Moon Oaxaca (Moon Handbooks)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 500 pages
• Published by: Avalon Travel Publishing; Fourth edition edition December 5, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1566919525
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1566919524
• Book Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Description
Check out Oaxaca City, Monte Albán, Puerto Escondido, Puerto ángel, and Bahías de Huatulco. Or venture off the beaten path to Huajuapan de León and San Pedro Ixcatlán. Read intriguing sidebars about Porfirio Diaz, sealife, Machismo, and, of course, food.
With firsthand experience and honest insight, award-winning author Bruce Whipperman provides you with all the tools you need to create your own unique experience. Bruce's fun and creative travel suggestions can help you plan your perfect trip including, 10-Day Best Of, Outdoor Adventure, Cultural, Archeological, and Historical Tour, Best Beaches, Art and Handicraft Tour
Moon Oaxaca provides you with the essential details needed to discover all the can't miss sights, attractions, and restaurants in this colorful region, while including the best lesser-known and local hotspots. With expert writers, first-rate strategic advice, and an essential dose of humor, Moon Handbooks ensure that travelers have an uncommon and entirely satisfying experience—and a few new stories to tell.

Reader Reviews
Overall this is a very good guide, but it does have its defects. Here are my impressions after having spent nearly 7 weeks in Oaxaca City and State. First, the good points. It is very extensive and detailed. The author seems to have left almost no stone unturned in the State of Oaxaca. His local maps are quite good, and very thankfully he had gas stations symbols on his larger maps. On the one occasion that exact distance was important to us, he got it exactly right. He also states how long in time trips will take in the mountains, not just giving the kilometers, which latter are misleading if you don't realize how curvy and slow the roads are. "It's only 100 km from Oaxaca. No time at all." The book, like other Moon handbooks, has the good menu of `What to do if you have X days' choices. In addition, Mr. Whipperman provides many interesting sidebars on various topics. It's easy to sum up the virtues, which are extensive in applying throughout the book. Now for some of the problems. Many of the places in the book are described in glowing, even poetic terms. These did not always seem to bear a relation to reality--I'm talking really off--as in our visit to Puerto Angel. The main problem here is that with so many effusive descriptions, it's difficult to make judgments. On the other hand, on those much rarer occasions where a place is described as `downscale' or such, you'd better believe it. There didn't seem to be directions for where to turn off for Ixtlan (what's the matter with 'turn right at the Pemex station'), and the directions on how to pick up the road for Pluma Hidalgo in Santa Maria de Hualtulco didn't seem correct. In Oaxaca City, he doesn't mention the comida corridas: inexpensive, light 3-4 course meals offered in the late afternoon, nor does he say where you might find the best of them at the low prices, like 25 pesos. If you ate in our neighborhood at one, south of the zocalo, you'd be having a definitely non-tourist experience. But they are hardly haute cuisine. However, the most significant fault in the book that I found was in its gross failure to provide sufficient guidance with respect to buying rugs at Teotitlan, a village near Oaxaca City. As a minor matter, he says if you take a bus you need to get off on the highway and then walk or hitchhike the several km into town. This isn't true. There's a bus that goes right to the village. Also, he doesn't mention that the colectivo taxi is only 15 pesos or so. But the most significant problem is this: you can sign up with a tour company (a lot more expensive) and you will most likely be taken to a specific weaver with little time to see others. Of course, the tour operator's large commission is built into the price of the rugs. And then, to help your reasoning, you may be plied with mescal and/or cerveza. It's a general phenomenon. The language school I attended arranged a trip just like this too to the same place. Which had both their own Suburban type van and an SUV in their driveway. Hey, they deserve to make good money from their rugs, but not by setting people up. But even this isn't the point. The guidebook should have warned of this common technique related to the rugs. Just as guidebooks to Thailand warn you of the various tout schemes. In a similar vein, Moon Oaxaca doesn't mention that some weavers now use chemical and not the more expensive natural dyes, while swearing otherwise. The next two times I went to Teotitlan--I was into the rugs--I took the colectivo taxi at 15 pesos and the bus once (4 pesos), and compared rugs at my convenience from many weavers. Two smaller guide books to Oaxaca, locally written, are Oaxaca Tips ([...]) and Viva Oaxaca ([...]). These are for Oaxaca City and valley only. They are more idiosyncratic and opinionated than Moon Oaxaca, with some more local detail. Viva Oaxaca, for example, lists its favorite comida corridas. We generally carried these around in the city, in part because they are light. Amazon, why don't you carry these books??? Nevertheless, Moon Oaxaca is overall a good guide. Comments (2) | | (Report this)