http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from North America , Mexico , Oaxaca en-us Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:36:02 +0000 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:36:02 +0000 Howdy peopleHaven39t done a blog for a bit I know....for no other reason than I felt lazy So as you might have gathered I took a trip 2 hours south to Hualtuco. An overnight actually and no lunchbox this time but a proper 2nd class bus with AC The center of town is cute quaint and small. Outside of town are gnarlylarge grey concrete private 5 star resorts that are ugly as hell But to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-791170.html Good cool rainy morning peopleSo Monday very early in the morning predawn I shuffled my a up to the Pemex gas station for a very interesting bus ride Setting the scene..... Off in the distance a 40 passenger lunchbox pet name for EurocarVolvo tiny buses rolls up. I flag her down to notice the right hand windshield missing Hopping in the backdoor I found a seat next to a chunky local wo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-789646.html Howdy peopleAs title states...it isn39t a hurricane. Barbara is just a windbag 120 miles or so south of us. But what a great excuse to mix up a batch of my famous jungle juice don39t ask the ingredients So it39s been rain on and off the past few nights and more to come sadly. But the other night I had what had to have been the best damned soup aside from my grandma39s corn chowder http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-788563.html Hey peopleIt39s been insanely hot here...35C or 95F Too hot to do much of anything other than lounge about smartly actually. Weather folks say rain this week.....but I don39t believe it for a minute. Not much happening here sadly other than a birthday party for Mikos on Monday pictures to follow. Other than that I try and steer clear of the sun because 1130 am to 4 pm it39s intense http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-787433.html Howdy people.Been a good first week so far Spent some time Saturday night drinkingdinner and live music with the boys and enjoying a Cuban cigar graciously provided by Shaun. Sunday noontime or so we took 2 vehicles to Agua Blanca about 30 minutes down the road to enjoy surf and fresh oysters and beers. But everything has a price and i got a heatsun rash on my forearms. And quite bad no less. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-785766.html Well I made it alive. The reason for no blog till now is simple.....I didn39t feel like it Haha that and an evening of cafe mescal might of played a role too. So as of today I have done NOTHING read perfect. Did my grocery shopping and other than that...Nada. As for generally happier people....this is easy When I left the states TSA and customs were glib and not too happy on the whole. An http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-785110.html Well our days of laying on the beach and drinking cocktails are over well at least for a week. Flew to Oaxaca City from Peurto Escondido on a teeny weeny plane. Kind of like the Sounds Air ones at home. Arrived and it was pretty chilly. We are about 5000ft above sea level and first thing in the morning you feel it. And when the sun goes down at night During the day though we are getting 32 degr http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-783636.html About to start making out way to Mexico. 1.5hr flight from Cuzco to Lima. Then a 12hr wait at Lima airport. May venture into the city. Then have a 6hr flight to Houston and then into Mexico City. Hoping to book a flight to get down to peudo Escondido on the same day but not sure if we have enough connection time. 12 hour wait in Lima wasn39t too bad. I think because we knew it was coming we cou http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Puerto-Escondido/blog-783635.html I promised a certain Dave and Wendy that I wound finish blogging about my travels in Mexico AGES ago and to be honest I have had a really difficult time coming up with the words that would end that chapter in my life. I returned home with mixed feelings about everything I had experienced over the previous year. In fact I am still working through my thoughts and feelings. My foundations were roc http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Tlacolula/blog-779963.html Hello everyoneI am going to try something different. Since I have friends who do not speak or read English I am going to attempt to do the blog in both English and Spanish. I will probably be doing a lot less writing .Voy a trater de hacer algo diferente. Ya que tengo amigos quien no habla o lee English voy a trater de hacer el blog en ambos ingles y espanol. Probablemente voy a escribir menos http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-774039.html This will be my first blog entry for 2013. Already I have done some very exciting things. I unpacked when I arrived Wednesday night. This part was not so exciting. Thursday morning I was tired so I slept in and made contact by email with the school and the clinic. On Friday I went to the school to enroll in my classes. It was so good to see all of the staff and teachers. I decided to take a to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-771937.html So been in Oaxaca for a week now. The weather has been so much better than closer to Mexico City though its still a bit cold at night. So got here last Monday after a 4.5 hour bus ride from Puebla. Was a nice scenic trip through lots of valleys as we made our way 1000m closer to sea level...still 1500m above sea level though In some of the valleys there were heaps of cacti taking up literally eve http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-767245.html The glazed bananas that the senoritas and senoras sell at the beach are a real treat. Grilled until the sweet banana pulp starts to swell and ooze. Think of a glazed doughnut but bananas instead quite a treat and filling Soooo good. What would a trip be without a Lessons Learned section1. Taxis. A twentyfive peso 2.00 taxi ride is inexpensive in itself but when you look at them over a th http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Mazunte/blog-766009.html We took a taxi to La Bocana on a tip from one of the waiters at our local beach. Great action Our taxi driver put the pedal to the medal and it was like a roller coaster for me in the back seat for about 10 miles. A huge expanse of beach and killer waves. Too big for us.We walked up the beach eastward to where Rio Copilita dumped into the ocean. While swimming across it we noticed that the f http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-763132.html Took a taxi into Crucecita to buy my friend a bottle of mezcal. I asked around and found out there is a store that sells only mexcal. I was almost there and came across an old man sitting on a box on the sidewalk. He saw me looking around and he said What are you looking for I said mexcal and he said two blocks up and on the other side of the street.I soon found the store and went in. On the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-762732.html Many interesting things in town today. My first outing was to the local beach came in the back way to avoid the the waiters. Hung out for an hour on my new yellow beach towel watched the waves come and go. Got all hot and sweaty within the first 10 minutes. It was 96 today and the ocean temperature is 83. The saltwater is good for my skin seems like it makes my fingernails grow faster. I39v http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-761352.html I rented a cab driver Silvario to drive me around for an hour Super Che art supply store glass shop bank taco stand and back home. Time away from home money spent.The weather is about the same everyday. High 92 low 72.The currency here is interesting. one dollar 12 pesos.Coins go like this in pesos1 2 5 10 Paper money is 20 50 100 200 500 pesos. Frequently vendors cannot b http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-760721.html Last NightSunday night went for a walk down to one of the cash machines.The machine hummed for a few seconds and then said transaction is compl ete.It gave me my card back no cash and charged me 7.47 for the transaction.I went back on Monday morning spoke to the manager but he spoke no English.Oh well. Later that day they posted a credit to my account. I hired a driver this morning to take http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Oaxaca/blog-760530.html Last Night . . .Sunday night went for a walk down to one of the cash machines.The machine hummed for a few seconds and then said transaction is complete.It gave me my card back no cash and charged me 7.47 for the transaction. I went back on Monday morning spoke to the manager but he spoke no English.Oh well. Later that day they posted a credit to my account.I hired a driver this morning to t http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-760496.html Tuesday December 04 2012It was raining on the way to the airport but when we were almost there the rain stopped. Terry tried to turn the wipers off but they wouldnt shut off. I told her to have one of the guys at the auto parts store pull the wiper fuse or worst case disconnect the battery when she got home. Omen of things to come Terry dropped me at United and the trip had begun. Forty http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Oaxaca/Huatulco/blog-760124.html