Random Descriptions of My Travel Adventures

Darren and I drove up to Salt Lake City in August, just after I returned home from Mexico, to pick up my little Mexican street dog Gretel. On the way to SLC we drove through Zion Canyon and spent the night in Springdale, the small town at the entrance to the canyon. Some photos below. The drive there. Buffalo! Inside the park. If you look closely at the bottom of photo is the traffic tunnel. Traffic tunnel. Zion Canyon lodge.

I'm currently sitting in the Mexico City airport waiting for my flight back to the inferno that is Phoenix. I'm very sad to leave Mexico and all the great people I met there but I guess it is time to head back to the real world and start writing the dissertation. Yikes. Not looking forward to that. I decided to take a taxi to the airport this morning instead of a prearranged colectivo so that I could have an hour or two more to get things in order before I left. We live right next to a fairly busy street so typically walking out to the corner and standing there less than 5 minutes is all that is required to procure a taxi. This morning I dragged my VERY heavy luggage to the corner (lots of books) and waited (sweating profusely after carrying the luggage) for a taxi to pass by. I waited, and waited, and waited, for about 15 minutes, but no taxi. Finally one came by with streamers all over it and I flagged him down. He informed me that the cost to the airport would be 120 pesos ...

This past weekend some friends and I went to Puebla. Road trip! Puebla is about 4 hours away from Oaxaca towards Mexico City. A big bull on the drive to Puebla. Street scene. Tiled building facade. Cool window. Wonderfully bright building! Hotel sign. Puebla is known for being a very pious city, there are literally churches on every corner. Catholicism is king here and the amount of jesus (not capitalizing jesus or christ out of protest) oriented souvenirs, photos, etc. is mind boggling. While we were cruising up and down the pedestrian walkway in the historic center we encountered people cleaning the street for christ and painting light posts for christ. Yes, seriously. One of the more ridiculous jesus-centered items were photos in which your child was superimposed sitting on jesus's lap, or standing in a field with jesus, or generally in some way interacting with a super white and healthy representation of the man. One photo I saw depicted him with what appeared to be ultra whit...

A poster on the street that says basically (bad translation) "to the police Guelaguetza, I'm not going" except someone scratched that last part off. Elaborate stencil on the wall. Arranging the flower baskets the women will wear on their heads while dancing. Sunshine en la boca!

This is a short video of one of the dances at the Mitla Guelaguetza, the bullfighting dance! The women act as the bulls and knock the men, the bullfighters, to the ground. What fun!

This past Sunday some friends and I headed out to the town of Mitla, about 40 minutes outside of Oaxaca, to attend the Guelaguetza. It was a great afternoon, the Guelaguetza was a small celebration, compared to the event in the city of Oaxaca, and this smaller venue made you feel a part of the festivities. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Dancers.... Dancers waiting their turn... The danza de la pluma..... The organizers and dancers handed out drinks, hats, tortillas and dolls made of yarn among other things to the attendees. The first drink we were offered was tepache, fermented pineapple juice, in a cup formed from half of a gourd. These young gentleman are enjoying their beverage. Then a bit later they came around with free mezcal! This is me enjoying my free mezcal in a bamboo shot glass. Notice the look of deviant pleasure on my face...that is what mezcal does to you. Makes you a deviant. Who enjoys things. Notice behind me the man pouring the mezcal out of a green plastic g...