douglas Arizona

     After the Douglas Shuttle from Tucson and the border crossing by foot, taxi to the bus station, and ticket purchase,  we pulled out of the Central de Autobus de Agua Prieta at 11:50, headed for Chihuahua.
We were soon on a straight, black road through the middle of a flat grassland with mountains in the distance. The road runs parallel to the US border for a long distance, then heads south over low mountains before entering another plain on its way to Chihuahua.
At Janos, we joined Caretera Federal 10 (Highway 10) which comes southwest from Juarez/El Paso, 90 miles south of White Sands NM.
      At 2:00 PM, we stopped at an Estrella Blanca station. ( Chihuahuenses is a division of Estrella Blanca) The driver made no announcement as he went in to have dinner. This is a twenty to thirty minute stop, I knew from previous trips.     

     Unfortunately the drivers rarely announce stops except on the ADO buses that run south of Mexico City. It is best to ask them how long a stop will be. Usually the stops are five minutes, (cinco minutos) and it will not do to leave the bus. It is best to get out and stretch the legs whenever possible, however; just stick close to the bus.
     Use the bathroom on board the bus.  It will usually be cleaner than what you will find in the station and you don't risk getting left behind. The driver might take a "headcount" but not with any list. Passengers do get left behind, including me on a trip to Catemaco when The driver said cinco minutos (5) and I thought he said quince. (15)

The bus route south from Agua Prieta runs through mountain and flat grasslands north of Chihuahua

     Lucky for me, on that occasion, it was the next to last stop and I quickly caught a local bus to Catemaco in time to reach the station just as my driver wolfed down his first bite of dinner. His jaw dropped when he saw me and I wondered if he pulled out of that station knowing that I was not on board.

     At 3:10 we reached Nuevo Casas Grandes for a ten minute stop. Outside of Nuevo Casas Grandes ($70 peso cab ride) there is a great ruin called Casa Grande or Paquime. This is a non-Mesoamerican site. (Mesoamerica's northern boundary is the Tropic of Cancer)   Casas Grandes more closely resembling a Southwest US Pueblo site. The ruin site has a great museum.

     Turquoise flowed through Paquime on its way south from Arizona and New Mexico to Teotihuacan and all the way south to Palenque and the Yucatan Maya.

From Casas Grandes we continued southeast on 15 and then joined Highway 45.  We then turned due south with a bead on Chihuahua., a place where you can book a train ride or bus ticket to the Copper Canyon. 

     These are great roads, as flat and straight as can be and we averaged about 50 miles an hour.  If you are figuring time between stops, the 50 MPH holds up in most cases, except in the steep mountains.

Next Chihuahua
Oaxaca Semana Santa, Silent Parade, Easter Week,       Oaxaca Guelaguetza Parade Video
Oaxaca Day of the Dead