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Published: July 30th 2009
30/4/09 = V.scary arrival in Oaxaca
Another bad sleep. Still awake when a guy came in just before midnight and then kept awake when same guy fell asleep instantly and snored for rest of night. Don’t need to re-iterate how I feel about snorers! Did the half-sleep thing until 8am, then got up, packed up, had breakfast and headed out just after 9:30 to visit Zona Archeological Cholula = a church on a hill/former pyramid. Not going for the church - had quite enough of those - going for the amazing view of the volcanoes you get from the top.
Stored bags and pottered off to catch bus; only 5peso = v.cheap. Nice bus man told us where to get off, but didn’t tell us where the church on a hill was. Walked generally until came to ‘the Square’ - Mexico loves Zocalo’s - then spotted some churches and headed that way. Found the church in question. Couldn’t really see much remains of the pyramid it once sat on and really wasn’t that high off the ground, but muddled our way up the mound to the church. Quite surprising how good the view really was. Could see all towns
around us and even as far as the town we had come from. Mexico = a really flat city; should have biked here…typical! Had a good walk round it all, including the outdoor gift shop - talk about capitalisation!- and was quite impressed. Although looked like all the other churches inside (i.e. pillars, pictures and lots & lots of gold), was v.pretty outside and really liked the angel gates.
After quick walk round, looked out for volcanoes. Could see some hills, but that was about it. That can’t be right! Looked in the direction described to us, had to turn head to side a little and do lots of squinting, but then noticed them; v.faint outlines of giant hills in the distance. So faint would never have even noticed them if didn’t no where to look. All this way for something have to squint to see, and no…it wasn’t just because I didn’t have my glasses on, they were just really obscured by thick cloud. Rubbish.
Made way back down - quite disappointed - and had a little look round market instead. Diary hunt continues! Didn’t find one I liked, but did find some, all emblazoned with the
v.popular skull and skeleton theme that Mexicans seem to love. Related to the celebrations of the dead I guess, but not quite what I want on the front of my diary! Happy to have at least found a pretty necklace from an art shop. 20peso = £1 and felt instantly better when bought it. Yes, shopping really is a kind of therapy. You can’t beat that ‘just bought something new’ feeling.
Got a fruit pot - fruit = ridiculously cheap in Mexico - and ate that on bus on way back to Puebla. Picked bags up from hostel and trekked off to catch another bus back to bus station. Today going to be a day of many buses. Trek = most un-enjoyable! Midday heat, midday shoppers and 2 girls with 2kg bags; not the ideal combo. Collapsed onto bus when made it and flopped into bus station looking for next bus to take us to next destination = Oaxaca. 1pm and next bus not until 2:45. Waste of time, but unavoidable. Paid our expensive 300peso each and went in search of food. Not the best station and ended up resorting to fast food. Ignored the burgers and pizzas and
headed to Mexican stand…mistake! Ordered 2 ‘meat’ wraps - wonder why doesn’t say what kind of meat it is? Just thinking along these lines when handed money over and looked up to see giant leg of donner meat spinning in background. Oh no! Too late…already ordered it now. Sat down quite mortified; Deb nearly sick before she even saw it. Didn’t matter. I knew I would eat it regardless of what it looked like and I knew it wouldn’t be the worst thing have eaten on this trip. Out it came and down it went. That’s the trick with these things…do it quick and don’t look down…pretty much the same principle for jumping out of planes or jumping off bridges. Deb however, wasn’t well practised at the trick. She looked at the food far too much and approached with the nibbling technique. Mistake. Result = instant feeling of sickness and an inability to carry out task. Needless to say, my plate was empty when we left that table and Debs’ looked like the episode out of Mr Bean when he hides food under things…namely napkins. I even followed my dinner with a tasty jam and coconut cake…well, had to get
rid of the donner taste somehow!
Got on bus at 2:30 and had to sit separately because bus full. Long journey and listened to music until recognised familiar song inside bus. Sure enough, looked up to find High School Musical on. Would recognise that opening song anywhere after spent so many weeks practising it with old class. Don’t usually watch films because all in Spanish, but since HSM = 75% song and all songs in English, had to watch it. What a cruel world we live in where 2 adults are reduced to watching HSM and are actually thankful for it! It passed the time and staring out of the window at the vast, barren landscape occupied only by cacti also kept me entertained.
Arrived in Oaxaca just before 7pm prepared to catch our last bus of the day to take us to the hostel. It should have been really easy, but this is where it all went horribly … horribly wrong! Had instructions about which bus to catch, but when a bus pulled up and asked him if he went to “Melchor Accampo”, he said “yes” so we got on. Watched out of window for street name
as we drove through busy town, but no joy. Not worried until we appeared to head out of town and most people had got off. Oh no! Asked again about Melchor Accampo, but driver didn’t reply. Instead, 2mins later, he pulled over in a random street and told us to get off. Didn’t have a clue where we were, but it wasn’t Melchor Accampo and it didn’t look very safe. Tried to talk to him some more, but he only repeated that we needed to get off. Oh no!
Was 7:30 when we stepped off and starting to get dark. Sunset at 8:00pm; really needed to be somewhere safe by that time. Needed to think. Couldn’t get a taxi - they = most unsafe things in Mexico for robberies - , would have to try and get another bus. Stopped bus number 2, but he could only point us in a different direction. Apparently we were in wrong place, no surprise there. Walked off to another parallel street in increasing darkness and starting rain; wasn’t going well. Lots of buses in this street and decided only option left was to try and get a bus back to bus station,
then could start journey again. Didn’t want to be stranded out here in dark…only time have hated being blonde!
Found a bus that said it was going back to bus station, so got on. Nervous. Was right to be nervous too. Sat still as bus drove into town, through centre and back out again, completely in wrong direction for bus station. Oh no! Determined to not get thrown off this bus; was now entirely dark outside. Showed driver and his mate directions and although had same old language barrier problem, could tell by their faces we were in completely the wrong place. Oh no! And then he pulled over somewhere random and told us to get out. Oh no…please no! Tried to argue with him at first, but then his mate/helper got off and beckoned for us to follow. Was he going to show us the way? Gave him our directions and off he went, us following behind with huge, heavy bags. Walked silently and stopped silently at another bus stop - he didn’t know English and we were rubbish at Spanish; the silence was non negotiable. We got onto another bus as he instructed and then were quite
surprised when he got on with us too. Bus took us down more streets and the helper man stopped bus and told us to get off. Quite worried at this point. Me, Deb and helper man stepped off the bus into a v.dark and v.quiet street, with no street lamps and no people...just us. Although the helper man seemed very nice, we didn’t know him…we didn’t know who he was…why he was helping us…or if we could trust him…but we didn’t have a choice. Followed him as he led us down more and more dark and narrow streets, encountering no other people and walking through streets made of rubble. Could feel throbbing of carrying heavy load on back, but pain mostly blotted out by fear of where we were and what was going to happen…what could happen. I hoped he was as nice and as genuine as he seemed, but unbuckled bottom part of bag just in case did need to be able to run anywhere in a hurry.
Got right to the bottom of the dark rubble street when he pointed up to street sign to show us name “Melchor Accampo”. All bewildered because no hostel in sight,
but overriding feeling = relief…at least he was taking us to where we wanted to go and not to any of the horrible places that had vividly passed through my mind as we tramped unknowingly down the street. There was an old couple in a doorway and he asked them for further directions to hostel, which led to us tramping all the way back up the long, rubble street. Now panic had subsided a little, full force of bag weighed down on shoulders burning with pain. Had spent 30mins trekking so far, asked 2 sets of people for directions- neither of which recognised hostel name - until finally found a restaurant and asked a man working there. Relief…a flicker of recognition crossed his face.
There it was, in the very place that the bus had first dropped us off 30mins ago…Casa don Pablo. Too tired to be mad, too thankful, too happy. What a lovely guy, trekking up and down dark streets with us all night to find a totally random and obscure hostel. So glad we found him; it could have turned out much worse. Gave him 50peso for his effort and possibly saving our lives.
Was
9pm when checked in. Couldn’t help the loud relief sigh as dropped dead weight bags from back and felt shoulders and back tingle back to life. Tired…exhausted…and hungry! Nowhere to eat and definitely didn’t fancy another night time trek; would have to hold out until morning. For second time on trip, had to dip in to emergency stocks that Mum packed for me all that time ago; a cereal bar that had been well and truly, repeatedly crushed into mush. Still, was thankful as gulped down the ball of muesli mush. Didn’t take quite as long to get to sleep this night.
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