Sam's Club

Someone told me there was a Sam's Club in Oaxaca, so I looked it up on Google, and, sure enough, there is.  I live in the southern part of the historical district and Sam's Club is two miles further south in an area of town I had not explored yet.  It was an interesting walk.  Some areas were obviously poorer than the center.  (There is a lot of deep poverty on the edges of the city.)  And then, surprisingly, a typical suburban sprawl, with a McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Pizza  Hut, Office Max and a whole host of Mexican equivalents.  I would say I was disappointed, but Mexicans have the right to create big ugly spaces just as much as North Americans do. (Mexicans are Americans, as are all the residents of Central and South America.)

I walked around the Sam's Club for the heck of it.  And although I have no need for a case of liter bottles of ketchup, I did find a small package of index cards.  I use these a lot.  When I went to buy a cellphone, for example, I looked up Spanish cellphone terms and wrote down the ones I thought I would need to use.  Very handy.  But when I went up to the register, I couldn't buy them without a membership card.  I thought maybe I would have to pay a higher price than members, but I was wrong.  I seem to remember being to do that in North Carolina, but it's been many years.  So I left the index cards and walked back home, taking a different route.  I got back home just before it started to rain.

Street scenes

Anything is possible

I have been asked for directions twice in the last 3 days by Mexicans.  They are probably in town for Guelaguetza.  I could dismiss once as a fluke.  But twice?  I suppose this means that my attempts to "fit in" are working.  But maybe too well, since the second time all I could do was say, "Sorry, I don't understand Spanish very well."  I really did not understand what the lady was saying.  The first guy I helped somewhat by pointing him in the right direction for the Zócalo.  In any case, I don't quite know what to make of this.  If this keeps up, I will have to start wearing shorts all the time to identify myself as a gringo.  At least until my Spanish improves a whole lot.

Llano park during Quelaquetza

Llano has been transformed.  A couple hundred vendor booths have been built, along with stages, lights and sound systems.  One area that has not changed is the street between the park and the neighborhood church whee there are two ground fountains.  The street is permanently closed to all but pedestrians because of the fountains.  Kids love the fountains, which shoot up randomly, and during the festival there is always a crowd around them watching a very entertaining show.

Not all the fountain runners are small children.  Teens and adults get involved, usually by trying to wrestle someone else into the spray.

Guelaguetza breaks out!

Now I know what all the fuss is about.  The first parade was tonight, and the schedule says there will be parades the next seven evenings.  It was simply awesome.  I don't know how they can top it, but I am sure they will.

There were thousands of people lining the parade route and it was a long parade.  Most of the tourists were Mexicans who came from all over the country.  Those of us from Europe and the US were a tiny minority.  This festival celebrates the Mexico that existed before the Spanish Conquest, so there is an immense sense of national pride.  And a striking sense of joy.  (And unlike the US, there is no need for any military display.)  This is not a drunken party (at least not yet).  It's a family event.

All these groups were dancing as they went by.  Many of the dances were obviously courtship dances.  My favorite group was the pineapple dancers.

And of course there were fireworks and ear-splitting firecrackers.

Street scenes

It's always fiesta time in the Zócalo

I walked to the Zócalo just because there's always something happening there, and guess what, a fiesta broke out.

Some great news

Internet here has been iffy. The apartment complex has had one WiFi router for all the apartments.  Sometimes the internet has not been available at all.  There have been complaints, and Maria, the landlady, got the internet provider to send a guy out today.  It was a long service call with lots of up and down the stepladder trying to get the system to function better.  It didn't.  So the end result is a new router with a separate antenna apparatus attached.  This means that I can stream Red Sox games.  I was not able to do that in Carrboro.
So I am sitting on the couch, windows open, drinking an Indio beer and watching the game on my computer. Life is sweet.

Volkswagens of Oaxaca

You see VW Beetles all over the place here.  Their owners keep them going seemingly forever.  Here's a couple samples.  In the first, the wheel is turned into the wall to keep the car from rollng away.  In the second, a Beetle with a ladder rack.

Paseo Juárez El Llano

This is my favorite park.  It's on the north side of town near the yoga studio and in a nice neighborhood.  It has four fountains.  The Zócalo is a three-ring circus all the time, with people coming up to you trying to sell stuff.  Llano park is a beautiful and relaxing place.

Yoga en Español

Took a yoga class at Casa Angel this morning at 8:30.  Instruction was all in Spanish, which meant a lot of looking around to see what I was supposed to be doing. There were around a dozen students, two other guys, all Spanish speakers except me.  (Where are the gringos hiding?  Maybe it's like Florida where you watch TV all day and then go out to eat.  No early bird specials here, though.) Great way to start the day.  It's around a mile away, too, so a nice little walk.  And I wore sandals and shorts.  Very daring.

Ray left yesterday

Now that Ray is gone I don't have anybody to boss me around.  Or correct my Spanish (or English for that matter).  He will be greatly missed.

Rainy Season

The weather has been close to perfect.  Every day temperature rises to 80 or so, then go down to around 60 overnight.  It's rainy season here, so that late afternoon and early evening bring showers more than half the time, sometimes torrential showers. There are a lot of clouds during the day.  When the sun is not covered by clouds, it's pretty intense.  The weather forecasts always list the UV factor as "10+ Extreme."

What's really nice is that we have windows open all the time.  No matter how hot it gets, it never gets too hot inside.  And it never gets too cool.

After rainy season there will be long periods of time with little or no rain and the sun will be unimpeded.  But the humidity will be low and it should be fine in the shade. I don't know exactly what it will be like, but I think I need a wide-brimmed hat. Another fashion problem.  The hat I got at REI screams "gringo dork."  I've seen other gringos wearing similar hats and it looks pretty bad.

The rainy season is June, July, August and September.  July is actually the fourth rainiest month.  As is typical in regions with a rainy season, the rain levels starts high, decrease somewhere in the middle, and then go back up again.  I don't know why.

Dogs in Oaxaca and Guelaguetza

You see a lot of dogs out on their own here and hardly ever see a dog on a leash.  They may just be lying around, completely unconcerned that you are stepping inches from their faces.  Or they may be walkng, seemingly having some place to be, too busy to bother with what people are doing.  It is so unlike dog behavior in the US.

Here's a picture of a dog picking up litter and exhorting people to help him keep the "stairs" clean.  

These stairs are wide stepped paths leading to an outdoor performance theater high up above the city.  Next week, a two-week festival called "Guelaguetza" begins.  This is a wildly successful event that attracts tourists, and their money, from large Mexican cities and Europe.  It's hard to say what it's about, even after reading descriptions of the event.  I guess it's a combination of a celebration of the Virgin Mary, who is a big celeb here, and the goddess of corn (who is now apparently the VM), and the seven ethnic areas of the state of Oaxaca.  Expect parades, dances and native costumes, and firecrackers at any hour of the day or night.

Plumbing matters (TMI alert)

You cannot drink water out of the tap here as is true in many parts of Mexico.  So you have to buy purified water to drink, brush your teeth, wash vegetables, etc. It costs around $1.30 for 5 gallons. There is a lot of disagreement about how far to take this.  For example, I was brushing my teeth with tap water.  Then I got diarrhea. Now I brush my teeth with purified water, and rinse vegetables with it, too, after washing them with tap water. I have no way of knowing what caused the problem.  I have read that it takes around six months to become acclimatized to the local common bacteria.  This would be true for a Mexican going to the US.

Another interesting plumbing issue, indirectly related to the first, is that you cannot flush toilet paper down the drain.  The sewage systems are very old and cannot handle the paper.  We have a little plastic trash can next to the toilet where toilet paper must go.  The man who handles maintenance in this apartment complex, Manuel, comes in every day to take this and other trash out of the apartment.  How are they related?  Imagine being up all night with diarrhea and going through a lot of toilet paper.

Monte Albán

We went to Monte Albán today to see what remains of the great Zapotec state.  It's only 6 miles from Oaxaca at 6400 feet above sea level.  Building began around 500 B.C. by flattening the mountain top.  For unknown reasons the site was abandoned around 600 A.D.  Perhaps they had just reached the end of their particular empire.

It's a massive site.  How did they flatten a mountain?  How did they quarry the stone, transport it and build these enormous structures 2500 years ago?  They had an incredibly developed math and astronomy.  It boggles the mind to be there and consider these things.  And, of course, there's the fact of sacrificing human beings to the gods.

They played a kind of game similar to basketball.  One article I read said that the losers were beheaded.  Sounds like Red Sox fans.  This is the ballgame court:

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It's a Small World, Part 1

Ray and I went for a three and a half hour walk today.  He looking for a rock climbing place and I for a yoga studio.  We found both, but they were closed.  We keep forgetting that most everything closes down from 2-4pm.  (We also found out that there are four AeroMexico offices located around the Zócalo, all with different functions, but more about that some other time.)
At the yoga place, there were two young women looking at the yoga schedule, looking appropriately yoga-like. So in clumsy Spanish I asked them about the studio.  They told me what they knew in Spanish--not a whole lot.  We kept looking around trying to find someone to talk to and ran into them again.  They asked me where I was from.
US.
Where in US?
North Carolina.
So are we. What town? (Now in English)
Chapel Hill
So are we.
I said, UNC?
Yes
So is he (pointing to Ray)
It turns out they are getting MSWs in social work at UNC.  They are in Oaxaca doing one of the intensive Spanish courses for a month.  They have been in Oaxaca since last Friday and we have been here since last Wednesday.

The clothes thing

OK.  I just went out to buy beer wearing shorts and sandals (and t-shirt).   In all this beautiful weather Ray and I have been wearing shoes and jeans.  Why?  Because Mexican men do not wear shorts.  And they do not wear sandals.  We've seen a couple of guys wearing shorts and can't remember seeing a guy in sandals.  And we have seen a hell of a lot of people.  So I felt kind of weird out there.  Not exactly Lady Godiva, but still.  (By the way, the store I went to is around 100 yards from the entrance to the apartment.)  Will I be able to develop the sangfroid needed to defy these customs and let it all hang out?  Or will I be a pollo grande?

Los Arquitos: the Oaxaca Aqueduct

We walked to a neighborhood in Oaxaca that has what remains of an aqueduct built in the mid eighteenth century.  It brought water from the mountains north of the city until 1940.  It creates a really interesting neighborhood.  Some houses are built right into the aqueduct.  While we were there, we saw a taxi drive through an arch and continue on  a stone path we would have guessed could not be driven on.

Aguacates! (Avocados)

These are the avocados I had heard about.  You can eat them skin and all.  Bought a dozen at the market for 10 pesos, around 90 cents.  There are other varieties as well, but this is not prime avocado season.  They are delicious, although one vegetable dealer who did not carry them insisted that the Hass avocados were better.

Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca

We were walking to Santo Domingo church and walked by this beautiful old building that turned out to be the Etno-Botanical Gardens of Oaxaca.  There is an entrance fee, but apparently today is national botanical gardens day in Mexico.  Surprisingly, we had not known this. So we got in free if we went on a guided tour in Spanish.  The woman giving the tour took forever to talk about the plant/plants at each stop.  She did, however, talk relatively slowly so that this was a Spanish lesson as well.

This green stone is typical of the quartz-based volcanic stone used to build much of the city.

Moved into apartment yesterday

View from the rooftop garden toward the Temple of Santo Domingo. The apartment is on the second and top floor. A great garden on the roof with table, chairs, flowers and views.

We rolled our 50+ pound suitcases from the hotel, a bit more than a mile, over some pretty rough roads and sidewalks. In many places, the building walls leave as little as 2 feet of sidewalk. Throw in a light post and it's a tight squeeze for just a person to get by.

It was very nice to get the apartment set up. We went to the market next to the Zócalo to buy food: a very humbling experience. Should I pay what is asked? Should I barter? Do I understand what anyone is saying in Spanish? (very little) But we managed to come back with some great fruits and vegetables.

We then went to what is nearly an exact duplicate of WalMart to get soap, toilet paper, etc. It seems incongruous to find that here.

Second Full Day in Oaxaca

The Zócalo, one side of the square