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.

Tucson to Hermosillo

Easy, smooth trip in a Tufesa bus from Tucson to Hermosillo.  At the border, driver was very helpful pointing us in right direction to get our "permiso"  (tourist visa) from Mexican immigration. ($22/389 pesos each).  City of Nogales, Mexico viewed from the bus was very uninviting.  Bus had comfortable seats and the bathrooms.  Drop down airplane type TVs blaring "Money Ball" with dubbed Spanish competing with driver's iphone Norteno music made the five hour trip sonically challenging.  Earplugs would have been great. (This picure was taken while on I-19 south of Tucson where the road still had shoulders.)

Road (Route 15) south from Nogales is four lane freeway type road.  Main difference with US appeared to be long stretches where there were very steep drop offs instead of shoulders.  So steep that any car  (or bus) going off the road would definitely tip over. This situation would get especially exciting when our bus was passing tractor trailers.

Taxi to hotel and then to a  almost full carne asada restaurant with ten piece mariachi band no one seemed to be listening to and older man drunk came to table and was putting his arm on me, very uncomfortable.  When we left man followed us to the parking lot where he continued to talk and stand too close as we waited for cab.  He ended up giving taxi driver 100 pesos to pay for our ride.  I told taxi driver about our experience with this man and he said, "Mexico."

Hotel was located directly next to the on ramp of Rte. 15, the main north/south highway. Very noisy as tractor trailers climbed the ramp throughout the night.

Despite the drunk guy and the noise on the bus and in the hotel room it felt wonderful to be back in Mexico.

Tucson

Today is Saturday January 30th, 2016.  Tomorrow were catching a morning bus to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico where will stay overniht at the Hotel San Sebastian and fly to Oaxaca via Mexico City on Monday, February 1.

It's been wonderful spending time with our daughter Katie.  She is a ball of energy.  She has a full time job as a researcher for the University of Arizona as well as being a very active singer/songwriter and a professional life coach.  She is deeply involved in the Tucson music scene and recently released her fourth solo CD called "The Aviary." Here's a link to a video of one of the songs from the CD "Wood"



Highlights while in Tucson....

Golf at Randolf Park course. (excellent shape, first-class municipal course)

Mission San Xavier (striking architecture,  creepy statues of saints and virgins,  beautiful setting on Native American reservation, great bean burrito with charcoal grilled tortilla)

Birding at Sweetwater Wetlands (Ruddy Duck, American Widgeon, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Coots, Pied-bill Grebes,  Ladderbacked Woodpecker,  Red Naped Sapsucker,  House Finches,  Coopers Hawk, Roadrunner, Green Winged Teal.)

Hiking and birding at Sabino Canyon.( humming bird doing spectactular display flight where it hovered six feet above ground then ascended rapidly straight up to a point where it became invisible it would then fall straight down and make a loud "cheep" as it nearly hits the ground.  We watched it do this over and over again.  Spectacular! Also Roadrunner, Phaenopepla (sp.?) Brittlebush and Globe Mallow in bloom and, of course, the stately Sahuaro.

Tacos at  Taqueria Pico de Gallo in South Tucson.  (muy saboroso, birria taco made from goat meat,  very authentic,  a muy "in" place for Tucsonians)

A wonderful dinner of carne asada tacos and beans at Katie's new home cooked by her very talented boyfriend and musical collaborator, Ben Nisbet.  Fun meal also included fancy Manhattans made with a special  "High West" rye whiskey recommended by Ben.

Lunch at Beyond Bread with my sister Anne and her daughter Heather.  Anne lives near Phoenix and Heather is a pediatrician visiting from Australia.  Wonderful, relaxed time of family connection. 

Alabama to Tucson

Our travels to Tucson from Alabama were relatively uneventful.  Each day, except the last, we drove about 500 miles.  Birmingham - Shreveport - Big Spring TX - Deming NM and a 200 mile sprint to Tucson on Monday, January 25th. 

Some moments....

Very heavy rain as we were leaving Birmingham. Throughout Alabama and Mississippi saw dozens of utility repair trucks heading north to deal with storm  damage expected from winter storm Jonas that was slamming the northeast.  Roanoke was buried in snow the day after we left. Storm left 30 to 40 inches of snow in much of the area we had traveled through.

We were in heavy traffic near Jackson, Mississippi and were passed by a truck pulling a full double decker car carrier.. Truck made a quick lane shift and the trailer started wobbling so severely we were sure it was about to tip over and spill cars all over the highway.  Driver got it under control but it was a very close call. Scary.

Couple, our age, sitting in a booth at a Wendy's restaurant somewhere in Mississippi.  Man looking tired, beaten, head bowed with oxygen tube running to his nose.  4-5 yo child in a stroller next to booth moaning and continually beating its head on the back of the stroller. The back of the child's head had a large patch of bare skin where the constant beating had worn the hair away.  My assumption is that this was their grandchild they had decided to take under their care.  What a sacrifice.  What a different path than ours.

Young woman at the same Wendy's came over to us, smiled and asked us how our meal was. Can't imagine that happening in New York.

Louisiana weather miserable.  Cold, 35 degrees, wind, 25 miles per hour. 

Gambling a big deal in Louisiana.  Shreveport had huge casino hotels like Los Vegas. Every motel and convenience store had its own little "casino" with video gambling machines.

Eastern Texas - lots of pines, rolling hills, huge houses with big metal gates, and the "Silverado Cowboy Church."

Vast flatlands of west Texas looking like prime tornado territory speckled with forever bobbing oil pumps and thousands of huge whirling white wind mills stretching across and beyond the horizon. Big Spring had the feeling of a town way past it's prime.  Many boarded up, broken down buildings surrounding the town's only high rise, a ten story abandoned hotel. Nice sunset though.

New Mexico had a homey, friendly "Welcome Center"  and the motel we stayed at in Deming (Quality Inn) was by far the best one so far - china plates and cups/in house bar and restaurant/quality decor and furniture and it was one of the least expensive so far. Very windy in Deming.  Wind was 35 mph when we were checking into motel.  I had to lean backwards to get the car door shut and then had to crawl under the car to remove a large tumble weed. 

 We met a couple from Quebec in the parking lot and compared gas mileages.  I told him I was disappointed that our Prius was only getting 44 mpg.  He told me that was about what he was getting about the same mileage with his non hybrid Sentra.  He said he was keeping it at 65 mph whereas I've been regularly going 73 to 75.  I slowed down to about 70 for the rest of the way to Tucson and the mileage improved right away.  Will try to keep it under 70 on the way back East in March.

  

Day Two - Roanoke to Birmingham

 Roanokee is abuzz with talk of a major snow storm that is expected to bring over a foot of snow tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.  We left a day early on this trip to avoid this storm and it looks like we mede the right choice.  Stayed at a ho hum Quality Inn.  The road from Roanoke to Bristol (I-81) winds through the eastern portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is probably the most scenic section of interstate highway I’ve ever traveled.  Its sinewy path winding climbing and falling through hills that were beautiful and inviting despite the leaflessness of the trees and the snow covered ground.  Very surprising to find such beauty on an interstate

As we entered Tennessee at Bristol the road was still clear but there seemed to be more snow, maybe three to five inches, and the plows had only cleared the traffic lanes leaving both shoulders snow-covered.  An older woman with dark brown dyed long hair and wrinkly face received us warmly at the Tennessee “Welcome Center.”   She said that last night weather was terrible around Bristol and that there were many wrecks.  Here’s a pic from the parking lot.  It just didn’t seem like enough snow to cause a lot of accidents. 

Taken at Tennessee Welcome Center in Bristol

Not true.  During the ride between Bristol to Knoxville we saw 10 to 15 abandoned cars off the road in the medium. The worst accident we saw was a overturned tractor-trailer on the right side of the highway.   This behemoth was laying on its side covered with an inch or two of new snow.  The top of the cab a big jagged hole about three feet across.  It looked like the driver had to kick his way out. The people we talked to blamed the high number of wrecks on southern drivers not used to driving on snowy roads.

The rolling hills of east Tennessee were very attractive but the small farms and towns seemed  more run down and poorer than Virginia.  Lots of musical related billboards etc.

Our traveling goal for the day was Birmingham, Alabama via Chattanooga.  Trip was uneventful after the apocalyptic car wreck section near Bristol.  Alabama “Welcome Center” had this “monument” in the courtyard.  

It was surrounded by five flag poles.   Only four the the poles had flags.  I’m assuming the empty pole used to have a Confederate battle flag.

 

People at reception center were very friendly and said that many New Yorker “snow birds” make their way to Alabama.  

Day One

Woman trainee at McDonald's training our age struggling to deal with hamburger tech register interface.   Trying to escape from facing stock market “slump”  being bombarded by multiple blaring mac  monitors plus a wall full of bing bang video game monitors for kids and FOXNews breathless rabid  reporters shouting out the latest threat to our freedom oozing from the fetid marshes of Obamanism.  Trying to sit and enjoy a grease dripping sausage /egg burrito vowing to eat healthier for the rest of the way and feeling it was good to get that out of my system.

New York and Pennsylvania rest stop men’s room urinals no partitions between urinals men end up leaning away from each other to preserve privacy.  Virginia “Welcome Center” complements its warm sophisticated red brick colonial architecture and courteous almost gentile reception desk staff with a serious bow to civility by placing substantial barriers between urinals.  All of a sudden, in restaurants, motels, rest stops it seems like people are “nicer.”    Northern Virginia, rolling through the fabled Shenendoah valley is visually satisfying. Farmsteads look prosperous and peaceful.  Rolling fields accented by mountain ridges on both sides.  Horse farms with well-kept white fences.  Grazing cattle.  Stacks of round bales of hay.  Unpleasantly interrupted by giant structural steel crosses and huge billboards proclaiming ‘READ THE BIBLE! ABSOLUTE, TRUE, FINAL!   Covered about 500 miles on our first day.  Approaching Roanoke

Cross country cross-border adventure begins tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, Wednesday, January 20, 2016. Dorothy and I are leaving on a two-month adventure to Arizona and Mexico. 

I'm making a commitment "right now" to write something every day in this blog and to include pictures and videos whenever possible.  This "travelogue" format may mean that my posts may not be as high brow as usual.  I encourage readers to be patient. and they may find some gems among the rough stones.

One of the big differences with this year's  trip to Mexico is that we're starting it off with a cross country car trip to Tucson to visit our daughter Katie before heading south of the border. Tomorrow the plan is to leave about 6 AM and drive approximately 550 miles to Roanoke Virginia.  We're leaving a day earlier than we planned because of a snowstorm that's working its way up the East Coast and is scheduled to hit Roanoke on Thursday. Dorothy and I are having a discussion/debate about whether to go through Alabama and Mississippi or to cut across Tennessee Arkansas and then into Texas. Again we'll see how that works out. If experience is any teacher we'll probably do the Tennessee Arkansas route. 

We plan on taking it easy getting to Arizona. Probably taking six or seven days. We'll spend four or five days in Tucson with Katie before leaving the car there and taking a bus to Hermosillo Sonora Mexico. From there we have reservations for a February 1st flight to Oaxaca in southern Mexico. We have hotel reservations for four weeks at Las Mariposas. A hotel where we've stayed three other times and which we really love. We then have a week without any plans. Maybe Mexico City maybe will stay in Oaxaca. Quien sabe? Our last week in Mexico will be at San Agustinillo. A small beachfront town in the state of Oaxaca on the Pacific coast.  We'll then fly back to Hermosillo and get a bus back to Tucson. Plan is to stay there a week and then head back east. On the way back I'm hoping to stop in Myrtle Beach South Carolina and play a couple rounds of golf with a friend from my golf league. 

There's no question this is probably one of the most ambitious trips we've ever taken. My personal goal is to try to savor every moment, understanding iow fortunate we are to be able to do this. I'm hoping that the process of keeping this blog will be a tool to help with this appreciation. 

If you decide to join us in this journey by reading this blog every once in a while that would be fantastic.

Adelante!