Looking good and eating well in Huatulco

 

I've been living in Huatulco for just a little shy of 8 years now and have only just found the absolute best place to get a hair cut.  If you're on the road or have just arrived in a new town, you know your first few haircuts are going to be hit and miss.  Even checking out the more expensive places is no guarantee that the person responsible for your next first impression is competent or even cares about their job.   The only way you'll ever know is to stick your head under the blades and hope for the best.

  

It took me over a year in the town of Crucecita to find a dependable woman that I could count on to not give me a five minute hack job or charge the special price for foreigners so I stuck with her for years but have recently moved on to Aries Hair and Nails, located downtown in a semi residential street about 3 blocks south of the town center park. 

The place is owned and operated by Mikel and Tammy Aries, a Canadian couple who discovered Huatulco while on vacation and made the decision to come and stay.  I met them both at a party one night and liked their attitude so I put them high on my bucket list and have since become a believer.    Mikel calls himself a hair designer and that is a fair description.  He showed me pictures of wild hair styles guaranteed to leave an impression but nothing I would want for myself.  I was just impressed that, if a person wanted one of these striking designs, Mikel could make it happen.  It felt wisest to leave the decision making to him and he gave me a style that was completely different from what I'm used to but, at the same time, not dangerously radical.  Compliments over it kept pouring in well after the time had come for a refresher.

 

Mikel and Tammy knew they would have to adjust their fees to the local economy before coming here.  That means clients can enjoy a top of the line hair cut at 25% or less of what they would pay back home in Canada for something of similar caliber.   Regular vacationers who have  been coming here long enough to know the best spots for everything make it a point to stop in at least once.  Depending on the length of their stay, often twice.  Word of mouth in a small town has kept Mikel and Tammy thriving.  They know the quality of their work is all the advertising they will ever need.  But that isn't going to stop me from giving them an unsolicited well-earned plug on the blog.

 

 

If you're planning on coming our way this holiday season and you're feeling somewhat shaggy and unkempt, hold off doing anything about it until you arrive.  This is not a drop in type of place.  Appointments are necessary but, in this modern age, Canada to Mexico isn't even a long distance call anymore.  So, give them a ring at 958 587 2322 (you'll probably need the Mexican code) or make an arrangement by email arieshairandnails@outlook.com.  Grab a cab or walk to 417 Colorin.  





 

 

Right beside Aries Hair and Nails, in the same building, is a new-to-me comida corrida by the name of Kahlo that is a big step above the average.  Comida corridas are little restaurants with set prices for a full meal with starter, regional beverage, main course and dessert, usually in the area of 50 pesos although the places in the centre have recently increased their prices but not by much.  They're all different.  I prefer some for the style of food, others for the portions.  This is the first I've been to that gets both quality of food and portion right.  For 50 pesos, on my first visit, I had a rather gourmet meal of a savoury vegetable soup, followed by chicken breast smothered in a white wine mushroom sauce with rice.  I have since returned a couple of times.

 

 

There is only one exterior table for early birds.  The rest of Kahlo is found to the left behind the stairs.

A new toy 2013 Huatulco

I recently bought the Sony Action Cam after checking out reviews and it lives up to the hype.  I haven't used it for too much yet but it's going to be a great little recreational asset.  Here are my first three videos.

Riding to work in the morning.


Recycling at Fonatur.


Riding to La Bocana

UMARELA 2011

While many of the people from Centro de Idiomas went straight home after work for a long winter's nap, Santa's most faithful fans stood by to join him in the march downtown for UMARELA 2011.

It was time to go. We weren't the only ones late for the starting point.







The original plan was to just escort Santa to the propane station parking lot but the parade had already moved ahead. We were late. We couldn't wait for the rest of the stragglers. Full speed ahead.



Normally, I would have made a video of this event but, when you're responsible for the safety of the number one VIP, it's both hands on the handlebars. I passed the camera off to a willing helper with two free hands who did her best to chronicle everything.




Harrrr.





















Everybody loves Santa.




He's a rock star at UMARELA.

School's Out

I first heard about this event at lunch time on the last day of school. A student tried her best to explain but I didn't quite get it. I showed up anyways. All would be revealed. The only snag was that it began at 7 pm, clock out time. I rode home, parked the scooter, unloaded my backpack, headed to the rendez-vous point and arrived around 7:20. Everyone was still there and more stragglers were still arriving.

Everyone was in a great mood. Spirits were high.

This was Calenda, a happy drinking and dancing parade weaving its way through town.

I took a turn wearing one of the mascot costumes. I don't think I did a very good job. Most mascots jump around and dance. I tried not to bump into people. That thing is top heavy. You grab on to the strong wire mesh inside. If you tip a little, the mascot dips a lot. Eventually a better person took over the job.

Time for another dancing break, this time in the center of Infonavit.

We even had a police escort. There was a moment I felt a bit self-conscious about walking in the middle of the street with a beer in one hand and tequila in the other with a flashing police car behind me but it wasn't a problem. Their job was to ensure that nobody interfered with my public drinking. Fun.

Friendly UMAR people on standby in the back of a truck, making sure nobody was left without a cold beer.

There was so much booze. I had to start declining generous offers of mezcal. Eventually the party weaved right by my apartment complex and I dropped out. I was beat. I'd had a full night already but the party continued on without me. What a great tradition to celebrate the end of a grueling semester.

Pay Day Will Come

UMAR is empty except for iguanas and security guards at the gate. We’re getting paid and don’t have to go to work. The word came to vacate on Monday afternoon. The students had already left and Mike was entertaining us in the air conditioned comfort of the Auto Accesso lab with a fun game for the classroom. The place was a ghost town within five minutes.

Luckily for me and my students, all of our midterm exams have been completed, except for a very few no-shows who I will be glad to take care of when we get back. Let’s hope their reasons for not arriving weren’t too serious. Now I have all the time in the world to get that marking done. When we all get back, I’ll be ready to print off the results for administration and carry on where we left off.

Tomorrow is pay day and not a minute too soon. Since discovering myself with 400 pesos total last Saturday, outside of my emergency funds, I have been living in austerity. I made the mature decision to pay 300 of that right away on the power bill. If they cut you off, you have to pay a substantial fine to get hooked up again and, besides, you don’t have power for a while and that’s not fun. OK. 100 pesos for a week. Ulp. Well, I have food in the cupboard, power and lots of clean drinking water. That shouldn’t be too hard. There is a welcoming dinner party for Li from China on Thursday, just in time. But a spontaneous dinner and drinks affair came up for someone’s birthday yesterday. I definitely had to bail on that one. One more day.

Today the unexpected happened. I ran out of gas. If I was tough, I would just go without coffee tomorrow morning. But I’m not. Neither am I ready to break down and hit the Canadian funds. I have been working here since January and it’s high time I had some new localized emergency funds put away. I have to live within my means. So I’m bombing up to school to get that coffee machine I bought for the office. I can use it as a kettle until the money arrives in the bank and get the gas tank replaced. Maybe I’ll find some loose pesos on my desk. I’m short exactly one peso for a pack of smokes and I’ve already dug between the couch cushions.

Look what I just found under the cushion of my desk chair. I’m going to invest this in cigarettes.

When I said I had plenty of food, I never imagined myself eating cold chicken soup or cold spaghetti sauce over dry uncooked noodles. I am so close to making it until pay day. I can’t give up now. Aw shoot. I just heard the “awooogh” of the gas truck. Nothing I can do about it.
Off to school again.
Here are two good reasons helmets are such a good idea in Crucecita.


Alright. Normally hidden wildlife is out enjoying the peace and quiet of a deserted campus. These pheasants didn’t even cluck away from me.






It turns out that maintenance staff and some clerical workers have been left behind. They must be classed as essential services. With so little work to do, these ladies went overboard on the cleaning, even arranging the loose papers on my desk in a neat pile with a paper clip. I was so impressed.