Holy Mole

We headed back towards Oaxaca City but we had to stop off to have a bit of work done on Elvis's very noisy front shocks. They replaced them in a couple of hours (and incredibly cheaply) so went to see the widest tree in the world - which is also amazingly about 1500 years old!

After a night in a campsite outside of town we headed into the centre where we were treating ourselves to a night in a hostel, we had a private room, free parking and free breakfast for about $23 - they even allowed dogs!

We loved Oaxaca city, it was great for strolling around with beautiful old buildings, lots (& lots & lots) of artisan markets & excellent food & drink. The highlight food-wise was a lovely restaurant where we had a plate of Oaxacan specialities, including chilli relleno stuffed with shredded pork & nuts & a plate with 3 different types of mole sauce. Mole (pronounced mol-é, not the blind rodent way!) is a local speciality and there at least 7 main different colours (aka flavours), with mole negro containing up to 34 different ingredients including chocolate. We even got to stir some of the mole cooking in a huge earthenware pot over a coal fire, which layered a delicious aroma over the while restaurant.Read more