If you ask me what I loved most about Oaxaca, I’d struggle to give you one landmark, restaurant or experience. It was the atmosphere more than anything else, and we felt it almost as soon as we arrived.
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed straight towards the Zócalo. We were only staying a few minutes away and, as we got closer, the streets seemed to get busier and more colourful. Flags were strung overhead, musicians and performers were everywhere and people were beginning to gather for a parade later that evening.
It felt as though the whole city had come outside.
Families filled the squares, children played in the park and couples danced as the sun started to disappear. Every café seemed to spill out onto the pavement and there was this brilliant energy that made us want to keep walking. We didn't really have a plan that evening and ended up wandering around for hours, which is often when I enjoy a city most.
Food is obviously a huge part of Oaxaca, and one of my favourite experiences was wandering through what is often called Smoke Alley at Mercado 20 de Noviembre. You smell it before you really know where you're going. Smoke from the grills fills the air as different meats cook over open flames, surrounded by people eating, talking and calling out orders. It's busy, slightly chaotic and completely unpolished, which is exactly why I loved it.
And then we met the salsa lady.
She was standing behind what seemed like an impossible number of bowls of homemade salsa and was absolutely determined that we try them before deciding which ones to have. Some were fresh and zingy, others rich and smoky, and a few were significantly hotter than I was prepared for. It's such a tiny part of an eleven-week trip, but I can still picture us standing there tasting our way through them.
That's probably the best way I can describe Oaxaca. There are beautiful churches, museums and colourful streets, and the food alone is enough of a reason to visit, but my favourite memories weren't really things we had planned in advance.
They were wandering into another pretty square because we liked the look of it, stopping for a taco because it smelled too good to walk past, sitting with a drink and watching the city go about its evening, and having little conversations with people we would never see again. Oaxaca was somewhere we enjoyed simply by being there.
I'd give it at least three nights as part of a longer journey through Mexico, although I could very easily spend longer. The centre is wonderfully walkable, there's plenty to explore beyond the city and it works brilliantly alongside Mexico City before continuing towards the coast.
But I wouldn't fill every day with tours and reservations. Oaxaca is exactly the sort of place where I'd deliberately leave gaps in the itinerary, because half the pleasure is deciding to turn down another street, stop somewhere that looks interesting and see what you find.
A place that stayed with me
Smoke Alley at dusk. The smoke from the grills, the noise, families gathering to eat and our salsa lady enthusiastically trying to find out exactly how much chilli we could handle. It wasn't remotely glamorous, but it was completely Oaxaca.
A moment I’ll never forget
Walking towards the Zócalo on our first evening and realising we'd arrived just as the city was gearing up for a huge parade. We hadn't planned it or even known it was happening, which made stumbling across it even better.
One thing I brought home
Oaxaca reminded me how little some of my favourite travel memories have to do with the things I've booked in advance. Sometimes it's a taco you weren't looking for, a conversation you weren't expecting or a spoonful of salsa you probably shouldn't have agreed to try that stays with you.
