UMAR Huatulco upgrades and downtown development

It has been almost three months since I visited the campus.  It's quickly changing into an entirely new world.  I'll have to visit it more often or I might not recognize it when I return from sabbatical.

Check here for before and after comparisons.  http://alackofcleardirection.blogspot.mx/2015/03/moving-earth-at-umar-huatulco.html

Our newest building has taken shape.  The construction workers are already busy on the second story.

The street in front of Centro de Idiomas has doubled in width.  The original one lane might have been more park like but this is so much more practical for high traffic days and deliveries.

I've been meaning to take photos of this new hotel coming up near the bus station.  At least I think it's a hotel.  I like the design of an elevated arrow shape with a connecting skywalk.  Previously, I'd thought that lot was too small to build much but they have really used the space well.

  

Puerto Escondido

This blog isn't anywhere close to being current. 

     I didn't go far this summer vacation.  When you already live in one beach resort, it seems pointless to travel long distances to other beaches.  What am I going to find that I don't already have?
      Puerto Escondido is just 2 and a half hours down the road by scooter and it makes a nice change of pace.
That's the end of the restaurant drag in Zicatela.  I decided to see if I couldn't get a good deal beyond the heavier traffic and didn't look far at all before I found Casa Olga. 

For a great price, I got a panoramic view of the ocean, access to a pool, and a table and hammock right outside my door. 

It's a bit isolated up there on the hill.  Several of the neighboring hotels were closed up for the slow season.

The nights were hot and I slept with the glass doors open for the first two.  On the second night, I woke to a thump and someone screaming.  The commotion settled down very quickly.  I figured someone had just had a bad dream and went back to sleep immediately.

In fact, someone had snuck in through the open doors of the young Australian couple above me.  The man had managed to save his laptop from the intruder but found out later that his wallet was gone.  The victims said they had come home pretty drunk and were probably followed  for easy pickings.  No doubt that was true because I was on the floor below with my door wide open and he didn't stop to visit me.  Everybody slept with closed doors after that.

      Beyond the restaurant strip, it gets pretty dark and I felt a bit vulnerable walking home at night.  On my first night, I went downtown for dinner and noticed the same shady looking tattooed guy hanging out outside Oxxo from the afternoon, apparently for hours.  By the time I left the restaurant, he had finally moved, to outside my restaurant.  I stopped at a bar for some watered down mojitos and there he was again.  When it came time to return home, I stopped at the corner before stepping into the dark lonely street and turned around to confront anyone following me.  There was no one.  I stopped again before turning into the even darker alley/ driveway of the hotel.  I saw someone else turning the corner and shifting into an immediate power walk/run up the hill without looking back.  I wasn't the only one on alert.  It's wise not to let your guard down too far in any tourist town.  Wherever there are tourists, there will be predators and basic street smarts should be the rule. 

Over the rocks from Zicatela to Principal.  It looks a lot safer these days with a bar parked right at the midpoint but I still wouldn't recommend this shortcut after dark.

I must not have been here during the rainy season before because this is the first time I've ever seen this moat separating the town from the beach.  I hesitated but other people were crossing it so I tried it too.  It felt as swampy and nasty as it looked.  I recommend the longer route.

Promising clouds for a cook refreshing rain.  Nothing happened.

Two guys, probably not locals judging by the English, with spray paint cans and time on their hands.  Maybe the second one was mad because the first beat him to the clean concrete.

After the rain

It rained long and hard on our first day of vacation. A friend had to postpone a trip to Merida because bridges and roads had been washed out. The next day started out cloudy but I was determined to get outdoors even if just to walk around town with an umbrella. By the time I was ready, an umbrella wasn't necessary.




Blue sky returns to Chahue.

Several of these rockslides about. I've been told a huge tree fell across the trail to Playa Organo and there's no way to crawl around, under or over it.

Gushing canals.

The Rainy Season Slowly Peters Out

This year's rainy season has been heavier than any other I've experienced before. You can tell it's almost behind us. There are occasional blue skies, sometimes even for whole days.

Our wet vacation is long behind us now. There were a few mishaps. One of our staff wiped out on his motorcycle on a rainy road. My own accident wasn't related to weather, just bad driving. At least I wasn't hurt. I came across a surprise tope at night and yanked on the brakes. The scooter wiped out and I jumped right off, landing nicely on my spongey new sneakers. Lost a mirror. I miss it. A bit of gasoline spilled out of the tank. I wonder if this machine would explode in a head-on collision, like in the movies.

When is an arroyo not an arroyo? Rainy season. This is our usual path to Playa Organo where the water was rougher than I've seen before. It felt a little dicey swimming out there some times.

Summer vacation ended and summer school began. The rain kept coming. When it isn't rainy season, I like to blame all the stupid things I do on the heat. What else is there? Maybe a sleep deficit. Yeah, that's it. It's not like I'm chronically forgetful and leave my card in banking machines every day.

I fell asleep one lunch break and managed to wake up on time to throw the essentials in my backpack, head out the door and forget my keys. That's such a horrible realization. Sometimes you don't feel in your pocket before closing the door but you look in your pocket and they're there anyway. Not this time.

This meant no scooter. I'd have to grab a cab to school and worry about the lock later. probably best to let someone else do the driving on a stupid day. I turned around before I realized I was trapped between my apartment and the locked gate that keeps intruders off the top floor landing. No one was home at the other upstairs apartment and, since I was already running behind, the chances of any coworkers walking by were nil.




I tried calling the school. My phone was dead. A huge pothole digging rainstorm started up. All I could do was finish my nap on the cold dirty tile with my pack under my head for a pillow. I even thought about pulling out my laptop and sending an email but the battery has been dead for months.

I lay there, trying not to think of anything that would make me want to use the bathroom. Eventually Mike called me. I can still receive calls when my phone time has expired. He spread the word and promised to look in on me later and arrange a locksmith rescue if necessary. Caryl covered my classes.


By a miracle, the woman below came out of her apartment. Her mother is the administrator for the building and they were just going out for an early dinner. I didn't know it at the time but my next door neighbors wouldn't be back until quite late that evening. She got the backup keys for the apartment and passed them through the bars to me. I was free. And only 15 minutes late for my first class but Caryl already had that under control by then.



Summer school is behind us now. The skies are gradually clearing. We're all set for a brand new semester here at UMAR Huatulco.

Respect for rain and potholes.

We had an impressive rainfall on the last week before vacation. Those of us who hadn’t packed a change of clothes spent a wet afternoon in the office. I hadn’t realized how intense it could be. The walkway from my apartment to the parking lot was deeper than my shoes.

It was beautiful and sunny again by next morning, only two days remaining before vacation. As is too often the case, I left for work at the last possible minute, a bad habit I picked up not long after buying the Italika. It’s always an exciting race against the clock, full speed ahead, maneuvering strategically into the fastest lanes, passing all the sensible drivers; butterflies and other insects pinging and pocking off my visor. Thank God I bought that helmet. I didn’t get far.

The rain had ripped open enormous potholes everywhere. The one that sprang out at the lip of a hill and ended my ride might as well have been an open manhole. I hit it hard at 70 kmh. I wasn’t thrown off the bike but the rear tire went kaboom. Pushing that machine off the road was a struggle. In my head I was still racing the clock. I could grab a taxi and return for it at lunch hour. Reality sank in when I glanced at my watch. I was officially late and a day’s pay was gone. There were no classes. If I had to miss a day, I couldn’t have chosen a more convenient time for me and everyone else.

The scooter had been overdue for a tune-up for at least a month. I kept putting it off because I ride that scooter every day and I never like being without it even for a short while, especially since the same (presumably) thieves who took the front wheel of my bike came back and took the seat. That problem has since been solved by putting a lock on a metal gate but closing the barn door after the fact has left me without backup transport.


Damages to local roads have been so extensive that repairs are still underway and probably will be for quite some time. Remember that when driving around Huatulco and surrounding areas. Keep your eyes open.

baby pigeon on the air conditioner

Rainy season is creeping up. So far I’ve seen maybe 2 drops hit the sidewalk after hours of dark clouds and rumbling thunder. The early mornings still start with a hazy yellow ball behind me like something out of a coffee commercial. By afternoon, it gets dark and there’s a bit of sound and fury but nothing comes down to make us run for cover.

We were back to work as scheduled after the impromptu paid break of a week and we were all glad to be back. For the first week, the guards and another man were waiting for everyone at the gate with a spray bottle of hand sanitizer. Of course that could never be enough to stop the spread of flu if there was any in our midst but I liked the idea and it was a good reminder for everyone not to do anything stupid like wipe their eyes. Only two days at the grind and it was the weekend.



A little miracle happened that Saturday. The old Toshiba came back to life. Figuring it was worth one more try, I pre-cooled the bedroom with the air conditioner while I emptied half a can of compressed air into every vent and opening. It was a suspenseful time waiting for the recovery disk to do the job. It was at 6% for the longest time. I kept waiting for it to overheat and shut down, feeling the air vent in the back. Whenever I thought it was getting dangerously hot, I gave it another blast of compressed air to supplement the hard working fans. I was going nuts when the uploading made it as far as 70%. By 98% I could only think how badly it would suck if it shut off at that point. But it didn’t. Ta-dah! It works better than it has in months. The screen is bright again so some of the problems were virus related and I was right to restore the system except for the snag that it was too worn out to handle the trauma. I don’t think I’ll ever try that again. I love this little machine. It might even survive to visit a few more countries.
Two hours later someone knocked on my door to install an air-conditioner. Wow. Some days. The previous Saturday, I had waited indoors all day because the apartment complex manager had told me the day before that one was coming. It didn’t. I even went to the office to ask about it mid-day, thinking plans change and I was told just one hour more. How about just one week more. I would never say no to an air conditioner. This apartment came with three but only one works and it’s not the one in the living room where I spend most of my time.

It wasn’t for the living room. It was for the spare bedroom I’ve been using to store some of the excess furniture that came with it. The complex handyman was told to make a good fit with concrete but he couldn’t do that for some reason or another and jammed it in place with some old rotten tiles, leaving enough space for small and not so small animals to crawl into the apartment at will. I like to keep that door closed now.

While checking out the situation, I found a baby bird in a nest right outside the window on the cage built for the air conditioner. There was no sign of its mother. Probably out and about collecting food but I wondered if it hadn’t been frightened off after all the noise and commotion, never to return. I took a peek next morning to see if it was still alive. And the next. It was eating somehow. Most days I took a picture. These different pictures were all taken within five days. It’s quite startling how fast it grew. By the latest picture, it was a teenager and not as cute anymore.



There would have been more pictures but I accidentally locked myself out of the room. That wasn’t a huge problem until I locked myself out of the other bedroom, the one I sleep in, two nights later. I was up past my bedtime and more than ready for a good sleep. I flipped on the air conditioner and turned on my bedside computer (the restored Toshiba) to enjoy an ebook on my way down and went to brush my teeth. I couldn’t get back in. I was so frustrated. I could hear that cool refreshing machine chugging away but I couldn’t get in. I tried to break in but it was too big a job for my limited skills. A solid door frame prevents anyone sliding a comb or a plastic card. It was insane. This is insane. The door is in the apartment. Who needs that kind of security when they’re already behind locked doors? Was it a bedroom or a Panic Room. I probably scared the tenants above me with my primal scream of rage. I lost if for a bit. I tried kicking the knob, missed and put a small hole in the door I’ll have to pay for.
I finally went to sleep on the coach, listening to the not so distant sound of artificially cool air.

When I asked for keys at the office next day on my lunch break, I was told they didn’t have any. There are three doors in my apartment with the kind of locks that can be absentmindedly and carelessly locked, including the bathroom and there aren’t any keys.
“ But my clothes are in there. My air conditioning is running non-stop. I think my rent money is in there.”
“I will call a locksmith.”
A guy on a scooter turned up in ten minutes with a skeleton. First he had a con-fab with the manager and then came over to wiggle a skeleton key for two minutes. 150 pesos. Good money for two minutes work.
I want to change apartments soon. I think the landlord was at least partly responsible for the situation. Keep in mind, no mention had ever been made about this lack of keys problem or the danger of getting locking out.




As it turns out, my apartment has been responsible for my acid toes. I finally went to the medico here on campus between classes and he said it was probably my shower. Hmm. I’ve had this problem for 4 months and I’ve lived here for 4 and half. Yep. There is no fan or ventilation of any kind in my bathroom. Unless I take it into the living room, I can only use a towel for one shower before it smells bad. There was black mould in that shower when I moved in here and it comes back way too frequently. The medico gave me pills and some cream that has already done wonders. He also recommended plastic shoes for the bathroom. I want another apartment.

I missed some photos of my baby bird. By the time I got in that room again, it had already learned to fly. I haven`t seen it since but I think it still hangs out. I took a peek first thing on getting my door unlocked and it looked like a fully grown adult. Good thing. During the teenage days, when it was looking kind of degenerate and scruffy, I wondered if it wasn`t in fact some bird of prey.