On to Oaxaca

I will jump now to the Oaxaca part of the February 2008 trip. We are often asked where we stay on our buying trips. And although quite satisfied with our digs, they are never luxurious. Recommending them to people we don't know well can be a mistake. For example, our usual place to stay in Oaxaca is Las Golandrinas, but they don't accept credit cards and this can be a problem for travelers. On this trip they did not have a room to accommodate us, so we went across the street to Hotel Casa del Sotano.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a reasonably priced room available. I will share some of the features of this hotel because you might want to consider staying there when in Oaxaca. This is the entrance on the street: Tinoco y Palacios 414, Centro Historico


There are fountains and stone sculptures on the lower level. I love the lizard carved into (or part of) the corner stone.


Room numbers and names are painted on the wall.


Our room was spacious and it was graced in the morning with the traditional rolled towel swan. (We sometimes get them with flower petals strewn about them.)


There is a very intimate (small) outside dining area. It's a lovely spot for breakfast.


The complimentary continental breakfast includes a delicious plate with these fruits--cut up, of course. (Remember, it's February and Wisconsin is having record snowfall that will total more than 100 inches.)


The view is great. In the daytime you look over the tops of buildings and can see the distant mountains.


We also enjoyed sitting there at the end of the day to discuss our adventures and to plan the next day. The view of the Santo Domingo de Guzman cathedral might be the best in the city.


Visit Hotel del Sotano's website (Spanish only) for more information (and better pictures).

In the coming posts I will take you out to some of the villages where we buy rugs and alebrijes (carved and painted animals) and black pottery. I will also work to get more of it up on the website. For now, if you go to the shopping section and type OAXACA in the search field you will see a selection of products from that area.