Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

Photo Source: http://www.soleredemption.com/pics/blog/run1.jpg I have finally settled on my research topic as I mentioned in prior post. I'm very excited about this new direction and have more motivation than I have had in a long time to undertake this whole dissertation thingy. I'm going to research the Triquis (yes, sounds like Tricky). Triquis is a Mixteca (an indigenous group of Oaxaca ) dialect and those that speak it are called Triqui as well. They live in a region of Western Oaxaca close to the state of Guerrero. Western Oaxaca is one of the poorest regions of the state and since Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico (it switches places frequently with Chiapas for the honor of most impoverished) this area is very poor. The Triquis in Western Oaxaca have been fighting each other for some time now. Initial conflicts in the region were disputes over land rights and borders, a common source of disagreement in Mexico . Apparently the land dispute among the...

I have been a real slacker about posting, life is very busy right now and my research activities are really taking off. I also moved into a new apartment yesterday with two other young women so time has been devoted to this endeavor as well. My new apartment is not quite as fancy as the big house but it is definitely a nice space with a garden and good bathrooms! Good bathrooms are important! There was a roach last night on the bathroom counter but luckily it wasn't a big one and my roomie, who I share the bathroom with, killed it. She seems a bit more courageous on the roach front. She did tell me a story about roaches climbing up through the drain on the shower floor onto her leg at her last residence. Apparently it happened twice and now I have the heebie jeebies. I will post pictures of our new place soon. I did encounter a perverted Oaxaca man on the street the other day, or rather his hand encountered my butt. I was walking along on a narrow sidewalk and coming towards me ...

I have become attached to those little dogs I posted pictures of earlier. I'm now feeding them everyday (dog food is expensive!) and they hang out by the front gate of the Big House. I've named the black and white and orange and white one Hansel and Gretel. I'm sure when the owners return home next week they will be extremely pleased that they now have pack of dogs congregating and drooling around the front gate. I'm moving to a new apartment in the center of town next week which is a great development (I won't be in BFE anymore) but unfortunately I can't take them with me as there are already dogs at my new apartment. Territory issues. I'm now attempting to get sucker gringos to adopt them. I created this flier to post at the gringo library and attempted to make the dogs look as cute as possible. Click on the image to enlarge.. My research has taken a most exciting turn as well! San Felipe is out and the Triqui indigenous group of Western Oaxaca is in! I w...

Picture Source: http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/ Last night I was at a birthday party for the German librarian of the Welte Institute of Oaxacan Studies. The party consisted of me, the librarian, her German friend, and a Oaxacan woman. The party was at the librarian's home which happens to be right next to the Big House, my current residence. We were laughing and drinking wine having a great time when the Oaxacan woman's phone rang. The call was from her maid who informed her that the governor's helicopter, which we had just heard fly overhead, had crashed close to his house in San Felipe! We ran outside (I live in San Felipe very close to the governor) looking for smoke, flames, basically some evidence of the crash. There were no flames, or smoke to be seen but we did notice blinking emergency lights and heard many sirens. The Oaxacan woman (who lives very close to me) and I left, she gave me a ride home, and on the short trek to the Big House we encountered all kinds of ca...

Just when I thought Barry White was the weirdest music I might hear in Mexico, I think what I heard today beats Barry! I hopped off the bus and was walking home past a very modest home and emanating from this extremely modest home was George Michael's late 80s (I think?) hit, Careless Whisper. I started laughing out loud. What other reaction could I have!? Look at that hair!

Not much posting recently, I had a guest in town for a week (hi guest!) so I have been otherwise occupied. We did manage to head out to Hierve el Agua or, in English, the water boils. It does not however, as we found out, mean the water is warm. It is simply a spot in the mountains outside of Oaxaca where the water boils up from the ground and creates standing pools, waterfalls, and some pretty amazing calcified rock formations. To get there you must hop on bus to Mitla then take a small collectiva up the mountain. The collectiva is a small truck with a shelter of sorts over the back and benches fashioned to the shelter. On the way up we sat in the back while the two tourists from the Czech Republic, who were obviously a bit smarter than we were, sat up front away from the wind and dust. It was a fun ride however and I managed to let go of the side of the truck and snap a photo before we hit the switchbacks going up the side of the mountain. My guest, while responsible for some of the...

This will be a research post, sort of, so unless you need a cure for persistent insomnia (which you might after seeing the scorpion photos) do not read any further. I currently live in San Felipe del Agua, a suburb of Oaxaca that some have called "The Beverly Hills of Oaxaca", although I don't know if in the real Beverly Hills they would allow scorpions. This is an interesting area because of the mixture and contrast of the wealth of Oaxaca's upper class alongside the relative poverty of some of the communities communal farmers. I had an interview with a Spanish teacher from my school on Wednesday. He is a long term resident of San Felipe and was able to talk to me about many of the conflicts between residents and communal farmers. Some interesting things from the interview.... The city of Oaxaca gets 60 to 70% of its water from San Felipe. The hills above San Felipe were declared a national park in the 70s, unfortunately for the communal farmers, the borders of this...