So I make sure I have all my stuff and head out thinking maybe it's just the hotel, or even maybe just my room. The stairwell is dark, and makes me even more so want to have a sword fight by candle light. I kind of thought about just yelling at someone "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die!"
I figured no one would get it though so I refrained. After I left the hotel in it's darkness I got to the place I was going (all of 20 feet later) only to realize the whole block had lost power, including the party store across the street.
*Side note: While typing this all I randomly heard the wooo of a bunch of college age girls at Mardi-Gras and decided to look out my window only to see a herd of cyclists riding down the street my hotel is on singing and blowing whistles. I got to my phone in time to take a video but I'm having a hard time uploading from my phone. Once I figure that out I'll post it.
So anyway. Back to the story at hand. I was a little peeved about the whole no power situation so I paused for a few and looked at their menu. Mexico fun fact: most of the time restaurants will put a version on their menu outside so that passers by can see what type of food they offer and the prices (sometimes).
While looking at the menu I realized that a lot more places than I had originally thought had lost power and decided to walk a little and see how far it stretched. So as I walked I noticed random businesses that looked like they were without power. Though they may have just had the lights off for some reason (it was like 7pm). After walking in a big loop I decided that I would just find the first open place that probably had a bar and the menu looked good enough. I settled on a place called Hosteria De Alcala, the prices aren't super cheap but I had 3 margaritas (stiff ones), and an arrachera dinner with side salad plus tip for about $40 U.S. (like $500 pesos).
The place is a classy joint. The waiter emptied my ashtray after only one cigarette. He was very friendly and attentive. The food was amazing. Which isn't a surprise when in Oaxaca.
I was reading stuff online once and learned that Oaxaca is like the food capitol of Mexico. Apparently the food in this region is considered a national treasure.
If you've ever eaten Oaxacan cuisine this wont come as a surprise at all.
So my food was amazing, to top it all off they had an open wifi network that I could just sign into and chat while eating so I didn't have to feel quite so alone. It's not that I mind going out to eat by myself it's just way more fun with someone else.
so I started my meal with a frozen margarita. It was strong and tasty. I'm pretty sure this is the first margarita I've ever actually had in Mexico.
My meal came with a salad. I chose their "enselada a la casa" which is the Spanish version of a house salad. It was mixed greens (pretty sure there was some sort of flower stem in there, whatever I ate it), tomato, watercress, orange, cucumber, and bacon. The dressing was some sort of green stuff that tasted like heaven. It may have been avocado based but I'm not entirely sure. The waiter brought a bread basket out before my salad that had individually wrapped crackers and rolls. I decided to try a roll while I waited and much to my delight and surprise it was cheese filled. The roll is on the edge of the plate looking much like a roll that's been bitten. It was just a typical dinner roll with sesame seeds on the top and a cream cheese like cheese in the middle. Pretty much like the best thing ever.
For my main course I had arrachera. I love arrachera. It doesn't matter how you feed it to me (not raw) and I will eat it and love it. This arrachera takes the cake. The waiter asked how I wanted it and if medium was alright I agreed medium is a safe bet if you've never had meat somewhere before. It's either spot on which is good, or a little under which I like, or a little over which is tolerable. This medium was more on the rare side but it was a thing of beauty. It was juicy and succulent. Cutting through the steak was like a hot knife through butter. It was amazing. It was served with a few french fries (doused in pepper so I only ate like one since black pepper is another of my least favorite allergies), some sauteed peppers and onions, and a slightly spicy guacamole with queso fresco and a few tortilla chips. There was a red salsa on the side. It was one of the best meals I've ever had.
As I mentioned this all with 3 margaritas and a nice 20% tip came out to 535 pesos, which is roughly $41.16 U.S.
I left the restaurant and started to walk back to the hotel hoping there would be power once I returned or it was bound to be a very boring evening of me hoping my computer battery would last long enough for me to watch a movie. Luckily upon my return to my block I noticed several places had lights on that previously did not and that put my mind at ease. I climbed back up the sword fighting stairs and to my room, changed into my pajamas and about 30 seconds later it started pouring rain.
I don't know how well anyone reading this keeps up with international news but there is a hurricane off the western coast of Mexico, they're calling it Bud, that has only today hit land. The tail end of this hurricane has reached about this far and we've got predictions for rain and thunderstorms all week. it's rained like 4 times since I've been here. According to Al Rouker it's not likely that the storm will actually hit us here but I'm a little concerned only because I've never been this close to hurricane land before. I'm also nervous another earthquake will happen. We'll see though. I'm all about adventures and new experiences.
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