Day 85 Thursday July 18, 2013

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with Gale Stephanic, formally from Destin, FL. Gale and I met for lunch in Pensacola in March after bumping into each other on Horizons Unlimited, a worldwide internet forum for adventure motorbike travelers. We have stayed in touch and shared our knowledge about how to live on the road. Gale was in Oaxaca for just one day. He is going on to Guatemala where he is enrolled in a spanish language course. Gale is planning to stay in Costa Rica and has applied for residency status there. We plan to meet up again maybe several times in the next few months.

This is Gale, we met at a restaurante in the zocalo (the centro or main plaza) for coffee and spent the afternoon touring Oaxaca.

When I returned to my hotel last evening I called Katie (my youngest daughter) and she informed me that she sent me a package to Oaxaca via UPS and it will arrive next Tuesday if Mexican customs does not flag it. I had looked on the internet at UPS's website and thought that I understood that this package could be delivered in three days, but that is not the case. So I will probably leave Oaxaca in a few days and return when my package is delivered.

One of the many churches around the centro.

The city of Oaxaca is hosting a festival of traditional dance and costume and it will climax next week. I have been told that it is likely that finding a hotel room in the city will be impossible.

Day 83 Tuesday July 16, 2013

I am still in Oaxaca and will be here for at least the rest of this week. I am waiting on two packages, one from my daughter and the other is a tire that I've ordered from Mexico City. The package from home contains an assortment of items that are not readily available here in Oaxaca....several of the items are not available in Fairhope, AL either. I hope my package passes through customs without any problem. This is my first experience with shipping anything to Mexico. I know from some of the forums I follow on international travel that shipping items to some South American countries can be very restrictive and/or costly with tariffs being 100% of the value of the items.

During my first hours in Oaxaca I experienced the first theft in my motorbike travels. The tank bag on my bike was stolen while I looked for a hotel. The bike was parked on a main street in a bike parking area, it was covered and the police were within 50 yards of where it was parked. From the time I left until I returned was less that 30 minutes. Whoever stole the bag must have been watching me park and cover the bike. This is one of the disadvantages of traveling solo....oh well! I do not keep any really valuable items in my tank bag....but I did lose my SteriPEN, so another one along with a new tank bag are being shipped in my package.

Oaxaca is a fun city with plenty to keep me occupied and with many travelers from around the globe. The temperature here is in the 70's and no A/C is required. Between 8:00PM and midnight it rains a little everyday.

This is a wedding parade last Saturday.

The market in Oaxaca covers three blocks.

This is not fish bait!

Another wedding parade.

Mexicans love parades!

In the market here cacao and chocolate are a big business.

This man goes up and down the street sharpening knives for the tacoreas and restaurants.

Day 79 Friday July 12, 2013

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. I spent most of that time on the Pacific Coast in the state of Oaxaca. I took a nice rest from traveling and just stayed in one place. I am now in the city of Oaxaca. I arrived yesterday and plan to stay here for at least a week. My daughter is shipping me some supplies next week. Many of the items that can be picked up or can be delivered in a day or two in the States are just not readily available here. I hope that this package passes through customs and can be delivered in a timely fashion.

Oaxaca, the state and city, have held my interest since I started learning about Mexico. It is located in Southwestern Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Guerrero to the west, Puebla to the northwest, Veracruz to the north, Chiapas to the east. To the south, Oaxaca has a significant coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

The state is best known for its indigenous peoples and cultures. The most numerous and best known are the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs, but there are sixteen that are officially recognized. These cultures have survived better than most others in Mexico due to the state’s rugged and isolating terrain. Most live in the Central Valleys region, which is also an important area for tourism, attracting people for its archeological sites such as Monte Albán, native culture and crafts. Another important tourist area is the coast, which has the major resort of Huatulco. Oaxaca is also one of the most biologically diverse states in Mexico, ranking in the top three, along with Chiapas and Veracruz, for numbers of reptiles, amphibians, mammals and plants.

These are some photos from the beach. When I arrived the waves were about 12 to 15 feet high. Over the period of a day they grew to 25 to 30 feet high.

The view from my balcony.

These photos are from Puerto Angel.

Thursday afternoon in the main plaza in Oaxaca.