by Allan Taylor

Created on: January 27, 2010   Last Updated: June 13, 2011

 Oaxaca Interlude

Oaxaca is a well preserved Spanish colonial city, originally an important religious center (Dominican). Now it is a favorite with tourists for handicrafts, festivals, cafés/restaurants and for having a relaxing atmosphere. From here you can explore the ancient cities of Monte Albán and Yagul and the craft markets of many Indian villages located along the Valles Centrales.

Oaxaca is located 442 kms SE of Mexico City by bus (overnight, 6 hours from Terminal Oriente) or by plane (1 hour).

It was Christmas Eve. Chrissy, my travel companion and I headed for the zocalo, or central plaza of the town to watch the celebrations.

By 10 pm we were engulfed in a sea of happy families filling all available space behind the roped off streets of the procession route. Each church (and there seems to be one every few city blocks) had its elaborate nativity float beautifully decorated, crowded with gorgeous ladies and school children dressed up in their finery, as angels (or fairies?) waving a wand at the spectators. Infant Jesus was the centerpiece resting in a fancy cradle.

Between each float was a brass band or some sort of orchestral group, somewhat disreputable and incongruous in their working clothes, enthusiastically whooping it up as loudly as possible!  How many times they circled the zócalo I lost count. Sky rockets roared off and exploded in the heavens in a spectacular shower of colored sparks and Catherine wheels whizzed unexpectantly close by. Interspersed were acrobatic teams, paraplegics in wheel chairs, sports teams, and 3 meter tall clowns who swayed around like drunken giants and bobbed up and down to the beat of the music.

Crash, bang, tinkle, tinkle .. next to the Cathedral we watched amazed at people throwing plates, pottery, even furniture over their shoulder onto a growing pile of rubble! Investigation revealed that this was the traditional "Breaking of Plates" ceremony. It marks the end of the current year’s worries and the dawn of a happy and prosperous New Year.

Never before have I experienced such fantastic celebrations.  I exhausted my camera battery and we decided to totter off home. Then we noticed everybody was heading for the nearest church so we did too!

I am not normally a church goer. Weddings and funerals are my limit. For the Latinos, their whole lives revolve around the Catholic church. I reflect that I have visited (and photographed) more churches in Latin America than within a

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