Adios Oaxaca
Or hasta luego more like it. I will return. I mean, I have to. Too many people expect to see me back here.
But I had to extract myself. I had a going away party because I needed one more night of staying up until 5 or 6. Matt from Australia and I ended up at the Tlayuda stand at 5:30 AM posing as a gay couple from San Francisco which was pretty funny for the other patrons. The amazing thing was that there were ten people there at 5:30 AM on a Tuesday. I was supposed to leave on Wednesday but I forgot my passport and my credit card at the place I was staying and had to go back and get it so I missed my bus.
I need to thank the following people for my time in Oaxaca: Paco uno, Paco dos, Paco tres, Carlos, Carlos, and Carlos, Oscar, Keni, Pinky, Fernando, Lalo, Flor, Alberto, Miguel, Gloria, Lily, Veronica, Jessica, Christy, Mayumi, Dale, Rebecca, Matt, Martin, Neil, Sandra, Jovani, and especially my good friend Heidy who was so generous with her time.
I had a good run and maybe stayed two or three weeks longer than I should have. I was kind of lost once Cafe Borgo closed because it was the center of my social life. Pretty much 80% of everyone I knew in Oaxaca was directly or indirectly through Borgo. The new Borgo is now open for business and I anxiously await reports from the front lines.
My last night in Oaxaca was interesting. It was actually uninteresting until the riot started. I walked into this little store and when I walked out these people were running down the street pushing motorcycles over. I started to follow them down the street to see what they were up to and they started smashing out store windows and growing rapidly in numbers. I looked behind me and police in riot gear were moving pretty quickly toward me. The rioters were apparently better armed with projectiles than I thought and started hurling rocks and bottles at the cops and I am trapped in the middle. I looked at the cops and shrug my shoulders with my palms up to say "what do I do?" One of the cops waves me toward him and I scramble his way and he drags me back through the line of cops to safety. I didn´t have an opportunity to get out my camera until I was behind the cops. I took some really bad video from behind the mayhem that includes me running away when the tear gas comes out. It also results in one of my favorite moments of the trip - the flower vendor running beside me yelling "orrale gueto" (run whitey) as his girlfriend runs by giggling.
I can´t get the video to post, I´ve been trying for a couple of days. I will try Flickr/Facebook to see if I have any luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment