Back on the Road to Crucecita: the Bathroom Breaks

Day 2 of the conference, we were packed up early for the return trip.
Some shots from the rooftop of our hotel where Mike and Matt served us Cuba Libres under the stars the night before.



A few more shots of UTM campus.








We had ourselves a good time, saw some different parts of Oaxaca, met some nice people and picked up a few new ideas. It was time to hit the road.


I had the front seat all the way to Oaxaca, snapping all kinds of pictures of the countryside.






We stopped overnight in Oaxaca City. Beautiful as usual. Had my first experience with tear gas when I stepped outside a restaurant to have a smoke. There was screaming and running outside but I wasn't wandering far and refuge was only a quick step backwards. That's when I got it in the eye. Wow. That stuff is effective. I was just on the periphery and only caught a little invisible vapour but I felt helpless. Some young people had been riling the police who decided best to thin the Saturday night crowd before anything escalated. It may seem like overkill but this is Oaxaca, where buses have been burned and people shot at demonstrations that started small.

It doesn't get much cuter than a dog with his favorite soccer ball like the one at the restaurant we stopped at for lunch.



By the time we reached San Pacifico, we were almost home. By our next bathroom break, it would be warm again.


It may be many months until that suit comes out of the closet again.

We're feeling a tad tired at this point.

Journey to Huajuapan de Leon

Here I am, bright and early last Wednesday morning with colleagues from my very own UMAR and two ladies from Puerto Angel, as we set out on our epic journey to the very 1st "Annual Meeting of Language Teachers In The State Of Oaxaca" held in Huajuapan de Leon. Straight driving, it's a nine hour drive, ten with a lunch and bathroom breaks. Our school covered our admission and even provided us with a van and driver! It really doesn't get much more deluxe than that. Altogether there were nine of us.

Here we go, up through the mountain range between the coast and Oaxaca City.

And down again. The only rain we saw that day was pouring down on Miahuatlan, where I had my first teaching gig not so long ago. We drove by and the sky cleared.

Lunch break half an hour outside Oaxaca. We were ready.


Huajuapan! We made it! Phew!





Here we are at the beautiful UTM (Universidad Tecnologica de la Mixteca)campus. As with all of the state universities of Oaxaca, the architecture is based on a similar plan but they have some unique touches and the landscaping is sweet, with lots of pine and cedar and a small stream.



I may look a tad goofy in this shot but Caryl looks nice. In the previous shot, she looked terrified and I looked more than a little menacing.

Here I am again with the pretty photographer from Puerto Angel.


Matt and I found a discreet place to sneak a smoke by a little bridge that led to the library.

Downtown Juajuapan by the zocalo.

The zocalo has two of these cute push merry-go-rounds. It must be tough getting children off them again when it`s time to home again.



Dinner at Ajo`s.

Tragedy at Beta Centauro: Caught in an Insecticide Crossfire

My new apartment came with some pets. I loved the geckos. It was the little ants I couldn't stand. If I had taken Mike's advice, my little geckos would still be alive today. All I had to do was keep the place scrupulously clean and the ants would have skipped town.
The previous tenants didn't seem to mind the hive living right in the bamboo of the table frame. I took care of that with a liberal spray of Windex. They all came tearing out, holding little eggs over their heads. Pssst. Have a little more.
I didn't have enough patience so I bought a big can of insecticide, potent stuff guaranteed to kill cockroaches, ants and spiders. Sadly it kills geckos too. They might want to put that on the label some day.

I found the biggest of them all dried up on my window sill, newly arrived ants crawling all over him. I haven't found the bug sized babies. Maybe they escaped but I doubt it.
As reptiles go, most people would agree that geckos are cute as they come. They eat ants. Well, they weren't doing nearly a good enough job at my place. Still, they were cute and now they aren't

Scary Carretera to Zipolite

A good night sleep makes all the difference between a great or mediocre day so all weekend plans are dependent on when my eyes open without the insistent nagging from the voice alarm woman. A late morning just means smaller activities. Last Sunday I woke comfortably before dawn. The night before I’d thought about running the scooter down to Zipolite with my boogie board and the idea still sounded good so I ate quickly and got out the door just as it was turning light.
I’d had a terrifying ride on that road before, on a day trip to San Augustin, and I was counting on the early hour to cut down the traffic this time. It worked. Anyone wanting to make a run from Crucecita to Zipolite or Mazunte, all you have to do is get out early. Once you pass the airport, things are saner any time of day.
The entire trip took about an hour and 15 minutes with 3 stops to let the engine cool.
This was my first stop. I heard what sounded like the rumble of thunder but kept going. It could have been anything.

Zipolite has a new park area with a beach style gazebo.

The place was deserted.

Just a couple of cool dogs near Lola’s.

The water was high and rough for my cautious tastes. I wonder if that isn’t a seasonal thing. I made a beeline for this beach last year at this time when I returned from Korea and it was the same.
It’s been a while since I played in the waves and I was out there long enough to get a good burn on my back. Idiot. Even water proof sun screen needs frequent applications in the Pacific Ocean. A lifelong burner should be able tor emember that.
A big wave sweeping up to the restaurants with a current that insistently pulled me towards some rocks was my signal to pack it in. That much wave play gives a boy an appetite and I almost swallowed a substantial meal whole at Shambhala. The rumbling I’d heard earlier had been thunder. Clouds over the mountains were looking serious. It was time to go. I still don’t have a helmet and rain drops have a nasty slap when the scooter's in motion.
My muffler had come apart and the bike blatted so loud it wasn’t worth trying to listen to the MP3 player. At least there was plenty of warning of my approach at tight bends for any children chasing balls on to the road. I got caught in some rain but raced away from it and kept those clouds behind me. No coffee breaks for the machine this time. I made it home alive with an hour to spare before sundown.
I had such a great day and that was all on less than one tank of gas. I went to fill it on Monday, figuring it had to be as dry as William Burroughs, but I could have run it back and forth to UMAR all week.

Into the Black

Around spring, we had a lot of newborn lizards and iguanas running around in bright green at UMAR. They're changing. This one will be entirely black soon enough. They grow up so fast.

Swarm Blackout Parade

I was doing my best to upload the blog from Casa Mayor on the night before Mexican Independence Day when a little parade with beauty queens and marching school children came by in downtown Crucecita.


Just at dusk that night we had a blackout. These birds swarm the downtown telephone lines every night at this hour for some reason. It´s quite a phenomenon. Local store owners give a little clap and they flap around before lighting again. Maybe you have to be there. It´s a bit of a show and there are nightly performances all year long.

Morning after in Tehuantepec

Plans had been made for a few more excursions in Tehuantepec on Sunday but everything changed when the rain. It was going to be an all day event and we all knew it so I didn´t hear from Victor or Misael until lunchtime.
Realizing they decided to stay in bed, I went off in search of coffee. I found a stall in the market where a woman fixed me up with some Nescafe. It was a start.

I found this great little restaurant called ´´Coffee Something or other". Just what I needed. I took a special shine to all the old framed lobby posters from Mexican cinema. Cool stuff. Have a look.







The one non-Mexican movie poster was for "Dracula, Prince of Darkness," 1966, a personal favorite of the old Hammer films and possibly the best of all the Christopher Lee movies. In Spanish we have "Dracula, Principe de las Tieneblas"

The rain kept coming. It was time to say goodbye and hit the road. The bus was ready within thirty seconds of buying my ticket and I was back in Crucecita where it had barely rained all day.