Wuh-Hock-Uhh A.K.A. Oaxaca
This past weekend we took off to Oaxaca, a huge city about three hours south of Tehuacán. On Saturday we left at 6 a.m. with other members from our church to go to the temple. The closest temple to Tehuacán is in Oaxaca, so everyone was very excited to go, because they only have the opportunity to go about once every other month. We were so excited to do temple work and also to be able to visit a different temple. It was so beautiful, and so picture perfect. Here I am with one of my favorite students, Chucho (Chew-Cho), or Hiram (E-raam) is his real name. He goes to my church, and is the Bishop's son, he just turned eight and is hilarious! I love him soo.
After the temple, we decided to head to the Zoccalo, or el centro de Oaxaca. This is where all the fun is happening most often in any city. The centro was huge compared to any other city we have visited, and there was a lot to see, and shop for and eat.
We walked all around the town, and visited a Cathedral that was built with gold. The little ornate details inside and some on the outside were very shiny, but since the sun wasn't out, it was a little hard to see. We just took a picture with these crazy statues instead.. Can you find us?
There was a lot of shopping to do around the city, and we all agreed that we spent too much money, but I am glad I finally bought something to take home with me. For dinner, we were told that we HAD to eat the famous Oaxacan food. One of the best things we heard about were these Tlayudas; pronounced (Tlai-yu-dahs). They are basically like tostadas, but giant and super yummy. To make one, they use a huge tortilla about the size of a pizza, and top it with frijoles (beans) lettuce, tomato, onions, crema (sour cream), salsa and quesillo (YUMMY cheese). There probably is some other Mexican Magic that goes on when they make them, cause they were delicious. I wish I could have eaten six more. We have also heard there are tlayudas with meat, which are also good. Me and Ashley split one, and it was heaven.
While we ate street food for dinner, we watched lots of dancers, clowns and musical groups in the centro and then headed back to our hostel for the night, because we were honestly pooped. Our hostel was super cheap, and organized, but totally a place for hippies and backpackers. Everyone was so nice, but we still laughed about it all. We got snacks to take back and then watched a movie on our laptop and talked until we fell asleep. One of the best snacks we found was elote flavored fritos. They have all sorts of crazy flavored chips, so when they had something elote flavored, we HAD to try them!! Yummmm! Elotes are like one of my favorite foods here, so these were awesome.
This morning, we got up super early and drove out to el arbol de tule, which is a GIANT tree. It is over 2,000 years old and you can wrap about 30-40 people around it holding hands. It is so beautiful, and we enjoyed the morning weather before we went to church.
After church, we headed out to Monte Albán to see all of the pyramids. We have seen some ruins before in the other places we have visited, but nothing compared to this. It was completely worth the five bucks to get in. We really got to see a lot, and it was fun to imagine the people who built all of the pyramids so long ago. It's crazy to think that they built these super huge pyramids, on top of an enormous mountain. They must have had some awesome thigh muscles. Seriously, these people like everything steep! We spent two hours at the pyramids, and the views were Amaz-o. Check it out...
Afterwards, we had a small treat, Nieve. It is basically like ice cream, but it isn't made with milk...it's kind of like a snow cone, but better....hard to explain, but yummy. Nieve is special to Oaxaca, and we got the best flavor, Beso Oaxacaqueño, which sort of means a kiss from someone who lives in Oaxaca. Yeah, it was super sweet and delicious. So glad we ate that. 
After our long long weekend trip, we had to bust our buns back to the bus station so we didn't miss the three o'clock bus, because we already bought our tickets and the next one didn't leave until midnight! Yikes. We watched 'Shes the Man' in spanish on the way home, and talked for three hours straight. I LOVE these girls, we always have so much fun. I cannot wait for our next adventure because we are always doing something ridiculous. I never want to leave Mexico, Oaxaca was awesome.
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