Best Of Oaxaca-Arrival in Guanajuato

So now that we are leaving Guanajuato in one day we are actually getting around to putting together our "Best of" list for the middle third of the trip. We will take care of the best of Guanajuato as well as of the travel home when we get back.



Best City: Oaxaca
While DF certianly has a lot to offer, and the museum in Xalapa was incredible, Oaxaca was definately the highlight of the middle part of our trip. It has such an excellent mix of walkable streets, interesting day trips, great food, and incredible artesian work at every turn.



Best Restaurant: Casa de Tio Güero, Oaxaca.
This place couldn't be beat, it had really good food, and lots of it, for a very reasonable price, good service, and a really pleasant setting. If you are ever in Oaxaca they also offer Cooking Classes way cheaper than most of the other one. My favorite dish was the Pollo Almendrado (Chicken with thick Alomnd Mole).



Best Hotel: Villa Las Margaritas, Xalapa.
It was fun to have a big queen size bed and cable TV for around $30 per night, roomservice was totally reasonable as well.



Best Ruins: Teotihuacan
The others in the runnign for this trip were Monte Alban and Mitla, and not to say that these two weren't pretty cool too. But the size and magisty of Teotihuacan can't really be beat. We climbed to the top of the 3rd highest pyramid in the world!



Best Museum: Museo de Anthropología, Xalapa.
The Museo National de Anthropología in Mexico City came in a close second. But we settled on the Xalapa Museum for the beauty of its displays and the impress collection of 7 giant Olmec heads.



Strangest Museum; Museo de la Universidad, Puebla.
It didn't seem fair to put this in the same category at the other too but felt it merited a mention on the best of list. It really was the best weird museum we have visited in all of Mexico.



Best Artesania Demonstration: La Grana Tejido, Teotitlan de la Valle.
It was between this and the incredible Alebrijes demonstration but this won because I got to smash a bug with red paint inside and the passion of the man giving the demonstration was evident in the quiet pride he took in his work and his mission.

Favorite Olemc Head: The Smiling One.
The museum in Xalapa had the only smiling Olmec head known to exisit.

Best Artesania: Alebrijes
These fanciful wooden creatures made in two different pueblos outside of Oaxaca city won us over with their bright colors and silly poses.

Best Sign: Any direction you want, Mitla
Michael posted a picture of this one earlier, three arrows, no idication of where they lead. Hey, we know there is a road at least.

Best Movie: Blindness
In our time in Mexico City and Puebla, not being much of big city night life people we saw a lot of movies. Our favorite was Blindness, an adaptation of the book by the same name by Jose Saramago. It should be out in the states too.