Oaxaca!

It’s wonderful when you stumble upon a lovely and interesting travel blog; it’s even more wonderful when you discover that the blog author has featured your very own novel about a particular location that’s very close to your heart: Oaxaca! A shout out to Shelley, who included my novel, LOST IN OAXACA in her terrific blog about traveling in Oaxaca. You can check it out here: https://clairesitchyfeet.com/dest/north-america/mexico/oaxaca-city-guide/

I sincerely hope that very soon we will all be able to travel once again. If you decide that Oaxaca is your future destination, this blog will give you to lowdown on everything–where to stay, eat, and all the incredible sites to visit!

And bring along a copy of LOST IN OAXACA to read on the plane! https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Oaxaca-Jessica-Winters-Mireles/dp/1631528807/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=lost+in+oaxaca&

Staying Put

When one lives in paradise, it’s nearly impossible to find vacation spots that compare to home. Our solution? A staycation. We explore our own community and pretend we’ve never seen it before. Yesterday, we took a drive up in the Santa Ynez mountains, had lunch downtown and took in a late afternoon movie (Get Out–a fantastic film.) This morning was breakfast at Anna’s Bakery and a walk to our local nature preserve. I am so grateful to live in Goleta the Goodland.

Here’s a slideshow of our hike this morning. Enjoy!

Now I’m off to work in the garden.

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Our Home Away from Home

Our family just returned from a two-week vacation in Oaxaca, Mexcio. We had a wonderful time lounging on the beach, eating the most delicious food, visiting with family and traveling up to my husband’s isolated hometown in the mountains.

Much of the novel I’m writing (which I swear to you is almost finished!) takes place in Oaxaca so it was wonderful to travel there and research even more ideas and descriptions for the book. It is truly a magical place.

The Oaxacan people are some of the most interesting, kind and generous people in the world. Someday, we hope to build a vacation home there. Ah, it’s good to have dreams…

This is the main church in Yalalag, my husband’s hometown.

While we were in Yalalag, we attended a wedding. This is the bride, Melina who is wearing the traditional wedding outfit of Yalalag.

I thought this was interesting because the little girl is tied to the back of her mother with a traditional Mexicanl “rebozo” and yet the little girls is wearing sparkly gold shoes instead of huaraches.

This is an old photograph hanging in the municipal building in Yalalag. It was taken in 1936 and shows a family standing in front of their home wearing traditional clothing. Not much has changed in 75 years (except that the town now has internet!)

You can’t go to Oaxaca without eating Mole Negro. Delicioso!

A painting of La Virgencita in one of the churches.

Oaxacan chocolate is to die for!

The fresh produce in the marketplace smells wonderful!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any building painted this shade of cobalt blue before!

Dried chilies for sale in the marketplace.

My absolute favorite Oaxacan treat: Rose flavored sorbet!

Another stunning doorway in downtown Oaxaca.

The inside of the Church of Santo Domingo. Awe-inspiring.

One of the many meals served over the course of the weekend for the wedding. First the men would all sit down and be served by the women, and then the women would sit and be served by the men.