Santo Domingo and The Museum of Oaxacan Cultures

 Today we returned to Santo Domingo and were able to marvel at the gilded interior which was dripping with adornments and statues.  Attached to the church is the Dominican Friary built at the end of the 16th century/beginning of the 17th and housed over 100 monks devoted to tending the orchards, baking bread, making ceramic tiles, studying in its vaulted library, and converting the indigenous populations, of course.  The enormous dimensions of this building and its construction was very impressive.  The expansive hallways with vast windows contrasted nicely with the small, individual cells accessible through doors that just cleared my 5'7".  The stone and burnished plaster materials combined with the courtyards and terraces made for a breezy coolness that made it easy to imagine the flutter of flowing Dominican robes as the monks passed under the vaulted halls.

This is not to diminish the collections displayed in the many rooms of this cultural museum.  Beginning with the funeral urns of the stone ages, to the classic period of the golden age of Monte Alban, to the conquest, and finally to modern times the museum showcased the persistence of its cultures in being both dazzling and enduring.  Again, it was another interesting juxtaposition to gaze at indigenous relics behind glass in the former Dominican library.  At any rate we came away with a solid entry into the foundations and cultural forces of contemporary Oaxaca.

Just as the monks were forced out of their space by the military, we were prodded outward by hungry children and onward to explore some new neighborhoods in search of a particular restaurant which seems to have disappeared since being praised in guidebooks.  We trekked homewards through throngs of people noticing that weekends see a lot more action in the streets--political speeches, even more vendors, marching bands, and quite large fireworks all under a beautiful blue sky.