Getting into the Oaxaca International Airport is a good mixture of excitement and disappointment. Excitement in that we know the mezcal, centro and the beautiful Oaxacan countryside are near! Disappointment in that it can be a bit of a bear getting transportation without a typically long line. And this year’s was a little longer than usual.
Last year we tried driving for the first time, stopping down in Puebla the first night, and then on to Oaxaca the next day. Not only do I hate long drives, but we’re not especially confident in our RAV4 at this moment as we anticipate a new vehicle purchase this year. So we packed up our usual luggage—along with my Tri-Booth Portable Studio setup, shuttled from San Miguel de Allende to Mexico City, and made the 40 minute flight to Oaxaca.
I guarded our baggage while Cecilia arranged the ride, opting for a private vehicle this year. Worth it! We quickly got to our Airbnb in the La Noria neighborhood, met the owner, stepped inside and were very happy with it. Mezcal Maniacs Barb & Fred were a couple of hours behind us, so we got to pick our room first! One of the bedrooms was the obvious choice in which to set up my studio, and this I did, testing the equipment to make sure all was sounding well. There was only one voiceover I needed to record and send. Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo, all done.
Now where’s that bottle of Cirial from Adela del Carmen Cruz Antonio I brought?
Barb & Fred were there in short order and we shared some sips before sliding into centro. We’d planned to share a taxi to La Popular, our mutually-agreed launching pad to a week that was sure to be maniacally mezcal!
There we met our friend Alastair, a South African friend who had lived in Oaxaca previously and would join us for all of our palenque visits this year. I figured if we got there by 5, we’d get in fairly easily, but arriving later ensured it was pretty packed out. But Never Fear: La Otra Popular is Near! Just up the street in fact. Is it true there’s a third location in town? That’s what I was told recently.
Everything I ate was delicious, and the mezcal offered was certainly worthy—on the lower end of the centro shot price spectrum.
I’d touched base with our driver Ciro Villa, asking for an 8am pickup. If we were going to pack in all those Logoche maestros I’d made appointments with, we couldn’t very well dawdle.
I’m used to thinking along the lines of “one palenque, one maestro.” But most of the time that falls flat. Seems to me in Logoche there are at least two if not several more who act as maestros/maestras for the astounding array of mezcales each palenque produces. I’ll just say I thought we were going to 7 palenques over 2 days, but while it turned out to be 6, I think there were at least 17 maestros represented.
I’ll leap into Logoche Day 1 ASAP. I’m just getting rolling. 😉