Reading list!

Here's my somewhat random reading list for this trip, influenced mostly by whatever happened to be available in English language bookstores and book exchanges.

1)19th Wife - David Ebershoff
2)The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
3)Ordinary Heroes - Scott Turow
4)A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
5)Leaving Tabasco - Carmen Boullosa
6)Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story - Paul Monette
7)Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
8)Packinghouse Daughter - Cheri Register
9)The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
10)The Razor's Edge - W. Somerset Maugham
11)What I Loved - Siri Hustvedt
12)The Commoner - John Burnham Schwartz
13)In America - Susan Sontag
14)The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson

Flora and Fauna of the Yucatán!

I've spent a lot of time getting up close to the flora and fauna of the Yucatán lately -- mostly mosquitos. I don't think I've ever had more mosquito bites in my life. I'm not apprehensive at all about smearing toxic repellent all over my body anymore. Anyway, the bottle says that substantial blindness caused by repellent in the eyes is only temporary, so I'm good.

I'm primarily an expert on mosquitos these days, but I've had some opportunities to see some pretty cool animals lately as well. Check out the flamingos!


I saw the flamingos in Río Lagartos, a small fishing village a few hours from Cancún. The flamingo tour was definitely cool, but the town was nearly empty so I took off the next day for Isla Holbox. Holbox is a little paradise, as long as you can manage the mosquitos. I saw an amazing sunset the first night I arrived, then joined a few others for a midnight swim to experience the magical phosphorescent plankton. So cool! Someone who had done more research than I can probably explain, but my understanding is that the millions of little plankton reflect moonlight when they get stirred up. I felt like a ribbon dancer (and a giddy six-year-old) making waves in the ocean and watching sparkly light follow, or standing up to watch glitter roll down my body.

Ha. Just kidding! Someone else says it's bioluminescence, or some other equally long word, and is some kind of plankton defense mechanism. I really have no idea... it's just night time sea sparkles to me.

The wildlife tour of the Yucatán continues tomorrow with my whale shark tour! So excited to swim with fish the size of a bus.

Back in the states on Thursday!

Itinerary

Just to catch up a bit -- from Chiapas (San Cristobal de las Casas and Palenque), I crossed over the border into Guatemala to visit Tikal outside of Flores, then linger for a few days by the river in Lanquin. From Guatemala I went up to Tulum in Mexico, crossing briefly through Belize and spending the night in Chetumal. The beaches in Tulum were too windy to enjoy (sand in eyes and nose... no good), so Ive spent the last couple of nights in Isla Mujeres outside of Cancun.

Three more weeks of wandering...

Travel buddies

My reading and writing time has definitely dropped off over the last few weeks, and I blame all the great people Ive met on the road for that.

(Once again, I cant find the apostrophe...)

I feel like Im at summer camp again, bonding very quickly with strangers and spending only a short period of time together before we go our separate ways. This time, though, were all grown up and get to create our own adventures. Instead of archery or arts and crafts, we haggle with taxi drivers on our way to Mayan ruins, swim in caves by candlelight, and float down Guatemalan rivers on innertubes. So far theres been no marshmallow toasting, but plenty of communal dinners cobbled together from fresh ingredients from local markets. We still do nature walks, and this time they feature monkeys, toucans, and tarantulas.

Traveling with people Ive met along the way has taught me a lot about other parts of the world, too. I now count Israelis, Brits, Germans, Swiss, Belgians, Mexicans, Irish, Danes, Canadians, Aussies, Italians, Dutch, and Norwegians among my friends, and hope I can meet up with some of them again somewhere else in the world. (Thanks, facebook).

Alive and happy

Hi friends. So sorry for neglecting this blog. I've found a couple of good groups of people to travel with lately, which means significantly less time in internet cafes. I'll try to post a bit more of an update tomorrow before I take a week long trip into the land of barely functioning internet, but in the meantime, I'd like to let you all know I'm okay.

Hurricane Alex is well north of where I am in Isla Mujeres at this point, and I'm far from the recent earthquake in Oaxaca. We're getting a little bit of wind and rough weather from the storm, but definitely no danger.

Three weeks left!

6/21/10: Happy Solstice

Tikal, Guatemala. Approx. 5:30 this morning.

6/20/10: Happy Father's Day!

I'd just like to take a minute to say Happy (American) Father's Day to my wonderful dad and grandpas!

I feel so lucky to have all three of you in my life, and can't wait to share stories in person just a few short weeks from now.

Much love.

6/14/10: San Cristóbal de las Casas

Sorry for the delay in posting. I've been traveling in Chiapas and Guatemala for the last week, mostly avoiding the internet.

I'll try to catch up from the slightly more comfortable overnight bus ride from Zipolite to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a medium sized city in the mountains of Chiapas. I rolled off the bus at 8am (dramamine didn't work, plastic bags did) and shared a taxi with three girls I met at the bus station. The four of us (three Americans and a Brit) settled in at our hostel and signed up for a horseback tour to a nearby village the following day.

The "village" ended up having about 70,000 inhabitants. Fortunately, our guide was thoughtful and took us through forest and farmland on the way there so it still felt nice and quaint.

In any case, the town´s church held one of the more interesting scenes I've witnessed. The interior of the church was being renovated for a big festival coming up, so everything was crammed into the rear of the building. This meant the room was packed. Like, first 15 feet of a rock concert packed, with everyone working their way slowly to their destination, checking behind their shoulders for lost friends and children. The air was thick with smoke from bowls of incense and hundreds of candles stuck to every available surface. A dozen or so men played a very rhythmic, almost monotonous melody on accordians and homemade wooden instruments, including guitars, harps, and something that looked kind of dulcimer-ish. Women sat on the ground lighting rows of candles and securing them to the floor with melted wax. Men prayed loudly in front of various icons, and quite a few people were downing glass after glass of beer and coca cola.

The next day we visited a Mayan medicine museum, pharmacy, and education center. The beer and coca cola thing made a lot more sense after we walked through the exhibits. Apparently burping helps expel evil spirits. Good to know.

6/12/19: lazy gets lazier...

I'm writing now from Zipolite, a beach town an hour or so down the road from Puerto Escondido. I've been here for the past few days, enjoying the empty beach after staying in a full, lively hostel in Puerto Escondido.

The last few nights could not have been more different from the P.E. hostel. I'm staying at Shambhala, which is kind of like a hippie treehouse. $6 for a bed with a mosquito net in the dorm, really more like a porch. That's been really lovely, actually, since no one else is staying in the dorm and I can hear the ocean loud and clear from my bed. Last night was a little concerning, though -- a big storm rolled through, and suddenly the treehouse thing seemed a lot less romantic. Fortunately, the building's still standing, and I'm still in one piece.

I took another boat tour yesterday, after a bit of a delay for the Mexico - South Africa game. Snorkeling was on the agenda this time. I've only been snorkeling once before, on a 6th grade field trip in the San Juans. I remember not being impressed. It was cold, it was dark, gross slimy plants kept touching me. Mostly it was cold. Not so in Mexico! The water is warm and clear! The fish have colors! Whole different ball game. I saw a decapitated shark's head, a bunch of little neon guys, a swordfish, some angelfish, and I even held a puffer fish for a few seconds before he squirmed away.

I think I'm ready to be around people again now, so I'm taking the nght bus to San Cristobal de las Casas tonight. It's supposed to be an easier trip than the Oaxaca - Puerto Escondido route, but I'm still a little nervous. I'm coming prepared this time, though -- dramamine, plastic bags, and crackers are on hand. Wish me luck.

6/7/10: Oh. Hello, Ocean.

I wrote out a long post about my horrific overnight bus ride from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido on Saturday night, but I've decided to spare you the gory details. I will say this: if you decided to make that trip yourself, I strongly recommend serious anti-nausea meds and/or a leakproof disposable container. I had neither.

Fortunately, there's not much that can't be fixed by swimming in the warm ocean. I slept off that nightmare of a trip in a hammock, then wandered down to the beach to check it out before heading into town to pick up a few things at the supermarket. I never did make it into town yesterday afternoon. I swam, I sat, I read. That's it. It was perfect.

This morning I got up early to look for dolphins and sea turtles with a group of French girls. (Yes, mom, I wore a hat). I tried to take photos of dolphins playing all around our boat, but didn't come up with anything particularly impressive. I'll post a pretty turtle for your viewing pleasure, assuming I ever figure out how to make this computer work.

Photos! Photos!



I'm not sure how long I'll linger here in Puerto Escondido before moving south down the coast. Right now, I'm a little apprehensive about another long bus ride, but I'm told that the Oaxaca - Puerto Escondido trips is as bad as it gets. That's a pretty low bar, though, and definitely below tolerable, as far as I'm concerned. We'll see.

6/5/10: Stumbling with Spanish

I just wrapped up two weeks of Spanish class and am slowly feeling more comfortable using my limited vocabulary. I've definitely lowered my expectations of fluency, but I'm pleased with my ability to have fairly complex one-on-one conversations with Oaxaqueños. I even did a decent job explaining the electoral college in Spanish the other day. (Response: silence. Then, "no es muy democrático, ¿no?")

I've been spending one hour a day in an intercambio with a young Oaxacan woman, speaking English for half an hour and Spanish for the second half. She is studying to become an English teacher here in Oaxaca, which has presented me with a perfect opportunity to learn more about the teachers' union and public education here in Oaxaca. I'm fascinated, and so glad that my Spanish is decent enough to dig a little deeper into local issues.

In general, I do fine carrying on one-on-one conversations, but I'd really like to be able to understand exchanges between two native speakers (i.e. eavesdrop). Unfortunately, I'm not confident that will happen on this trip.

I do appreciate the solid foundation I got from my high school Spanish teacher, though. Her voice has been running through my head pretty regularly over the last couple of weeks, and I find that I don't have problems with many of the grammatical concepts that some of the other students struggle with. Sure, my vocabulary is extremely limited and I'm slow to speak, but I can conjugate verbs with no major problems. Fortunately, Spanish speakers aren't hard to find in the States, and I'm sure I can find opportunities to practice once I come home.

Off to catch the night bus to Puerto Escondido now...

6/5/10: Food!!!

I've had exactly two less than great meals here, at the two most tourist-oriented restaurants I've been to. Other than that, the food's been great. Cheap, too.

Well, except for a couple of restaurants JK and MR recommended. Fortunately, those have been some of the best meals I've ever had, and still cheap for the quality.

MR recommended Casa Oaxaca. Really lovely experience, and if I could get this computer to work I would post photos of C.O. meal #1, Tim Palmer style. Update! Photo! Anyway, it was well worth it and such a comfortable place to spend a long, leisurely meal. I spent $25 on that meal, about 4 to 5 times what I normally spend on dinner, and worth every peso.

But wait! This afternoon I passed Casa Oaxaca - El Restaurante. Not to be confused with Casa Oaxaca hotel with adjoining restaurant where I had C.O. meal #1! Obviously I had to try them both. C.O. meal #2 was even better than #1. Gracias MR, JK, DN for recommendations, and GF for reminding me to try the fish.

I took a cooking class the other day with a few other American students. We showed up at our instructor's house hoping to pick up just one dish we could recreate at home. That dream went out the window pretty quickly once we started cleaning, toasting, and grinding all the chilis, nuts, chocolate, spices, etc. by hand for our mole negro. The four of us sweat through an hour of two of prep, too tired to make our own tortillas. No problem, though -- we just took a quick walk down the road to pick up some fresh ones from the tortillería down the street (1kg for $.50). They were still hot enough to burn my sensitive gringa finngertips when we sat down to eat twenty minutes later.

The mole was incredible. Much better than any of the mole I had tasted before, since apparently most restaurants use a mix instead of going through the hassle of making it all from scratch. I did get the recipe, but sorry friends -- I won't be making any for you unless you can gather up a few willing prep cooks to help hunt down the ingredients and grind them all up. I'll supervise.

6/1/10: Política y el Bloqueo

My Spanish conversation class veers toward politics somewhat regularly, which can be a bit touchy. The other people in my class are a Nebraska school teacher from a very small town, and a Swiss soldier who definitely leans right. Our instructor pretty much keeps his politics to himself, but is clearly annoyed by the fact that his 15 minute commute can turn into a two hour journey thanks to the latest bloqueo.

Guys. It is completely legal to block roads/entrance into important buildings whenever and wherever a group can round up enough people to do so. Right now, there are hundreds of teachers camped out in the Zócalo, the main square and tourist center in Oaxaca. They're sleeping under tents and tarps, on inflatable mattresses and on cardboard. No one knows exactly how long they'll be there; it all depends on how quickly they can come to an agreement on salaries, etc. This occupation isn't raising any eyebrows in Oaxaca, though. It's an annual occurrence, and generally peaceful.

That's not to say that political violence is unheard of, though. Our instructor actually laughed when the Nebraskan and I mentioned Kent State. Apparently four fatalities is not particularly impressive to a Oaxaqueño.

(Not my photo, btw. Pulled it off the internets... think it's from 2009.)

5/31/10: Graffiti in Oaxaca

Night time graffiti photo... translation in the comments.

5/28/10: Lazy days

No photo this time, since I really haven't been doing much the past few days. It's been lovely. I wake up to a breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, and cheese, go to spanish class for a few hours, then wander among parks and cafes looking for a new place to sit and read for a couple of hours.

Earlier in the week I was chastising myself a bit for a) tearing through my books too quickly and b) not spending my afternoons in museums, churches, etc. I'm over it. I found an English bookstore to restock on reading material and have also reminded myself that I'm on vacation and can do whatever I want, including spending a huge chunk of time reading for pleasure. Anyway, this seems to be the Oaxacan way. I'm certainly not the only one leisurely passing the hours with a book in a park or cafe.

The only downside to this routine (besides being a little overcaffeinated at the moment) is that I get interrupted a lot as a young woman reading, writing, or drawing alone. These encounters have been pretty benign and surprisingly interesting, though. I don't find the men here to be particularly aggressive or less than polite. In fact, I've had some really interesting conversations about Mexican labor unions, US immigration policy, and must see beaches in Oaxaca. Ultimately I make up some excuse about meeting a friend so I can politely decline an invitation to continue the conversation at a bar somewhere, but I haven't felt at all threatened since I've been here.

A, a friend from the language school who has lived in Oaxaca for a few months now, pointed out that these encounters match the Oaxacan lifestyle more generally --- not too aggressive, just kind of meandering.

So now I've embraced my laziness, partially using assimilation to Oaxacan culture as an excuse. But for me, this trip really is about slowing down, not rushing off to my next appointment, and unwinding. So far I'm doing pretty well with that. I've even stopped subconsciously reaching for the smart phone I no longer have.

Tech problems!

Um, do these photos look all squishy to you guys? I can't tell if it's the monitor I'm using or if I just somehow squished up all my pictures.

5/24/10: Back to school

I forgot how much I love Spanish class! Something about solving grammatical puzzles and adding to my vocabulary really feeds the geek in me. For the next two weeks, I'll be taking four hours of Spanish a day -- two of grammar (with homework! woohoo!) and two of conversation. I like the instructors a lot, and there are only two or three other people in each class.

I'll also be spending the next two weeks with a host family who have put me up in a nice room with my own bathroom. Definitely a step up from the hostel I've been staying at, and I really couldn't ask for a more convenient location. I'm having fun with their kids, too, who very generously helped me with my homework. I now have bunnies and boats drawn all over my Spanish worksheets. Here's me, humoring a super-cute five-year-old who wants to playwith my camera.

Here's me, 15 minutes later, after said five-year-old rapidly shed her cuteness by running around, refusing to hand over the camera.

Fortunately, five-year-olds are easily distracted, and the camera is now locked away in my room.

5/21/10 - 5/23/10: Skipping town

This weekend I've been out exploring the Oaxaca Valley with H and A, a German and English couple I met at the hostel who very generously invited me to join them for a couple of days.

We left Friday morning to rent a car, then made our way out of the city, first visiting a giant 2,000 year old tree, then an even older archaeological site. Many thanks to H and A for driving and navigating, as we found plenty of closed roads, detours, and dirt 'highways' on our way to Hierve el Agua, a natural spring and local resort area. We had a really lovely evening swim in the mineral pool, then caught the last vendor for some quesadillas just before she closed up for the night. See that beautiful natural pool? Yeah, I swam in that.

We spent Friday night in a shady cabaña. 'Shady' as in 'probably not cleaned for two years,' not as in 'providing relief from the sun'. The place was deserted, so we just decided to ignore the grime and pretend that we were camping as we shared a few beers on the porch of the cabaña to celebrate A's birthday.

The next morning, we dodged dogs, donkeys, and children on our way out of Hierve el Agua and toward the Sierra Norte. We arrived in Cuajilmoloyas, a Zapotec village of about 1,000 people around midday, then set set off for a three hour "walk".

Walk, my ass. It started off nice and easy, with a stop to pet some goats, listening as our guide identified some medicinal plants. Then our "walk" got serius. The trail got narrow, then steep, then disappeared completely. We scrambled up narrow paths to explore the coyote caves, and ultimately found ourselves on top of tall rocks overlooking the valley. Really breathtaking, and not just because I harbor a slight fear of heights. You´ll notice that I'm kind of slouching and holding on in this photo, trying to keep my center of gravity as low as possible.

That evening was probably the highlight of the weekend for me. We went to one of the two or three "restaurants" in town, none of which actually have anything resembling a menu. You get whatever is cooking over the open flame at the other end of the room. You want a cerveza or something else to drink? No problem, they'll pop over to the store to buy it for you. I don't actually think they had a refrigerator. It felt much more like eating in someone's living room than anything else. In any case, it was delicious, and probably exactly what the nurse from the travel health clinic was warning me about.

I'm so grateful to H and A for inviting me along this past weekend. That trip outside the city was not something I would have done on my own (especially renting the car), and I'm so glad we were able to deal directly with the people of Cuajilmoloyas, rather than visit on a package tour arranged through a Oaxaca based travel agency. Most importantly, this trip gave me the confidence to show up, smile, and ask the locals for directions.

5/22/10: Speaking of directions...

On our way to Cuajilmoloyas, we discovered that yet another road we had planned to take was mysteriously closed. We pulled over to ask directions, as we had done many times before, this time in a tiny town of just a few hundred families. H's Spanish is a bit better than mine, and between the two of us, we had been doing just fine. H asked a local man for directions in Spanish, but didn't get very far before he stopped her -- ¨You speak English?,¨he asked. ¨Yes! You speak English?¨ ¨F--- yeah, man!¨

Again, perfectly obvious, but sometimes I forget how many men and women around here have spent time living and working in the U.S.

5/20/10: Day One in Oaxaca

I wandered aimlessly around Oaxaca today and learned a few things, most of which are perfectly obvious:

1) The default salsa here in Oaxaca is not what you get at Azteca. I'm not sure there's a word for 'mild' in Spanish.

2) No one here wears sunglasses! I tried to play it cool and keep my sunglasses in my bag for the first few hours. Then I realized how ridiculous I looked in the first place: alternately white and pink, sweating, clunky sports sandals strapped to my pink, sweaty feet. Squinting in the bright Oaxaca sun didn't actually go very far in repairing my image.

3) Cell phone sales guys really are the same everywhere you go. My Spanish has been incredibly useful so far, but I still have a long way to go to feel comfortable carrying on all types of conversations. Most of the time, though, folks in Oaxaca have been really patient with me, speaking slowly and clearly, and rephrasing bits I don't understand. Not so with surly teenage cell phone guy! I'm pretty sure I ended up with the phone I was looking for, but no thanks to Mr. Mumbly.

5/19/10: Launch!

Ok, this blogger thing is new to me, and I'm having a hard time downloading my photos on to the computer at the hostel. That's a problem for me, since I really intended for this blog to be driven by photos.

So imagine there's a photo of a silly G.H.W. Bush statue right above the text. BWAHAHA, look how silly that statue is!

I did get a little bit lonely during my long layover in Houston, which was naturally concerning to me, since I was getting ready to be on my own for the next two months. Finally I realized that hanging out by myself beneath a waterfall or next to natural springs would probably be more interesting than hanging out by myself at the Houston airport. I think I'm right.

Update: silly photo!