It seems to have become a rite of passage for new teachers to take a quick tour on the back of the old Italika scooter. Each tour is a little different. Much as I'd like to take them everywhere, there isn't enough time in a single day.
Here is our newest recruit, Carmen, all the way from Virginia, the original home of John Carter from Mars, sporting the Sony Action Cam at the Tangolunda overlook.
The idea was that the person on the back of the scoot could get a better view of points of interest than the driver, who has to stare straight ahead for traffic and curves. It worked too but we had condensation problems and almost all of our footage looked like it had been taken on a foggy day.
The rainy season is almost all over. While it rained steadily in the mountains for most of the season, we didn't get much here in Huatulco until a few weeks ago. When it came, it came down hard for a full week. The canals gushed. Mud slid across roads and trees came down. A hard rain always causes potholes. We expect that but there are potholes and then there are potholes.
Drivers beware.
Our first stop was beautiful Bocana. Sadly this beach received some heavy damage. The seawall, which I believe is made of strong materials, had been battered to pieces during the hard rain.
Fallen trees from the hills, washed away with the soil that had sustained them, were everywhere.
I wasn't there when it happened but I suspect these trees battered the blazes out of the seawall when the water was much higher. La Bocana has periods every year when there is no beach to speak of, just brown wáter rushing against the wall over clattering rocks. But when it is good, this beach is pure gold. I have never seen it as wide as it was that day. A student tipped me off about the recent conditions but I couldn't have imagined just how vast it was. It is definitely worth the trip if you're in the area any time over the next few months.
There were only a few people when we arrived. There's a young woman reading a book under an umbrella.
Hey, wait a minute. She looks familiar. It's Yulma!
It was such a great chance for Carmen to start meeting some of her new colleagues. Plus I had Yulma to take care of the camera. I wanted to get wet too. Most of the upcoming pictures were taken by her.
This was Carmen's 3rd or 4th day in our town. She finally got wet.
We're already quite far out at this point.
Looking back.
Woo hoo! Body surfing!
Back at the shore, the water is a lot cooler in this little river channel. It's waist high on me at the deepest spots. If you lie down, the current whisks you away like a natural water slide park ride. Whee.
The tour continued but there are no more pictures.
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