Oaxaca, Mexico

January 27th, 2008

My new watch explains a lot. It has a pink faux leather strap and a sparkly mauve face. It only has numbers at 12, 3, 6, and 9, so you don’t need to get too up tight about specifics. The entire watch face swivels and turns around with the back out: Santa Maria surrounded with faux diamonds. It makes me want to weep. I figured we better get a Santa Maria in our midst down here. I can swivel my watch around at crucial times like looking for a place to live or being inspected at a military check point.

Perhaps the fact that Cassidy turns into a teenager in just a few hours (4:07am ) explains the rest. WOW! How do kids get to be so old when you’re living right next to them? I don’t know what happened, but now he’s faster, stronger, has size 9 feet, and wants to talk about politics. At least he’s not taller than me…..yet.

We’ve landed in Oaxaca and are staying at a Pasada near the main Plaza…..it is great. We have our own little 2 room space and then share a common courtyard and covered, tiled outdoor kitchen area with the other tenants. At this point that is a man from Tucson who spent the last 40 years in Alaska, another man who lives here half the year from Peace River, Alberta, and a woman who we never see. The place is owned by the language school we are going to and everyone here is taking some semblance of classes there.
Anny

Oaxaca is one of my favorite places in Mexico with a wonderful Zocolo which is filled at this time of year with thousands of poinsettas in all of the plots around the tall shade trees. There are outdoor concerts many nights each week- classical, marimba, mariachi- as well as wandering troubadors throughout the main plaza. There is a huge Indian Market with all manner of things-foods, handicrafts, clothing and many smaller markets with different emphasis on specialty items. The town is full of ancient churches, some being built as early as the 1500s, before the pilgrims landed to the north, and many beautiful plazas/parks where one can sit and take in the sites. We have already walked more in 3 days here than we walked the previous month and are taking buses when we get a little tired (or cranky). We worked out a deal with the trailer park where we spent the first night and can park our car and trailer there for the month for $60. It’s not too far from us if we need something though we packed the car full once already with all of our books food, clothing, bedding and other assorted stuff. Our rooms are very homey!! Birding in the veranda is great with hummingbirds, Vermillion flycatchers, tropical kingbirds, yellow grosbeaks, many types of warblers, doves, orchard orioles and some unidentified birds filling the trees and bushes. We are contemplating putting out a feeder and watering dish for them to see what we can attract to the yard. We have Wifi at the school so will try and get some pictures in soon of our new home.

Hasta luego,
Chris