I came across some groovy people sized wood carving sculptures on display in the park in downtown Crucecita recently. The theme is the migration of people living in desperate circumstances who make the journey north in search of a better life. That's all I can say. I snapped a shot of a poster explaining the exhibit for the benefit of any Spanish speakers reading this. Look for it at the end of the post. My own Spanish isn't worth much but I got the general idea from the sculptures themselves.
Oaxaca is a great city with excellent restaurants and lots to see and do but it´s a twelve hour bus trip from my beach town and I don't go too often. This time I needed shoes.
I found an affordable hotel right away, not too far from the bus stop. Oh look. It's the UMAR Oaxaca campus. I wonder if I've walked by it before without noticing.
This the Hotel Real Santo Domingo. I love the old colonial buildings. Stairway leading to the roof. Watch your step. There are a few dangling wires and cables. It's a long way down. Watch your head. The exit on to the roof is quite low and I gave my head a hard crack on the bar. Views from the rooftop. Shopping gets boring quickly. I found new shoes and sneakers and put them to work right away with a walk around the town.
One less tree in the downtown zocalo since my last visit.
I don't know what people were writing but the invitation to scrawl on the temporary wall was popular.
With all of the excellent restaurants in Oaxaca, I chose to have one meal at Burger King. We don't have any fast food chains in Huatulco. That's where I ran into one of our UMAR students, preparing the finishing touches of his makeup in the bathroom. His name is Jahweh (my spelling is probably wrong) and he is hilarious. He didn't seem to repeat himself at all, just kept improvising and reacting to every little circumstance. Even in the rain, his audience stayed there in the middle of the street, to see what he would do next.
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.
