The Oaxaca Guerreros vs. Veracruz Diablos AAA Baseball game
March 25, 2008

One of the things that Trish had wanted to do ever since we arrived in Mexico was to see a Mexican Baseball game. Trish is a huge baseball fan and when we first met we went to the World Series in San Diego together. We would have liked to see a Mexican AAA game in Mazatlan, but the team was out of town while we were there. We did get to see some games on T.V., but still, one of our "checkmark" items was to see a live game sometime on the trip.

Therefore, we were thrilled when we found out that the Oaxaca AAA team would be having a home stand while we were visiting the city. So on Friday night we took a cab over to the ballpark and got the best tickets available, right behind home plate. It was only $5.25 for two tickets, as it was ladies night, and ladies got in for 25 cents when accompanied by a full paying ticket!

It was great fun. We arrived early as the opposing team was taking batting practice. While we were watching, there was a great BOOM and a huge shower of sparks about 100 feet away from us. We thought it was fireworks for a second, but then we realized that a power transformer for the lights had exploded! LOL. They fixed it as we got ourselves a couple of beers and waited for the game to begin, watching music videos. The stadium was very pretty and the evening was nice and warm, cooling down noticably after the hot afternoon sun had set.

The family crowd trickled in until the stadium was respectfully full (~6,000). There were a few Veracruz Diablos fans, but most of the people were there to root for the hometown Guerreros. Before we knew it, it was 6:00 and the announcer said (in English) "Play Ball!". No national anthem, no speeches, just "Play Ball!", and the first pitch was thrown. There were some former USA professionals playing, but most of the teams seemed to be made up of Mexican, Dominican, Venezuelan, and Puerto Rican players.

We rooted for the home team along with everyone else, and though my ability to hurl insults in Spanish is somewhat limited, I was able to shout out a few times without feeling too stupid. Like "Azul, Azul" (Spanish for "Blue") when the umpire would make a bad call, and so on. The Guerreros took an early lead, scoring two runs in the first after shutting down Veracruz in the top of the inning. We had a few more beers(Coronas lugged about in iced buckets)and some ballpark nachos as the lead went back and forth a few times until about the 6th inning when Oaxaca seemed to kind of fall apart, and Veracruz took a 4 run lead, which lasted to the end of the game. Everyone stood for the 7th inning stretch, and sang the team song. There was a Guerreros "Chicken" clown, crowd game of "dizzy bat" race to the T-shirts, and cheerleaders, as well as singular raucous fans with newyears-style noisemakers, and taunts. We stayed until the last out, sad that "our" hometown team had lost.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Santo Domingo de Guzman

On Saturday, I started to come down with a minor case of "Tourista", and so felt like relaxing in the air conditioned hotel room. I hadn't had cable TV in a while, so I got to watch some Discovery Channel and various movies, in English, as Trish went out solo exploring on our last day in Oaxaca.

We had actually visited the Cathedral de Santa Domingo de Guzman on our first day in Oaxaca, but those pictures are included here, with the Ex-Convent Museum. It's a beautiful church that was originally with the convent. The inside of it is lavishly decorated with gold leaf and dozens of statues of biblical figures. The ceiling is an incredible bas relief showing the family tree of the ruling family, the Guzmans, that came over from Spain and founded the convent and church.

Santo Domingo de Guzman

Benito Juarez Museum

Trish went solo to the the museum & adoptive home of Benito Juarez, the revered president who began life as an illiterate Zapotec shepherd, was orphaned as a child, and raised to be a priest here by Father Salanueva. However, Juarez chose to study law and went on to be a lawyer, before becoming the leader of the reform movement and President, that instituted a new constitution in 1857, leading to the Civil War of Reform, which ended victoriously in Mexico City on New Year's Day in 1861.

Juarez was president for almost 15 years, including a brief exile in the US during the 5yr occupation of Mexico in 1862 by France. Austrian Archduke Maximillian and his wife Carlota were installed by Napoleon III to govern the country, but Juarez and his rebels continued to fight from the hills around Mexico City until finally besieging and defeating Maximillian's Army in 1867, and restoring the Republic.

Mexican's feelings towards Benito Juarez can be compared with our attitudes towards Abraham Lincoln. He is widely revered and considered foundational to the establishment of human rights in Mexico. He died in 1871.

Casa de Benito Juarez

Monte Alban Treasures, Archaeological Museum and Ex-Convent

Another place that Trish got to visit on her day out was the vast and beautiful Ex-Convent and Museum of Archaeological Culture (containing the Monte Alban, et al., treasures) next to the cathedral. Although I got to visit the nice museum at the ruin site itself, which was fairly substantial in its own right, this museum in Oaxaca City was astounding in the depth, quantity, and quality of the artifacts it presented.

Trish saw room after room of innumerable examples of ancient Zapotec and Mixtec pottery, sculpture, and jewelry (as well as a library of 300-600yr old books, convent & conquistador artifacts, 19th century clothes, portraits, and technology, and exhibits on modern-day indigenas culture, in an architecturally gorgeous castlelike former convent). Most of these items had been recovered from the many tombs at Monte Alban and surrounding Valley sites, and truly constitute a National Treasure for the people of Mexico. I was sorry that I didn't get to visit the museum, as she raved on and on about it when she returned to the hotel later that Saturday afternoon.

Archealogical Museum

Final Reflections of Oaxaca

On Sunday, we took the bus back to Huatulco. On the ride with us was Mike and Mary from CARPE VITA, with whom we compared notes and told stories about all the wonderful things all of us had seen.

Mojigangos effigies dance at a traditional Mexican Wedding

Perhaps the most impressive thing we all kept coming back to was the Zocalo, and the way it seemed to bring the community together unlike anything in the United States. Every evening we would see people from all age groups strolling/sitting around, children playing with balloons, young lovers walking hand in hand, new families with young children, and people celebrating with their elders. There were heard all kinds of music, too, from street musicians playing guitars, flutes, trombones, vibes, mariachis by the score, and chamber orchestras, to all the way up to the full symphonic wind ensemble that would play each night on the Victorian main bandstand in the center of the Zocalo.

We all agreed that Ciudad Oaxaca was indeed a special place in the world, and that anyone visiting Mexico and looking for that perfect combination of culture, romance, and adventure would do well to consider coming here. It is much nicer than the tourist towns of Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, and seemed to be much more deeply rooted that Acapulco. One way or the other, we had a great time there and were sad to leave Oaxaca, even though we were also glad to be getting back to Marina Chahue and our beloved boat, RHAPSODY, as it was the first time away from her in 6 months.

p.s. When we got back to the Marina, we talked to Mark and Lynn on WAHOO about their car ride to Oaxaca City. They had taken a rental car over the mountains on shorter Highway 175, and described it as very scary and uncomfortable. It still took them 7 hours, so perhaps the way we went was the best after all :-). As described by the bus ticket agent in Oaxaca, "there's the short way or the safe way"(!)

1.  2. One of Oaxaca's mercados   3. Pat filming a pan flute group

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