Places That Changed Us: Oaxaca

Cooking with Mimi on Thanksgiving through Airbnb Experiences. Photos: Nickolaus Hines

We started in Oaxaca City at a hotel near Mercado 20 de Noviembre. Days were quickly filled with foods from restaurants and street vendors alike. Plate after plate of mole, chapulines scooped from big baskets, and tlayudas all kept us more than stuffed between successive stops in every mezcaleria we passed. Our food highlight came, fitfully, on Thanksgiving day through an Airbnb Experience at the home of Mimi Lopez Hernandez. After a brief talk around the dinner table with 10 other guests about Mimi’s standing as a groundbreaking woman chef in Oaxaca, we were put to work to make our day’s feast using Mimi’s traditional recipes. We made fresh salsas, ground nixtamalized corn into masa on a large molcajete, and cooked tortillas on a comal over an open fire. Three different types of mole were made at once, with people moving between each to see how it was done and get tips from Mimi. It was a full day of cooking interspersed with sips of Mimi’s mezcal and gentle chiding about how my wife and I needed to have kids already. We quickly bonded with Mimi, her son Charlie (who translated when our broken Spanish failed us), and the other guests.

Left, a palenque near Oaxaca City. Right, Highway 175 in Oaxaca goes from desert to lush jungle in the mountains. Photos: Nickolaus Hines

Roadside palenque showing its mezcals along Highway 175 in Oaxaca. Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Getting out of the state capital was just as memorable. We decided to drive to Puerto Escondido on Highway 175 in a beat up Chevy Aveo rental. The winding road to the coast is notorious thanks to dangerous one-lane passes and curves through the mountains. Without stops, it takes about six hours to go 160 miles. The risks are worth it for anyone interested in seeing the multitude of landscapes Mexico has: high desert, dense jungle, mountain pine forests filled with psychedelic mushrooms and those who hunt for them. Part of the reason we chose the trip is the long line of palenques along the road close to the city. These small mezcal distilleries make spirits with a wide range of agave types, and you won’t find them in any store. In fact, you often won’t find them anywhere else than that palenque (which often doubles as a home) unless you buy some repurposed bottles to be filled from the big glass jugs the spirits are stored in.

I can’t say the drive would be worth it for everyone. Dogs chased our car and bit our wheels when we made a wrong turn onto a private road, and we had more than one hairy experience getting a little too close to the edge for the well-worn wheels on our rental. We spent about an hour stopped by machete-wielding protestors in a valley that was a cell service dead zone. For us, it was the adventure that we wanted, complete with the finest mezcal we’ve ever had. Plus, we had a beachside Airbnb waiting in Puerto Escondido with passionfruit hanging from the vine above the doorway and an appointment to help with a baby turtle release.

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

Photo: Nickolaus Hines

The trip changed our understanding of Mexico as a whole, a country we visit often. Our limits were pushed at times, but there was never a dull moment. And we kept some friends: Mimi and Charlie have stayed in contact (she was thrilled to see our first baby announcement the following year, as well as the second announcement in 2024), as well as one of the other guests who lives a similarly travel-heavy lifestyle.