Oaxaca...Antes. Pt. 2

February 18, 2005-March 23, 2005
The time passes in Mexico strangely...at times the days seem to escape me, night falls fast and I realize i haven't done anything. but, like now, i realize two weeks or more have passed and so much has happened, yet it feels like yesterday.

So, where to begin...I'll begin with the arrival of Maria. My friend Maria came to visit for two weeks and it was so nice to finally share this mexicana part of my life with someone who knows me and understands me in the American part of my life. I was excited to bring these two worlds together and I knew that my friends here would love Maria instantly and they did.

Maria and I stayed in Oaxaca for a couple of days. The first day she was here, a friend of mine, Anuar, took us on a tour to a place called Hierve el Agua. It is about an hour and a half by car and usually people bus it out there. Luckily we had Anuar in his decked out Neon that he races annually in a road rally from Oaxaca to the coast. So, maybe the trip actually takes 2 hours by car when a professional racecar driver isn't driving. It was absolutely gorgeous driving out to Hierve el Agua, up and up into the mountains. Hierve el Agua means "the water boils" and it is called that not because the water is hot, but because it is a spring that bubbles up from the cliff side. This little park consists of an amazing set of petrified waterfalls that hang down the cliff side and a set of blue green pools, which are fit for swimming. The location is unreal. The biggest and deepest pool is set in a way on the cliff that when you are swimming in the pool it appears as if the water extends to and falls off the edge. It was a gorgeous day and we were practically the only people there so we swam and sunned ourselves.

The next day or two we spent shopping and walking around the city. Mexican time is really contagious because although I had a list of sights to see and things to do everyday, only about half of everything got done. But I guess in Mexico life isn't about efficiency and deadlines, it is about living, loving and experiencing life. We spent time in the market looking for leather and other wares and We spent the time talking to the vendors, developing a relationship so we became more than just two gringas looking to buy. We gained their respect as well as a fair price. Both Maria and I bought beautiful hand-made leather purses, each for under twenty dollars and we ate ice cream in the ice cream market and saw a few churches.

After all was said and done, we were off to the beach with two French girls and an Australian. We went to beach town called Mazunte, which is exactly that, a town that is the beach. There is one road in Mazunte that has a few stores on it and restaurants, but the main area is the beach. We stayed in a little palapa run by a Mexican family who's matriarch we lovingly called "Big Mama". In Mazunte there is no reason to leave your palapa or the 50 meters extending to the water in front of your palapa. Our cabana overlooked the mighty Pacific and we fell asleep every night to the waves crashing onto shore. I unfortunately got sick in Mazunte (from heat stroke and not bacteria) so I slept for about two days, but I still got a pretty good tan. There is not much to say about our trip to the beach. The only big decisions that had to be made were whether or not to wear sandals down to dinner, or to change out of our bathing suits, or to put on more sun screen. Here again, we would just pass the time making friends with the beach vendors or with the people who worked at our palapa.

Unfortunately, the beach time could not last forever and we had to head back to the city, not just Oaxaca, but the gigantically huge Mexico City. we had been planning to get into Mexico City and have a day and a half to the sights, but our last night in Oaxaca we met two unbelievably funny Canadians who kept us up until 4 in the morning crying from laughter. But such is the life of a traveller...that night was our only night with the boys because they left the next day, but Maria and I missed our bus and ended up taking an overnight bus to the big, bad city.

i must admit, although I am from Chicago, which is a pretty big city itself, Mexico City intimidates me. It is incomprehensible in size and everyone has heard at least one horror story of robbery or kidnapping. It wasn't that bad. We were only there for one day, but we stayed right by the government palace and had a good time. We saw the amazing Diego Rivera murals inside the palace and the education building. Diego's work rivals that of any other artist. The time and immensity of his murals are awe-inspiring. What is also inspiring is that Mexico has amazing works of art that tells the story of their people and really showcase their cultural in their government buildings. And the architecture! And the streets filled with noise and life and make-shift markets of people selling everything and anything. I would like to go back to the city again...the city that intimidates, intrigues and repels so many...

My energy level here in Mexico has been a roller coaster lately. I got homesick a couple days ago, but today I am feeling at home again after having rested a bit. I really do feel exhilarated by the fact that I am getting to know this foreign country so intimately, or at least one region. Mexico is amazing and screwed up all at the same time.