Oaxaca – Paradise Found

Impossible for me to leave Mexico

Four months and a dozen days have passed by since I left Buenos Aires. Sometimes jokingly I tell my self that it was probably a mistake to start the second stage of this Latin American journey in Mexico. The country has so much to offer that it is extremely hard to leave it to pursue the adventure elsewhere. This is why as long as my Mexican visa allows it, I am planning on staying within the borders of this beautiful country. It has now been over a couple of months that I am living in Oaxaca City.

This is by far the place I have been enjoying the most since my departure from Europe in January 2017. The cost of living is considerably low in comparison to other places I’ve been to, but at the same time the quality of life, as far as my standards are concerned, is extremely high. The micro-climate, and the presence of massive rural areas in the entire state of Oaxaca, provide the city with a variety of fresh organic produce. This abundance of nature’s richness seems to have influenced the local cuisine for centuries. The food is just out of this world in Oaxaca.

People actually talk to each other here

Gastronomy and nature apart, what I appreciate the most in Oaxaca are the human interactions. There is a genuine intellectual and artistic vibe going on all around the city. Oaxaca is not an industrialized city, and the influence of big international corporations has been quasi invisible to my eyes up to this day. The people I have met so far seem to follow their passion and true purpose in life, rather than chasing a bullshit career path or pose as hipsters. Arrogance does not seem to exist in Oaxaca. The amount of people smoking is lower than a lot of places I’ve lived before. As a foreigner, I feel included socially. Everyday I am meeting new people who seem to genuinely have interest in building a friendship with me. I actually don’t feel like a foreigner at all here, and my social interactions with other foreigners have been extremely enriching as well.

In Latin America in general, but especially in Oaxaca, being Turkish does not seem to be a handicap in the initial stages of social interactions as it has often been the case for me during my time spent in western Europe. This is an extremely refreshing situation for me. I feel no prejudice whatsoever with regards to my origin when I am meeting new people. The popularity of Turkish TV series, at various occasions, has even acted as a nice social icebreaker. To illustrate what I mean: One day I’ve met a woman who religiously watches Turkish “novelas”, in Turkish, with Spanish subtitles on Netflix. And this for at least eight hours a day. This results of her being able to small talk with me in my native language, although she has not spent a day in Türkiye in her entire life.

Some More Oaxaca Praise

I live 25 minutes away from the city center by the mountains. I am paying the cheapest rent I have ever payed since I have left Europe. I have access to the cleanest fresh air, and I am able to go for a run or a walk in the mountains several times a week. With a six hour bus ride, I can hit the beach on the Pacific coast of the state if I want to. I go to downtown Oaxaca almost everyday, which to me, does not feel like a city at all. Since I got here, I haven’t even seen a person wearing a business suit. People seem to work hard to earn a living, but working doesn’t seem to stress them out. It is going to be very hard for me to leave this place. For a few days, I went to visit a friend in Querétaro. Although very pretty and modern as a city, being in Querétaro made me realize how unique and precious Oaxaca was for me. This morning I’ve made my way back to town. As soon as I got out of the bus at the Oaxaca bus station, it felt like I was home again. It is a strange feeling, and at the same time exciting to call a place home after only spending two months in that city. I recommend anyone who has plans to visit Mexico to come and enjoy life in Oaxaca.

Why did I choose to come to Oaxaca?

At various moments in my life, Oaxaca introduced itself as a sort of a pattern. Its first occurrence was in 2003, when I decided to take a class with Professor Kathleen Robles on Mesoamérica. Back then I was studying at San Diego City College to fulfill my general education requirements. The class ended up being more about ancient Mexico than the entire Mesoamérica. Thank to Professor Robles, I learned a great deal about Mexico’s pre-hispanic history. Very often during the course, Oaxaca and its importance in terms of ancient Mexican culture would be mentioned in class and in the textbooks we were reading.

Six years later, when I had the opportunity to work as a manager at an authentic Mexican restaurant in Normal Heights (San Diego), I had the chance to work with an amazing man named Juan Bernardo, originally from Oaxaca. To this day he is probably the hardest working man I have ever met in my life. He would often talk about Oaxaca. The way he would describe his native land and his own personal qualities as a worker and a human being, made me extremely curious about his hometown. (If you are curious to see who Juan is. He is the man wearing sun-shades on the cover art of the Black Sea Storm album named 2009.)

Lastly, the pattern repeated itself for the third time while I living in Ciudad Caucel in Yucatán earlier this year. A family owned Oaxacanian restaurant named “Nanishe” had opened its doors a couple of blocks from the apartment I was renting. Their prices were more affordable than the other businesses around, and the quality of the ingredients they were using was just outstanding, without mentioning how good everything tasted. All ingredients were shipped from Oaxaca to Yucatán by plane. Perhaps the most important of all factors, that made me go to this place almost daily was the human one. After only a couple visits, the family started to treat me more like a guest and a friend than a regular customer. They would occasionally share their own food with me, so I could expand my knowledge on Oaxacanian cuisine and get familiar with more home made dishes not listed on the menu.

Connectors

By being on the road, I have the impression that I have a bit more control of writing the story of my life. As if being able to move from one place to an other, naturally creates chapters of my life’s story. I also believe that a good story needs connectors. This is why instead of planning where I am going next, I let the events and elements of where I am currently living to show me the way on where to go next. When traveling a question that comes up often is: “-Why did you choose to come here?” I noticed that having an interesting answer to that particular question enhances my social interactions with people a great deal. What made me chose Oaxaca after my two month long stay in Ciudad Caucel was my encounter with Javed the owner of Nanishe and his family. It reinforced and consolidated the pattern of Oaxaca entering my life since 2003. As if it was my destiny to come here. I was convinced at 100% that good things will happen to me in Oaxaca before coming here, and today I can easily say that my gut feeling guided me perfectly to this earthian paradise. If I decide one day to not travel anymore and get settled and start playing in a band again; Oaxaca is for now “el numero uno” candidate on the list of the best places to start a sedentary life again.

Violent Monday (short version)

Even when living in paradise there can be some rough days. On Monday, December the 3rd around 11:30 PM, when I was trying to make my way back home in the mountains, I was kidnapped, beaten up, and robbed. By a sort of a divine miracle, I was rescued by two trucks full of municipal policemen. Besides the two fractured bones on my face, I saw a great deal of violence during the rescue and the police interrogation.

Although I could have died on that day, the whole experience had an extremely positive effect on me. I believe that It sort of elevated me as a human being. It had already been a couple of years that I had decided to live my life fully the way I wanted live it, without compromising. That feeling now has intensified. I feel like every second lived after that night is an extra bonus time of me being on this planet. An extremely precious second gift from God. I am really enjoying my life in the present moment, and I feel like it is my duty from now on to make the most out of this new gift.

I want to write songs, rock out with other musicians whenever it’s possible, keep traveling, keep meeting interesting people. Keep away from bullshit jobs, and toxicity in any shape and form as much as possible. I want to do what I love to do in life, because I realized through the event I went through that life can end at any moment. I was very much conscious of this fact before, but it was more of a concept that I had intellectualized. Now I feel like it’s something extremely real that is constantly present with me.

I redacted a whole detailed write up on what happened on that particular night and the following days. I named the actual text “Violent Monday in Paradise”. For now, I want to keep this PG-45 story to myself, but maybe at one point, I will publish it on this blog or elsewhere.

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