The Saga Continues...
hey gang...
well, we´re still alive and eating. the last week or so has been somewhat of a mixed bag. after our amazing time spent in mexico city, we journeyed out east to the gulf coast and the (somewhat) great city of veracruz. almost immediately the suffocating tropical heat threatened to drown us in its burning humidity. its been in the high 80s everyday, but coupled with the wet air, it saps every bit of energy from our bodies...which was okay i guess, because mostly we walked around on the breezy (thank the lord) marina boardwalk, which wasn´t made of boards at all. veracruz is basically your latin version of key west. if you like to get trashed and dance the night away, here´s the medicine to all that ails you. as we´re getting along in the years (i´m 82 tomorrow), that scene just doesn´t hit us the way it used to, leaving not a whole lot else other than being bombarded by vendors selling poorly made shirts and dollar packages of gum whose flavor lasts 1.34 seconds. okay, okay...i´m being slightly over critical...they had great places to hang out, drink coffee, and people watch. the tropical weather kept the city very green and lush, with palm trees along every street (watch for the falling coconuts, which kill more people in mexico than lightning bolts). Ummmmm...they had a great aquarium, and ummmmm...who am i kidding, go somewhere else if you´ve any other options in mexico. After a few days of sleepless nights and bed bug infestations, we pulled up stakes and headed the hell out of the gulf, on a 7 hour bus ride back into the mountains towards the amazing city of Oaxaca de Juarez, or simply Oaxaca. instantaneously, calmness hit us once more and we were back into the groove of enjoying ourselves to the fullest. this city is a great place to vacation in...it´s very mexican, yet there are several international language schools here, so everyone is fairly comfortable with foreigners, limiting the google eyed stares at us whities every five steps (unlike veracruz). this city is extremely clean and well-preserved, though it still has it´s extremely poor fringe neighborhoods like everywhere else in the country. the streets here are mostly cobblestone, and i imagine that this is what paris or parts of rome may look like...though, really i don´t have any clue about either of those cities. we spent every night here at hotel reforma, right in the middle of everything (grand churches, great restaurants, huge markets, etc.), and we have been enjoying having the entire rooftop 3rd floor to ourselves, complete with a chair filled patio where we could spy on people walking down below us. we´re spies. well, not much else to report...it´s mostly been a relaxing few last days spent supporting the local economy (mostly indigenous peoples...they make up around 80% of the state of oaxaca with a full quarter of them not speaking any spanish at all) by eating (the most exotic thing i lately tried was huitlacoche...a black fuzzy mold that grows on corn and is damn tasty) and buying nice decorations to take back home with us. we have been treated to terrifyingly tremendous thunderstorms every afternoon, thankfully helping to keep the heat down in the evenings making for great sleep. oh, and we did take a day trip up into the hills to check out the ruins of monte alban, the former capital city of the zapotec society, which was inhabited off and on from 800 b.c. to the early 1500s a.d....though much smaller and lacking the eerie quiet of teotihuacan, this mountaintop city commands 360 degree views of the valles centrales thousands of feet below...very well preserved temples, and amazing critters everywhere...footlong lizards, monarch butterflies, radiant red birds, and these huge locusts that kes and i had an epic temple top battle with...me screaming and flailing my arms around like windmills, while kes valiantly smote our enemies down with her trusty lonely planets guidebook, allowing us to triumphantly live to see another day...really, they did attack us, those bastards...okay, maybe it was one, and he just buzzed around us for a minute or two...okay, two seconds. checked out the neato stone carvings of decapitated rulers and conquered enemies having their penises mutilated. man, what i´d give to be born in the 3rd century! well, this has been long enough (sorry jeff for wasting another 10 euros). time to go stock up on food and water for our 10 hour journey tomorrow out to the pacific coast, as we´ve just been dying to get back into the sweaty coastal heat and mosquitos. next stop, puerto escondido to check out the famous surf.
hang loose, brah...
still missing and loving all of you!
peace in grease, dustin and kesia
well, we´re still alive and eating. the last week or so has been somewhat of a mixed bag. after our amazing time spent in mexico city, we journeyed out east to the gulf coast and the (somewhat) great city of veracruz. almost immediately the suffocating tropical heat threatened to drown us in its burning humidity. its been in the high 80s everyday, but coupled with the wet air, it saps every bit of energy from our bodies...which was okay i guess, because mostly we walked around on the breezy (thank the lord) marina boardwalk, which wasn´t made of boards at all. veracruz is basically your latin version of key west. if you like to get trashed and dance the night away, here´s the medicine to all that ails you. as we´re getting along in the years (i´m 82 tomorrow), that scene just doesn´t hit us the way it used to, leaving not a whole lot else other than being bombarded by vendors selling poorly made shirts and dollar packages of gum whose flavor lasts 1.34 seconds. okay, okay...i´m being slightly over critical...they had great places to hang out, drink coffee, and people watch. the tropical weather kept the city very green and lush, with palm trees along every street (watch for the falling coconuts, which kill more people in mexico than lightning bolts). Ummmmm...they had a great aquarium, and ummmmm...who am i kidding, go somewhere else if you´ve any other options in mexico. After a few days of sleepless nights and bed bug infestations, we pulled up stakes and headed the hell out of the gulf, on a 7 hour bus ride back into the mountains towards the amazing city of Oaxaca de Juarez, or simply Oaxaca. instantaneously, calmness hit us once more and we were back into the groove of enjoying ourselves to the fullest. this city is a great place to vacation in...it´s very mexican, yet there are several international language schools here, so everyone is fairly comfortable with foreigners, limiting the google eyed stares at us whities every five steps (unlike veracruz). this city is extremely clean and well-preserved, though it still has it´s extremely poor fringe neighborhoods like everywhere else in the country. the streets here are mostly cobblestone, and i imagine that this is what paris or parts of rome may look like...though, really i don´t have any clue about either of those cities. we spent every night here at hotel reforma, right in the middle of everything (grand churches, great restaurants, huge markets, etc.), and we have been enjoying having the entire rooftop 3rd floor to ourselves, complete with a chair filled patio where we could spy on people walking down below us. we´re spies. well, not much else to report...it´s mostly been a relaxing few last days spent supporting the local economy (mostly indigenous peoples...they make up around 80% of the state of oaxaca with a full quarter of them not speaking any spanish at all) by eating (the most exotic thing i lately tried was huitlacoche...a black fuzzy mold that grows on corn and is damn tasty) and buying nice decorations to take back home with us. we have been treated to terrifyingly tremendous thunderstorms every afternoon, thankfully helping to keep the heat down in the evenings making for great sleep. oh, and we did take a day trip up into the hills to check out the ruins of monte alban, the former capital city of the zapotec society, which was inhabited off and on from 800 b.c. to the early 1500s a.d....though much smaller and lacking the eerie quiet of teotihuacan, this mountaintop city commands 360 degree views of the valles centrales thousands of feet below...very well preserved temples, and amazing critters everywhere...footlong lizards, monarch butterflies, radiant red birds, and these huge locusts that kes and i had an epic temple top battle with...me screaming and flailing my arms around like windmills, while kes valiantly smote our enemies down with her trusty lonely planets guidebook, allowing us to triumphantly live to see another day...really, they did attack us, those bastards...okay, maybe it was one, and he just buzzed around us for a minute or two...okay, two seconds. checked out the neato stone carvings of decapitated rulers and conquered enemies having their penises mutilated. man, what i´d give to be born in the 3rd century! well, this has been long enough (sorry jeff for wasting another 10 euros). time to go stock up on food and water for our 10 hour journey tomorrow out to the pacific coast, as we´ve just been dying to get back into the sweaty coastal heat and mosquitos. next stop, puerto escondido to check out the famous surf.
hang loose, brah...
still missing and loving all of you!
peace in grease, dustin and kesia
posted by Oldie | 5/08/2006 03:44:00 PM
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