Celebrating Los Dias de Los Muertos in Oaxaca City
After a great week in the Barrancas del Cobre we had a long journey to our next destination - Oaxaca city. We took a 4 hour bus to Chihuahua where we stayed overnight to get a flight the next day.
Chihuahua
In the evenings the Zocalo (main square) and surrounding streets are alive with music, mezcal, parades, fireworks, and celebration! We had a great time wandering around - there really was a party on every street! Everyone dresses up and paints their face in the traditional skull motif - which is intended to remind people not to fear death but to laugh with death, and importantly to celebrate life whilst you are living. Even the dogs were dressed up for the celebrations! Maria from our hostel kindly painted my face.
The panteons (cemeteries) also opened in the evening and families spend time decorating the graves of their loved ones with candles and flowers. They also bring the favourite food and drink of their loved one and enjoy eating it at the grave with music (and sometimes singing!). It was incredible to be invited to witness the tradition, and to see the happiness and joy people feel celebrating the lives of the ones they have lost.
Overall we enjoyed spending the day of the dead holidays in Oaxaca, and learning about the tradition and beliefs which feel very different to what we are used to. We enjoyed learning about the different perspective that Mexican people have about death, and there is something captivating in the idea to celebrate life rather than mourn death. The Mexican people put lots of thought and effort into celebrating the lives of their dead loved ones, and connecting with them and their spirit, which feels very different to how we view and treat death at home - privately and with sadness.
Lots of tourists and locals from all over Mexico come to Oaxaca for the celebrations, and the city felt incredibly busy, crowded, and a bit overwhelming at times. If we are in Mexico during the day of the dead celebrations again, I think we will spend our time in a much smaller town or city.
Our next stop: some time at the beach in Puerto Escondido
We had read lots of warnings about Chihuahua being a dangerous place to visit - the US advises against travel there completely, and so we were a bit unsure what to expect. Actually we really loved Chihuahua and wished we could have stayed longer! The city was really cool and beautiful, and the people were so trendy and friendly! Plus we had some of the nicest food we’ve had in Mexico so far here. We both felt sad to leave, and it reaffirmed our usual style of travelling - to not book things too far in advance, or make too many plans as you never know what you might find!
As it happens, we had to book our flight as it was booking up fast due to the holidays for day of the dead, so the next day we got a flight back to CDMX, and then a night bus to Oaxaca (which was packed due to the Mexican holidays!). The bus ride was very through the moutains so we didn’t sleep too well.
Oaxaca city
We arrived in Oaxaca at 5am and enjoyed wandering the streets whilst everyone woke up!
We stayed at a great hostel in Oaxaca - it was slightly out of the city, but had a great homely feel, views of the surrounding mountains, and the most beautiful dog, Duke. We met some lovely people here, who we spent time with in the hostel and going into the city.
Oaxaca is renowned to have good traditional Mexican food and we enjoyed sampling the local dish - tyayudas, which are corn tortillas filled with refried beans, veg/meat, cabbage and cheese.
We spent a day in Oaxaca visiting the Monte Alban archaeological site. Monte Alban was an ancient Zapotec (pre-Mayan) metropolis, first inhabited in the sixth century BC, and set in the moutains with amazing views of Oaxaca and beyond. We really enjoyed visiting the site and learning about the Zapotec culture. The Zapotecs lived in harmony with the cycles of nature, and developed a calendar based on the movements of the sun, moon and stars, which considered of 20 months of 20 days.
Monte Alban served primarily as a place for worship, including human sacrifice. As always, we felt really awed by the scale and technology of the people who built and inhabited Monte Alban, and struck by the commonalities with other ancient civilisations we have learnt about around the world.
Los días de los Muertos
We spent the rest of our time in Oaxaca immersing ourselves in the day of the dead celebrations here - Oaxaca is famed to have one of the biggest celebration in the whole of Mexico. The official days are the 1st and 2nd November, but in Oaxaca the celebrations happen a few weeks beforehand.
The whole city spends weeks preparing for the celebration - decorating their houses, shops, restaurants and streets. Each family creates an alter to celebrate the lives of the loved ones who have died, and the whole city is covered in marigolds which symbolise the brevity of life (and are in season during the day of the dead holidays).
We enjoyed sampling the pan de muerto which is a bread that is made especially for the holidays - though we found it a bit sweet for our liking! And trying mezcal - a traditional spirit made from the agave plant.
In the evenings the Zocalo (main square) and surrounding streets are alive with music, mezcal, parades, fireworks, and celebration! We had a great time wandering around - there really was a party on every street! Everyone dresses up and paints their face in the traditional skull motif - which is intended to remind people not to fear death but to laugh with death, and importantly to celebrate life whilst you are living. Even the dogs were dressed up for the celebrations! Maria from our hostel kindly painted my face.
The panteons (cemeteries) also opened in the evening and families spend time decorating the graves of their loved ones with candles and flowers. They also bring the favourite food and drink of their loved one and enjoy eating it at the grave with music (and sometimes singing!). It was incredible to be invited to witness the tradition, and to see the happiness and joy people feel celebrating the lives of the ones they have lost.
Overall we enjoyed spending the day of the dead holidays in Oaxaca, and learning about the tradition and beliefs which feel very different to what we are used to. We enjoyed learning about the different perspective that Mexican people have about death, and there is something captivating in the idea to celebrate life rather than mourn death. The Mexican people put lots of thought and effort into celebrating the lives of their dead loved ones, and connecting with them and their spirit, which feels very different to how we view and treat death at home - privately and with sadness.
Lots of tourists and locals from all over Mexico come to Oaxaca for the celebrations, and the city felt incredibly busy, crowded, and a bit overwhelming at times. If we are in Mexico during the day of the dead celebrations again, I think we will spend our time in a much smaller town or city.
Our next stop: some time at the beach in Puerto Escondido
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