Tuesday 2nd March

We spent the day in Oaxaca - warning, this page is very picture intensive!

Here is our hotel. Nice.  We headed to the main Zocalo for breakfast, which we took at Terranova, for my money the pick of the plaza-side restaurants.  Huge breakfast for 100 pesos

Here is the front facade of Iglesia de Santo Domingo in the heart of the old city

Interesting formal bedding scheme of Agave guiengola

Here we wandered into a small courtyard and were stunned by this jade vine, Strongylodon macrobotrys

Here an example of how the Mexicans excel at combining modern chic with old.

And again here - the foyer of the best restaurant in town - Casa Oaxaca.  We lunched here then returned for dinner - for the best food I have eaten anywhere.

Within the walled grounds of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo is the Ethnobotanical garden, open to guided tours only - with English guides available as timetabled.  The lady below in the hat walked us around and kept our attention for just about 2hrs 20 mins - an expert at the top of her game.  At 100 pesos each it was expensive by Mexican standards but represented superb value for money.  It was hot!  I got sunburnt ears having left my hat in the hotel room 

No idea what this is but the flowers were spectacular.  It was being visited by a black bumblebee the size of a chinook helicopter that refused to keep still for pictures.

Below - not entirely sure what this is but I like it!  Possibly an unusually blue and clustered form of Beaucarnea purpusii (more of this another day) or, perhaps more likely, a blue and clustered form of Yucca mixtecana.  There aren't many more suspects, really.

Here a cloistered courtyard of the Iglesia de Santo Domingo - this part of the complex forms the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca, worth a visit to see some superbly displayed exhibits spanning man's habitation of the area.

Plus lots of shopping, of course.  Getting to know Oaxaca city a little better cemented it's position as the finest city I have visited.

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