Posada Santa Maria in Oaxaca

After a one-hour flight from Mexico City, we arrived in Oaxaca mid-afternoon. There were no taxis around so we climbed into a small shuttle that was quickly filling up with tourists. Unfortunately, I sat next to the one person who was not wearing a mask. If this young man hadn’t been so busy chatting up the attractive woman sitting on his other side, he might have noticed he was the only person on board without a mask. But he was oblivious. I made a comment in Spanish to the driver about mask requirements hoping that he would tell the guy to put one on, but the driver ignored me. Finally Vince turned around and told the guy to put on a mask. He was momentarily startled, but then he quickly complied.

The shuttle dropped us off at our AirBnb. The apartment was as the listing had described. It was large with two bedrooms and a well-equipped kitchen. There was a sitting room with an oversized TV. There was also an exercise room with a treadmill and a few weights. The whole apartment was dark and overly decorated for our taste, but it seemed like it would be comfortable enough for our one-week stay. But then Chispa arrived.

Chispa was the owner’s cat. The owner and her son lived above the AirBnb apartment and she mentioned in the listing that her cat Chispa liked to visit the renters on occasion. So we were expecting Chispa. What we weren’t expecting was a cat persistently meowing outside the glass door that led to the terrace. We tried to ignore her for a while, but we finally let her in. Chispa was warmly received by Vince who likes cats. I prefer dogs to cats but I also gave Chispa a pet or two.

Chispa followed us around the apartment while we unpacked a few things and began to settle in. She periodically meowed at us. We weren’t sure if she just wanted our attention or was hoping that we would give her a morsel of food or both. Eventually it was time for us to leave the apartment. We were meeting our friend Luciana whom we knew from our online Spanish conversation classes. She and her husband David were also in Oaxaca, and we were planning to meet them for dinner.

As we were leaving, we tried to shoo Chispa out of the apartment but she would not budge. We weren’t sure how long we would be gone and didn’t want to leave her there alone, so Vince finally grabbed her and put her outside the back door. Chispa was not happy and immediately started complaining while we quickly slipped out the front door.

The apartment was farther from the centro then we had expected, so we took an Uber to the Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán where we had arranged to meet Luciana and David. The Santo Domingo church and monastery is a popular gathering place for both tourists and locals. There are often masses or weddings taking place in the church. The former monastery houses the Cultural Center of Oaxaca, which was closed at the time because of the pandemic.

Luciana and David soon arrived. It was fun to finally meet Luciana in person after months of talking with her online. She and David have traveled extensively and had been to Oaxaca many times. Before dinner, they offered to show us around. We walked and talked with them as they pointed out some of the local attractions. When we told them about our AirBnb, Luciana said she knew a place nearby that we might prefer. It was a small family-owned inn that was located not far from the church. If we wanted, she could take us there and introduce us to the owners.

We agreed to check it out, and Luciana led us to the Posada Santa Maria, where we met the owners’ daughter. She showed us a few available rooms. The rooms were small but clean and had private bathrooms. The inn was close to shops and restaurants, and it was a short walk to the center of town. It was cheaper than our AirBnb and breakfast was included. We were interested but unsure about forfeiting some of the money we had spent on our AirBnb. We told her we would think about it and let her know the next day.

In the meantime, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Luciana and David. Although we had just met, we hit it off with them right away. There was nonstop conversation about Oaxaca, traveling, Spanish classes, and family. Luciana and David have been retired for many years and have travelled all over the world. They participate in a home exchange program that allows them to eliminate the cost of housing when travelling. They told us they have exchanged homes over 60 times in the last sixteen years! That piqued our interest, and we wondered if we would try the home exchange program when Vince retires and we are able to travel more often.

After dinner, Vince and I headed back to our AirBnb. As soon as we arrived, Chispa appeared outside the glass door and resumed her persistent meowing. This time we didn’t let her in because we assumed it would be hard to put her back outside, and we didn’t want her inside all night. We thought that if we ignored her, she would eventually go away. When Chispa didn’t go away, we started talking seriously about giving up the apartment and going to the Posada Santa Maria instead. We weighed the pros and cons and finally decided to make the move. Vince called the inn and said we wanted a room for a week starting the next day. Afterwards, he contacted AirBnb and let them know that we would be leaving the apartment after only one night. We would lose some of the money that we had already paid but thought that the inn was the better option for us.

A little while later, the owner of the apartment knocked on our door. She had been notified that we were leaving, and she wanted to make sure that she would be paid for at least our one-night stay. We assured her that she would be more than compensated for our time there. As we talked, Chispa continued her meowing outside. At one point I asked the owner if she thought Chispa would meow all night. She replied that Chispa would eventually realize that she wasn’t wanted and would go away, but it might take a day or two. A day or two! No way! We were out of there the next morning.

Switching to the Posada Santa Maria was definitely the right move for us. It was in a better location close to a variety of good restaurants and small shops selling locally-made artisan goods. It was an easy walk to the plaza, church, ethnobotanical garden, and nearby museums. There was a large community park just across the street where people gathered to walk their dogs, run, rollerblade, take Zumba classes, or just sit and chat. During our stay in Oaxaca, Vince and I visited the park every morning for a relaxing stroll in the cool morning air before heading back to the posada for breakfast.

The best part of the posada was the family that operated it. The parents, their two adult daughters, two young grandsons, and their cook all lived on the premises. We had conversations in Spanish with all of them throughout the day and enjoyed getting to know them. We also got to know the other travelers who were staying at the posada. There was a young couple from San Francisco who had been traveling and working remotely for months from various places in the world, a retired teacher and her friend who traveled together to different places each year, and another woman who had been staying at the posada for several weeks every year since she had retired many years ago. We enjoyed long conversations with all of them either over breakfast in the courtyard or during a couple of dinners that the family hosted for us while we were there.

As the end of our week in Oaxaca approached, we reassessed our plans to move on to our next destination. We had planned to visit Puebla for a couple of weeks but decided instead to stay another week in Oaxaca then go to San Miguel de Allende where Vince’s sister Genevieve, our friend Luciana and her husband, and our Spanish tutor Sofia would all be spending some time. We booked a new AirBnb apartment in San Miguel de Allende and enjoyed another week in Oaxaca before saying our sad farewells to the Oaxacan family and our fellow travelers.