You new this series of food encounters would have to get to this topic eventually. It was one thing to run into vendors in the marketplaces in Oaxaca selling bugs for food (crickets I think) and quite another one to be offered to share a dish of bugs, chilies and onions on a bed of [...]

The picture for this month’s wallpaper is from Oaxaca Mexico

Regular width (1600 x 1200) without calendar
Widescreen (1920 × 1200) without calendar

To use:
1. Click the link above to open wallpaper in your browser.
2. Right click and select “Use image as desktop picture” or similar

Speaking of buildings that have seen better days, this one from my trip to Oaxaca caught my eye. This door has become a patchwork as they have endeavored at least 3 times to fix holes. It is certainly an imperfect door, but imperfection is interesting visually.

Two things draw me to photos like this one. The first is the color. Ansel Adams I am not. I love vibrant color. The second is the odd asymmetry of this picture. Symmetry can certainly be beautiful, but as Mona Lisa taught us, asymmetry is intriguing.

Continuing my series of photos of doors that I have collected is this odd pyramid shaped door from Oaxaca. I am particularly drawn to buildings like this that have seen better days. They seem to tell a story. My suspicion is that this building has this pyramid theme because it was built by the Freemasons [...]

Monte Alban, just out side of Oaxaca Mexico, was built by the Zapotec people around 500 B.C. At the time it was one of the largest cities in Mesoamerica. The Zapotecs apparently leveled a mountain top to put this city on top of it. What remains of Monte Alban is the temples and ceremonial structures. [...]

This is a transcript of an episode of the Amateur Traveler focusing on traveling to Oaxaca, Mexico.

Travel to Oaxaca, Mexico – Amateur Traveler Episode 174 Show Notes
More blogs posts about Oaxaca, Mexico
Amateur Traveler episodes about Mexico

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Today the Amateur Traveler goes to Southern Mexico to the land of chocolate [...]

The best meal that I had in Oaxaca, Mexico on my recent trip was not in a fancy tourist restaurant nor was it eaten for that matter with any other tourists in sight. Like many cities in Mexico some of the most interesting culinary experiences can be found in the markets where the locals eat. [...]

Filipe, the weaver I met yesterday, picked me up in his car at 10am outside of the hostel. We headed for some of the well known sites in the valley.
The Big Tree
The first stop was at the “big tree” which is in fact a very very big and very old tree. It [...]

The strangest day about day 7 of the trip was that I was still in Oaxaca. My usual travel pace would have put me on the road again after two days in one spot and it would have been simple to turn my back on Oaxaca and head elsewhere. But I had booked this trip [...]