Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

It occurs to me that I have ceased to post anything cultural and have now resorted to writing about roaches and Tato. This is likely due to the fact that I will be coming home in less than a week and my brain has shut down, I’m focusing more on all the things I have to do when I get back. We also haven’t had regular classes here in Oaxaca for about two weeks so my source for political information has dried up a bit. I could look at the paper everyday I suppose but my lack of desire to do this goes back to the brain being shut down. So I will try to post a little bit about politics and then continue with my roach tales and a list of last night’s karaoke songs. Today in Mexico City there will be a march by Obrador supporters, a million people are expected to attend. These numbers are always inflated of course, just like they are in the United States, his last march in the capital drew only about 50k and they were expecting 500k. The situation with the presidential election hasn’t chan...

Tato was en fuego last night! I love the Guerreros mascot! Other than his usual antics on the field Tato occasionally takes to the stands to connect with his people. He sits with the group of fans who inhabit the seats behind home plate every game and produce a racket with their noise makers when their favorite batter steps up to the plate. He takes pictures with the little kids. He also dances with drunken adults! At one point in the evening Tato was in the crowd, a song came on over the loud speaker (I can’t remember which one) and Tato begins dancing. Soon he is joined by a drunken man (I assume anyway) who begins to gyrate and grind against Tato in a very suggestive manner. Tato puts up with this for awhile and the crowd chuckled a bit but after a few minutes Tato seems to get fed up, grabs the man’s head in between his two bird hands and shoves his face down into his groin area! The crowd went wild! This is the dirtiest mascot I have ever seen and now I truly do have mascot envy. ...

Research was a bit uneventful today, we had to head to the school to print and copy a few things in preparation for the weekend. We then hopped on a bus to the Central de Abastos and caught a collective taxi to one of the colonias in SJA. The collectives are a great way to travel, 50 cents to drive us to SJA, only 15 cents more than the bus and you can catch them on the street just like a bus. I wish they would have this type of arrangement in Phoenix for the drunks leaving the bars, it would make my life easier and would likely be immensely entertaining at the same time. We walked around two of the colonias that have been built on ejido land (communal farm land) in a vain attempt to try and figure out the process of sale and construction on these lands. The law says one thing in regard to who can and cannot sell but the reality is always very different. After a good deal of sweating and not much else we head back into town and attempt to visit some of the offices that were closed th...

Prolific posting today! I guess I'm feeling more like myself today and so have a lot to babble about. My research partner is a bit quite so perhaps I'm not talking as much in reaction to that, though I doubt it. We headed out to San Jacinto Amilpas (SJA) today, jumped in a cab around 9am or so, SJA is about 7km out of town. We had set up a meeting with a man or woman, we weren't sure who was going to show up, whose number we retrieved off a Lots for Sale sign. We were a bit surprised they agreed to meet us but we weren't going to pass up the opportunity. The scheduled meeting time was 10am at the municipal palace in SJA and we of course arrived quite early wanting to leave nothing to chance. I started to talk to the security guard knowing that the more people you talk to, no matter how briefly, the better. My research partner thinks I'm a bit strange this way but it has worked out well for us! Anyway, we tell him what we are up to and chat with him for awhile and ...

I wrote this little blurb last weekend on Saturday but forgot to post it....musings on mezcal. I have been feeling crappy and sluggish all day long and I’m going to blame the mezcal. I have decided I don’t really like mezcal, I appreciate the further refinement of tequila. I came to this conclusion before my hangover but this definitely solidifies the decision. Last night we had planned to attend a mezcal festival they have every year here in Oaxaca but it was cancelled due to all the political strife in the city. Instead of the festival we went to a bar and they happened to be having a mezcal tasting event. For 50 pesos (five bucks) we sat in a room with two shot glasses in front of us, some slices of orange and a description of the age of the mezcal, the type of agave it was from, etc. We didn’t realize that several people were going to get up and do Power Point presentations about the types of mezcal we were drinking so we were forced to sit through some long winded explanations o...

I have no idea what is going on with my blog, my links and profile are now appearing at the bottom of the screen instead of the top, I have some crazy fonts going on, still haven't figured out comments, bear with me. The roaches are probably sabotaging it!

I have been a slacker about continuing the description of my field trip experience so here is my remembrance of the last day of our trip. I didn't finish the description of the 3rd day but if you want to know about it I'll tell you later. Anyway, here you go...last day of the long van ride. Wake up and say goodbye to the Hotel San Juan. Sad to see it go but we must trek onward to Santiago Xanica. At this juncture in the field trip my nerves are starting to fray but surprisingly it hasn’t been as bad as I imagined being stuck in a van with 15 other people. The trip to Santiago Xanica takes the better part of the day. We travel along the coast of Oaxaca and look longingly at the ocean, wanting to stay and play in the surf. Instead we turn inland and head up into the mountains. The road to Santiago is a very narrow winding dirt road. Looking out the van windows was a bit scary as frequently the view was not of the road but straight down the mountainside. We passed several large t...