Day 299 – Mexico City to Oaxaca
Today we had another breakfast at the nearby Bro House Restaurant. The food was nice, juts like yesterday. We noticed that people just leave a tip on the table when they leave, which we did too. After buying some snacks for the bus ride from 7/11 we checked out from our hotel Capital O Frida Costazul.
TAPO Bus Station / ADO Bus Experience
From here we caught an Uber to the TAPO Bus Station. We arrived a little early as we didn’t know what to expect from the ADO bus we had booked a few days ago. We went and sat down in the ADO section of the TAPO Bus Station. There were several ADO buses at different platforms. We were told that the bus would arrive at gate 7, however, we could see the Bus to Oaxaca was at a different gate. To be on the safe side, I checked with the staff and confirmed that the new gate was correct.
After the bus was announced we had to wait in a line and we could see that all the luggage was searched by security. Also tickets and IDs were checked for all passengers. When it was our turn to be checked though, the security never opened our 60L backpacks, however our 15L day packs were opened and searched.
The ADO bus was really nice. There are several classes of buses but the cheapest is 1st class, which is the type of bus we booked. The bus looked new, and there was plenty of legroom and even USB charging ports. Staff even get on the bus to sell drinks and snacks at the start of the journey before the bus leaves.
We left the station at 10.20am for an uneventful bus ride. There were some Spanish language films throughout the journey to Oaxaca.
Oaxaca
We arrived in Oaxaca at 4.30pm at the ADO bus terminal. We had a mid sized walk to our hostel. The town is very nice and has an European style to it. Most of the streets are one way and surprisingly busy.
Once we arrived at Hostal Don Alvaro, we were welcomed by the kind owner. The room was up one level and was nice and large. The only complaint about the place is the shared toilets. The cubicles were way too small. I could not even sit down as my knees would hit the door. Luckily the toilets were always empty when we had to use them, otherwise it could be quite awkward as there was no locks either.
From our research (i.e. my wife’s), the best way to get around to the sites, is to hire a car. However, I was very reluctant as we didn’t know the language, and we can’t practically Google Translate every street sign we see.
Despite this, it was really hard to find a decently priced car. According to the companies, it was the low season, but all of the car were hired. That being said, we found out that it’s way cheaper to go on a group tour. After talking to a few tour companies, we found out that the cheapest tours are only 150 MXN / $11.25AUD per person.
We didn’t end up booking anything today as a sudden downpour occurred and the streets around us were flooded. It was crazy, how fast the day changed and how much water was on the streets. The rain only lasted a few minutes, but several roads were flooded while we were walking around.
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de La Asunción (Oaxaca Cathedral)
We had a very nice dinner at a restaurant, which had good reviews called Casa Taviche. The food was nice and the open dining area was really cool. After dinner we just went back to our hostel to sleep.
