Mas festivales

Yeah, so the next day we saw the reason for the impromptu parade in the middle of the night. We stopped by to check out a church and the same people were there. It was 'el dia del mercado', I guess a day to celebrate the market or something. People barely need an excuse to celebrate here. There was some crazy guy with fireworks on his head

accompanied by the ever present 'Mezcal guys'. It is like they all go to a class where they are equipped and trained. They are all armed with the same clear bottle with no markings, about 100 plastic shot glasses and the inability to take no for an answer. There were three of them this time and they each felt the need to pour me a shot, and being sensitive to local cultures, I felt it would be rude of me to refuse. Excuses like, 'it is only noon', or 'we are right in front of a church' did not seem to hold any water.
Church was pretty cool

but it was time for some lunch, pastor in particular.


After lunch we checked out the big cathedral, the temple of Santo Domingo, which is pretty massive
and beautiful in it's own right and holds a lot of the treasures of Oaxaca's history from the pre-colombian to everything about Benito Juarez. Very impressive.