Eventually I got to Oaxaca. I wish i'd remembered to take my winter liner off when I gassed up at the edge of town. Warm and traffic, crazy, heavy tarffic! Macismo! Man they drive aggressively here. I've learned, drive like they do. Be pushy, drive fast, make the cab driver think you'd love to ride over his hood if he cuts you off. Trust me it works.
Oaxaca. It has a wonderful square, Sjoerd Bakkers book was a life saver and so was my GPS. It lead me right to the Hotel paris as recommended by Sjoerd's book. Thank God! I thought I would die of heat exhaustion in the traffic. I had to do a u-turn at one point to void a one way street the GPS was trying to send me down and I 'motocrossed over a railroad track and a pile of dirt just to do it. I was very very glad to get to this hotel. Nice place for about $30 not bad for in the middle of a massive city.
Oaxaca
My room
The hotel feels very Brazilian to me, here's a look down the hall
My walk
Traffic everywhere
Scenes from the square, a magnificent huge square, full of people. I people watched all afternoon
Look at this angelic girl waiting for her dad to buy her a balloon
Narrow streets
People
The Cathedral
back in the square
a beer at the square
Kedgi
Supper at the square
These two little boys were going table to table selling embroidered goods. Not a parent in sight. I gave the little guy a few pesos, you would have thought I gave him the world
The market
more traffic
There were protests at one end of the square. Indigenous people demanding their land back
I met some people from California while I had supper, they belong to a church group that has been coming here for many years, to support a sister church. they were very nice and it was fun to speak English again.
I came back to the room and i don't know how I missed it before but this was on my desk
crashing back to reality it exemplifies the drug problem that has left Mexico in such a mess. This is actually a very nice hotel and I was really surprised the maid somehow missed it.
I firgged around with my computer for a long while trying to install my new PayPal button 18 times.
Then I met this wonderful Mexican couple, Roberto and Consuela
Roberto has a bike and they ride a lot around here on weekend trips. They asked me how i found this hotel and i told them about Sjoerd Bakker's book. They are going to get a copy.
Robeto builds guitars. How cool is that?
Consuela speaks extremely good English, we had a great time. When Roberto found out I had ridden to Mexico from Canada by myself, he said, with a sweeping mption of his arms.....You are a Bullfighter! I told them I get called something similar at home from time to time.
Tomorrow, the beach, the Pacific Ocean, I cant wait!
Now you're up to date
Kedgi