Round 2: Oaxaca

Finally, sorry about the delay, no excuse but laziness?! ...

So I arrive early in the morning from Las Vegas/LAX in Oaxaca by myself, take a taxi with a kind gentlemen to the centro area so as to make it cheaper. He was interesting, an art dealer who is on his way to meet 'the best artist since picasso.' whatever that means. he seemed enthusiastic though which is all that matters, and loved to talk about my teaching as well because his 12 yr old daughter is aspiring. Hostal Paulina took me in even at the early hour of 630am and thankfully had my room open. I promptly dropped my crap on the floor and took a 3 hr nap. It sucks to travel all night long especially with changes in transport because what little sleep you can get is always interrupted. I woke up and hung out in the zocalo, or town center. A fine place to be solo... plenty of people to watch and restaurants in which to dine. Erin arrived a few hours later and by the time we fell asleep the other Aaron had also joined. Oaxaca, Oaxaca is a pretty city, it reminds me a bit of Spain with its smaller streets and little plazas. Its at least more like Spain than Torreon, thats for certain :) Even though I have visited before, it was fun to see again and to do some shopping. The summer of 2005 brought me here after a stay in Mexico City. I liked recognizing small things as being the same or remembering where we ate what. The area seems to be best known for its paintings and crafts along with textiles. I ended up buying 2 wrap-around striped skirts that were sold everywhere, and a birthday present for my sister (I'm not telling, but I hope you like it!) I even had to pick up a new book, found a cool english bookstore and bought a chicana book to enjoy in the right atmosphere. After a few days of enjoying the chillaxing there, we made plans to get ourselves to Puerto Escondido, spring break requires a beach. We decided on a 'suburban' which would be one of the cheapest and fastest routes...... not always the best decision, at least comfort wise. It ended up being a very old very raggedy 15 passenger van with the luggage tied to the top, and the roads as only one would expect them to be from looking at the topography of the state - very, very windy. I had the unfortunate experience of sitting in row two behind the driver, a three person row that has room on one side so people can still squeeze into the row behind. That space meant that on alllllll of these curves I was either thrown against Aaron sitting to my left, or the foot of empty nothingness to my right before the van door. Impossible to sleep with this predicament, or risk sliding off my seat and slamming my head into the van on some unsuspecting corner. Although, how could a corner come unexpected in this trip, I dont think there was ever a stretch of more than 30 straight feet. And of course, the driver was trying to get to the destination as fast as possible and probably having done the trip hundreds of times felt comfortable to take these corners at high speeds as well as passing on the very same blind corners. Best to sleep.

Once in Pto we sweat off 10 lbs instantly. haha, no, but really. it was so humid there! unbelievable! Our hostel was very hippie... upon arrival, the manager (from WA) didn't know what day it was, and when he didn't have the correct change for our cash, told us he would just stock the fridge with extra beer instead. Ok?! It was cute though, I liked it a lot. The room was big complete with porch and hammock. The water pipes only provide one temp, Cold, but even for me that was perfectly fine. There was a bbq station and a small pool with a bridge and everything. While hanging in the pool you could also watch the big screen tv. every time we were there no matter what time of day, a movie was playing. often a new movie that meant only one thing- piracy :) But it showed the feel of the city, everyone goes as short time tourists and realizes that hanging on the beach and partying all night is the life and they stay longer. Erin and I had a different idea of vacation. I wanted as much skin damage as possible (as safe as possible of course!) and nothing more than a good book and a beach umbrella. All taken care of! We rented umbrellas and the chairs came with. Unfortunately in the uber high humidity the plasticy-leathery cushions only caused/held all the sweat your body would produce. 15 mins laying in the sun you had to flip the cushion?!?! ew! So much of the hours passed on the beach were simply hanging in the shade and reading (not even close to the same amount of body fluid loss there). All three of us had books and after devouring a large chunk would take a break to the water, come back, do the same. Even broke it up once and got ourselves some foot massages! From the most interesting lady... from New Zealand, and can read your entire being based on your feet. She said she new I was a dancer and that my feet were very sturdy and flexible... thanks.
Near our hostal we visited a Domino Pizza, and not the american kind! We ordered the Oaxacan which was sounded really strange but was so delicious! Refried beans, jalapeños, cheese, , and ketchup! So good we had it twice.
For awhile I had a little scare with my plane tickets being cancelled, but other than that it was a wonderfully stress free beach vacation. We took the overnight 'luxury' bus back to Oaxaca in order to actually obtain a little bit of sleep. Though the trip was a little longer it was roomier and took a less curvy route. It even entertained us with some old William Hurt movie based on a true story about a kid who was terminally ill but desperately wanted to catch a blue morpho butterfly. bad things happened and it looked like they were in trouble, but then miracles happened and the kid walked! back to camp to get help. Came home cancer free?! Ha, we couldn't really believe it captured our attention so well.... Back in Oaxaca we patroned the same hostal though not as much luck as I had the first time. our room wasn't ready for us and it was still as early, thankfully they let us into a dorm and let us sleep on those beds! So one more day of shopping and hanging out and then another early morning of travel back to home sweet home Torreon. ha.
back to school.... back to school.... to prove to my dad that I'm not a fool... :)