December 30, 2025: Dia Siete: de Tehuacán a Oaxaca con Mike como conductor

A QUICK NOTE — I MADE SOME SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO YESTERDAY’S POST AFTER REALIZING THERE WERE SOME INACCURACIES… And now for today:

After breakfast at Gran Hotel, we headed on our journey from Tehuacan to Oaxaca–which we planned to take about four hours (GPS said three but we figured that was optimistic.). After navigating ourselves out of the downtown, we were on the highway with the one lane in each direction, going over the mountains and dealing with Mexican drivers speeding and passing by going into the oncoming traffic lane. It was dicey at times, but Mike was really good (and did his share of passing trucks…but only when there was a dotted line.

Most of today’s images depict what I saw from the car window! After about two hours, the GPS added about 90 minutes to our arrival time so we knew something was wrong. Traffic backed up and we were stuck on the road (with everyone else) for more than an hour. We figured there was an accident or construction. But when we eventually started to move we found out that the backup (the hour-long backup) was due to the toll plaza. The northbound toll lane (we were southbound) was broken so they converted one of the southbound lanes as a toll for the northbound lanes. So there was only one lane to pay the toll for the Oaxaca road. And the lanes slow down anyway at the toll plazas since it’s all cash which takes time. We got to the hotel around 4:15—checked in, and decided we deserved margaritas, which we had at the hotel bar.

Otro Hotel is located directly across from Santo Domingo Church and is one of these “design hotels” where I think they care mostly about the public spaces and the architects are more interested in being in design magazines than in the real needs of guests. It’s a very small place (with a big reputation)—just 20 rooms. The room we were assigned looked out to a roof of the bar below. We moved to the only available room which is a bit better. But overall, I’d say Otro is extremely attractive as a building and simple in decor. Bathrooms are small but efficient. Because of the holidays the rates are quite high so the expectations are always heightened.

Tonight we had dinner at a tiny (18-seat) restaurant in a part of town we hadn’t yet ventured into. It’s called Tika’aya. Like nearly all restaurants in Oaxaca it’s basically outside and has no heat. It’s totally charming and the food is very difficult to describe. There are 7 courses: 5 they call “salads” but are really dishes that include vegetables as well as meat or fish (in some). Each dish is very small and is comprised of so many ingredients it’s hard to remember and repeat,,,and there is no written menu. Many of the dishes are based on indigenous recipes but they have been upscaled to say the least. The presentation of each dish was a work of art, often coming on smoking volcanic rock or other natural materials. After the 5 courses which actually included small portions of pork, shrimp, white fish, and other ingredients, there were two “sweet courses.” Everything was great except that it was really cold and we ate with jackets and scarves. It was about 55 degrees. And, we learned when the bill arrived apparently this information was in some confirmation of the reservation that we didn’t notic: It’s all cash; no credit cards. We managed to piece together about 95% of the bill and then asked if we could supplement the remainder and the tip with American dollars. They accommodated. We taxied back to the hotel. And now I’m headed to bed for a good night’s sleep (I hope)