gone south

Back in Mexico  March 23, 2009

Internet access has been an issue, thereby postings have suffered. Writing while not on-line makes it hard to remember where we were last when writing but I think it was Antigua, Guat.

At any rate, we pulled ourselves away from there with a bit more Spanish but lacking in salsa graces ( but was it ever fun to watch those who could!). We then passed through some hilly country where charcoal production reigned and then slipped back into Mexico at a crazy border crossing right in the middle of a busy Mercado. The necessary spraying of insecticides on the van took place by elbow pushing stalls with crying babies and produce stalls. Stayed up in the hill country, visiting San Cristobal- yet another colonial town but much less touristy than some of the others. Very nice but cold a good part of the day and so, again, we headed out through the Sierre Madres towards Tuxla. The mountains of Chiapas are impossible to describe other than elevation, switchbacks, zero idea of which direction you are heading and when conjuring the nerve to occasionally look down, it looked as if we were coming in on a plane.  This coupled with no guardrails, semi trucks passing on curves and the roads are lined with crosses commemorating those unlucky drivers was a crazy contrast to the farmers in the nearly vertical fields.Total white knuckle hours  and then we dropped down to sea level for the overnight. Next day we began a similar climb up to Oaxaca  City but this time the fields were agave ( for mescal and tequila) and the road lined with individual distilleries including the horses or burros pulling the grindstone in a circle.

On way, we stopped to see the BIG TREE in Tule. The know that it is somewhere between  2,000 and 3,000 yrs. old. T’was amazing…even took a spig.

Oaxaca was great and we managed to find ourselves in the downtown plaza having something to eat when a demonstration with hundreds of indigenous farmers from local villages converged to protest. A truly uncomfortable time as they passed our gringo table, eyeing the food and the folks.

After a couple of days we did a return route out of the Sierra’s down towards the beaches. Temperatures then returned to 100.  As I write we are cruising some of the beaches, stopping when a good site appears. Thus far, we’ve ended up on a nude beach and on several with undertows too severe to swim but we’re moving on as the calendar is now looming and we have a long way to go.

Will add to this when we get connected.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.