Oaxaca: say it like you've got a luggie in your throat

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We arrived on the red eye from a Vancouver autumn getting colder and darker by the hour, and step into the hot, dry desert air of Oaxaca City. The baggage claim and customs area at the Oaxacan International Airport is the same size as the departure lounge and check in area of the Tuktoyuktuk City Airport. Think small, so small that we have to move in an S like formation. Pick up bags, go left, get bags scanned, go right, up to the customs desk, left, press the lottery button (which inevitably picks the people with the most luggage to search), then head right.

Out into the arrivals area we stand blinking into the crowd and I’m greeted by a senora with my last name pinned to her blouse. She looks at me with a hopeful “Nixon?” “Si!” I say with a bit too much energy and point to myself. She beams, embraces me with a kiss on the cheek, and promptly turns on her heels and marches out of the airport. Was it something I said? How did I manage to mess up ‘si’ I wonder as I scurry after her. She barely reaches my shoulder and I am worried I’ll lose her it the crowd, until I realise that I am now officially a giantess.

The ride to my new Mexican casa with my new madre and padre is a quiet one. They seem to be discussing the weather and I am straining my attention between trying to recognize any words and absorbing the new surroundings. It feels part India with the stray dogs and rickshaws, part South Western USA with the dust, succulents and hot scented air, and part Desperado movie set.

After a series of circuitous one way streets, we arrive down a quiet residential dive and park in front of a tangerine and white stuccoed casa. Perro the dog starts barking at me from his perch on the roof. I offer him an “hola” and that seems to be enough to find me acceptable. That or the progression of my new lemon coloured suitcase is much more interesting.

Smiles and head nod’s lead to a massive comida that could have filled me up five times over and I fall into my first of many long, deep siestas, serenaded by the barking of street dogs and taco sellers.

Welcome to Mexico.

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