Wednesday, October 29, 2008

From Churches to Beaches

We took off a day off here at the beach at Puerto Angel, and we have a longer update about Oaxaca, Puerto Angel, and interacting with local children. Today is October 29, and we’re sitting at the beach at Puerto Angel. It’s very pleasant here, not too hot this time of year, and very little insect activity. We’re parked next to one of the beach huts of “La Casa de Sara y Carlos,” and we have power and WiFi! That’s an interesting contrast, considering that we flush the toilet with a bucket of water.
Three days ago, we drove from Cholula to Oaxaca, quite a distance possible only on toll roads, yet still a very scenic drive. We stayed at San Felipe trailer park run by an American named Doug French. The only other campers with us were Birgit and Michael from Germany, who have been hanging out here for several months already.
From San Felipe, we took the bus to downtown Oaxaca where we visited the main market and bought fresh food. We took another bus to Monte Alban, ruins of an important Pre-Columbian city founded about 2500 years ago. This place was the capital of the Zapotecas and, at its peak, the most important city in Mesoamerica.
While many people love Oaxaca, our trip there confirmed that we really do not enjoy staying in big Mexican cities; from now on, we’ll visit small towns and villages.
Which gets us to Puerto Angel. The drive here was slow, winding, and windy. It was also wonderful, and besides topes, we had to watch for fallen limbs and trees; yes, it was that windy.
There also was another military check point, and of course the young soldiers wanted to see our vehicle. Funny thing is, they all check certain things such as our backpacks and the closets in the camper, but they hardly are interested in the Sportube.
Our first night on this beach was very quiet, and early this morning I flew the e-glider right at the beach, just for the heck of it; I’ll fly it again this afternoon when the school kids are out.
Wow! About 30 children of the Lazaro Cardenas school showed up and were all over us and the plane. I did not expect this much enthusiasm, and I’m glad the plane survived the attention without damage. We didn’t have enough paper planes prepared, and when we offered to teach how to build them, the boys smelled work and left, while about 10 girls stayed to build and fly their planes; interesting, isn’t it..?

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