it all came tumblin' down (for me anyway)

Saturday morning was sunny, and the rain clouds were lingering on the edge of town so we got everything done as quickly as possible, in case it rained. Marc wanted to go to the mercado and I didn't, so I sat in a cafe (the one we'd frequented during our stay in Oaxaca) and got an iced cappucino. Big deal. We'd been drinking giant pitchers of limonade in Mazunte, filled -- surely -- with bad water from the back yard. In all our travels, neither of us has ever gotten sick. We always take pepto bismol and levaquin daily, for the whole trip. By the time we get home, the contents of our intestines look like tar, but that's a small price to pay, right?

Until this trip. When Marc finished with the mercado, we decided to head back to the room to put away our purchases and decide where we'd have dinner. By the time we got there, a 4 or 5 minute walk, I was feeling bad, man. Really bad. By mid-afternoon, I was in full-fledged badness. I'll use an old euphemism: two exits, no waiting.

I kept the laptop (which gets very hot) against my stomach like a heating pad and stayed curled up in bed the rest of the day and night, except for quick runs to the bathroom. I was sure that I'd be feeling better by the next day, travel day, except it turned out that I didn't feel better. I just didn't have anything left in my guts, but I still felt like I was hit by a freight train, and my stomach was in constant cramp. Standing up was hard, sitting was hard, being was hard. We left our hotel at 5:30,am and got home around 7pm, maybe? The airline lost our luggage. The bridges and tunnels were all backed up when we were trying to get home. It was all very miserable for me, anyway.

Even though we'd chosen not to have our luggage delivered at night, since we'd been told it could be at 3am, the delivery guy's idea of "tomorrow morning" must have been 4:30am, because that's when we got it. The end of the trip was as miserable as the rest was great, but it didn't balance it, at least. It was still a wonderful, wonderful trip despite the very end.

When I'm up to it, I'll upload a slideshow of all the photos, and add the two videos I took (one of the marimba band, and one of the mariachi band). For now, though, it's slow moving for me.

Adios, Mexico. It was wonderful...

Saturday in Oaxaca

On July 1, Mexico elects a new president -- bet you didn't know that. Americans just don't know the details of other countries' political systems, a bit of arrogance there. But others know of ours; when we were here a few days ago, while Marc was off looking for something I stood listening to the symphony in the zocalo, and a young man walked up to talk to me. His name was Magdaleno and he was very kind and spoke English much more clearly than I spoke Spanish. He told me about their upcoming elections and said he was hoping we would re-elect Obama, who is kinder to other countries. He said with a question mark in his voice "Republicans? Tea parties? They are mean." And I agreed, yes they are very mean. We talked a while longer, and then he drifted away to listen to the music.

So, since the election is coming very soon, Oaxaquenos are participating in political stuff today in the zocalo. There seem to be a number of parties (see how ignorant I am.....) and they take turns on the stage, and each has a big loud band. But let me back up a little bit.

We obviously got out of Mazunte to Puerto Escondido, and then the uneventful plane ride delivered us to Oaxaca by 9am yesterday. But neither of us had slept at all the night before, so we dropped off our bags at the hotel, walked to the zocalo and ate breakfast, then came back to the room and crashed for a few hours. I'm not a napper, so sleeping hard for a few hours in the day left me feeling dazed and strange. It was very rainy yesterday, so we walked around a bit, piddled around in cafes, and went to dinner at La Olla. We were drenched by the time we got there, and ate dinner with wet feet and pants, then came back to the hotel and crashed.

This morning we walked back to La Olla for a lovely breakfast, and our day's goal was to do some shopping. I always buy a pair of earrings everywhere we go, but Oaxaca isn't known for earrings or silver; the specialties here are weaving, black pottery, and tin work. The clouds are black and heavy so we hoped to get everything done pretty quickly. Finally, we found a women's cooperative where all the work is high quality and handmade, and scored a little top for my granddaughter (!), a bit of tin work for Katie & Trey's home, a bit of tin work for Marnie & Tom's home, and a Frida Kahlo bag for Marnie....and finally finally, a pair of earrings for me. Marc went to the market to poke around and I sat on the zocalo and had an iced coffee and watched the crowds:

a bit of Benito Juarez graffiti

a casual mariachi band -- the guy with the giant guitar is hanging behind

a bit of political graffiti pasted on a wall

the giant stage, with musicians -- stretching out in front are the crowds

the crowds in front -- different groups with different colored flags

shopping day

this guy must have come down from the mountains -- i saw a lot of people like him

saturday crowds -- the yellow COS banners were for the socialist party

who DOESN'T bring a tuba to a party??

always balloons. always.

shopping day

tubas and drums are always fun

this teeny tiny little old woman wanted to sell me pepitos. she was so sweet.

I am a giant here; the people are generally quite small, all roughly the same height. And then there's me, giant white me. But they don't stare, even though we have seen very few American-looking people (or Europeans, for that matter).

We leave very early in the morning, back to NYC. This was a wonderful vacation, even with the rain. We had plenty of time in the sun, we saw beautifully dressed dancers and musicians, ate some great food, and enjoyed ourselves. What more can you ask of a vacation....

Aerotucan to Puerto Escondido to Mazunte

We got up reluctantly at 5:20 this morning because the collectivo was picking us up at 5:45 to take us to the airport. When we got there, we learned that no, Aerotucan doesn't leave from the main airport, there's a tiny little building and runway over there, to the right. We'd packed a few things in backpacks and left our suitcases behind in Oaxaca, so we walked over to the small building and eventually boarded the tiny little plane. We had to crouch low inside the plane and duckwalk to our seats; the plane could hold 11 passengers and the lone pilot (no co-pilot in this operation), and it was a nearly full flight, us and 7 others.

we've been in smaller planes, but not very often.

mountains along the runway, blanketed with morning clouds

we flew pretty low over the crumpled mountains

When we got to Puerto Escondido, we still had a one-hour taxi ride to Mazunte, where we have a room for three nights at Casa Pan de Miel (Gingerbread House, I think, though there's nothing fluffy Victorian about it, at all). It's stunning, and we'll be coming back next year for sure. We have full access to the kitchen and the fridge ("you Americans love ice"), and our room overlooks the ocean, with a big terrace out front complete with a hammock and two lounge chairs. I keep thinking I'm in Night of the Iguana (except for the drunk ex-pastor, the dead grandfather, and the rum cocos....but there are iguanas, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Ava Gardner dancing with young men and maracas down on the beach).

that's the pool in the foreground with a bird on the edge, and the Pacific

the view off to the left

Since we got up so early and didn't have coffee or breakfast, we started our time here with a wonderful meal -- Marc had huevos rancheros and I had fruit and yogurt with homemade granola (complete with pepitos and lots of other seeds, in addition to normal granola stuff. YUM.)

huevos rancheros on handmade corn tortillas.

and this is our cabana, awfully shady in this picture because the sun was overhead.

We spent a long time in the pool, and then lounging in the sun -- we're both a little burned but it feels so good after our sequestered, hard winter. There's a lot to do here: hike down to the beach, walk into town, swim, relax, eat, repeat. That's more than enough for me. :)

Monte Alban and the rest

We keep thinking of Ricardo Montalban whenever we talk about this place, which is one of the largest archeological ruins in Oaxaca state. When we get home, I'll dig up some of the information from Lonely Planet and fill out the post -- for now, some pictures!

cute hat, right? And some cool ruins behind.

ruins

beautiful foliage -- the  light was just so nice on this

carvings -- the originals were in the on-site museum, for protection

this little guy was trying to sell us a "real authentic" thing from the site. sweet little guy,

pretty cool looking joint

this was the center of the site

one of the bigger temple sites

the playing field -- they used rubber balls, not human bodies like at Chichen Itza

the largest stele on the site -- used to mark the astronomical year

When we got back to our hotel, there was a wonderful mariachi band serenading a large birthday party. I have a video too, I'll upload it when we get home and put it here. The music was amazing.

nothing like a good mariachi band!

We ate dinner at a wonderful little restaurant called La Olla. It was sweet, the service was sweet, and the food was magnificent. We'll go back, when we return to Oaxaca.

it was a sunny, beautiful space -- these are candles hanging against the green wall

we started with guacamole -- the way I like it, limey and chunky. those dark bits? We think they're fried grasshopper. It was with all the appetizers.

camarones al diablo -- YES. HOT. DEVIL HOT. Delicious.

Then we went to the zocalo, where we listened to a wonderful marimba band. Even better, though, were the people who came to dance.

the saxophonist was full of heart

the band was GREAT. Seriously.

This couple was very formal with each other, but gorgeous dancers.

these were just so lovely -- light and loving each other while dancing.

the cathedral at night -- stunning!

Tomorrow we fly to the coast, in a little plane that seats 11 people. Over the mountains (kinda low, we hear, so we hope it's nice weather so (a) we can see, and (b) it's not scary!), to the Pacific coast. The place we're going, Mazunte, is a charming little beach town, and the place we're staying looks amazing. More tomorrow!

Sunny Sunday

Sundays in Oaxaca are great; everyone comes out to the zocalo, there's always lots of live music (symphonic, marimba, guitar, guitar and pan flute, accordion, harmonica, various combinations), people buy balloons and toys, and they dance. I'd love to live here.

We walked away from the zocalo after breakfast and found a really beautiful, large church with giant tamarind trees shading the sidewalks. It was getting hot and my white legs were starting to burn, so we decided to stop and people-watch for a while. Well! Up came this enormous parade of people in traditional dress, heading for the church. We have no idea what was going on, but it was beautiful to see:

at first we just thought it was a small parade

the women had shiny ribbon woven through their braids, and their dresses were beautiful

so much color!

the all gathered in front of the church for a big photograph

they were so patient, posing and smiling in the sun

here's a close-up of the women, really wonderful-looking

after the photo, they lined up and started dancing. there wasn't actually any music playing!

It was such a great treat, getting to see this, because they weren't doing it for tourists. We don't know exactly what it was for, but it wasn't for a spectacle. We just had wonderful timing.

Then, we went back to the zocalo and had appetizers for lunch, and happened onto more dancing.

a little Aztec dancin

full-on symphony orchestra, every Sunday!

and then a little more skirt twirlin

The internet connection is so slow it's taken way too long to get these photos uploaded so I'm cutting this short. It rained a good bit this afternoon, and unfortunately we decided to walk a ways to a restaurant for dinner, in the rain, and got there only to find it wasn't open on Sunday so we turned around and ate at our hotel. Marc got a three-mole tasting sampler, and the negro mole sauce was amazing -- rich with chocolate and spices and heat and layers of flavor. The other two were good too, but the negro was amazing.

Our goal tomorrow is to head out to the ruins, so that'll be a fun day. And then Tuesday we're flying to the coast. I hope to have a better internet connection so I can get some photos up. It's really wonderful here, sweet people, good food, lovely life filled with music and walking around the zocalo. Lots of live music everywhere, my kind of place. Buenos noches, y'all.

flying day!

This is an unusual trip, in that we're leaving New York early afternoon on a Saturday. Usually we seem to leave at 10pm or later on a Thursday, so weekend? Sunny afternoon? Bizarre! Since (a) my favorite treat is breakfast out and (b) Marc is too excited to sit still, we're going out for breakfast before we leave for Newark. The flight's kind of long, just to go to Mexico (says the native Texan, who still thinks it's just right over there); we fly to Houston, change planes and then head down to Oaxaca. It'll be dark when we finally get to our lovely hotel, which will look like this the following morning:

the patio, where I'm sure we'll sit and drink coffee

The next post will be live from Oaxaca -- I'm so thrilled about this trip!