Postponed the crossing...

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Well we are now officially one full day behind schedule and I fear that there is no way I can make it to Costa Rica on time. That's okay though, right? The journey is the thing, right? I am now almost fully caught up with my posts. June 19th is day 7.

Day 6 (yesterday)

Today Justin and I decided that even though we were behind schedule we should...no, we had to stop and visit the ruins of Monte Alban. They were just a stone throw from our highway, and we really needed to stretch our legs. It turned out to be a terrific decision. The ruins are perched on top of a hill overlooking the city of Oaxaca, which is the capital city of the state of Oaxaca. They date back to around 500BC and are massive in scale. Attempting to describe them would only diminish their true greatness, so I plan to post a bunch of pics as soon as I can. The major problem with uploading photos is that I need to be at a Wi-Fi hot spot, and those have become increasingly rare. I have resorted to spending my precious Pesos at internet cafes, which only allow me to type. Oh well, I'm sure you all understand.

Today we drove through the heaviest rain of our trip. It was not the type of rain you get in Southern California. It consisted of thick heavy drops that hurt your hand if you stuck it out of the window. We had to slow to a crawl because we couldn't see the two lane road that we were on. But the other drivers on the highway hardly flinched, and sped past us at uncomfortable speeds. But all turned out to be ok.

We drove from Acatlan to Tehuantepec, which is only a couple hundred miles and was not nearly the distance we were shooting for. Although we knew we were going to be driving through the mountains today, we had no idea how slow our progress would actually be. Twisting and turning and climbing and descending at 30MPH for hours at a time is frustrating to say the least.

One cool thing about driving this far south is the way you are gawked at. It makes you feel like a celebrity. I suppose they just don't see too many light skinned people around these parts because everywhere we go we are observed with a curiousness that is very fun to experience. Everyone watches us to see what we do but the stares don't ever feel rude, only inquisitive. Everyone has been extremely nice to us, and have gone out of their way make us feel comfortable.

Take this interaction for example. Tonight when we arrived in Tehuantepec it was still pouring down rain. We parked across the street from our hotel and ran in to try and stay moderately dry. After the typical check-in procedure we walked up the nice, clean flight of tile stairs and down the white tile hall to our second story room. Upon reaching the door we looked back and to our horror realized that we had tracked muddy footprints all the way to our room. We promptly backtracked, trying to step on the same prints we had already made. We changed into our flip-flops at our car so that we could remove them and walk to our room barefoot. When we got to the front door we noticed that the footprints had already been mopped up and began removing our sandals to prevent a repeat. the receptionist had none of it and insisted that it was ok to leave dirty footprints and accompanied us to our room.

Time for Bed.

Andrew

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Comments

[Uncle David]

Great Blog
Great blog dude wish I was there. Can't wait for the next entry. I sent Pops your email, He prob won't know how to access but I'll keep him posted. Be Safe, Uncle Dave