El Vago en Suramerica

Well, I´ve finally reached the tropics. Even in central mexico it gets cold at night, and the landscape varies between desert and shrubland and forest, but until now I had seen few palm trees or coconuts. Here it is always hot, and the sun at midday is unbearable. The water is beautiful and warm, and the land is covered in green. I´m in Puerto Escondido on the pacific coast of Mexico, in the far south. I arrived on Thursday evening, and since then I´ve spent quite a bit of time relaxing on the beach and enjoying the waves for which this city is famous. I don´t surf, but here a big surfing competition is going on right now. Every day at 6 people head to the best surfing beach to watch the spectacle.

People party here like nothing ive ever experienced. I think it would be comparable to a spring break like atmosphere, staying out at bars until dawn every day then sleeping the day away, waking up several hours before dusk to chill at the beach a bit. On Thursday I went to sleep at 6, on friday at 7, and last night at 9 am. Ive spent most of my time here with foreigners which kinda sucks (lame gringos, mexicans are more fun), but last night I met lots of mexicans as well. There are these 4 alaskans who are cool, and Ive been chilling with them when Im out. This morning I went to the surf competition at about 7, but I fell asleep on the beach and I was feeling pretty awful, so I went to bed instead of sticking around till noon as I had planned.

Yesterday I was walking through the city at night and I stumbled upon an enormous gathering of people in a park, all carrying little yellow flags. I waited in the park with everyone, and a short time later Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a presidential candidate for the PRD, a liberal/socialist political party in Mexico, showed up in the park. He gave a good speach, and the whole gathering almost had a party atmosphere, with lots of music and ecstatic people. I learned quite a bit by this whole gathering, and it was a cool feeling to be the only gringo present.

In 45 minutes a dance festival is going to start, and Im excited to see what its like.

I was in Oaxaca for a couple (3?) days, and I really enjoyed the city. It was a fairly relaxed atmosphere there, and thought there was a lot to see, there was no sense of urgency. In Oaxaca is a gorgeous church filled with gold, and beside it is an excellent museum about the history and culture of Oaxaca state from the prehispanic period until the present. Oaxaca is an extremely diverse place, with a very large indigenous population; something like 20% of the state´s residents speak an indigenous language before spanish, and many speak little or no spanish. People dress colorfully, and the fiestas are unique and exuberant. One day there I stumbled upon a party by the Zocalo where a person would run in a circle in the middle of a big crowd with a wooden structure on his head that shot off sparks and fireworks into the air. It was exciting, but though people told me it was safe I was certainly not convinced. at one point a firework shot through the crowd and people had to jump out of the way. There were these crazy guys there who were drinking rum, and they adopted me as their “primo” (cousin) for the evening.

My first day in Oaxaca I met these two girls selling Mezcal, and i really liked them so I spent a while at their store that day. The next day I slept at their house, and on Wednesday I went out with one of the girls to a bar, and we became “novios” for the night. I was hesitant because she has a boyfriend in the town where she´s from, but I guess relationships only count for so much here…

Monte Alban, outside Oaxaca, is the most beautiful ruins I´ve seen yet. It is atop a mountain, and from there you can see valleys all around and big mountains in the distance. The setting was quite tranquil, and though you can see the outskirts of Oaxaca below, you there you feel like you are in another world.

I took a second class bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, changing buses in the port city of Pochutla. It took 8.5 hours total, and it was a dramatic trip. Oaxaca is in a fertile valley, but we quickly entered a region of shrubland, then high into the densely forested mountains covered in pine trees, then south into the tropics. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. In the mountains I got off the bus and was shocked by how cold it was. When I went back to the bus, little chickens were scurrying around the floor of the bus. People would get off the bus in places where there was nothing more than a couple of shacks on the mountainside. That trip was by far the best bus journey of my travels so far.

And here i am. Right now, Im maybe halfway between the mexican-US border and Panama. Tomorrow I might go to a beach called Mazunte, and then I´ll head to Chiapas via 2nd class buses. The adventure is only beginning…

PS. I have a funny story to tell some people about when I slept at those girls house in Oaxaca… Ill email it or something.

PPS. The monitor on this computer is like a fucking strobe light and i think im going to have a spasm. If there are any funny sentences or grammer errors in this entry, its because my head hurts and I can hardly think, and when i look away from the computer it seems like the whole world is vibrating.

God bless us, everyone!
Dan

Tags: Mexico

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2005 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.