Plaza de Armas

This tree-studded main plaza in the heart of Oaxaca is truly a gem. For the price of a beer or a cup of coffee you can sit at a café table and watch the colorful world of Oaxaca—with Indian, mestizo, Spanish, and gringo faces passing through the busy plaza. You could sit endlessly, time slipping by, with never a boring moment. Totally closed to traffic, the square is always filled with people and is the social center of town. Here you find non-stop action: vendors selling everything imaginable, including huge bunches of brilliantly colored balloons; students on their way to school; tourists basking in the sun; men on their way to work; children splashing in the fountain; roaming mariachis; mothers nursing their babies; shoeshine men buffing shoes to a brilliance; old men snoozing on benches; pretty girls dressed in colorful, native costumes; and, unfortunately, beggars asking for a few coins reflecting the poverty that sadly underlies much of rural Mexico. If you are hungry, you can buy an ice cream from one of the many stalls or if you have a sense of adventure, try one of Oaxaca’s specialties, chapulines (fried grasshoppers). This lively square is the perfect place to start your sightseeing or to take a break between museums. There are many excellent restaurants overlooking the square.