Oxacaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

Good to be here. Before I post anything else, I have to say that I can live in a 1 bedroom apartment and drive a ten year old beater of a car for the rest of my life and probably will. But please, can I just fly business and/or first class forever? It's the only luxury item I want. Ice cold Tecates served in an ice cold glass (a real glass) before takeoff and four more before Mexico City. A cute flight attendant that called me Mr Mitchell. Yep, that´s the way to do it.

When you fly into Mexico City there are always lots of fires. You see these fires dotting valleys and hillsides as you approach. I assume they are trash fires. Nasty stuff burning. Anyone who doubts the science of climate change should fly into Mexico City and look at the number of people and the air quality and tell me we aren´t responsible for most if not all of it. I am going to start writing on other subjects in a separate blog and keep this to travel subjects but I will make mention of the reality that is our world from time to time and cover it in more detail elsewhere. So don't read the other one if you are one of those who prefer to hide their heads in the sand and pretend we don´t have any GIGANTIC issues (if you do read it, don't say you weren't warned). So this can just be the fun adventure portion and the other part can the be the adult section for those who not only want to live their lives but also consider what's happening in the world and see me finally get closure on the catastrophe that was George Bush with an angy diatribe. And other angry diatribes (religion comes to mind...and the total hypocrisy of the right wing). So this is the shop ´till you drop, everything is ok, buy Amercian, you are with us or you're with the terrorists, mission accomplished, American-flag-pin-on-your-lapel-for-TV section of the blog. See, there I go again. I will do my best to make this all travel and no editorial. No, really.
Mexico City Airport is surprisingly efficient though. And warm. And polluted. The air inside is like an August day in L.A. At one end of the terminal, beers are $5, at the other end, $2.50. Shop around. And eat at 100% Natural and have the best smoothie of your life. And check several monitors for youir departure because they don´t all match

Oaxaca

Got into Oaxaca at about 9:45 last Wednesday but had to take a collectivo into town as there were no taxis. The collectivos wait until they are full before they leave so I didnt get into town until 11:30 after driving down a bunch of really narrow and dark streets. Somewhat sketchy. Went out for beers on the Zocalo (centrel square) and then saw some hot dog vendor almost get crushed by his cart so I went to help him. The streets here (more on them later) are narrow and people double park and box in other cars. When the boxed in driver returns, he LAYS on his horn to try and find the other driver. The hot dog guy was trying to help this one guy move by getting the cart up on the sidewalk but he was losing it so I righted his hot dog ship. Across the street was a jazz bar and I wandered in and had my first Mexico crush on the bartender who spent a lot of time talking to me in my shitty Spanish.

I´ve actually been sick for the past four days with perhaps the worst cold I have ever had. Limited activity although before I felt sick I did go for a three hour hike and walked down the back side of this mountain to which the owner of the place I am staying (an American) said, "wow, I don´t know anyone who has ever walked through that area - did anyone harrass you?" Um, yes. Lesson number one - don´t walk through neighborhoods (colonias) that do not appear on a map. The people who live there don´t want you there but they would very much like your money. Some guys were trying to "make friends" with me from up this little hill and were hurrying down to "greet" me. Lucky for me a bus was driving by (and not stopping) but I hopped on through the open door and got a ride into town. I hope they didn´t think I was rude. Idiot.

Finally I can sit upright for more than an hour at a time and can post. Day two of Spanish class. My teacher, Flor, is awesome and the class is at the right level which can be a problem. You know what I mean if you have ever attended language school. There are three of us in the class - Michelle from Seattle is a physician's assistant and Miyami is from Japan and owns a chocalate shop. Miyami speaks Spanish with a Japanese accent and she went to France for a couple of months to learn French so she throws French words into her Spanish. She says oui a lot when she should say si. It's pretty comical. I call it Sprench. Or Franish. Like Spanglish that the Chicanos speak in California. "I'm going to the tienda" or "voy a la store." I have some photos to upload but I crashed a computer yesterday while doing it so I need to do it over (and take some better photos). I'm still experimenting with this website so I need to figure some stuff out. And maybe change blog services if I can't get things just the way I like them. But it's not like I don't have the time to work on it. Now that I will be able to get out more, I should have more to post but I'm not sure how interesting a daily post is unless something really funny or crazy happens.