This is how we turned an idea into a plan and how we dealt with the roadblocks that we would be presented with..



After determining the destinations and the dates we were to leave and return we made our flight arrangements with Delta/Aeromexico and booked all our flights. The only issue with our flight plans was that in planning our trip home we would have to fly from Oaxaca to Mexico City and spend four hours in the airport while waiting for our flight back to San Francisco. It was a very long day but it all worked out.



Next we booked the Hotel Casa Mali by Dominion Boutique Hotel in the La Condesa neighborhood in Mexico City for five nights and Hotel Four Points by Sheraton Mexico in City Colonia Roma for one night. Unfortunately, we couldn’t book Casa Mali for all six nights so we used points and stayed at Four Points for just the evening. The Hotel Four Points arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport ( 30 minutes).



Then we booked The Pug Seal Hotel in Oaxaca for six nights and they arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport ( 25 minutes).



The only reservations made other than flights, hotels and transportation from the airport was for a walking tour in Mexico City, a class learning to make salsas and tortillas, a few restaurant reservations in both Mexico City and Oaxaca. I will write about each of these experiences .



I made sure our passports were in order and up to date; checked on the weather for clothing to pack; asked our doctor to prescribe an antibiotic in the event I became ill ( which I’ve had in the past) and prepared a list of sights , destinations, restaurants and experiences we wanted to explore in both locations. My preparation included: Fodors Forums, TripAdvisor Forums and numerous You Tube videos, a book of walks in Mexico City by Jim Johnston, Oaxaca by Cody Copeland for Moon publications,Lonely Planet Mexican Spanish and suggestions from friends on Facebook! Since we had been to Mexico City our plan was to explore neighborhoods this time rather than see all the tourist sights we had seen before,



We exchanged dollars to pesos the day after we arrived at a bank ATM machine and used USA currency for any incidentals until we did the exchange. I made sure that both of us had our Google Translate in working order and we were ready to go!



Our first day in Mexico City was going to be very busy. We had scheduled a free walking tour with Estacion Mexico in the Roma neighborhood and walked to our meeting point Metro’s Station Cuauhtemoc where we met our guide Any. We spent approximately 3 hours walking through Roma and the last part in La Condesa. Next we headed back to our Four Points Hotel, checked out, scheduled an Uber to our new place Casa Mali in La Condesa and checked in. After a short time we now scheduled a new Uber to our class in Salsa and Tortilla making with Arturo through Airbnb. We made salsa verde salsa rota, fully cooked and half cooked, roasted salsa molcajeteada, red onion pickle, salsa taqueria. When all was cooked we went up to Arturo’s roof and together with wine, beans and other dishes enjoyed a most delicious meal under the stars. It was wonderful!!



It was now time for our third Uber of the day and we returned to our hotel exhausted, full of food and happy to relax.



While we loved our hotel because of the size of our room, location next to Parque Mexico and La Condesa we didn’t love our breakfasts there. Today our second day we decided to use the Mexico City Jim Johnston walking tours book. Our goal was to walk through our neighborhood of Condesa and indeed we did. We walked around Parque Mexico and found this wonderful bakery Odette where we bought a bread and a few pastries. Before we started our walk my wife discovered a mural being painted by a street artist in the park. My wife is a photographer who specializes in photographing street art all over the world In fact many of our trips were created to explore a specific city’s street art and of course Mexico City is one of them. The artist and my wife struck up a friendship and after exchanging instagram account information we were on our way for our walk and also to discover some of the artist’s other murals around the city. After our purchase at the bakery we sat down at Caffee Toscano near the park and ate our pastries ( delicious). The weather here has been cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon. We continued our walk from Condesa to Roma and ended up walking over 17,000 steps/7 miles and photographed lots of murals Our hotel is in a lovely areas filled with lots of restaurants and we dined around the corner at Mero Toro. Wonderful tenderloin for me and a sweet potato dish for my vegetarian wife. After a little stroll around the park we came back to our room and after some Jeopardy episodes we fell asleep.



Our next day included a walk to Chapapultec Park ( ill advised as it was too far, too hot and we should have taken an Uber). It is so cheap and quick and safe to book Ubers here that one should not hesitate to do so. We spent time in the park and the Museum of Anthropology. We had spent an entire day on our last trip at the Musuem so we didn’t spend much time here. Also the problem here is nothing is in English so it was difficult to understand what we were looking at. While you could use Google Translate it would be too time consuming to use it on every piece of art. Dinner was also in our neighborhood at Nonnas, an intimate Italian restaurantl and we enjoyed our food and conversation with a very animated waiter.



We spent the next day walking in and around the Zocalo, exploring all the street art, going in and out of buildings and churches, enjoying a wonderful lunch at El Cardenal and eventually returned to our hotel. Unfortunately, we were hungry and ended up eating a very unhealthy meal next to our hotel at Ocho. While it was convenient, had street performers singing and playing instruments the food was fast food and not very good. Oh well!!



Our last day would be filled with continuing to explore our neighborhood, nearby parks, see the finished mural that our new friend had painted and dinner at Contramar. We were very disappointed with our Contramar experience due to the noise, overcrowding `both inside and outside the restaurant and feeling squeezed into our table. The food was not really good for a vegetarian and we left with a negative experience here. It’s unfortunate since we had been anticipating something much more satisfying.



We had an early flight out of Mexico City to Oaxaca and an Uber ended up dropping us off at the wrong terminal and we ended up wallking quite a bit to where we had to go. Thanks to an airline employee who escorted us to the proper place we did make it our correct terminal. Since we always travel with carry on we encountered a problem when the check in person insisted we check our luggage. We politely refused and insisted that our luggage was small enough to fit in the overhead. We were polite, didn’t raise our voice and smiled lots and of course we were right and had no issues storing our luggage. Unfortunately, my wife developed a stomach issue as we were leaving Mexico City and it would continue to bother her over the next week impacting our time and experience in Oaxaca.

Following your trip! Oh no! Stomach issues are the worst!

Rather than take you through a day by day itinerary in Oaxaca, I will just list the highlights of our time here!



Since my wife and I will be both celebrating our wedding anniversary and my birthday during our stay in Oaxaca we decided to treat ourselves to an outstanding hotel! I booked the Pug Seal Hotel and here is their description:



“This house dates back to the early 19th century and has its origins in the colonial era. In 2020, it was transformed into a boutique hotel. The artwork on its walls takes you on a journey through Zapotec culture and celebrates the richness of Mexico.

With an excellent location in the historic center of Oaxaca, it takes you on a unique journey through Oaxacan roots.”

PORFIRIO DÍAZ 212 | CENTRO | OAXACA CITY

We just loved this hotel. Viewing Pug Seal from the outside one would never know the beauty once the doors were opened. Our room , although on the smaller side was good. The breakfasts were delicous and the staff was so warm, spoke english and very helpful in every way. The location within the historic district allowed us to walk everywhere. In fact other than taking a car service ( arranged by the hotel) from the airport and back we used a taxi only once in our six days. Bring a good pair of walking shoes, always carry bottled water, small snacks and a good map/gps with you. The hotel filled your fridge with beer and bottled sparkling water and gifted us a bottle of champagne on our anniversary. You could pickup cookies, cake and fruit throughout the day for free and you could sit wherever you wanted for breakfast.

Across the street from Pug Seal is the Boulenc Bakery serving delicious pastries and sandwiches in a very unique setting . It is a very hip and trendy restaurant with a very diverse menu with both brunch and dinner options and also a full bar menu. We found ourselves coming here often for just a drink or a meal. Since it does get busy I recommend making a reservation .

Other restaurants we enjoyed: Catedral calle de Manuel Garcia Vigil 105 Colonia Centro. Excellent food, live music ( the night we were there) and beautiful outdoor atmosphere.

Casa Oaxaca El Restaurante. Constitution # 104-A Centro. A stunning rooftop setting with excellent food overlooking the Santo Domingo Church. Reservations recommended. Good vegetarian options.

Terraza Los Amantes Ruta Independencia Calle Ignacio Allende 108. Another rooftop setting with good food and ambience. Had my first Mezcal here!

Levadura de Olla Restaurante C. de Manuel Garcia Vigil 304. Small and intimate, Good food. Vegetarian options. No views .

Rupestre Pan y Cafe in Xochimilco. A cute outdoor cafe with good food and drinks. Good atmosphere for a quick bite while exploring this neighborhood.

Aguacate Veggie Bar Reforma 703. Wonderful lunch place for vegetarians. In a mini mall type of setting with great art works, other stores and restaurants.

As I mentioned before my wife had developed a stomach issue while in Mexico City. As a result we were reluctant to travel anywhere outside of Oaxaca on any tours and limited ourselves to staying within the city. Luckily she was able to take the antibiotics that had been prescribed for me and it did help. I strongly suggest that you carry this medicine with you when traveling here. We are not sure how or why she became ill since we only had bottled water, brushed our teeth with bottled water, never ate street food, avoided fruits and uncooked vegetables. No matter how careful you are just know that it can happen and just be prepared to deal with the consequences.



Places to visit: Zocalo is the central hub here in Oaxaca. Any time during the day or evening something interesting is going on here. We watched and participated in dancing to a live band, listened to several bands, shopped for gifts when an outdoor marketplace was set up and just sat and people watched. It was fun, interesting and if you want you could sit at an outdoor cafe and enjoy a drink or eat. We found ourselves almost on a daily basis walking over to the Zocalo even for just a few minutes.

Since my wife is a photographer who specializes in photographing street art ( she has a few instagram accounts), we explored many neighborhoods which had prominent murals displayed. Throughout Oaxaca there are murals everywhere! In fact there are huge puppets that are scattered throughout the city and are probably used for larger festivals. We walked to the Xochimilico neighborhood, took a walking tour in Jalatlaco where we had a two hour tour of just the street art. You aren’t charged for the tour however, you should give the guide a nice tip. We were fortunate that we were the only two taking the tour so we got lots of attention! There are other types of tours as well and you can find the tours on tripadvisor. Also check out the post office near the Zocalo as there are wonderful photpgra[s inside and there’s no issue just walking in and looking at them.

Close to the Zocalo are two marketplaces: 20 De November and Benito Juarez. There are booths everywhere in these markets to purchase goods, meats, food , wine and mezcal! It’s really fun to walk up and down the aisles and just take in the sighst and the aromas.

Make sure to visit the Santo Domingo Church and the gardens. You can pay extra to walk in the gardens, however, you can also pay to enter the Museo De La Culturas which is adjacent to Santo Domingo. This is an interesting museum and the large patios and windows offer views of the garden from above. We truly enjoyed our visit and when we were finished walked outside and found ourselves in a very unique wedding celebration outside the church. It was a Calenda which is a colorful celebration of the wedding procession exiting the church. There were women in colorful costumes dancing and huge puppets of a groom and bride, musicians and everyone clapping and following the wedding party throughout the streets. We were told that had we followed the “parade” we would have been given a drink of Mezcal and a treat to eat.

Talking about colorful: the beauty of the streets painted in various colors with banners/pennants hanging above are just so beautiful. The markets set up especially close to the church are also colorful with al types of hand crafted things to buy. I suggest to find a comfortable place to sit near the church, in the shade and just spend the time people watching here. One evening we came across a group of people, young and old dancing to Salsa music. There are streets that are closed off to traffic and people are always walking, laughing, singing and dancing on their way to or returning from some evening entertainment. I must say we loved the atmosphere here and everyone always seem happy .

If we are to return to Oaxaca there is no doubt that we would hire a driver or join a tour and take day trips to some of the historical sights. We loved our time here and look forward to returning!

One last note: We have Global Entry and as a result we can bypass long lines in reentering the USA Passport control, My wife breezed through , however, my Global Entry had expired on my birthday ( 2 days prior to our departure) and so I was refused and had to wait on the long line. Just remember to make sure that your Passport and Global Entry are up to date.

Our flight home was long. A car to the airport in Oaxaca. The flight to Mexico City. Wait for 4 hours for our next flight. Arrive in San Francisco and wait for an Uber. A long day , however, we thought about our past 12 days and were still smiling!

Thanks for the detailed report.