Day of the Taxi

As my landlady says, "Hay muchas celebrationes in Oaxaca".  Recently we had the parade of taxis.  Many of the taxis were wrapped with ribbons or decorated with bouquets of flowers.

Inexpensive Eats

Several restaurants serve a menu of the day meal which costs between $3 and $6.  Here is a picture of what these 4 course meals contain.  We paid $3.20 for all this.

Healthy Mexicans

Mexico has a reputation for being a nation of unhealthy people but I can tell you that compared to the average American, these people do not have a problem.  And the best part about the health here is that NOBODY SMOKES.  In the 7 weeks I have been here, I have seen on average of 2 cigarettes per week, and several of those were being smoked by Americans.  There do not seem to be any particular laws prohibiting it, so I assume that it is just not affordable.  Some of these people live off very little money.  There are ladies who cruise the zocalo all day for I do not know how many hours, probably 12 to 16, and they are trying to sell a little painted comb or painted toothpicks for a few pennies.  They probably make $4 per day or so.  Yeah, no money to waste on cigarettes.

Puerto Escondito

There are a lot of Mexican people in California and one of my friends is from the beach town of Puerto Escondito.  It is one of the top surf destinations in the world and I love it.  The hotel, which was actually a cabana, cost only $24 and it was located right across the lane from the beach.  Each morning I walked the few steps to the beach to enjoy my $3.20 breakfast at a table placed on the sand with the tide rolling nearby.  This same scenario in Hawaii would be, well, not only astronomically more expensive but probably not even allowed.  The only drawback to Puerto is the horrendous 7 hour drive from Oaxaca through twisting, turning mountain roads.  The same trip by plane is 30 minutes!  If you want to visit, fly!

The Alcala´

I just returned from the Alcala which is the main tourist street in town.  Here is a list of activities I encountered during my two block walk.  First, there was a wedding at Santa Domingo which is the fanciest church in Oaxaca.  Weddings at Santa Domingo come complete with parade featuring  20 foot tall replicas of the bride and groom.  This is also accompanied by a band.  As I continued along the street I encountered a violin and accordion duo and then 5 men serenading a maiden in her window.  And don´t forget about the clowns, they are everywhere. 

No hablo English.

I was over at the grocery store just now and there were several salespeople and beggars wanting from me.  I tried to use that age old technique of foreigners which is to claim that I do not understand the native language, but I accidently revealed myself.  Twice I said in Spanish that I do not speak Spanish, and once I said in Spanish that I do not speak English. 

Last day of summer school

Our class presented Simon Says as a demonstration of knowledge gained in our beginning English class.  The end of summer party was held at a water park.  The park consisted of one slide and a 30x60 foot pool.  We played soccer of course and another ancient game called Palota.  It was played in the pool with a ball.  Arin wants to share it with others when he returns to the States.

The truth about traffic tickets

I would never chose to drive in Oaxaca because it's too chaotic, but I finally understand how the ticketing works.  When you are stopped, you have the choice to pay your ticket immediately to the officer, or you can follow him to the station and pay there.  The first week we we were here, we noticed a car illegally parked near our restaurant.  We saw the officer walk over to the vehicle with a tool and he was bending over near the front bumper.  A few turns of a screw and up he came with the license plate.  We were told that the license plate was hauled it off to the station where the car owner would only retrieve it when he paid his fine.

Teaching

Arin and have been teaching an English class at the Oaxaca Learning Center. and today was the last day of our summer school class.  Now we need to find a paying job.

Monte Alban'

We acted as tourist today and visited Monte Alban.  It is an ancient Zapotec ruin and touted to be the oldest ruin in the Americas.  We had lunch with a gal from Mexico and a fellow from France.  Between the three fractured languages we managed to communicate for an hour and have a great time.  The gal was very funny and taught us some expressions.  She said that whenever the Mexicans have a problem, the solution is always, toma un mescal, which means, drink a mescal tequilla.  She also taught us, el mal del puerco, which means that you feel like sleeping after you eat, then when you wake up you are hungry again.

For some reason, none of the pictures of Monte Alban' came out so you will have to look it up.
We paid for an all day tour, but the best way to see Monte' Alban is to arrive by local bus and hire a tour guide when you arrive. This gives you ample time to peruse the site and costs a lot less!

Dinner with Cameron and Jay

Cameron invited us, along with his partner, Jay, to have dinner in another area of town which was accessible by taxi.  Of course the food was good and the company was great, but the taxi ride was frightening.   In Oaxaca, it appears that the pedestrians do not have the right of way.  A pedestrian can be in the middle of the crosswalk and if a taxi needs to get somewhere fast, it will turn right in front of you, causing you to stop or get run over.  I think I will avoid taxis whenever possible!

Would you like to travel the world teaching bridge?

Cameron, our first friend in Oaxaca, invited us to play bridge at a local's house, so we play two or three times a week with Cameron, Carlos, Abraham and two children, Lupita and Diego.  Sometimes the lady of the house, Maria, also plays if we don´t have a fourth.  We each give her 20 pesos to play at her home.  It is a way for the local people to make a little money.  Diego and Lupita always give me a kiss on the cheek when I leave-it is very sweet.  This is a more relaxed setting than the library and is always fun-Abraham laughs a lot and is very charming.  We are supposed to be playing in Spanish and that is more likely to happen when Carlos is present as he doesn't know English.  He hasn´t been playing lately because he is involved in the current teacher strike whereas the school staff pitches tents in the center of town and sleep there.
The international bridge federation is promoting bridge throughout the world and Cameron thinks that Arin can become good enough to be a paid instructor.  All he has to do is become fluent in Spanish.........or another language for that matter.  Arin has always wanted to travel and he may finally have a way to do it.

McDonalds

I finally had to break down and visit McDonalds today, but only for an ice cream cone. Although  Oaxaca is famous for its ice cream, there seems to be no cream in it. It is more like ice milk, if even that.  The flavors are all good but I wanted real ice cream and McDonalds would have to do.  I would not have sought out McDonalds on my own but this is how it happened.  We had ridden the bus to Plaza del Valle to watch Planet of the Apes, and there were about 150 people sitting on the ground outside the closed mall. Nothing was open, so we decided to walk to the next theater which someone had told us was in the next mini mall.  Well, we walked and walked in the humid heat and found nothing except a Walmart, concluding that we probably translated the information incorrectly.  When we returned to the mall at about 1:30, there were about 200 people sitting in every patch of shade.  That was when I decided to visit the air conditioned McDonald and wait it out.  We spent another half an hour inside and still the mall wasn't open.  Finally, one of the theater employees came outside and told everyone they were closed until 5.  I said to Arin, "Let's blow this popsicle stand and head back to town."  I still have no idea why people were camping out 5 and 6 hours before anything was going to open.  Most of them were not in front of the theater but were waiting outside various closed shops, including a grocery store.  Maybe today is their black Friday?

Post script.  I found out later that this was a protest, a good old fashioned sit-it, which you remember was a popular type of protest in America circa 1960..