Hasta Luego, Mexico

I'm trying to think of a way to begin this post that isn't melodramatic, but failing miserably. So I guess I'll just go with this:

If then my fortunes can delight my friend,
A story fruitful of events, attend:
Another's sorrow may thy ear enjoy,
And wine the lengthened intervals employ.
Long nights the now declining year bestows,
A part we consecrate to soft repose,
A part in pleasing talk we entertain;
For too much rest itself becomes a pain.
Let those, whom sleep invites, the call obey,
Their cares resuming with the dawning days
Here let us feast, and to the feast be joined
Discourse, the sweetest banquet of the mind;
Review the series of our lives, and taste
The melancholy joy of evil past:
For he who much has suffered, much will know;
And pleased remembrance builds delight on woe.

That's from the Odyssey, an epic travel story to be sure, but one which clearly pales in comparison to the adventures had by yours truly at Viva Robusto.

Why all the drama? In case you didn't already know, tomorrow is our last day in Mexico City. After 10 long months of travel, we're finally flying back home to Portland, Oregon.

It's been wonderful and horrible, epic and boring, blah blah blah. I can't do any justice to our experience in this forum. All I can do is post some more pictures and make a few comments. Meanwhile I'm organizing and condensing my thoughts into a taut, hilarious 80,000 words that will hopefully become a book.

With both our friends (Jenny and Karyn) arriving in Oaxaca, we spent the last few days there in quiet reflection for our upcoming beach time.



After a particularly horrific night bus ride (that was supposed to be the less curvy of the two available routes), we arrived in San Augustinillo.



We didn't have a reservation, but by pure luck we managed to get two affordable rooms in a very nice beachfront location.



Liz was impressed by our color coordination.



Although the surf was pretty rough, it was a mellow, picturesque beach.









The 2nd best pizza we've found in Mexico, which, as a country, has the 2nd best pizza in the world. That we've found so far.



Our game of frisbee was cut short when I jumped onto some kind of rock or sharp piece of wood with my bare foot. The cut was surprisingly small, but my toe now has a sizeable lump on one side. I think I may have broken it or caused some kind of bone spur.



Liz and the girls took a boat tour out in the ocean early one morning to see dolphins, turtles and manta rays. It sounded cool, but I knew there would be puking involved so I decided to sleep in. I won't say who did and who didn't, but two of the three of them puked. On the plus side, they did get to see turtles having sex.



And a downed drug plane that for whatever reason has been left untouched for years. That's so "Lost."



Another day we headed to a calmer beach so Jenny and Karyn could surf and boogie board.



This is why I retired from such activities.



Afterward we made our way up to a beachside restaurant for ceviche and cacahuates (peanuts) with fresh lime and chili. So good, and so messy.



Another beachside dinner.



Another boat tour, this time to check out the turtle reserve in the neighboring town of Mazunte.



They also had a small pile of baby crocodiles.



Coconut meat with lime, salt and chili. I wasn't around for this snack but I am told it was excellent.



Next stop: Puerto Escondido and the "Mexican Pipeline," a popular surfing spot for more than half a century.

You can't swim there without a board, so we made sure to get a spot with a pool.



The dangerous waters.



Relaxing at the beach is actually pretty hard work. Sometimes you gotta take five.





Our last evening before Jenny and Karyn went their separate ways.







Puerto was kind of touristy, and the beach wasn't particularly nice for sitting on, but we did get some killer sunsets.











After Jenny and Karyn moved on, we spent another day or so in Puerto before heading out to our last beach destination. I'm not sure if I should name the beach we visited here on the internet or keep it a secret. It wasn't my favorite beach in the world, but apparently it's paradise for surfers. Kind of an unknown spot with great waves... a place where you can get two long sessions in every day without fighting any crowds for position in the water.

We enjoyed our time there, but it was a little bit rustic for my taste. We stayed in a sand-floor bungalow right on the beach and I didn't shower for 6 days.



Liz actually slept in a hammock right on the beach, which has been a dream of hers for a while. Every morning at dawn she woke up just long enough to take a photo of the sunrise.



At least there were several cute puppies around during the day to keep us occupied while most people were out surfing.



The food was a little bit of a weak point, unfortunately. It's pretty much all seafood, which sounds great, until you consider having it three times a day for a week. The "restaurant" at our cabanas was pretty reasonable and served decent pescado and filete; I just got tired of it after a few days.

The one time I sought out and found a taco stand that served beef ended in unspeakable tragedy, but I won't elaborate on that now. Instead, here's a picture of the tangy charred fish al ajo (with garlic) that we ate most of the time.



One of the wandering vendors, selling everything from toys to tamales.



If you want a beach to yourself, this is the spot to visit.



My finest hour. Nursing a Fresca the morning after a slight mezcal overdose. After this night, we decided to lay off the drinking for a while.



Liz's bed.



One of the girls that "worked" at our cabana, pictured with one of the puppies.



Their baby, eating filthy sand.



Back in Puerto, one last magnificent sunset before our bus ride back to Oaxaca.



That's it for photos. We have a handful more that are still on the camera, but our camera finally died completely, so we haven't been able to take many in Mexico City.

Our next post will be made from within the borders of the United States! Until then...

Giving this a shot...

Well, I was finally able to upload the photos to Picasa, but it took so long that I ran out of time to actually write a post.

So now, about a week later, we're in Puerto Escondido. We spent a handful of days at San Augustinillo and now we´ve found a nice little place here at the south end of Zicatela beach. However, I am posting this from a crappy internet cafe computer, so I won´t make any promises at this point about the length and/or quality of the post. This keyboard is terribly annyoing to type on, but I´ll do my best.

Back in Oaxaca, Liz and I took a quick daytrip up into the mountains to visit a park. I believe it´s actually in a separate town called San Felipe, but don´t quote me on that.

It was colorful, but cloudy, up there.





The clouds were bad news because I heard there were some decent basketball courts up there.



Still, I played through the rain and dominated. Still got it.



Actually the hoops were terrible and I was the only one there. The rims were about 7 feet tall and lacking nets, of course. I´m standing flat footed in that picture.

It did end up raining quite a bit, so it wasn´t long before we were on our way back down the hill to our apartment. This is our deceptively shitty-looking front door.



Another day trip, this time up to Hierve el Agua. That means "boiling water," roughly, but the water that naturally "boils" out of the ground here isn´t warm at all.



It forms several air-temperature pools near the edge of a cliff with spectacular views.



The minerals in the water create this kind of melted wax look as it cascades over the edge.



We actually planned on spending the night in a cabana up here, but were told that they were all full. Then, about thirty seconds before we were going to leave, after we had already boarded the truck, we were told differently. It was too late... we refuse to commit to a room unless we´ve seen it, and if we left the truck at that point we would have lost our ride. So we went back home.



A few more pics.











I think this is actually a blue agave cactus. I posted a pic of one before that I now believe was a different variety. This is (probably) the real deal.



No idea what variety this one is, unless "big ass" is a variety of cactus.



Yet another day trip, to the rug-weaving village of Teotitlan. Here the proprietors of a mom and pop outfit show us how the red dye for their rugs is actually made out of a type of fungus that grows on cactii.



Ok, here´s the story behind this shot. This guy is basically a mascot for the pharmacy a few doors down from our apartment. He gets paid to dance out on the street corner all day long. To promote the pharmacy. Obviously. Walgreens, are you paying attention?



Probably the fanciest restaurant in Oaxaca, Los Danzantes.



We went overbudget to check this place out one night. Great atmosphere, highly professional service, but the food was just OK. I mean, I had a steak for $17 that was about half the size and almost, but not quite as good as the ones we got for $9 in Argentina. Meanwhile, Liz had a lasagna that was advertised to come with spinach, but instead came with peas. She became violently ill the next day. Make of that what you will.



Happier times, before the peas arrived.



Our friend Jenny finally showed up and jumped straightaway into Mexican culture.



Another day trip up to hike in the San Felipe area. Foiled by rain, unfortunately. Everyone we spoke to advised us against taking the actual trail once we got there. So we just walked around a bit, took a few pictures, and headed back to town.



Few shots around town.



Liz and Jenny ran into some kind of bizarre parade with giant statues one evening.



Mayan ruins up at Monte Alban.





They had a monument to some guy who was important to the excavation of the park, or something. The important thing here is that he looked exactly like Kim Jong Il.



Mutant love.



All right, I can´t stand being in this internet cafe another minute, so that´s all for this update. I may post one more time in Mexico City. And then, when we get back home, I´ll add one last batch of photos, a video and some final thoughts. Until then!

Google broke the internet

Well, I was all set to upload 34 new photos before we leave Oaxaca (and my laptop) behind. But Google Picasa isn't cooperating.

Unless I can figure out what's wrong in the next 3 hours you'll just have to wait, because we're boarding a bus for the coast at 11pm.

If you don't see any new posts tonight, we will update again around August 1.

Hasta luego,

Dan

Mezcalritaville

Thought we'd check in again from Oaxaca before we head to the beaches and, ultimately, back home.

If the content has been a little thin, I apologize. Truthfully I needed some time to unwind from all the traveling we'd done, so I haven't really been up for doing much here in Oaxaca. I've mostly been sitting around working on my book, playing a little bit of poker again, looking forward to coming back to Portland.

However, we've been more active in the past week or so. Oaxaca is growing on me more and more as we find new favorite places to eat and hang out.

Backing up a few weeks, here's a picture of the teachers' protest that marched down our street. When we arrived in Oaxaca, the zocalo (town center) was overtaken with striking teachers. Here's the short version of the story: The teachers have been striking every year for a long time. A few years ago (2006), the government cracked down and there was a huge riot and massacre.

Since then, little has changed. The same people are still in power in Oaxaca, and the teachers still strike every year. The march was the culmination of weeks of camping out in the zocalo, and was scheduled on the same day as the riots a few years back. Nobody knows if the government will crack down again, but for this year anyway, the march was allowed to continue in peace.

It's not as dangerous as it sounds, especially for tourists. Now the teachers are out of the zocalo and everything is back to normal. Anyway, here are some of the protesters as seen from our balcony.



One day we took a collectivo up to Tlacolula de Matamoros to do a little shopping in the market. This poor kid is going to be goat-phobic for the rest of his life.



Almost bought this.



Did buy this.



As I mentioned, Oaxaca does feel completely safe. But you do see an awful lot of dudes with giant machine guns. The picture is terrible, I know, but I didn't want to get caught taking a picture of a guy with an M-16 who probably didn't want his photo taken.



On the way back from Tlacolula we stopped in El Tule to visit the largest tree in Latin America.



It's big.



And we tried some of the nieve, which is a bit like a snow cone. A little sweet for our palates, though.



This is Marta, one of the two cats that live here. She has been acting a lot like Ash -- trying to get into our bed at night, and sleeping on our clothes in the daytime.



Dinner at the pozoleria near our apartment. I'll let wikipedia explain what pozole is:

Pozole is a traditional pre-Columbian soup or stew from Mexico. It is made from hominy, with pork (or other meat), chile, garbanzo beans and other seasonings and garnish, such as cabbage, lettuce, oregano, radish, cilantro, avocado, lime juice, etc. There are a number of variations on pozole, including blanco (white or clear), verde (green), rojo (red), de frijol (with beans), and elopozole (sweet corn, squash, and meat).

You can also see some tacos de carnitas (rolled) in the background. Altogether this meal was around $11.



Garcia Vigil, the main tourist drag, pictured on a quiet night.



A few shots from a concert and dance in the zocalo.



After the first band played (classical music), we went to get some lunch. They were showing the next band on TV live as we ate.



The biggest ants I've ever seen. Apparently these guys only come out once or twice a year, but we've been lucky enough see them twice already. They're pretty slow-moving and apparently not a threat to bite. In fact, when they do come out, people collect them by hand to eat later. Yum.



Not everything is cheap here, but limes sure are. 20 will run you about $1. Cheap limes + "Controy" (fake Mexican Cointreau) + tequila = great margaritas.



In El Chaltan, Argentina, Liz met up with Marlene (left) from Denmark. Turns out she was coming to Mexico too, and she and Liz have stayed in touch. We met up for margaritas and dinner at La Olla.



It really is a pretty town despite the graffiti, noise and pollution.









It's not uncommon to stumble upon a random dance practice out in public.



Liz knows a cool Vespa when she sees one.



She's also been volunteering a bit of time at a center for kids here. This little dude is really working hard on his watercolor.





Balloons are big here.



This is a tlayuda from the Farmer's Market.

Again, I'll let wikipedia do the honors.

Tlayudas, sometimes spelled Clayuda (IPA /kla'ʝuð̞a/), is a part of Mexican Cuisine, consisting of a big crunchy tortilla covered with a spread of refried beans, asiento (unrefined pork lard), lettuce, meat (usually shredded chicken, beef tenderloin and/or pork), Oaxaca cheese or other cheese, and salsa. They are a popular antojito, or snack food, in Oaxaca, particularly around Oaxaca City.

Here's where we get flowers every week.



Liz with her Spanish teacher.



A few shots from a nearby museum. I didn't go. I just find it hard to get enthused about another museum or waterfall or cultural event at this point. But apparently it was quite scenic.





One thing I am enthused about: mezcal. I wrote a little about it in the previous post, but basically it's a variant of tequila that they produce in the Oaxaca region. I've tried probably eight or nine different varieties and haven't been disappointed yet. Like tequila, it's made from blue agave cactus (maguey en espanol).

Not sure if these are blue agave cactii or not, but they sure look like it.



And here's the best mezcal I've tried so far. It only costs $5.85 for a liter, but I think it tastes better than Patron or Don Julio.



And it has a worm!



That's all I've got for now. We're heading to Hierve el Agua tomorrow, and our friend Jenny arrives on Saturday. So the next update should be even more action-packed. Until then...

The Home Stretch

San Cristobal was a gorgeous little town. If it weren't for the rain -- and the projectile vomiting -- I would have enjoyed spending more time there.

A few shots from one of the clear days.





I hope these weren't the tacos that made me sick, because they were delicious.



Argentina has their dog-head mannequins; Mexico has... this.



Colorful local market in San Cristobal. We wandered right into the crowded, stinking depths of this thing. It's remarkable how similar it felt to the markets in Asia. They even had pig faces for sale.



Here's how it looked most of the time in San Cristobal.



Finally, I recovered enough to handle a night bus and we made it to Oaxaca. Our apartment is incredible. It's right off one of the busiest roads in town -- only three blocks from the zocalo -- but so peaceful and relaxing on the inside.



Look at those ceilings... you could fit a basketball court in there!



Perfect spot to really hunker down and work on my book. As you can see.



The shared courtyard.



And our own little breakfast nook.



The view from our balcony. This was some kind of graduation parade. About a week later we had another giant parade down the same street, this time a major protest against the local government.



Wish I could remember what this was called. The guacamole mellowed out the crisp, savory tortillas and carmelized topping perfectly.



Marta, one of the two cats that live here. Pictured capturing the largest moth I've ever seen. Honestly, it was almost like a bat.



Oaxaca is a little bigger and more polluted than I expected it to be. But the city is overflowing with character.





They repaint the buildings frequently to keep on top of graffiti.



Fresh corn tortillas, still hot from the oven. $0.80 for a kilo.



We are finally doing a better job living frugally and cooking most of our meals at home. Still, we plan on taking advantage of the world-renowned culinary scene here.

Here's the famous black mole.



And the red mole, with a side of white beans that were out of this world.



Another new favorite: mezcal. It's Oaxaca State's answer to tequila -- a strong alcoholic beverage made from blue agave. But we're finding that you get a little bit more for your money with mezcal than you do with tequila. Even the cheapest mezcals taste as complex and -- I'm not sure what the right word is... peaty? -- as more expensive tequilas.



In other news, the Spanish-speaking and book-writing, respectively, are going pretty well. Liz is studying with a private instructor about 15 hours a week, and I'm nearly achieving my goal of 1,000 words a day on the book.

The basketball-playing, however, is going poorly. If I walk 20 minutes to a rotting old court with no nets I can usually get a game of 1 on 1 going against a 4'11" guy. It's exercise, I guess (we're at 2,000 meters here so I always get winded), but it gets old really fast when you can literally block every single shot your opponent takes and score 100% of the time on them. I have to take it super easy on people just to stay interested in the game, and that's no fun.

We have about 4 more weeks here in our apartment, and then we'll head to the Oaxacan coast with a few of Liz's friends that are coming down to visit.

And then we'll be just about done with the trip. Catch up with you again soon!

It's Pronounced "Wa-Ha-Ka"

Well, we've finally arrived at the destination I've been dreaming about for the past six months: Oaxaca.

Why have I been so anxious to get here? Well, the city has a lot going on, and it's known for great food, but neither of those reasons fully covers it.

I was looking forward to Oaxaca because getting here meant that we'd almost be done riding buses, boats, trains and planes. We'll be planted in the same spot for the next six weeks, and then we just have a few more destinations to hit before flying back home.

And it turns out, we're in a great spot for hanging out. Our apartment is the nuts. We'd seen a few pictures, but they don't really do justice to the lush, jungle-like shared courtyard or 20-foot ceilings in our place.

We also didn't realize we'd be getting our own kitchen/dining area.

Back to the blog stuff: We left off in Tulum, where Liz booked a cave snorkeling tour one afternoon.

A bit of bad news first: Our camera is failing. It's too late in the trip to buy another one, since we have a brand-new digital SLR sitting at home waiting for us. We'll just have to make do for the next two months; we can still take pictures, but the exposure control is really goofy now.

So, apologies in advance, but this was the best shot we could get of the caves.



From Tulum, the next point of interest was Chichen Itza, a major Mayan ruin. But instead of forking over $$$$$$ to stay near the ruins, we stayed about half an hour away in a cute colonial town called Valladolid, home of the biggest Mexican flag I've ever seen in my life.



Just had to capture one of these for the blog. Thank god this kind of advertising is illegal in the states.



More Valladolid.



One of my new favorite Mexican foods: Cochinita Pibil. It's a type of slow-roasted pork -- a lot like Carnitas (except Carnitas are fried). Usually served with bright pink onions, tortillas and lime.



We had one night in Valladolid before heading off to see the ruins. We met up with a friendly German girl on the bus who told us about some kind of local dancing exhibition, so we checked it out.



They did the "Mexican hat dance" and also plenty of dancing with bottles and trays on their heads. I was hoping for some kind of Pee Wee Herman "Tequila" dance, but left disappointed.







The next morning we caught a ride with another American that was staying at our hotel. We wanted to beat the crowds to avoid another Angkor Wat catastrophe where we found ourselves fighting through tour groups all day.

And, we succeeded. We blitzed through the ruins in record time and were back on the bus to Valladolid before lunchtime. Here's the main attraction, which is somewhat anticlimatically located right near the entrance.





The German girl doing something silly.



The old ball court. This is where the Mayans played a primitive sport that involved knocking a ball through a hoop using their hips, knees and elbows. Human sacrifice usually followed the games, although nobody is certain if the losers or winners (or both) were offered up.



If you look closely at this wall, you can see the ring that served as the goal.



This is actually where they kept some of the remains (heads? skulls?) of the victims.



They also tossed a lot of human sacrifices into this deep pit of water. Just like in Army of Darkness.



And they played a really slow version of tic-tac-toe. Man, the guy who had X in this game got eternally owned.



Random ruin shot.



Does this remind you of anyone? Specifically, does this remind you of anyone in the Speranza family?



Next stop: The surface of the sun. I mean, Merida. Possibly the hottest place we've been on this trip. It was a nice town, but MAN. I don't know how people live there, let alone how they hang out with their friends on park benches.



Some guy told us that this was the oldest church in Mexico.



We only stayed in Merida on our way to Palenque. Palenque is another famous ruin site. Again, we stayed in a place (El Panchan) just outside the ruins rather than in Palenque town (supposed to be horrible) or at one of the uber-fancy resorts right next to the ruins.

El Panchan turned out to be a microscopic hippie enclave in the middle of the jungle. But we found very un-hippie-like lodging at Ed and Margarita's Cabanas. This place was meticulously clean and super luxurious as far as jungle lodging goes.



Some of the flora and fauna around our place.





This is the real-deal jungle, too. It buzzes constantly with insect activity, and you can even hear howler monkeys on occasion. They sound like [censored] scary monsters, and if you didn't know better, you might be terrified.



Many of the ruins at Palenque are still buried under the jungle. Here's what's been excavated.















They discovered a body in this tomb that had been treated with cinnabar (hence the red).



The next day we took a half-day trip to check out Agua Azul and another minor waterfall.

First, the minor waterfall.



Agua Azul. This is just a small part of the falls. It's not Iguazu or anything, but it is a fairly large series of falls.



It's actually dangerous not to swim here.



More views.





This guy is crazy. The water is like 3 feet deep where he's jumping in. It must be deeper during the rainy season.





We swam to the same spot earlier. Nice place, but not necessarily worth the ridiculously dangerous collective ride to get there.



After Palenque, we went to San Cristobal de las Casas, where I became violently sick from something other than drinking for the first time in 20 years. We have only a handful of pictures from the town, as I spent most of our time there in bed, and heavy rain kept Liz confined mostly to the hostel as well. Still, I'll get them up soon.

Update on the book: I've got between 17,000 and 18,000 words done (about 50-55 pages), and I'm trying to write 1,000 a day until we leave Oaxaca.

Also, for what it's worth, it's completely different than the blog. Here I'm just trying to loosely narrate a series of pictures so people can follow along with our trip. The book will tell a lot of the stories that can't be captured on film, in more detail, more polished, and hopefully, funnier.

That's all for now; catch up with you again soon.

T-Shirts, Anyone?

I've long been considering making Viva Robusto T-Shirts. Anyone interested?

If so, what are your thoughts on this design, and how much do you think is a reasonable price? (Note: The back reads "www.vivarobusto.com," which will soon be the new URL for this site).



Leave your thoughts in the comments section and we'll see if there's enough interest.

More Mexico content coming soon!