La Nueva Babel

Oaxaca City


A mural of Bowie as Aladdin Sane juxtaposed with the Virgin of Guadalupe sets Babel's alternative tone, a kind of Mexican dive bar with regular live music from an eclectic cache of performers – it could be son (folk), blues, trova (troubadour-type folk), jazz or cumbia (dance music originating from Colombia). The chairs are covered in old newspaper, should you get bored.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Oaxaca City attractions

1. Museo Rufino Tamayo

0.07 MILES

A top-class museum, even by Oaxaca's high standards, showing off a wondrous collection of pre-Hispanic art donated by the city's most famous artist,…

3. La Mano Mágica

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4. Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo

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With a taste for provocative social commentary, this contemporary gallery displays weird and wonderful work by local and international photographers.

5. Templo de San Felipe Neri

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6. Andador Turístico

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Historic, romantic, dignified and safe, wonderful Calle Alcalá (traffic-free since the 1980s) is what Oaxaca is all about. It runs north from the…

8. Arte de Oaxaca

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This commercial gallery presents a wide range of quality art, and includes a room devoted to surrealist painter Rodolfo Morales’ work.