San Agustinillo

Hello faithful readers,

On March 7 we left Oaxaca city and took a 40 minute flight to Huatulco on the Oaxacan coast.  From there it was a one hour cab ride to the sleepy, scenic beach town of San Agustinillo. We had a room on the second floor of La Termita which is a palapa style posada/restaurant which is right on the beach.  Here's a picture from the beach and from our patio.

Here's some more pictures

One of the more exciting things to watch at this peaceful beach was the local boatmen launching and landing their "lanchas" into the surf

This video of a landing has a dramatic conclusion.

We flew from Huatulco to Hermosillo on March 15th and caught a bus to Tucson on the 16th.  We're enjoying our visit with our daughter Katie and we'll be starting our drive back to New York on the 23rd.  We're both ready to be home and decided to skip our planned stop in Myrtle Beach.

I hope you've enjoyed sharing this trip with us.

There is no paradise

I recently spent  hours watching Bob Dylan videos on You Tube.  I found myself doing this after I read a New York Times article about how a previously unknown vast collection of his archives has been acquired for $15 to $20 million by a group of Oklahoma institutions. The Times was allowed to preview this collection and the article contains photos of some of  original typed and hand corrected lyrics.  Fascinating and important.

Watching the videos I was, again, struck by, what appears to me to be,  his absolute refusal to play by other peoples rules.  I believe he is trying to live his life with as much authenticity possible despite the incessant, twisting glare of fame that seems to constantly try to define and diminish him.  He seems to be constantly fighting to stay as alive as possible trying to remain open to new ideas, insights, and vehicles of expression despite the baggage the world will never let him leave behind.  He's one of my heroes both for the art he has made and the life that he has lived.

What's this have to do with Mexico and me?  The connection I'm feeling is about honesty.  Bob, once again, reminded me of the importance of trying to see and express things as they really are.  Not to have living become some semblance of reality buffered and distorted by expectations or desires.

I've enjoyed writing about this trip we're on but I feel that I'm not giving you the real scoop.  I want you to be part of this trip with me and I think I fear that you'll bail if it gets too real.  Quoting John Prine (another hero of mine) "you know I could of had me a million more friends, and all I had to do was lose my point of view."  This hesitation seems especially strong this time around.  I think it has to do with the fact that I specifically invited friends and family to read this blog as the trip progressed. I never have done something like that before and I think it has made me more gun shy than usual.

So, thanks to Bob's inspiration, I'm going to share some stuff I haven't been writing about that may be a little too unvarnished for some of you.

I'm ready to come home.  We've been traveling for six weeks now and still have three to four weeks of travel left but the truth is, right now,  I'd rather be home in Endicott sitting in the basement singing, and playing my Guild six string, seeing and hugging my daughter,  having lunch with friends and going to church.  Crazy.  I spent months in deep,  heavy,  planning  and expectation for this trip but now its reached the point where it's more about going back than going away.  This doesn't mean the trip has been a bust.  For the most part it's been wonderful.  I feel guilty telling you that I'd like to be home.  It oddly feels like a confession of failure. On the bright side, maybe that's one of the big reasons for going away.  It helps you appreciate being home.

We're flying to the Pacific coast on Monday and spending a week in a beach-front room in the small village of San Agustinillo.  I'll try to suffer through it. ;)

We've been sick a lot.  
Our lungs have felt crappy since we've been in Oaxaca.  This is probably a combination of fumes from lots of street traffic and the 5000 ft elevation.  I had to use my Albuterol inhaler a lot more than usual and both of us have had to spend a couple of days in bed because of lung issues.  I also was sick with a stomach virus for  most of last week.  I'll spare you the details.

We're probably not coming back to Oaxaca next year.  
This is a hard realization and admission.  I'd previously thought that this would be our "home away from home" that we'd gradually spend more and more time here as we walked into the sunset.  Not happening.  Reality trumps fantasy once again.  Reasons?

Air pollution is probably not going to improve and our lungs will be more vulnerable each year.

Realization that "friends" at the hotel we've been returning to each year will probably never be more than acquaintances that we see for awhile during our time here.  It's a hard fact of life, at least for me,  that the real intimacy that I long for with others requires an investment of time and effort that's just not in the cards for these trips.  We've met some wonderful people and it will be sad if we don't see them again but not sad enough to make us return.

The hotel we've been staying at remains affordable and very pleasant.  The staff are warm and helpful and it's located in a very convenient part of town.  This year, however, for the first time we've run into problems making reservations for the following year.  Initially we were told we had a room reserved for February, 2017.  Yesterday I received an email from the hotel saying we've been placed on a waiting list for next year.  I had an awkward and unpleasant conversation with a hotel staff person about this.  Not sure what's going on.  We've loved staying here but will probably not return.

Trump
I literally feel sick to my stomach when I think about him and his campaign.  Vulgar.  Ugly.  Last night I let my guard down and watched the Republican debate.  He proudly announced that he would reinstitute torture that would go beyond waterboarding and he would have no compunction about targeting a terrorists family.  How vile.   The Mexicans, Canadians and Europeans I've met are afraid and confused by his popularity.  So am I.  My hope is that the end product of this descent into darkness will be a resurrection and strengthening of our democratic principles.  That hope has grown rather dim lately.

Yes, there is no paradise,  no blissful escape from reality and, for me, the deepening of that realization is another gift of travel.

I hope you and the people you love are happy and well.

Travel adventure to San Agustin de Etla

There's a nine hole golf course about ten miles outside of town. It's the only one within 200 miles and the online reviews have been mostly negative.  I'm a golfer and I haven't golfed since we were in Tucson, about a month ago.  I didn't expect to golf while in Mexico and didn't bring any golf gear..  And golf involves mucho gear.  I didn't think I  wanted to go through the hassle and expense of renting clubs and buying balls, gloves, tees, etc. but the fact that there's a course in these Mexican hinterlands was getting under my skin. I wanted to at least see the course.

This past Sunday Dorothy and I took a local bus (7 pesos each, about 40 cents) to the city's biggest market, Abastos, which is in a poorer section of town and famous for the number of gringos who get robbed there.  From there we had to wind our way through a cavernous mercado to find the "collectivo" site.  These are vehicles which look just like taxis that go out to the villages surrounding city.  They don't leave until they're full - usually four or five adults and a couple of kids.  We rode with a mother, father and an infant.  About a half hour ride ($1.50).

The air polllution was bad and it seemed worse as it poured into open windows when we were stuck in traffic.  (Both Dorothy and I have had some respiratory issues while here and we think the poor air quality is a big contributing factor.  We fear that this may be the "fly in the ointment" re future trips.)

Area surrounding city core marked by lots of trash on side of road and grafitti scrawls on any available space.  Steep hillsides with houses piled on one another looked very vulnerable in this seismically rich area.

Eventually turned on to a bucolic road with plowed fields and wooded glens leading to San Agustin de Etla.  San Agustin is well known for its Center for the Arts (CASA). This 1883 textile "hacienda" was recently restored with the help of a major grant by Francisco Toledo.  (Toledo is an extraordinary contemporary Mexican/Oaxacan artist.  I encourage you to click on the link to see samples of his work)

 Here is his "Death of a Monkey" painting.

There were no Toledo works on display at the CASA unfortunately but there was an exceptional photography exhibit of the works of  Mary Ellen Mark who died in May of last year.  Ms. Mark was a world class photographer who called Oaxaca her second home. I was deeply moved by her photos. Here's a link to her obituary in the New York Times  and a copy of a photograph she took of the Damm family in Los Angeles in 1987

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Dorothy and I left the CASA and decided to reach for even higher cultural heights by trying to find the golf course.  We eventually got a collectivo to drop us off at the entrance to the "Club de Golf Vista Hermosa".  The driver said that when we were ready to go back to Oaxaca all we had to do was to stand in the road to wave down a passing collectivo. No problema.

The golf course/club was underwhelming.  The parking lot was empty and the club house virtually deserted except for a man counting money in a darkened office and two women in white uniforms standing behind a snack bar counter.  Their beautiful, welcoming smiles seemed out of place.   The course was mainly a dried out brown and the lone tennis court suffered from a torn, dripping net.  The whole operation had clearly seen better days.  We shared a bottle of Victoria beer as we stared across the barren ninth hole fairway.  I decided to pass on golf while in Oaxaca.

9th fairway at Club de Golf Vista Hermosa

We worked our way across the abandoned parking lot back to the road.  There was little traffic on this hot Sunday afternoon as we anxiously sat waiting for a collectivo on a shaded curb.  After around ten minutes a new, shiny, big, SUV came down the road from the residential area that surrounded the golf course.  The SUV stopped next to us and after a few moments a darkened window opened and a smiling woman asked us what we were doing.  We explained and she and her male companion laughed kindly at our predicament and offered to drive us to a place near Oaxaca where we could get a taxi.  Without a bit of hesitation we hopped into the air conditioned, leather back seat.  The couple turned out to be real estate agents who spent a lot of time during the trip trying to convince us to buy a house on the golf course but we also talked politics, both US and Mexico and travel.  They had been to many of the places in Europe that we had visited.  It was an interesting, comfortable ride and a good opportunity to interact with republicanesque, wealthy Mexicans who happened to be as kind and warm as all the other Mexicans we have met.  They dropped us off on the outskirts of the city at a taxi stand and the ride back to the hotel was 50 pesos.  All in all a rich, fun, adventurous day.

Hasta pronto!

Cuanto cuesta?

If I was a regular reader of this blog I'm pretty sure I'd be wondering what is it costing Ferd and Dot to do all this gallivanting around?  This vulgar topic is usually avoided by people of fine-tuned sensibilities but since I don't fit that category I'll dive right in.

Part of my motivation for broaching this sensitive topic is to show that we're not recklessly pissing away our daughters' inheritance but pissing it away very responsibly :)  I also hope this down and dirty money talk will  show that this type of international/intercultural experience can be very affordable and worthy of consideration by even the most frugal/penny pinching traveler.

I'm going to limit this discussion of costs to the six week Mexican portion of our trip.  I figure you're all fairly well versed on travel costs in the U.S. (all numbers listed below are for two senior travelers)

For many people traveling to Oaxaca the largest expense is airfare.  The straight round trip cost of Binghamton to Oaxaca varies widely but we've usually been able to find tickets for about $800 per person.

There are many ways to reduce this significantly

Fly directly out of a major hub such as Newark.

Use frequent flier miles (I use a United Mileage Plus Chase credit card to pay for just about everything and often have enough miles for "free" trips.)

Fly into Mexico City and then take a bus to Oaxaca. (Two adults can fly round trip to Mexico City out of JFK on Volaris for about $850 total.  Flight leaves at 2:30 AM.  Mexican first class buses are cheap and very comfortable.  Probably would have to spend night in Mexico City).

Cross into Mexico by land and then take a less expensive Mexican domestic flight.  On this trip we drove to Tucson and took a bus to Hermosillo ($54) and then an Interjet flight to Oaxaca via Mexico City. (about $330 with senior discount).    This route also meant staying in a hotel in Hermosillo ($45).  We will be flying from Oaxaca to Huatulco on March 7 on TAR airlines ($94) spending a week on the Pacific coast in San Agustinillo ($60/night) and then flying Interjet from Hualtuco to Hermosillo($320).   We'll spend a night in Hermosillo ($40) before catching a five hour bus back to Tucson ($54).  Again, these are the prices for two travelers.

As I noted in an earlier post,  the Mexican domestic flights we've taken have been significantly better than US domestic flights.

Another angle to reduce air fare may be to make a reservation via a Mexican web site.  I just went to Expedia's Mexican site and found fares that seemed to be hundreds of dollars less than their US site.  I'll need to explore this more.

Once in Oaxaca things are very inexpensive relative to prices in the states.   Our hotel room is costing us about $30 per night.  This includes a light breakfast,  daily maid service and a friendly, warm atmosphere.  As I've reported in previous posts, this is our fourth year at this same hotel and it feels like a home away from home.

We usually have one main meal in the afternoon (comida corrida).  Most restaurants have a special rate for this daily meal which usually includes a fruit drink, appetizer, main course and desert.  Usually about 60 pesos each.  So our total cost is about $6.50 US dollars with the dollar currently worth about 19 pesos.  An incredible value.

Every once in awhile we'll splurge and go to a fancy restaurant in the evening where meals will be double the comida corrida cost.  Last night we took a taxi (40 pesos/$2.11) to one of the fancier hotels in town (Hotel Victoria) to sit on their patio, watch the moon rise,  and have margaritas and tostadas (230 pesos/$12.10).  A very romantic, enjoyable evening. Cab back to the hotel was 50 pesos/$2.64).  So this splurge, special night out, cost us about $17.

We rarely spend more than $50 a day here including hotel.  Usually it's closer to $40.

I hope you're not too bored by this financial minutiae but the fact is this is a very real and important part of the travel experience.  The strong dollar has made the Mexico portion of this years trip significantly less expensive.  Last year the dollar was worth 14 pesos...about a 26% change from the current rate of 19 pesos per dollar.

The total cost of our six weeks in Mexico, including transportation to and from Tucson will be around $4000.  Worth every penny to me.

 I hope you find this information helpful and interesting.

Walking the streets of Oaxaca

We have now been in Oaxaca for 19 days.  One of our favorite activities is simply walking the city streets.  Although this is endlessly entertaining and interesting it can also be a tricky... It demands full attention not only while crossing busy streets but also while taking each step.  These "sidewalk" pictures speak for themselves...

But the upside far outweighs these potential pitfalls. Here's some more pictures of street art we've seen this year.

It seems all walks end up sooner or later at the heart of the city...the zocalo.  Here's a short video taken about 7 PM this past Wednesday.  It will hopefully give you a sense of the vitality of this wonderful part of the city.

Next post  -- How much do things cost?

Intercambio y lecciones en espanol con Jacob

Hola lectores fieles,

Okay, I'll stop with the Spanish.  I realize it can be annoying to non-Spanish speakers.  The fact is I love to speak and write Spanish and it's one of the great joys of being in Oaxaca.  I'm not sure why it's so fun and satisfying but it is.

Each Saturday morning there is an "Intercambio" at the Oaxaca Lending Library which is next door to our hotel.   This is a two hour language practice event where Mexicans who want to improve their English are randomly paired with people learning Spanish.  The session involves one hour of English conversation and one hour of Spanish.  I've attended two of these so far and there have been about fifty or sixty people each time.

At my first Intercambio session  I was paired with a 29 y.o. woman from a village about an hour bus ride from the library.  (I'll call her Rosa.  I don't want to use her real name without her permission.) Rosa has a masters degree in business administration and teaches at a local university.  Her goal is to get a PhD at a university in the US.  She is the youngest in her family and all of her siblings, three brothers and three sisters are already in the states working.  Rosa was raised in a Zapotec speaking village and she heard very little Spanish as a child.  English is her third language and she's pretty good at it.  Rosa said she would only see her father about one month a year when she was growing up because he was working in California but now he has a US work permit and comes back home six months a year.  Rosa was bright, friendly, open and very focused on her goals.  I found an hour long intense conversation in Spanish to be exhausting but a great chance to improve my skills and get a chance to have some in-depth communication with a local resident.

This past Saturday I was paired with a young man I'll call Pedro.  Pedro was a twenty-one y.o.  university student whose goal is to teach Spanish to English speakers.  He currently is involved with his "national service."  As I understand it this is a six month to one year obligation for all young Mexicans.  Pedro's service involves work in an isolated Mixtec community in the Sierra mountains about three hours from Oaxaca. The primary language in the village is Mixtec.  Travel to the village involves a two hour bus ride,  then a half hour taxi ride and a twenty minute walk.   He says the road into the village is so primitive that the taxi will not take him the last several miles.  He spends five days a week in this community helping teen age students with their studies and comes back to his home in Oaxaca for the weekend.  A British woman joined us for this session because there were more English speakers than Spanish.   One of the most memorable moments for me was when the discussion turned to violence and gun control.  Pedro brought up the mass killing of children at Sandy Hook in Connecticut and he and the woman became very passionate about how strongly they felt about this outrage and how utterly astounded and bewildered they were by this and other acts of violence in the US.  I felt uncomfortable and ashamed.  My attempts to explain the political realities around gun control legislation only made me more conscious of how morally bankrupt our national response has been to these tragedies.

This session with Pedro (and the Brit), like my time with Rosa, was richly rewarding.  My biggest take away is a deeper appreciation and understanding of what is meant by the term "human family."
Maybe that's the core reason for my joy in learning Spanish.

Last week I started taking private language classes.  My first class with Jacob was two hours.  It was wonderful but way too long for a concentration challenged 68 year old. By the middle of the second hour my mind was shooting blanks.  Today's one hour session was a big improvement.   For our class together we meet in a cafe,  drink capuccino, and chat in Spanish.  When I make a mistake he writes it down but lets me finish my thought before offering me a correction.  A nice technique. Jacob is very  sincere, smart and open.  I'm enjoying these sessions tremendously.  Here's his picture.

Thanks for reading.

License sidebar

Dorothy and I have been keeping track of the different license plates we've seen on this trip.  It's been a fun diversion.  At this point we've seen 45 US states and the District of Columbia.  Missing states are  North Dakota, Wyoming, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.  We hoping to pick them up on our trip back east in March although N. Dakota and Wyoming could be tricky.  We also have 18 Mexican states and 6 Canadian provinces.  Two of the most exciting plates were...

and

We know how to have fun!

Dark side

Of course traveling to some exotic locale doesn't mean escaping from life's harsh realities.  Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico with about 78% of its population living below the poverty line.  We often see poor families on the street, asking for money.  The deep-rooted corruption in Mexico is probably at work in Oaxaca but as privileged tourists we are buffered from a direct impact - so far.

Violence is real.  The two main local papers try to outdo each other with graphic photos of people injured or killed in accidents or assassinations.  Very shocking to see public displays of such carnage. It seems that the option to be violent is somehow more likely here - the potential for violence seems closer to the surface (Since writing this Dorothy has noted that my perspective is limited to a basically white surburban reality and someone from the inner city in the US might have a very different take on this.)

Two days ago we were in the zocalo (town plaza) where a left-wing group was having a conference under a huge tent.  Walking around the perimeter of this tent were men with "palos" (sticks) and machetes.  One of the machete wielders gave me a hard glance that make it clear this was no game.

The following day's newspaper said that  the group had "retained" six federal police officers who were photographing the event.  There were pictures of the uniformed policemen being "escorted" to a location several blocks away from the event where they were released.  The event's organizers were quoted as saying this was a deliberate attempt by the government to provoke a violent response.

Here's a picture I took last year of a group of men carrying "palos" confronting a motocyclist who was attempting to go down a street they were blockading.


I've been sick with a cold for the past few days and this is probably coloring the tone of this post. It's just that in retrospect all I've written about this trip so far seems so predictable and, frankly, boring.  To me any way.  I feel compelled to try to strip away some of the "niceness" and try to write about things that feel more real, compelling and challenging.  We'll see.

Feeling a bit bettter today and Dorothy and I are on our way out the door to experience another day in this complex, beautiful city.  Adelante!

Settling in

We are now about to enter the fourth week of our escapade.  We have just completed our first week in Oaxaca at the Las Mariposas hotel and plan to be here another three weeks. This is our fourth year in Oaxaca and it's magic and charm feel as strong as ever.  Our days are filled with

Long walks through the always interesting city streets, markets and parks....

Our iphones keep track of our walking mileage and we're averaging between four and five miles a day.  Crossing the street can be tricky but otherwise its interesting, fun and healthy.  We haven't been to any of Oaxaca's top notch museums yet this year but we plan to soon. 

During our morning walk we usually stop at a cafe for some snacks and some of Oaxaca's wonderful coffee. 

Other activities include...

Art classes for Dorothy two days a week.

Spanish lessons.  I'm starting private Spanish lessons on Thursday.

Swimming.  I found a pool a few blocks away from the hotel.

Lectures.  Our hotel is right next to the Oaxaca Lending Library which sponsors almost daily events geared toward English speaking visitors.  Last night we went to a presentation about efforts to save the Mixtec language in the village of Totontepec, 

Wild parties.  Last Saturday night there was a birthday party for Teresa, the owner of our hotel, Las Mariposas.  I was asked to play guitar and it worked out great.  Here's some pics.  

Dancing to La Bamba

I trust all of this is not to over stimulating for you and hope all is well wherever you are. 

Oaxaca

Caught an early morning Interjet flight from Hermosillo to Oaxaca via Mexico City.  It seemed like there was almost twice as much leg room on these planes.  Free top shelf booze was also notable.  A big step up from US flights.  Planes had video cameras attached to bottom of plane to show live take off and landing. Exciting.

90 degrees when we "touched down" in Oaxaca (not quite the right expression for our very hard landing.)  Our return to Las Mariposas hotel was warm and comfortable.  It is our fourth year staying at this wonderful place and the hugs, smiles and 'bienvenidos' from guests and staff made us feel immediately at home.

Late afternoon dinner of fish with mezcal and Margaritas topped off a full and satisfying day.

I'm now writing this on Wednesday, February 3, while sitting in the patio outside our room.  In the middle of the patio there is a tall, stone wall that has water continually dripping down its side.  It's covered with mosses, ferns and other plants and attracts all sorts of birds and other animals.

 I sit here each morning drinking coffee and casually trying to identify the birds. Birds seen include Nashville, Virginia and Yellow-rumped warblers as well as many difficult to identify hummingbirds.  Very peaceful place.

Not so peaceful was the very large political march that was going on in the street outside the hotel while I was luxuriating with the birds.  Several thousand people filed by chanting and carrying flags. The most common flag was the red, hammer and sickle flag of the Communist Party.  I saw a similar march downtown yesterday.  No one I talked to seemed to know what the march was about.
Radical left wing politics appears to be alive, if not well, in southern Mexico.  This is a picture of the tail end of the march.

Another sign of political vitality is the quality of the writing and cartoons in the local and national newspapers.  The in-depth information and analysis seems significantly more sophisticated than in the US.  Here's a cartoon that ran in yesterday's "Reforma."

Here  a video of some Oaxaca street scenes that I put together with photos from last year's trip. The video's main focus is the street art one finds all over the city.The music in this video is Gracias A La Vida written by Violeta Parra and sung by Mercedes Sosa.  

 I'm not sure how often I'm going to be writing during the coming weeks.  I find myself entering "vacation mode" - becoming very relaxed and rather indifferent about accomplishing anything.  I think that's a good thing. 

Thanks for reading.