Isthmus of Tehuantepec

I have everything I want and need here in Huatulco but it's good to break out of the routine once in a while and last weekend I visited the town of Tehuantepec as a guest of one of my students of last semester and his local English teacher. Misael invited me a couple of months ago but circumstances (the apartment situation for example)led to several postponements. Time clicks right along. Opportunities were getting slim. The weekend after this one is a big out of town teacher's conference and then we're into the October term. I finally got my act together, more or less, and with the invitation still open, I finally made it to the town of Tehuantepec proper around lunch time on Saturday.



Misael wasn't right there at the bus station so I walked a few steps into town to an internet shop. His phone number was waiting for me in an email. Now, I'm not bragging but I am gradually becoming a bit more functional with Spanish but after having introduced myself to his mother on the phone and asked for Misael (in my best Spanish) I was a bit deflated when she answered "Disculpe. No hablar inglis." That was my Spanish! She told me later that she had understood every word. It was just a misunderstanding on my part.
I understood her when she said Misael was at the bus terminal that very minute. She was right. I must have missed him by 2 minutes.


Misael's father loaned him the truck for the day. I met Victor, his English teacher and the three of us drove off to another small town with this cool little restaurant with a small zoo of indigenous animals. I hadn't known that Mexico has monkeys, leopards and deer. The monkeys make sense. I remember being stalked by a few at a nature reserve in Atitlan, Guatemela and that's not so far away. I suppose they'll always be wherever the bananas are.







Misael dropped Victor off at his classroom and we went off to meet his parents with one quick pit stop on the way. I found out later he'd stopped to buy some glue for my sneakers. I've been meaning to buy new sneakers for several months now. the right one was ripped apart from the middle and would flop open completely. I don't know how I managed to do that. I treat my footwear rather roughly. Misael made them as good as new. Misael rocks and his family are very nice people. Language barriers and all, we knew there wasn't going to be any conversation but I felt genuinely welcome.

Victor's classes are from Monday to Friday but he called his students in to practise their English with me and we had a couple of impromptu low pressure classes. They were all charming and their English was rather good considering none of them had been studying too long. Cameras came out at the end of each class and I have a few commemorative shots of my own.



Misael offered to drive us to a bar in Salina Cruz that night. I was a bit wary of finding myself in a blaring discotheque so I had to ask, "Um, what kind of bar is this? It isn't a discotheque , is it?"
"No, no. It's a quiet bar."
I still felt a bit wary. After all, my idea of quiet and a younger person's are bound to be different. I shouldn't have worried. It was the coolest.
We drove to a huge lookout above the coastline of Salina Cruz and drank beers from a nearby store by the wall. It couldn't have been any better.
The water looked too rough to do anything other than look in awe at the power of the ocean. Another friend with us told me there were a lot of sharks out there. Besides, it's contaminated. Salina Cruz is an oil refinery town.

It was a short visit but quality. Time well spent.
Thanks, Misael.
To all of Victor's students: Keep up the good work.

Bus to Busan Part II: The Flat Sea

A couple of vids from Busan. The first is Seonjong Beach, near Haeundae but much quieter.

And here we have scenes of Haedong Yonggungsa



You have to see these videos on the Youtube site for the crisper high quality versions. They have an icon to click for that. If you tap the mouse on these embedded blog vids a few times, the Youtube page pops up in another window.

We arrived in Busan around noon and hit the water in our wet suits at Seonjong Beach after checking into our hotel and changing rooms after finding a used condom on the floor. Call us high maintenance guests if you like. That room wasn't even superficially clean.

Since I never quite made it standing on the board, and not for a lack of trying with practise on the beach and almost two hours struggling in the water, there's no point in blaming the serious lack of significant waves for failing to catch a ride. I saw one girl make it up on her board (I thought she might have done this before) but she wasn't going anywhere. The instructors did their almighty best. They got out there with us and tried shoving our boards toward the beach any time we had one of these ripples we called waves. I had fun and a good workout. I think it did my left shoulder some good. The good news is that there was almost no chance of anyone getting hurt. Except for Edgar. He doesn't swim and he didn't tell anyone but Ariel and I so I ratted him out to the instructors. Someone with a better chance of saving him than me needed to know.

Busan is far from the Pacific coast of Mexico in more ways than one. One of the instructors assured me they had days there with decent, even intimidating, waves. I've seen the videos on Youtube. It's true. And there are some dedicated surfers in Korea that must get very excited on wave days. There was supposed to be a huge surfing competetion somewhere in Busan that weekend. Shame about that.

That was the event of the day. In the evening, the tour bus took everyone downtown to hit the clubs and find their own way back. Ariel and I took the second option and hopped out at Haeundae Beach to check out the sand cupltures and talk about life and women. A giant angry cigarette announced there would be no smoking near the sculpture displays. A super nice couple at a brand new Smoothie gave us free cookies. We found a Wa Wa bar, drank some over-priced beer and called it a night.