Oaxaca is the Mole Capital: Stairway to the white tent, musings

Oaxaca is renowned for its food, and especially for its many ethnic versions of mole. We have been making and eating moles since our arrival here 3 weeks ago. Last night we were blessed with the presence of a friend and colleague from Coeur d’Alene, Llolyn Pobran who asked us to pick out a traditional Mexican restaurant for our dinner. What is more traditional in Oaxaca than mole? We went to a restaurant called Los Pacos, one we had been wanting to try, that is known for its complementary 7 mole sampler. The sampler is brought to the table along with appetizers. A server then describes each of the moles as you sample, and that alone made the night worthwhile. Each mole from the bright green one to the dense dark ones was unique and complex. Ultimately, we each settled on a version of the mole negro, thus the pictures all look similar. I apologize for not photographing the sampler. From left to right you are seeing ribs, enchiladas and chicken.

We came to Oaxaca 6 years ago, and again now. The city is surrounded by mountains, thus there are numerous hillsides climbing from the center of the city. One of those hillsides has a huge white tent like structure. We always used it as a visual landmark and wondered what it was. We have been told it was an auditorium, but I never made good sense of that information. We also had been told of a very long staircase of over 200 steps that accessed the tent, but had never seen or recognized the staircase. This morning we decided it was time to solve these mysteries, find the staircase, and climb the hill. See a picture from the bottom of the staircase below. A tunnel transitions the walk from the staircase to the auditorium. The tunnel has murals, as do many walls in Oaxaca. The picture of the woman was striking to me due to the detail in her earrings.

Today we found out the tent has a name, Auditorio Guelaguetza, is built in the fashion of ancient Roman and Greek theatres, and has a spectator capacity of over 12, 000. It is much more than a tent as it fashioned from great masonry blocks. It is only partially enclosed and is a very unique structure. We believe it’s true that the trek to the top is over 200 steps, and once you get there many more steps await if you choose to circumvent the auditorium. We were unable to go inside and had to settle for looking through metal bars to see the seats and stage. The auditorium is pictured in the featured image.

A major difference I have noted in Oaxaca from San Miguel de Allende is tourist age difference. Tourists are younger here. There are a lot gringos in the 20 to 40 age range. A lot of them even bring their children. Additionally, there appear to be a lot of young women traveling by themselves, or with another woman or two in Oaxaca. In San Miguel there were a lot of gringos like me, in the 60 to 80 age group. I also notice many fewer Mexican tourists in Oaxaca, a factor I deduced because I don’t see the incessant picture taking among the Mexicans that was so prevalent in San Miguel. The two cities simply have differing identities I believe.

A final note of interest to me is that, in both cities, the Mexicans  do not use strollers much. They do not strap children to their backs, or even to the chests that often. What we have noticed is that young children are carried quite often.