Oaxaca was a hell of a place to start our Mexican adventure. Mind blowing food, beautiful cobbled streets, amazing architecture, great stuff to do nearby and SO much colour.

To get there we took a rather painful overnight bus from Tapachula through the state of Chiapas, where we were stopped about 10 times for passport and drug checks. At one point we were lined up along the highway while heavily armed police searched the inside of the bus, using screwdrivers to remove random panels to peer inside with a flashlight. It was a long night.

We spent two days just wandering around Oaxaca, admiring the streets but also attempting to work up an appetite to squeeze in as much food as possible. If you missed my last post on all the incredible food click here. On the two other days we headed to ruins and to a pretty amazing swimming spot. Take a look:

Santo Domingo church

Wish I could have bought them all

Zócalo

We headeed 9km out of the city to Monte Alban, former home of the Zapotecs in 500BC.

We marvelled at their insanely huge stone structures and heaved ourselves up step after step.

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The following day we took a bus out to a set of natural rock formations called Hierve al Agua (‘the water boils’). It’s about 70km out of Oaxaca, we took a bus to Mitla and then an open air truck the rest of the way, passing amazing views of the hills and some locals:

Hola burros!

The rock formations are formed by mineral rich fresh water springs. Over time, the excess calcium carbonate in the water is deposited and formations are created, including two that look just like frozen waterfalls (like how stalactites are formed in caves). It’s nuts.

You can swim in the natural springs.

But before jumping in we headed off on a short but sweaty hike to get a closer look at the ‘waterfalls’.

As you can see they are huge.

It was such a relief to cool off.

Oh the symmetry ❤

On the way back we stumbled past some kind of traditional performance behind one of the churches.

That evening we headed to Benito Juarez market for tlayudas aka Oaxacan pizza. I love eating street food.

On our final day we walked under cotton candy skies and admired the city some more.

That bunting is called papel picado, I love it so much I bought some from the market for $1 even though I don’t have a home or anywhere to hang it.

How is this real?

Sigh. We’ll be back again one day Oaxaca you absolute dreamboat.