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Here I am in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico

My new home - for now. 

I will post highlights, images, and things that seem interesting to me.

Tacos Al Pastor

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On planning the trip, it starts with:

• Ganas, desire, curiosity... then
• How do I get there 
• How do I leave the Oaxaca airport and find the city
• Where do I stay
• ... and most importantly, FOOD! Que no?

Well, Oaxaca is in southern Mexico, far enough south that it is not cold, far enough south that it will be a six hour winding drive through the mountains bus ride south to reach the Pacific ocean as Mexico curves toward Central America, Belize and Guatemala. In a couple of weeks I will think about heading down to touch the water. Already I know someone that knows someone...

So why Oaxaca? 

I didn't want to be cold this winter so I decided on a southern destination. But, before I left, I joined friends and family for Los Dias del Año Nuevo in the snow covered mountains of Northern New Mexico. You can view a clip of this event from last year where we were filmed in Cerro, New Mexico. Look for us on YouTube through the tag, "Dar Los Dias". It is a very abbreviated representation of one hell of a wonderful New Years event. Si no conocen esta tradicion, no saben lo que les falta en la vida. Es una experiencia a toda madre! I do want to thank my cousin Danny Quintana and family friend Lucille Torres-Long for making sure I was going, sticking with it, in spite of a long drive to get there, and my relatively recent aversion to the cold and snow. And of course to Bernie y toda la gavilla for another wonderful annual experience.

Last year, also after Los Dias, I went to South America. I did not blog on that trip because I was busy traveling and also there was limited access to wifi in some areas. My trip to South America included a month in Ecuador (my second visit), then on to Peru (a second time too though through a different city), touching Bariloche, Argentina, then to Chile where most of my time was spent on the island of Chiloe, in the vicinity of the town of Castro.  On the mainland I stayed on Puerto Mont and also in Osorno. My trip to South America included dysentery, Hijo de su...

I also have a friend in Riobamba, Ecuador, Arturo Salazar, whose family I spent time with, often using their house as a home base as I traveled from one section of the country to another. I made many friend and acquaintances with their help. Arturo is a musico playing a few types of instruments and several types of flutes. He is also a gifted craftsman of the flutes that he sells and uses.

This year, my length of time and specific travel areas are unknown until the trip is over. In general I chose Oaxaca. The day before I left the EEUU for Oaxaca, I booked a house through AirBnB. Not knowing where the house was located, I ended up in a colonia called Colonia Reforma on the east side of the city. A very nice house, the only shortcoming was the distance from all the tourist stuff so it was cab rides to and from, lots of walking, and finally bus rides once I became more comfortable with finding my way back home in the dark from where the bus dropped me off. Speaking of the dark, I have not had a sense of risk in this area. Kids, young women, families, and people in general walk around with only basic precautions. I stayed in my first house for three nights. In the meantime, I met the owner of a hotel in town and decided to move into her hotel. I will have to get her pic so you can meet my friend Leticia and her staff. She is 71 y pura Oaxaqueña.

My second home is this place called Hotel Boutique - Casa Cid de Leon. It is an old place, walls are almost 3-feet thick. Esta mas vieja que la tierra, but classic, upscale, and a heck of a deal. The first night here, I was jumping on the bed and still I could not reach the beams that are the ceiling. (JK) But the truth is that the ceilings must be 11-12 feet tall, 4-meters or so.

So, I have started exploring Oaxaca. Walking, talking, visiting, a double decker bus, cafes, restaurants, taquerias, and soon out of town tours. The first local tour was the Jardin Ethnobotanico. I will post pics, it was nice. Though cabbies generally have a bad rap, they can also be the best advocates of the city and most knowledgeable for what and where.

One other connection I have made is a place called the Oaxaca Lending Library, it is located at 519 Pino Suarez, it is a place where expats, mostly gueros/americanos, meet to find company and get help in getting the most of their visit to Southern Mexico. They have over 20,000 books in English and about 5,000 in Spanish. They provide library tours for locals to encourage a positive venue to let kids read without peer pressure. Books are both English and Spanish language. There is a clean bathroom too. Very important though only a priority when nature is a priority. No se rien, todo somos iguales en esa necesidad me dicen. And there is often someone to chat with. I read somewhere that there may be up to 5,000 permanent Expats living here in Oaxaca. And there may be as many tourists, of all ages living the experience on any given day, especially during the cooler season.

This place, Oaxaca, is full of history, culture, character, and once again, the food! People are nice and in just a few days, I have met dozens. Lourdes and Fernando my first hosts, my pedicurists Anali, Maria Rosa a hard of hearing lady worker at the library, a mostly deaf taxi driver. (He told me he can only read lips in the daytime so drives mostly in the day... I can relate). Nos hicimos amigos hermanos inmediatamente. And too many to mention. Many locals ask why I know Spanish. Well, at home I might say, "pues Allah dude, soy del Norte, mas Norteño que whatchusay". Here I more subtly refer to the many Hispanohablantes that have lived in my hometown for generations.

I did see a guy wearing a t-shirt that made a lot of sense my first day out. It was black and the words on front had words that thinking people can relate to: "Ese Donald Es Un Estupido". If I see him again, I will take a pic of the shirt.

Well, my intent is to post pictures on this blog so you can see, through my eyes, what there is here in and around Oaxaca. Some images will be self-describing or just interesting and I will let many of them speak for themselves. Where you see pics of churches, it is not for the religion, as most of them are empty, but for the architecture. There is some amazing architecture here. The steeples are a good place for the birds to roost too. Keep in mind that the churches were built on the back of indigenous slaves. The reality of life.

On SMOG, not much at all. At night the city light blocks the stars a bit but the moon is clear as can be. On noise, lots of taxi toots though it is only noticeable when on the hotel terrace or walking around on the streets. Tambíen, disparan muchos cuetes antes del tiempo de acostarse uno.

Prices and Exchange Rate

The Peso/Dollar exchange rate is about 18.9 Pesos to $1 US.

The easy way to roughly calculate the exchange value is, take the pesos, drop the last digit, divide by 2.

• e.g. 40 pesos = 4 divided by 2 = $2US
• e.g. 627 pesos = 62 divided by 2 = $31US

Still, after the math, pricing/value of things is weird, at least from an economics perspective. Por ejemplo:

• I went to the convenience store across the street and bought a can of beer, 14 pesos, and one liter of water, 13 pesos.  
• I dropped off about 3.7 kilos of clothes to be laundered. Price when I pick them up will be about $57.9 pesos. I then walked to the tourist section of town and bought a pretty good Cafe Latte, medium size, $40 pesos. WTF (water the flowers). Remember to tip the working people.

Click the page tabs on top of each page to navigate to see pictures and more travel experiences.

Hasta pronto amigos, un fuerte abraso. Buen Camino...

Ronnie

[*] Grammatical errors are with your eyes, or maybe my fingers. I will try to fix what I can as I review El Cuento del Gitano Oaxacaqueño.