Hideaway

We took an 8 hour bus ride from Acapulco south to a town called Puerto Escondido, which means hidden port. Well apparently once we find it, it no longer is a hideaway. It use to be a big surfer place even before roads were put in, well now it reminds me of a Florida key but with lots of Europeans. The hotel we managed to score is the cheapest and cleanest we have found so far, right across from the beach. The owner is Canadian; we see like 20 tourists for every local Mexican. Its really different from our Venezuela trip this way, I didn’t feel like a tourist in the same way. Tourism is really happening around Mexico. The tourism economy largely seems to be doing well. We have been comparing it in our minds to the changes NYC went through from the 7os and 80s. Mexico may have been more dangerous and had worse poverty but it really seems in many areas to be on the upswing and even the homelessness is not any worse than the "reality tour" we got from Luke in Houston. Luke drove us around Houston and showed us where all the homeless sleep between shelters and under the overpass bridges. Just in case you thought poverty wasn’t an issue in the States.

We love the coast and have shifted our plans some the past two days. We found a language school in Oaxaca we decided to study at, because we spend less money if rooted in one place and we are all motivated (luckily) to improve our Spanish. This school is a month full immersion with 7 hours a day of study! Its really only 4 hours of language grammar and book work then 2 hours of various "workshops" all in Spanish like Oaxaca culture, music, cooking etc. Then one hour every day is doing an intercambio (language exchange) with a local Oaxacan. We had decided to do the month language program and then realized that would rush us off the coast and we are certain we haven’t seen some of the best parts here. According to several people beaches south of where we are now are even more incredible. So the new plan is to stay along the coast lounging in hammocks in our next paradise (this place is fun but still too busy.) we will stay five days and then head to Oaxaca for a three week intensive following the above schedule. This will give a lot of structure to our days, but give us evenings and weekends around Oaxaca to explore. We are probably not going to move south after Oaxaca to Chiapas. It is too far and the prices for travel are too high.
So we will make our way back to our car after the language school which should take about a week of travel with the stops we have in mind.

Oh, I did mail postcards and those will be the last ones anyone receives until I can mail them from the states. I mean postcards are not all that exciting anyway I just thought it would be little gifts of colorful mail while we were travelling and thinking about you all. Then I went to mail them at the post office and it cost me like 20 dollars! I had about 5 dollars (50 pesos) on the ready and then I realized I needed 180 pesos (18 dollars.) Sorry the budget doesn’t allow postcards yes I know, they are cheesy anyway.

More creepy news, someone asked Andy while he was out to breakfast with Zarha "are you on a honeymoon with your wife?" Andy was disturbed by that and wanted to say "maybe marriage is legal at age 12 here but that’s my kid!" He just said "no that’s my daughter." Then I was trying to figure out if I am thought of as Zarhas sister and Andy her husband that makes Andy and I like brother and sister in-laws....well anyway that’s just a random bizarre interaction and creepy thoughts.

I do love VW beetles even more after one magically managed to fit all three of us and our huge backpacks today. It felt like we should do the Flintstone trick of pushing it along with our feet but we didn’t need to.

I knew we hit family harmony on the trip when all three of us left, the fancy hotel Andy was reminiscing about, through the spinning glass door and we stumble out laughing because we all squeezed into the same one! We certainly spend many close days and I really like it.

Lovin yas from my happy place
d