Wonderful Oaxaca

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You have had to wait a very long time to find out about those "plans" that the universe had. They are now even more uninteresting than they were 3 weeks ago. The bus didn't leave San Cristobel until night and so we decided to go to Tuxtla Gutierrez. I don't know if Tuxtla has any fabulously interesting spots. We spent the whole 6 or 7 hours in the bus station and the shopping mall next door to it. We had lunch in a very fancy restaurant (nice loos!!!) and were just about to go and see Agent 86 in Spanish but poor Bern was afflicted by a touch of Montezuma's revenge. It is amazing how it is possible to let hours slip by without feeling them. Being back at work I wish that I could remember that skill (did I really work this many hours before I left--I don't believe it. No wonder people think I look healthier now--I don't have the bags any more!)

Did I already swear off ever getting on a night bus again? This one was not quite as noisy, but it stopped so many times at military, police and "just give us some money" checkpoints. This time too, the police and military would get on the bus with their torches and have a bit of a squizz at people. Not sure what they were looking for. We were on the Pan American Highway so perhaps for major drug runners who were taking a leisurely bus ride up from Columbia perhaps. I was so tired though that I did keep drifting off and waking up as if I had, in my sleep, been attempting to weld my right cheekbone to my left hip. We arrived in Oaxaca at about 0630 in the morning and wondered around as the quiet city came to light around us. It was a lovely crispy sunday morning with only a few elderly woman going to church and one other lost tourist whose guidebook obviously gave the same ambiguous instructions for getting into town as ours. Our quiet reveries about the colour laden buildings, the most exquisite grating to date and the 3 mountain ranges converging, as the sun came up, on the edges of the town were suddenly drummed out of our heads as the brass band outside the church started up! It was 7 in the morning and they were a huge, loud band. I don't think you want to live too close to a church in Oaxaca if you like to indulge in the local metzcal on a saturday evening.

We found our target hotel--Los Mariposas--the butterflies--and it was lovely. Definition of lovely: unfusty bathroom (on later reflection, the bathroom was a little strange as it was very small and had a swinging tavern door which necessitated kicking other room occupants into the courtyard if any serious bathroom activities were required--it did have a huge shower, hot water and a no thong policy policy though which was very redeeming), an amazing door that had lots of little doors-within-doors that offered unlimited (not really but I am not in a maths mind at the moment to work out the actual permutations and combinations), great beds, a fabulous wacky tall female hostess, breakfast with silly bees and local honey, the opportunity to meet other people around the breakfast table, a relaxed atmosphere, a wacky running dog and a very large cactus. I liked that hotel: I believe I speak for Bern too in saying it may have been the holiday hotel highlight. Big claim, I know. Deserved.

Oaxaca turned out to be a lazy stay and one that was well earned. It had great shopping or shops at least, fabby little eating places. You know we did the whole metzcal tasting spree. You know I ate chapulines--handed a few out at breakfast time as well. It would absolutely bucket down every day in the afternoon which often necessitated afternoon naps (damn). But really, we didn't actually do anything. We tended to be accidental tourists there as well, stumbling across the rickety-est fireworks set up I have ever seen in my life, or, someone mixing up chocolate on huge grinding machines, adding sugar and other goodies, or alleyways in the market where you chose your ingredients from the stacks of meat that the vendors stroked enticingly (but slightly perversely) as you went past.

I suppose it was a combination of not wanting the town of Oaxaca to come to an end for us, and not wanting to get to Mexico City which ultimately signaled the end of the holiday that made us sad to leave. But we did.

Nearly there guys ... last blog will be MC ... oh and there is of course Disneyland ... but I will save that all for the next time I am on the computer.

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