When the Circus Comes to Town

Thursday, March 8 2012

We left Puerto Escondido this morning after an excellent breakfast of leftover fish, avocado and scrambled egg burritos.  We even talked about walking back to the fisherman’s palapa on the beach to get some more fresh fish but stupidly we forgot by the time we left.  Muy estupido.  We drove about 60km along the coastal route and arrived in the town of Mazunte to visit the Centro Mexican de la Tortuga, which is a turtle aquarium and research center focused mainly on Sea Turtles.

This is a very nice facility with all seven of the Sea Turtle species that exist off of Mexico’s coastline; the Kemp’s Ridley (only on the gulf coast), Black, Green, Leatherback, Loggerhead, Hawksbill, and the Olive Ridley.  From the interpretive flyer I found out that the turtle that we caught on our trip was actually an Olive Ridley not a Green like I previously thought.  Our guide Joaquin had said that it was a Golfina but since I didn’t speak Spanish very well and he didn’t speak any English we couldn’t communicate as to what the species actually was so I am glad to find out.  The facility had adult sea turtles that may have been injured and might not be able to live in the wild and they also had baby sea turtles.  I really liked the place.

We picked up some maiz (corn) tortillas at the tortillaria and a huge bag of limes for 80cents American at the fruit stand.  We have been using limes at every meal of the day.  To me, limes smell like a party and I think it is the official smell of our trip so far.  We drove on from Mazunte through San Agustinillo to Zipolite where we had planned to stop for the night. 

In Zipolite we looked for a room at a spiritual meditation type place called Shambhala where Jon met a fellow Mass-hole.  She didn’t seem too much of a Masshole but she did have a license plate from there.  Shambhala was really beautiful and muy tranquillo but a little too high for our price range.  So we moved on to the next set of lodgings, Lo Cosmico where we found the perfect spot.  Our accommodation for that night was a cabana right on the beach with a private bath and a hammock.  One thing we noticed though as we walked out to admire the view on the beach is that there are mucho naked people around here.  This became a little awkward when I wanted to take some pictures of the postcard scenic, Cabo San Lucas-esque rock arch that juts out into the ocean and these homo sapiens in their natural state were in the line of fire.  We just went with the flow and cooked our dinner, did some swimming and booked a tour for tomorrow with a guy we met walking around on the beach, to a waterfall/butterfly sanctuary/coffee plantation. 

As we ate dinner that night we heard drumming.  We went outside to check it out and found the whole beach lit up by torches as well as the full moon.  There were people drumming in a circle and others juggling fire.  Where else could we find this kind of atmosphere?  Jon talked me into going swimming by moonlight since there is so much of it.  We went “au naturale” since it is the custom but my skin is very pale so the moonlight reflects off of it and I imagine that I attracted a lot of attention.  The water was very warm but it seemed a little dangerous so we didn’t go out too far because it was nighttime.  This really is paradise.  Pura vida. 

Friday, March 9, 2012

Today has been quite an adventure.  We started the day by waking up at 6:45 to meet our guide at 7:30.  I started to get dressed and laid my over shirt on the table next to my laptop so I could check my email real quick.  As I begin typing, a scorpion crawls out from under my shirt onto my laptop.  This shock was the equivalent of about a pot of coffee.  I jumped up and started freaking out big time and Jon looked for the scorpion.  We couldn’t find it so we were both a little concerned until I spotted it still on my keyboard.  Jon knocked it off with my sandal and then smashed it on the floor.  This sucker was about 2 inches long with the tail curled up.  It was a very intense way to start the day.

Because our room is only made of bamboo and palm fronds, with a rickety lock that Jon had already broken off once by accident, we had the staff here lock our electronics in a safe room, then we met our guide and piled into a small compact taxi to go pick up the other guests and get a bigger vehicle.  At this point we are riding seven deep in a compact car, but we picked up a Dodge mini-van and all was good. We also picked up another passenger who was a National Park ranger and we were just giving him a ride for part of the way.  Our guide was a jolly fellow named Librado with the nickname Alacran, which means “Scorpion” en Espanole.  What a coincidence!  We have another older lady with us who lives in Mexico half the year and Canada half the year, but she is originally from England.  There is another couple who are only friends that are also from Canada, but the French speaking portion and we have a lot of fun language interactions between the three languages that we all speak.  The gentleman from Canada speaks a very rural French dialect and I had no idea what he said all day.   The other woman from Canada had kind of a “Patti & Selma” cigarette voice. 

We drove about an hour and stop at a Medicinal Garden outpost shack for breakfast.  We toured the garden which was full of very interesting plants that are commonly used for medicinal purposes while they prepared our breakfast.  The breakfast was a traditional breakfast for the people who live in the area; corn tortillas, cactus salad, boiled eggs, salsa, soup with noodles, and a juice made from the Jamaica plant, which is very much like cranberry juice but not as strong and tart. 

Then we drove on and after this point it is only dirt, mountain roads and very hot.  After about another hour our van broke down.  We were on the edge of a mountain, on a dirt road going uphill when the car stopped.  It was very hot.  We couldn’t get the van started again so we waited for someone to come by and give us a ride.  La policia stopped by first and four of them get out and looked at the van but nothing happened.  A taxi came by going the other way with passengers in it but that wasn’t a problem.  The passengers jumped out and got in with the police and the taxi whipped it around to take us the rest of the way to the waterfalls.  This taxi was again a small compact car so we were again riding seven deep in a small car.  The sun was very hot as I sat on Jon’s lap and the windows were down with dust pouring in.  However, we did make it to the waterfalls in about 15 minutes after that point. 

We swam in two different waterfall pools, which were beautiful and the water was very refreshing.  There were rope swings, soaking pools and places where we could go into small caves behind the water wall.  It was quite nice.  But I was wondering the whole time about how we were going to get back.  After about 2 hours there we walked back up a large hill for maybe a ½ mile and went to lunch at a coffee plantation/butterfly sanctuary.  Here, if we wanted to eat there was only option; a 150 peso family style meal (which is actually the most we’ve ever paid for a meal in Mexico.)  Jon declined and I didn’t know when we would be getting back so I ate the meal.  It was good but not worth 150 pesos.  They also had mescal and coffee to taste and I did think the coffee was good. 

After lunch we went on a tour of the butterfly sanctuary with our 11-year-old guide Fernando.  He showed us several species of butterfly, one larva and few plants and the basic fruit of the cocoa plant, which didn’t taste anything like chocolate to me but he enjoyed eating the rest that I didn’t want.  I think he got reprimanded for eating all of it from our guide Librado. 

Next we hitched a ride for part of the way home with a van that had air conditioning.  We stopped at another roadside attraction to have some hot chocolate made directly from the cocoa tree and some plantain fritters.  The AC van drove us out of the mountains and dropped us off at the coastal crossroads.  It was dark at this point and we waited on the side of the dusty dirt road to get another ride.  A taxi stopped but our guide said it was too expensive so we waited and waited until truck with 2 construction workers pulled up and gave us a ride for free.  The girls sat in the back seat of the truck and the guys sat in the bed of the truck and we rode in this vehicle for about a half hour.  Then we got dropped off again and the Canadian couple went with the construction guys to the bus stop and we looked for another ride.  Librado flagged down a taxi to take us the rest of the way.  Finally we were on the last leg of the trip.  We dropped off our guide and we hoped that he had pre-paid the taxi driver.  We then dropped off the other Canadian before finally we got out just up the dirt road from our cabana and thankfully the driver didn’t ask for any money.  We did however have to walk down the dark dusty road to our hotel but “C’est la vie.”  It was around 9:30pm when we arrive back at our hopefully scorpion-less cabana.  Jon ate last night’s leftovers and went to bed.  I wanted to quickly write this blog before I forgot the day’s events.  All in all the tour was kind of a bust, but it was an adventure!  Tomorrow off to Oaxacxa. 

~Marcie

Saturday March 10, 2012

Ok, I got up with the sun and did some stretching on the beach as it rose.  Then I lugged a lot of our stuff out to the truck, the fridge was so dang heavy!  Marcie was up soon and she helped me pack the rest of our things in our mobile home. We then had a nice breakfast of yogurt, honey, granola and cafe at the restaurant where we were staying. 

After that we were on the road again leaving Zipolite on the way to Oaxaca with Marcie behind the wheel.  The drive was about 6 hours through the Sierra Madre mountains, some of which are 3,500 meters high (10,000 ft).  We stopped for lunch way up in the mountains at a town called San Jose del Pacifico where they are famous for their hongos magicos.   The scenery was muy bonita alli, with lots of pine trees, buena vistas and crisp clean air. 

Marcie kept on motoring us over the mountains and down into the central valley of Oaxaca.  We were trying to get to the Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban but we did not make it before they closed.  So we drove around looking for a place to camp.  The search was futile for a little bit until we spotted a small circus setup and I asked the lady in charge if we could camp there.  She said “No problemo”, so I gave her a bouquet of calla lilies that we had in the truck.  We cooked our dinner of tuna quesadillas and carrot ginger soup with peas while parked next to the big top with the horses and a monkey shuffling about, and a neighborhood soccer match going on next door.  Some of the Mexican circus freaks came over and invited us to the show tonight at 8:30 as well as one of their lights.  We declined the light but are definitely going to the show. This should be fun.  It is not a big commercial Ringling Bros. type show.  This is a mom and pop outfit that looks like it came right out of the circus heydays of the turn of the 20^th century. 

Well the circus was interesting.  Definitely not a 3-ringer, more like a ½ ring circus.  When we went in with all of the Mexican families for 40 pesos ($3.50 US) admission for 2 tickets, we sat in bleachers that were quite rickety and definitely leaning significantly to the sitter’s right.  The first act was a kid in clown makeup warming the crowd up by getting audience members to throw a potato to him that he would catch on the tines of a fork.  I have been to too many parties with Yim and seen him perform this trick flawlessly using a knife and a lime for me to have been impressed by this opening act.  After that 2 girls came out and danced in peacock costumes.  Their dance moves reminded me a little of Byte the Las Vegas topless vampire show, but thankfully these thunder twins were fully clothed.  The next act was the best.  A person who I initially thought was a woman but later turned out to be a guy (much to my embarrassment when I called him as “Senora” after the show) stood on his head while juggling fire sticks and old tires with his feet.  After that the clown kid came back and did a better job than I could on the tightrope.  The grand finale was a pony that ran around the ½ ring with a monkey clinging for it’s life riding on the pony’s back.  All and all it was pretty cheesy but what do you expect for $1.75 admission? 

After the show I talked with the circus people for a while and found out that they are all part of the same weird family.  They opened up the gate so that I could drive our truck in and sleep in the circus grounds where they said we would be safer.  They also invited me in for coffee but I declined and went to bed. 

One interesting note; I thought my bike tire was stolen when I came back to the truck after the circus, but now I think that it probably came off during the drive thru the mountains yesterday when we hit a tope (Mexican speed bump) too hard and we never noticed.  Oh well, it was kind of junky anyway and I’m sure I can get a new one cheap somewhere.

Sunday

So this morning we woke up in the truck in the circus grounds.  I climbed out of the back and moved the fence so that we could drive away before they noticed us and involved us their circus lives.  We drove a few kilometers to the ruins of the ancient Zapotec capital of Monte Alban.  Admission was 57 pesos ($4.75 US) each.  It is situated on top of a mountain 2000 meters above sea level and a few kilometers outside of the city of Oaxaca.  The ruins were awesome with all kinds of pyramids, palaces, temples and plazas.  There was also an ancient ball court for the death match ball games that they would play which I imagine were similar to the basketball games that we used to play in our driveway when we lived in Marion. 

After the ruins we drove into Oaxaca (pronounced Wah-Ha-Ka) and found a hotel with hot water and internet for 250 pesos ($21 US).  I’ve been in nicer jail cells in the US but it was functional and cheap.  We went out for a walk to get some supplies in the world famous Oaxaca markets.  This area is famous for its mescal (a liquor of which tequila is a variety), its chocolate, its mole’ sauces, and its indigenous art.  We went into a tienda and bought some powdered chocolate for making hot chocolate and some coloradito variety mole sauce.  Next we went into an indoor market where people were selling all kinds of crazy stuff, most of which I had no idea what it was.  There we had lunch, Marcie mole’ negro tamales and me mole’ negro pechuga (chicken breast).  There was a 3 piece band, conga, guitar and flute type thing, playing while were eating and we got one of their CDs that now that we have listened to back in our room is actually really good.  While we were eating one of the innumerable ladies selling stuff came up to us with a basket full of grasshoppers.  I told her that I had never eaten a bug before but I was interested.  So she offered me one to try.  I liked it so I bought a bag for 10 pesos (0.80 US).  As you would imagine they are crunchy and I guess they were soaked in chile sauce por que estan un poco picante.  Marcie got pretty good price (150 pesos or $12.50 US) on one of those native style embroidered shirts that she has been wanting but she also got her head pooped on by a bird (poop was a weird green color, I think from the berries that it eats). Tomorrow off to the Yucatan.  Hole' Mole'.

~Jon