Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

Not much posting this week as I have a friend in town and we have been traveling first to the beach and today to Mexico City. Upon my return I will try to upload more images of the trip and write a bit about our adventures. In the meantime some pictures of the beach in two towns on the coast of Oaxaca to make you jealous. Puerto Angel and the Bahia de la Luna hotel on a very hard to get to small bay. I was rolling my luggage down a deeply pitted dirt road. More on that later... Another view of Bahia de la Luna...that is a cabin up there in the trees. Not our cabin of course, the cheap accommodations are behind that one. After Puerto Angel and the rustic environment of the Bahia de la Luna we moved on to Huatulco. Below is a view of one of the bays of Huatulco from the hotel window. We splurged and stayed at the Las Brisas which is all inclusive. They should post a sign in the lobby that says "Warning, all inclusive packages will make you overeat and drink too much in an effort to ...

Geri mentioned to me a few days ago that there is a man in the neighborhood who occasionally wanders around and repeatedly screams at the top of his lungs. Apparently she hadn't heard him in awhile and of course being new to Jalatlaco (the name of the neighborhood) I had not heard him either. Well tonight he is out and about and totally giving me the heebie jeebies. When Geri said he screamed that was putting it mildly. This is an all-out excruciating wail. I'm in my room working and at regular intervals I hear this awful throat-grinding, guttural, pained yell that sounds like something out of science fiction flick. He is definitely going to need some Hall's cough drops after this session. I wonder if this is the same guy who was passed out on the sidewalk this morning with one shoe on....I had to step over him on my way to Spanish class. I am actually staying in a nice neighborhood despite the sleepy sidewalk drunks and the screamers, really I am.

So a friend posted this visited countires map on their blog and I'm stealing the idea! Of course this friend will only know I stole it if they visit my blog....it is test... create your own visited countries map

I was walking down the Alcala today, one of the main tourist thoroughfares, passing by a museum, when I looked over and saw this striking image. I'm standing on the street taking this picture through an open stone portal to the museum. Click on the photo to make it larger. Pretty cool is it not? Update: This sculpture is in the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca and is by Javier Marin. There is an accent over the "i" in his name but I haven't yet figured out how to do accents in blogger. I went to the museum today to get a closer look and I'm really fascinated by this artist. So much so in fact that I went surfing the web to find out how much his sculptures cost on the market. Apparently they cost more than a graduate student can afford to spend on art. Anyway, I encourage you all to check out his website and some of his work, it is really amazing.

Nothing says "We are independent!" like a show of military force!

Mexican Independence day is on Sunday, probably the biggest holiday for the country that has nothing to do with religion and therefore I feel I can participate without being struck by god's wrath in the form of a lightening strike. I took these photos in the Zocalo today, the place is crawling with police as well as workers preparing the lights, stages, and other details for the big celebration tomorrow night. I've had a few rum and cokes with G and her friends from Puerto so I will write more about this tradition later, needless to say it is a partay!

Source: http://www.hunting.net/ftb_images/Sporting%20Dog/Pointing%20Breeds/Weimaraner.jpg Sunday morning I went to check out the place I will be house sitting for about 3 months. This is not just a house it is an amazing house and the description they sent me over email did not do it justice. The downside is the location, while not far away from the city at all it is a 15 minute walk to the bus stop. There are however, some German women close by that can give me rides to town in exchange for gas money, more on this later, so that makes it a bit easier. I was sitting chatting with the owners of the house who are both Americans and retired anthropologists. Somehow we got on the topic of dogs, the stray variety and the roof variety (see earlier post from last summer about roof dogs), and he related the funniest story (well the end is funny anyway) about an experience with the Oaxacan version of the SPCA. I will do my best to pass along the story here but ultimately it was much better exp...

Today as I'm walking home from the Zocalo, I passed by a brand new SUV with a most disturbing sticker. It was a takeoff of those annoying, triangular window hangings that used to be ubiqutous in the United States reading "Baby on Board". These of course spawned a whole separate industry of ".... on Board" stickers and I'm very happy that this annoying phase is behind us. The sticker in question is below, I found it using Google Images since I didn't have my camera. Disturbing no? Source:http://69.13.97.211/t-shirt-designs/prodimages/2006081615005870_small.jpg

So all my ranting and raving about the old man who implied I was rude was apparently not unfounded. G (the woman I’m renting from) did some gossiping (I think that is a sport here among the community) and determined that he is indeed a salty old bastard much reviled by many who know him! Now that I know he is the local expat asshole the next time I see him he better watch out!

I began the morning by going to an intercambio at the library run by expats. It appears to be run mostly by retired American expats actually, or perhaps run is not the right word, frequented might be more appropriate. A lovely Mexican woman seems to do most of the running. I was paired up with a nice woman, probably about my age, and a young guy of 16 for our hour long session of talking in English and Spanish. The idea is to speak completely in English for a half an hour and then completely in Spanish for half an hour. Now, I have participated in intercambios before and the "speak in Spanish only, speak in English only" rules are NEVER followed. You end up speaking a mixture of both and I'm not sure how much anyone learns throughout the ordeal, it is a bit of a mish mash of topics, speech corrections, and misunderstandings. During this particular intercambio I was the most outspoken of the group (imagine that) and was trying to coerce my fellow linguistically challenged ...