It’s Thursday evening, Feb. 5, and we’ve had our first full day in Oaxaca after flying in Wednesday evening. Our flights from Portland to Houston and from there into Oaxaca were uneventful – Will was a peach, despite a 6-hour layover in Houston. We met our good friends Helen Ubinas and Mike Dunne in the Houston airport, and came into the city with them. Our hotel, the Camino Real, is a really beautiful old hotel that is a major historical site in itself, a former convent built in the 16^th century – at the time of Shakespeare, Will likes to relate. It is a stunning place, with exposed brick, crumbling stucco on walls several feet thick, a labyrinth of passageways, arches and hidden courtyards lush with flowering trees and bouganvilla. There is also lovely, chilly pool that Will took a dip in this afternoon. Outside our room is an ancient gazebo-esqe structure called the Lavendera. It’s where the nuns used to do the laundry, and there’s lovely running water into a series of basins.

Last night we cooled off after we arrived with a couple beers and a big Sprite for Will in one of the courtyards (the whole place is open to the sky), and a plate of cheese, meats and deep fried grasshoppers, which were spicy and, actually we decided, not all that tasty. This morning we went exploring on foot with Mike and Helen, starting with the Zocalo, the main square in the center of the city, through the massive gothic central cathedral and on to the central market, which is this enormous, sprawling collection of tiny booths all packed under one roof. Everything was for sale, from huge slabs of meat, whole dangling saffron-colored chicken, and entire mahi mahi and other fish, to toys, jewelry, pots, art, fruit and vegetables, and piles and piles of those grasshoppers. Row upon row of chilies in burlap bags were stacked next to piles of fresh herbs and spices. It reminded Courtenay of the indoor markets she visited years ago in Vietnam. It was a wild, fun place, and Will’s eyes were wide the entire time.

We went from there to a chocolate factory. Oaxaca is famous for its chocolates; after all, cacao was first cultivated here by the ancient peoples, where it was made into a drink for royalty. Chocolate is now used in the many and complex moles for which Oaxaca is famous. We bought several kinds after trying some of the tasting-size pieces. Will put a pretty good size dent in the tray of tasting pieces before we pulled him away. We went from there to the big regional museum a block from our hotel at the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. The collection of ancient artifacts dating from the time of Classical Greece are housed in another gorgeous former convent, a huge stone building surrounded by an amazing cactus garden and full of ancient artifacts from the nearby ruins at Monte Alban and other sites.  The artifacts ranged from prehistoric spearpoints to intricate gold and jade jewelry found in a tomb at Monte Alban to relics of the Spanish invasion. Numerous interior courtyards and open external windows gave us a view of the surrounding mountains and the sprawling low-slung city.  It was a great museum, and we had almost the whole place to ourselves.

We went from the museum to lunch at a restaurant sporting modern art, when we sampled the mole sauces for which Oaxaca is famous – verde, Colorado, tradicionel, and three others whose names we’ve forgotten. After that, it was back to the hotel to hang around the pool, and meet more of the friends and family of Elizabeth Dalziel and Rob Hodge, the couple getting married on Saturday.

Tonight we’re all going out to dinner with the wedding party at a traditional restaurant looking out on the zocalo, and tomorrow we’re hiring a driver to take us out to Monte Alban, the ancient ruins. Hope all’s well back in Oregon.