This evening I´m sitting in a very chilly internet cafe across
the street from the Valle de Oaxaca Hotel in Oaxaca, Mexico.
After the sweltering heat of the coast, this chill comes as somewhat
of a shock. Physically I was getting used to the heat, or at
least trying to, and mentally I had come to accept that it was going
to be hot just about everywhere we went from here on out. Not
the case. I think the altitude is somewhere between 1500 and
2000 meters. We had to ride over a couple of high mountain passes
to get here from Puerto Escondido. Which leads me to ask myself,
"Self, when did I last write?" I think it was Monday,
and, referring to my notebook, that would have been from Pie de la
Cuesta up by Acapulco. The ride down from Acapulco was relatively
uneventful, which is good in this area. We have arrived in the
part of Mexico that has a reputation for spawning the occassional
roadside bandito, and the general rule of thumb in avoiding them is
simply "don`t drive at night`." We left Pie de la
Cuesta early to be sure that we arrived in Puerto Escondido by nightfall.
It is a long drive and we didn´t want to take any chances.
Much of the road is fast, but there are endless towns each with several
tiresome "topes" - speedbumps that slow you down, especially
if you are behind a car or truck which inevitably have to go slower
over them than a dual-sport motorcycle. The timing worked out
well and we arrived Puerto Escondido about 5pm, a little before the
sun sets. We found a decent hotel with a room with an ocean
view, though the lady wanted outrageous deposits so that we wouldn´t
steal the sheets, towels, books, or boogie board that Eric rented
the following day.
Life in Puerto Escondido is rather idyllic. The pace is slow,
and there are quite a few expats living there that have fallen in
with this local pace. Apparently there was an Italian movie
about the town and there are a remarkable number of Italians cruising
around. The surf was fairly tame the couple days we were there,
but I saw videos of the big rollers that come in from off shore storms
earning the town it`s title of being on the Mexican Pipeline.
There is a competition there this weekend, hopefully some surf will
roll in worthy of the talent that will be there to ride it.
From Puerto Escondido we needed to come up to Oaxaca to the Kawasaki
dealership so that Dick could get his steering head bearings replaced.
Unfortuntely one of them was not available in Mexico and had to be
shipped from the states via DHL. The last check of the tracking
info from Puerto Escondido on Wednesday showed the part to still be
at the DHL sorting center in Ohio, not in Meixco as hoped.
The road from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca was probably the most dangerous
we have been on yet. On the map it looked like an easy 2-4 hour
ride depending on road conditions, so we didn´t plan on an early
start. We left the gas station at about 11:30 AM. Once
again, this is in area where you cannot drive safely after dark.
But hey, 200-250 kilometers and 6 hours before dark, de nada problemo,
si? We encountered just about every road hazard known in the
western hemisphere. The road was windy, bumpy, sandy, gravel,
rocks, washouts on one sides, the remains of mudslides on the other
side, goats, sheeps, herds of cattle, fallen trees, road crews futiley
patching giant potholes, buses, trucks, maniacs, donkeys, children
on bicycles, roadkilled dogs, dogs that were destined to become roadkill.
The going was slow. It took something like five and a half hours
to get to Oaxaca, and the sun was almost down when we got here.
There were a couple of towns on the way in that we could have stopped
at if the need had been, but fortunately didn´t have to.
Once we were here there were a dizzying array of hotels to chose one.
This is definitely a town where you get what you pay for. I
looked at some real pits that were in the 250 peso range, some really
nice places that were anywhere from 450-800 pesos. We finally
settled on a a place with a decent room with good parking and three
decent beds. It was my turn to sleep on the floor and I wouldn´t
have wanted to sleep on the floor of any of the cheap places we looked
at, most were pretty scuzzy.
Once settled we were able to check out the Centro area of Oaxaca,
and it´s really cool. Started by foraging for food, particularly
the mole negra dishes the area is famous for. Found a market
with tons of places to choose from, and ended up not so much picking
one, as practically dragged to one by the woman who ran the place.
The food was as good as her aggressive sales tactics. Later
we checked out the Zocalo section, with it`s big tree-filled plaza
surrounded by cafes. This area is known for it`s Mezcal production
(like tequila but with green agave instead of blue agave) so we had
a shot and a beer at a cool looking place a block and a half from
the Zocalo. I think I like tequila a little better, but this
stuff is good too.
Today we went to the Kawasaki dealership to get Dick´s bike
fixed, but the part was not there. The tracking info showed
it to still be Ohio - doh! After a day of desperately trying
to get info, Dick just found out that the part showed up at the dealership
about an hour ago. So the bike will be fixed tomorrow - not
that we would have minded getting stuck here for a few more days.
This town is cool, and there is a lot to do. I think we are
going to visit the ruins of Monte Albon tomorrow. Well, it´s
time for dinner, and I know it will be good - gotta run!
Friday November 18, 2005 - 05:03pm (PST) |
