An army of cacti, stiff as sticks, stands in front of a group of enormous agaves with sprawling leaves. Nearby, Jurassic cycads look like ruffled palm trees, while frangipani trees overflow with red flowers so perfect they seem plastic. “Per square kilometer, Oaxaca is the state with the greatest biodiversity in Mexico and the greatest concentration of ethnolinguistic groups in America. We have everything here. It’s unique”welcomes Eric Juarez Castanon, professor of agronomy and tourist guide of the Garden Ethnobotany of Oaxaca – an impressive 2.3 hectare park which adjoins a cultural center filled with Zapotec treasures and an exceptional baroque church.
This ensemble well sums up the wealth of Oaxaca (or Oaxaca de Juarez), capital of the state of the same name, located 500 kilometers southeast of Mexico City and at 1,500 meters above sea level, in the Sierra valley. Madre del Sur. Founded in 1529 by Spaniards who followed the conquistadors of Hernan Cortes, the city of 300,000 souls combines the advantages. Modest in size, it is welcoming to tourists, who feel safe there and discover a postcard setting classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with small buildings in bright colors (three floors maximum, chosen painting in a chromatic catalog drawn up by the town hall) and flamboyant churches.
The influence of the famous painter and sculptor Francisco Toledo, born in the region in 1940 and who became an active patron of Oaxaca, ensures a cultural abundance, while the richness of the land makes it a premier gastronomic and artisanal destination. Its only drawback would perhaps be that it is 250 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean, but the absence of a beach guarantees its still somewhat secret, preserved character.
In the large Zocalo square, all the inhabitants mingle. In the shade of Indian laurels, businessmen read the newspaper while shoe shiners shine their shoes, schoolchildren in uniform chase each other around the bandstand, students smoke cigarettes near a fresh fruit hawker . We continue the walk to the two covered markets in the city center (Benito Juarez and 20 de Noviembre), as lively as they are varied.
Jumbled together, we find folk clothing, leather sandals, woven straw hats, but also strings of sausages, pre-cut mangoes, various sizes of dehydrated grasshoppers and all shades of peppers. This is an opportunity to rub shoulders with local specialties, such as tejate, this certainly grayish beverage with a floury texture, but delicious, which mixes corn and cocoa; or even memesthese tortillas topped with dark sauce molecheese quesillo in which you can add an egg, guacamole or, for the more adventurous, insects.
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