I'll be in Oaxaca City for three months! Where should I live and what should I do?

June 15, 2011 9:13 PM

I'll be living in Oaxaca City for three months this summer, and I'm looking for all sorts of tips about where to live and what to do. Bonus: I'd love suggestions for art/literary/queer events; bilingual & mixed Mexican/foreign social contexts; room/apartment-finding advice.

I have a few specific questions below, but would love any general tips, specific anecdotes, tales, advice, etc. What did you do in Oaxaca and why was it a great or terrible idea?

Some context: I'll be living in Oaxaca for three months going to language school--probably the Instituto Cultural, though I've also considered the "Spanish for Foreigners" department at Benito Juarez Autonomous University (and I'm open to suggestions--I prefer to avoid the one-on-one conversation school model in favor of small group classes with textbooks and formalized lesson plans).

I'll also be looking to rent a furnished apartment, which I'll probably share with a friend who'll be joining me for half the time. I'd love tips about pleasant neighborhoods nearish the zocalo, as well as any specific advice about folks to rent from or avoid. My Spanish is probably lower-intermediate, i.e. not good enough to confidently call folks on the phone to ask about apartments. I already know about the Oaxaca Lending Library. Any other great resources for house-hunting? Any especially great neighborhoods?

If I don't have internet access at home, is there any non-expensive way to communicate with folks in the US using my existing cellphone (an HTC EVO on the Sprint network)? Scavenging the Sprint site, my guess is "probably not," and I'm fine with going to internet cafes for Skype, but would love a more convenient option.

Finally, but probably most important once I get settled: I'm shy in 2nd language contexts and would love to find queer/art/literary events that are bilingual or otherwise have mixed Mexican/expat contexts.. Thanks so much!

posted by soviet sleepover to travel & transportation around Oaxaca, Mexico (6 answers total)

Oh! I'd like to rent/buy/borrow a bike. I'm sure this is the kind of thing that will become more clear once I get there, but any suggestions (or loaner bikes) would be great.
posted by soviet sleepover at 9:24 PM on June 15, 2011

I'm not sure about art events, but the big local folk art in Oaxaca is alebrijes. They're wood sculptures of fanciful creatures that use the natural shape of the wood as inspiration. They're definitely worth looking into, and looking for events about. They're also extremely fragile, so if you plan to get any to take home, budget for it, and leave space for packing material.
posted by yeolcoatl at 9:49 PM on June 15, 2011

Cellphones: My dad visits Mexico frequently, and he has a cellphone from Verizon with a special U.S.-and-Mexico-rate. It's more expensive than a regular plan, but better than a lot of alternatives. He lives in Arizona, so that may be part of it, it may only be a local plan. I'm not sure on the details. Anyway, it can't hurt to call Sprint and ask if they have something. I wouldn't count on internet cafes. They probably exist, but the south of Mexico is still quite poor, and internet won't be easy to find.

Also, eat a grasshopper while you're there, just so you can say you did.
posted by yeolcoatl at 9:57 PM on June 15, 2011

There are internet cafes in Oaxaca. It's a college town. I don't know about LGBT events--it's been 10 years since I was there, but if I recall the vibe, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a healthy one, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it was hard to find.

I would imagine that the schools would have housing references.
posted by thinkingwoman at 4:11 AM on June 16, 2011

I went to the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca in 1999 with the intent to stay in Oaxaca for 3 months. I loved it so much that I stayed for 2 years( but only studied for 3 months at the Instituto). I highly recommend them. I arrived and tested as low intermediate, and the classes were really small (5-6) people and included the option of taking dance, or other cultural activities and field trips in the afternoons.

As far as housing - I used the school's option of arranging to stay with a host family. At the time the cost was about $400 U.S. per month including breakfast and lunch. It was a good way to get the lay of the land and meet other students (there were about 8 others in the house), and the owner of the house had tons of suggestions for things to do. After realizing that I could get an entirely furnished apartment for less than the $400 I was paying to live with a family, I moved out and got a place near the zocalo. If you don't know anything about the city, I would definitely suggest you live with a family for the first month, get to know the place, and then you'll figure out from your contacts at school where to look for apartments and what neighborhoods to avoid. Anything near the zocalo will be pricier than the outlying, more distant neighborhoods.

I spent the rest of my 2 years there piecing together English tutoring lessons, making friends, and working at an internet cafe. I look at it as the best 2 years of my life, and would definitely do it again in a heartbeat. Oaxaca is a great city, and you won't be bored there. As for GLBT events, I don't know much about it other than the events that my male gay salsa teacher would take me to. He was (no longer is) part of the Instituto's staff. I'm hetero, but he took me to some gay bars that were located across from the military barracks on Calle Ninos Heroes. I'm not sure if you are male or female, but these were bars frequented by military men (who, by the way, consider themselves to not be gay if they were "tops"). It was a weird and confusing scene for a hetero woman - all these military men hitting on gay Mexican men, but then also trying to hit on me at the same time. At the time, and I'm assuming it's still the same (given the very macho culture in Mexico), there wasn't a lot of open-mindedness about being gay, and that was reflected in this bizarre bar scene I describe above.
posted by Sal and Richard at 8:12 AM on June 16, 2011

Volunteer if you can. The poverty in Oaxaca is staggering. Go to the Zocalo and help the poor old women there. Here is an org that i found that helps

http://www.proworldvolunteers.org/projects/when-little-bit-money-goes-long-way. Enjoy your time there, it will make you realize how lucky we are in the US to live the lives we do.
posted by pakora1 at 8:04 PM on June 7, 2012