Happy New Years 2008-2009

My fun time is almost over here in Zipolite. A few more days and it's finally back to work which is really just more fun time in a new locale because the beaches of Huatulco are very pretty and my job is going to be a blast.

I have never seen the beach of Zipolite so crowded. I don't envy anyone in search of a room in this town. All of my favorite restaurants have been too crowded. Some were already booked for reservations two days in advance. Tonight should be especially problematic. It could be a night for tacos.

I don't go to Nice Place on the Beach every night, less so after the night I ended up closing the place and drinking mezcal on the beach until 5 AM. I didn't suffer horribly but felt dried out and indifferent all next day. These things happen drink by drink. I won't do that for at least another year.

Generally it's a surefire place to find instant camaraderie. The regulars are all very regular. Here are some of the usual suspects with the legendary Crazy Horse Invincible tending bar. Not a very threatening crowd at all. You can meet some fine people there.

The red eyes are all actual red eyes and not the fault of the camera flash.

That last one is of me (the guy with the goofy grin) and Jonathan from Quebec. I think that was taken early in the game of my all-nighter

The most interesting person I've met this spell in Zipolite has to be Graham from England. Graham is the kind of guy who highlights what a slacker I am by contrast. Having earned himself enough funds to last a while by working in Saudi Arabia, this guy is bicycling all the way through Central America to Panama. If anyone doubts he'll make it, understand that he began this trip in Alaska. Here he is, all packed to hit the road again. These pictures were taken over a week ago. God only knows how far he's travelled since then. Good luck Graham, wherever you are. Wishing you only adventures of the fun variety.


Okay. The sun has gone down on another beautiful day. Some fireworks have already begun. Time to find a vacant table for dinner somewhere. Soon it will be time for the annual pagan bonfire brooha down at the cove by Shambhala.

Happy New Year's to everybody.

Mission: Huatulco

Hey, look. That's me in front of the Immigration office in Santa Cruz, proudly holding a brand new FM3 work visa.
I had to break my lazy beach routine of getting up no sooner than feels right this morning. So many things to do. Eventually I had to re-evaluate the importance of everything on my list and strip it down to essentials. The main thing was getting the visa because after today they close until the 6th of January and I couldn't afford to wait that long.

I forced myself out of bed at 5:30 and was on the road before any place was serving coffee. I call that a very rough way to start the day but I can be tough with myself when I have to. Being cheerful, patient and considerate of others under the circumstances is another game.

First stop was Caryl's home to pick up a pile of documents. She invited me in and gave me coffee. Yay. Someone mentioned the imminent arrival of a big cruise ship today and that got me on the road again. No good getting at the back of that line.

That taken care of, I did a little shopping. Some one is getting a surprise. I doubt she ever reads this blog so, if you're reading this, it's almost guaranteed not to be you. Not that you're not perfectly nice and deserving.

This little restaurant in the zocalo, Cafe Huatulco, may have the best brewed coffee in the world. I would never make a trip all the way to Santa Cruz without stopping there.


Now I'm waiting for the courier service to re-open. I should be able to get back to Zipolite before dark. Back to the beach

Green Flags

Every day has been a green flag day here this week at Zipolite. Those who know this beach will appreciate what a big deal that is. The beach has never been better. Low tide is a wide shiny expanse of sand. People can walk way out there and still be only up to their waists. The waves are tranquil with only the occasional heavy boomer to send the boogie board zooming off to shore in a hurry. It's like Santa himself arranged perfect conditions for the Christmas rush.




There are still a few hazards. Our keen eyed lifeguard stopped to bury an ugly dead fish with no eyes so no one would step on a spiked fin. A neighbor from San Francisco stepped on a stingray. It couldn't have been the same type that finished off that Australian guy because her bandage was off the very next day.

Lots of pictures and less talk.

Phew!

2008 is winding down pleasantly and 2009 is shaping up well but it couldn't possibly be better than today. I'm at Zipolite again until work starts in early January, with only a short interruption of beach bliss to run back to Huatulco and pick up my spanking new visa.

Time slips away like sand between my toes. I barely managed to get up off my beach towel and head back to Huatulco for December 1 to start all the complicated paperwork. Christmas decorations were already up on the streets of Isla Mujeres. A big artificial tree stood empty when I arrived in the Cancun bus station and the lights were flashing before my trip was underway.

No matter how close they look on the map, these two places aren't exactly around the corner from each other. Including station time, I had a 36 hour trip. Brrr. I ended up using my horse-shaped neck pillow for ear muffs.


Finding an apartment was the trickiest detail for the visa application. No apartment, no visa. No one wanted to rent for the month of December because they're all anticipating renting these places by the night for a lot more money. I doubt that will happen. I walked through sub-divisions with obvious vacancies and administrative people just lied to my face. "Todo occupado." It all worked out in the end thanks to Barry, the guy I'll be replacing. I'm simply going to take over his place and use all of his domestic conveniences until he returns in February. It's nice not to have to buy all of those little necessary things like cookware and a coffee machine right away. A little more than a week in Huatulco and everything was prepared that could be for my new beach job for 2009.

It's been frustrating living without a camera. I saw and keep seeing so many beautiful things every day: wildlife; exotic flowers; architectural quirks. Before landing in Zipolite, I took a detour to Oaxaca just to do some camera shopping. I went everywhere in that town and finally settled for another Canon, not the model I would have preferred but the best I could do.

Oaxaca looked absolutely great, much more prosperous than 2006/2007. The streets are repaired. It's always been a great city to buy a good balloon but now more than ever.

There is a bustle. The zocalos are tastefully decorated for Christmas with chrysanthemums on the curbs of all the walkways and garden plots.








Check out these before and after pictures of the same street near Hotel Aurora from different angles.




Miahuetecos has moved to a new improved station. Luckily for me, a young guy was waiting by the old locale to walk arrivals to the new.

Just a quick peek at Miahuatlan from the Miahuatecos station at the pee break. The construction has finally been completed that stayed dormant for about a year. Looks good.

So does the cathedral across the street. I remember it looking a bit rough last time but there isn't a speck of graffiti to be found. As far as I can tell, every window is intact.


I'm seing improvements everywhere around here but the absolute best has to be the traffic lights on the highway crossroad to Pochutla. For years, the old system semed to work. The adjacent military checkpoint must have helped remind people to exercise restraint. Nevertheless, I like the new lights. Red and green. Very Christmassy.

Even this blog is bound to improve now that I have my new camera.

The Beach Goes On

A week in Tulum was enough for now but I will be back. I've been hanging at Hotel El Caracol on Isla Mujeres for a week and the time is approaching to head back to the coast of Oaxaca. The island is over the top picturesque but there will be no pictures as the new Canon has already been destroyed. I want my bad luck with cameras to stop now. I suppose I could easily make that happen by just not buying another one.


I rented a clunker of an old ten speed from Papaya Playa and ventured further down the beach away from the ruins. Hotels block access to the beach all the way down with their "Accessar Prohibido" signs. Somebody told me those signs don't apply to tourists. That's probably true as none of them are in English. It's a bit of a raw deal for the locals. Whose beach is it anyways?


Eventually I trespassed and nobody stopped me. Wow. That beach went on forever. I wanted to see how far it would go so I rode that bike on the relatively hard wet sand through the thin waves on the shore and found myself way beyond any hotels in no man's land. If you could find your way in off the road and had enough supplies, it would make the world's best camping destination.

The all inclusive/gorge on food and beverage day at Xhela

A few people warned me that XelHa was not much more than a tourist trap but I didn't listen. And I'm glad. Considering that 11 bucks bought me a tiny omelette on two pieces of Bimbo white bread with a flavorless cup of coffee and no refills on the beach where I was staying, I made the admission price back on the all inclusive food and beverage I consumed. High end stuff. Smoked salmon for breakfast. Steak for lunch. It might have lacked rugged backpacker cool but I enjoyed a day of luxury with no shame.



Lots of cenotes to check out. Mostly, it was all about the snorkelling.

I've never had very good luck snorkeling before and I chalked it up to all the years of heavy smoking destroying my lung capacity. I could never get enough air through that straw called a snorkel. Inevitably I'd get a mouthful of water and panic - "Ah! I'm drowning. Get me out of here!"- yanking my head out of the water, ripping the mask out of my way. That all changed after Xhela when an American lady taught me the secret. "Just bite down on the snorkel. I don't know why it works but it does. It sort of focuses your breathing." By golly, it worked. I ended up spending hours out there on the lake. Snorkelling is such a blast and it works up a great appetite for the buffet. I got to keep the snorkel as a souvenir. I think I'll invest in a pair of flippers since I'll be spending a year in Beachland.
I wonder why no one told me this before. Did they have poor communication skills or was I just not listening? This woman changed my life. I returned the favor by warning her about the moray eel I'd seen poking it's snout out from under a rock in the Mayan cave. You can see it for yourself in the video.

It was a park alright but it still had authentic underwater wildlife and the "Don't touch the fish" signs should be the order of the day; not just for the sake of the fish but yourself. For example, I wouldn't have dreamed of touching the stingray on the sandy lake bottom. It's not like these are tamed domestic sea critters.





I still had the waterproof camera bag from Carribean Bay in Korea and put it to good use, snapping pictures of everything. I couldn't see much through the view finder but a lot of pictures turned out very well. I kept seeing so much incredible stuff long after the batteries died.

Tulum. Brought to you by....

Everyone takes the same pictures at all the major vacation destinations like Tulum. These are mine.




Check out this vandalized banner outside the entrance for a big corporate whore house in Playa del Carmen. Either somebody felt morally affronted by the sleazery or a local competitor wanted to lower the profile.

There were giant "Welcome to Tulum" signs with bigger than life pictures of Dos Equis beer and none of the ruins. How does a brewery fit in here? Anybody?


I don't get quite as excited about ruins as some people. I like beaches and my favorite thing about the ruins of Tulum is that they come with a nice sandy cove.



Here's the beach on the west side of the ruins, about 3 km long, way better than the one by Hotel Papaya Playa.


The cabanas were more upscale and in much better shape. Guess what? They were all cheaper too at 200 pesos instead of 300. Ignore that guy at the bus station and ask the taxi driver to take you to Diamante or Azul Kim or grab a tourist map and pick a place at a random. You'll probably do better than I did.