The pattern we expected to follow for housing was to take an Airbnb for a few weeks, and then spend those weeks apartment hunting for our longer term rental. I’ve read repeatedly that it’s a really bad idea to commit to a multi-month rental someplace you’ve never been, and that makes sense. It’s actually less about not having a chance to inspect the space first hand, and more about not being able to vet the location. Where you are in a city matters as much, if not more, than the interior of your apartment.

Plus, and this isn’t nothing, short-term rentals in the local market are almost always cheaper than a long-term Airbnb. Our budget does matter.

So, of course, we didn’t do that for our launch to Oaxaca. We took an Airbnb for over 3 1/2 months. We were apartment hunting online and found an apartment building with absolutely adorable units. I reached out to the owner with our projected travel dates to be told that they’d have a unit available in May. Maybe.

That’s when it dawned on us that we’d be traveling to Oaxaca in the pre-Christmas high season, and if we wanted a place for the duration we’d be in trouble if we didn’t lock it down. Given that we’d visited Oaxaca before, we felt comfortable that we could tell if an apartment was well located or not, so we booked our entire stay in advance.

Man, did we nail it. The apartment is the best Airbnb we’ve had, in any country (especially the US, where the Airbnbs have been pretty abhorrent), and the location literally could not be better.

As confessed, we have completely redecorated the apartment. We’ve bought housewares, moved all the furniture, and moved in. There could be more counter space for food prep, but that’s about the worst thing we can say about it. It has a half-size refrigerator, but that just means we have to shop every couple of days. It’s not like we’re doing anything else, and the local mercados are fun. Plus, our host has been a dream. On day two there was a toilet problem, and a plumber was here in 30 minutes to fix it. I needed a doctor (read the update here), and she had an appointment for me same day.

Let’s Take A Tour

The apartment is basically just two rooms: a living area in the front connected to the rear bedroom by a breezeway.

Location, Location, Location

As lovely as the apartment is, the location is where our situation shines. Half a block in one direction is a Soriana, the local super mercado chain. It’s a full grocery store crossed with a Walmart. You can get tires, refrigerators, freshly baked bread, canned goods, and hot lunch. Half a block in the other direction is a small local mercado, Mercado IV Centenario, with everything from meat and produce to housewares and fresh juice. The block in between has two cremerias for fresh cheese and butter. There’s an ATM two doors down and a laundry around the corner.

We’re also on a main street, and directly across from a little park. The park is a community resource, with events such as a regular Sunday plant market. The main street is part of the local parade route, for everything from street protests to formal parades. All the participants stop in front of the park to perform their routines, which we can enjoy from the comfort of our building’s roof terrace.

There’s a 20 de Noviembre street and a Mercado 20 de Noviembre, so we shouldn’t have been surprised that there was a parade on the 20th of November. That’s Mexico’s Revolution Day celebration, and the parade is a big deal. Every school, at every level, every sports club, the police, the military, the unions… The parade lasted well over an hour, and the only surprise was that there was anyone left to watch. It felt like the entire city marched past our terrace.

That’s just within our little block. If we walk one more block towards the Centro there’s a massive old basilica, which is both an active church and a community center. They host weddings and public events, and their plaza has a permanent array of ice cream shops (neverias). Oaxacan style ice cream is less milky than US style, trending towards granita, with a riotous selection of flavors. Absolutely delicious.

Further towards the Centro, maybe a ten minute walk from our apartment, is the Zocalo, the town square. This area is incredibly active. Honestly, the whole city is active. I thought New York was The City That Never Sleeps, but it has nothing on Oaxaca. How many optometrists need to be open after 9:00 on a weeknight, you might ask? All of them, apparently. Which is a lot. For reasons mysterious, Oaxaca seems to have the densest concentration of optometrists on the planet.

The Zocalo also hosts multiple events over the week. Wednesdays, for example, are a recurring dance party with a live band and what appear to be a host of regulars.

So. Many. Mercados.

While we have a super mercado and a small local mercado hard by our apartment, there are three truly standout mercados within a 10-15 minute walk.

The large one by the zocalo is Mercado Benito Juarez. There’s a smaller one just across the street called Mercado 20 de Noviembre. While there are meat vendors (carnicerias) at every market, 20 de Noviembre is known for its El Pasillo de las Carnes Asadas: The Corridor of Grilled Meat. Unlike the other carnicerias, which only sell raw meats, the vendors at 20 de Noviembre will grill your order while you wait. We’ve enjoyed the chorizo and the tasajo, a seasoned skirt stake specific to Oaxaca.

But the centerpiece, the crown jewel of Oaxaca mercados, is Central de Abasto. It was built in 1974 to ease the strain on Benito Juarez and 20 de Noviembre, but it quickly outgrew both its formal plan and its original boundaries. Home to nearly 20,000 vendors and spread across half a square mile, Central de Abasto can be overwhelming. There’s no map, no zones, you just have to make your way and remember, “Right, that’s where the great roasted chicken is, that’s where the cheap, high quality mezcal can be found…”

Central de Abasto has become our go to mercado. Because of, not despite, the chaos, it’s our favorite mercado in Oaxaca, and only a short walk from our perfectly situated apartment.