Azufrera Panamericana

Is now Mexichem.  Getting there we passed the school, made the curve to the left past the avocado tree where mom and I got our windshield broken.  Over the railroad tracks and then nothing was right.  Met a guard, begged, showed him the pictures I brought from the 60's of the houses and mom sitting in the guest house. No, no, no.  Workers were beginning to gather and I could see it was turning into a power play and I could not win with the guys looking on.

We turned around and I called Vicky Prince's husband so we could find our way to her house.  As we drove back by the school, there he was standing in the driveway to receive us.  Adorable, darling man.  MariaElena was there, Vicky was flying in from Houston that night.  Soon, here came Nacho, the baby brother.  I remember changing his diaper.  He is a "facilitator" Exactly Like His Dad.  He made some calls and off we went.  Same guard dude, same workers.  In like Flynt.  I felt bad as the guard dude took some ribbing.  Oh well.

Here is our house.  It was bigger then.

As you can see, they have taken out all the windows and doors and cabinets.  They are refurbishing them.  Even tiling over this:

Presidente Calderon came to inaugurate the new plant.  When he came to review the thing, they toured him on the one completed house.  The house of Richard Mills.

Vicky's husband is a chef and fixed us dinner.  Went home to our hotel, be it ever so humble and got up the next morning to have breakfast with them.  Took a tour of the school.  Was a fun experience as you can see by these.

The kids were great, wearing the same uniforms we wore.  La directora has kept a good historical record of the school, pics I will upload later.

Now it is 930pm, we have to get up at 5:30am to fly home tomorrow.  Hope to see you soon!
xo xoxo

Getting Weirder

We drove towards town, looking for the square.  I already knew the church was going to be different, but when we reached the square it was shady, full of little planters and very different from the wide open rollerskating arena of my childhood.  I'd already told Ev about the big Olmec head in front of the municipal building.  This is what we saw.

First of all, he's in the Wrong Place. Second of all, they painted his eyes blue!  Third of all, it was cool and breezy.  People were wearing sweaters, which explains some of the mystery I've experienced looking at pictures of myself as a kid in sweaters.  The zocalo was full of people out enjoying the weather. 

We quickly (ha ha) found our 16 dollar a night motel, threw our shitcases in, found our travel cooziees, bought four beers and made our way to the plant.

But right now Ev is waiting for me to walk to the market so I will leave you with this-the plant is under high seguridad and we couldn't get in.

Surreal

We left San Cristobal this morning at 10, the appointed hour.  It was cool and cloudy, the drive was cuota most of the way, and absolutely stunning.  Farmland, rivers, lakes-really pretty. 

Tunes are playing, windows are down, chauffeur in good spirits.

As we approached Jaltipan, the ice cream turned to shit right away.  We were unceremoniously dumped off the cuoata onto a pot holed, traffic choked screaming mimi of a mess.  Not a freaking sign in sight.  Map was wrong.  Ev was cussing. Fumes were giving me a headache.  Strangers were solicited for help.  Hats were removed and heads were scratched.  In a fit of frustration, Ev said, "we're just gonna keep going and you can call your friends and tell them we couldn't find the place." I nodded in total agreement. "Let's get the hell out of here", I thought. In a last ditch effort to find my hometown, we swung off into a ditch to ask some local cops where the heck we were.  Getting back in the car smiling, I noticed this:

San Cristobal, at the end of the day

The internet here is spotty, too frustrating and time consuming.  We had a great day (rated only good by those with hurty feet) walking all over town.  Ev requested a no drive day if possible.  We started with an excellent breakfast and long chat with our hostess, Margaret, owner of Casa Bolomchon.  She's lived here 16 years, and in this house 5 years.  Delightful.  We had lots of questions for her and she was gracious in answering them.  Her house is in the old part of town, built in the Mexican tradition: an unassuming front gate that opens into a courtyard with rooms all around the edges. She only rents one room in her compound, and everywhere you look is a gorgeous little detail.  I think the pictures above are clickable.



The main thing I was interested in seeing today was the Na Bolom Foundation.  Franz Blom was Danish Archeologist who came here in the early days and fell in love with the area and indigenous tribes.  He and his wife Gertrude look like my kind of people.  Ev wants me to include that Franz was a card carrying member of the Explorers Club.  That got him all excited.  This is a picture of the courtyard of their home that has now been turned into the foundation headquarters.

This is her jewelry box and the contents of one of her trunks.  I love being allowed to nose around in other people's stuff.

San Cristobal was downright cold.  The indigenous people were all wrapped up in wool, many wearing heavy wool tufted skirts called "bear skirts".  Never got to ask if they actually were bear.  We walked up to see another working museum of Mayan medicine.  Plants are being grown and distilled in this location that are known to be used for healing.  Rituals are being documented.  These people were in a ceremony being led by a shaman. The floor was covered in pine needles and everything used is symbolic.  Later we saw huge bags of pine needles being sold at the market.

It was a full day, tomorrow we drive to Jaltipan to see what we can see...by the way, those women are actually mannequins.  Made you look.

It's a 7 hour drive and Susan wants fried chicken

So the road from Huatulco to San Cristobal was beautiful.  Much of it toll.  So beautiful and so easy that we took a couple of small detours.  Is that salt pans I see over there?  Let's go see...It was salt pans, and then another beautiful, clean little beach.


Wait...are those mangos hanging from that tree?  Why, yes they are.....

Not quite ripe....

Until we get to the mango capital of the world....

As we left Huatulco in the morning, we got an aviso that the road to the airport was closed due to striking teachers.  We avoided that road, but as we approached the new toll road from Tuxtla to San Cristobal we ran into another roadblock, had to make a u-turn and drive in on the old road.  Curvas peligrosas in heavy traffic coming and going.  And to make it even more interesting, a cloud descended on us and we were in pretty heavy fog.  Lots of beautiful native women with wood piled high on their heads walking along the side of the road with NO SHOULDER.  Wish I could have taken a picture, but I was too busy clenching and puckering.
Arrived here in good spirits, will post up more pics of this delightful home later.  Right now, there are adventures to be had and I can hear Ev folding the map.  These were taken early this morning before the rooster crowed.

In the sad chair...

Leaving the beach this morning, headed to San Cristobal.  Will be close to 8 hours in the car, not sure about internet there.  Grannies: don't worry if I don't post right away.  Heard about the killings in Juarez.  We are not there.
xo

From my viewpoint under the palapa

When mama's happy, everybody happy...

My boss, Marty, was skeptical when I told him we were staying in Puerto Angel.  Last night, sweaty, stinky night; I saw what he meant.

Viva Mexico's options!  Last time I stayed at a Camino Real, Pop complained the bar bill was higher than the room bill....gonna be hard to make me pack up and leave here.

Before we settled in, we dropped a shitcase full of laundry off to be done downtown.  Seven kilos of laundry to be exact.  Paying around 5 dollars to have it washed.  Sure hope they iron Ev's Savers T-shirts.

Curvas Peligrosas, Camino Sinuoso=blech

Thank goodness for the barf watch, dialed up a notch ever time Ev exclaimed, "What a set of awesome linked curves! I could dog this on my (insert name of motorcycle here)."  Arrived in time to see the sun set on the Pacific and dip my toes in.  Verdict? Chilly!  Had a plate of seafood and watched as the SS Luisito brought in about 75 pounds of fish for the restaurant.

Verdict on the hotel still out.  Have no hot water and no a/c and no reading light and no mattress pad.  Trying to keep my happy face on.

Today on the drive up (to 9000 feet) and down, I saw a cloud forest, a blue bird, a red bird, pink trees, yellow blossoms and a black bird with a head like woodpecker.  On the drive down to sea level, didn't see a thing.  Just concentrated on not losing my cookies.

This is a picture of the cloud forest we were soon to drive through.

Will post pics tomorrow.  I seem to have left my camera in the car.  Possibly under the seat where it undoubtedly  slid during a Curva Peligrosa.

Mitla Valley

We intended to get up early this morning and make our way to Monte Alban before the sun got too hot and the crowds got too thick.  We (I) slept in a little and we lingered over breakfast with our tablemates and didn't leave the house until almost 9:30.  Seemed like there was some fishing going on at breakfast for car sharing, thank goodness I didn't bite, because 5 minutes en route to the hot and dusty pyramids, we flipped a U-turn and drove to the Mitla Valley to spend the day instead.  It's the part of Oaxaca known for it's textiles, and on our way back I commented to Ev what a wonderful day it had been and he said, "of course it was, we got loot."

I have a picture of myself standing in front of this giant Tule tree as a kid-back in the day you could stand on it's roots.  The clever little kid was using a mirror to reflect light, pointing out tree parts resembling squirrel tails, cobra heads and the like.

We took a detour off the main road to check out a little town with a little church with a little interesting history.  Met this delightful guy who studies in Mexico DF and is repainting the inside of the church.  The tints are are natural pigments made from the very same things that are used to dye the rugs.  Each of the angel faces on the ceiling of this church are different.  Click on the pics to enjoy them in their full glory.

Thank you, Roman Catholics, for the ostentatious and slightly scary displays of goodness.

So, we wended our way into Teotitlan, a little village known for it's wool arts.  As we drove through the town, Ev kept saying, "wow, this sure is a quiet place."  It turns out, the entire village was on the church grounds celebrating something having to do with a bloody Jesus and free horchata for all in plastic cups that were reused over and over again.  The wool museum that I was wanting to see was closed, but we were befriended by a lady who took us to her home to show us in real life how the wool is cleaned, carded, spun, dyed and woven into the most vibrant rugs you've ever seen.  It was a remarkable experience and we thanked her by overpaying for two of her rugs.  Didn't figure it out until halfway through nap time this afternoon.  A little slow on the uptake, we are.

It's Friday night and I hear fireworks going off on the zocalo, discussing now what our appetizer will be.  Missed a mole opportunity today in favor of a regrettable chile relleno on our field trip today.  Have to make up for it tonight.

Beach tomorrow!

Oaxaca, Day One

Well, kind of like the Semrad habit of going to look at houses right at dusk, it has become a Sewell habit to arrive in strange cities after dark full of certainty we can navigate to our first night's lodging with no problems.  We forget between vacations how little signage exists outside the US.  Last night we finally paid a taxi driver five dollars to lead us out of a maze of one-way streets into another maze of cobble-stoned alleyways to our dear sweet haven.  Plain black iron door in an alleyway opened up to this lovely courtyard.

Had a hot shower, jumped in the bed and woke up to a beautiful day.  God bless Ev, he was game to get back in the car and take me to La Cuna de Alebrijes:

This little girl had a pet parrot named Tito who followed her everywhere.  She took it upon herself to be our personal tour guide of her family's workshop and demonstrate their wares while I struggled to make decisions.

The towns around Oaxaca each choose a day to host a big market. We drove to Thursday's market, had lunch, and checked out the food.  Vats of mole paste, mounds of bread, slabs of chicharron.... See the sweet little face in the bottom of the image below?  I was speaking to her in Spanish, asking her to advise me on which paste to buy and how to prepare it.  She was answering me in a language I'd never heard.  Later found out it was Zapotec.  Never mind,  we understood each other perfectly.

 The drink came from the big vat to the left of my elbow-made of corn juice and chocolate.  Not worth the calories, had to wash it down with a Corona.  We had lunch at the counters behind me-I had a chile relleno and black beans.  Ev had chicken mole.  Excellent meal.

Tonight we walked down to the zocalo and listened to a band playing Strauss waltzes.  Churches and payasos.

It's bedtime, and I have a date will Wallace Stegner tonight.  Monte Alban tomorrow.