We left Port Hope on the morning of Sunday, November 4th with a very full '99 Quest Minivan. Among many other things we had a mini-fridge, 4 plastic chairs, a large telescope and tripod, and oh yeah, a queen size sofa-bed with mattress, storage box, cushions, and frame. I needed to put the two mattress sections in thick trash bags and such the air out with a shop vac just to get them to stuff in. If customs wanted them open they would never go back in. We made a drop-off in Cambridge of some work equipment in the dawn light and made the ambassador bridge border early in the day shift. We look pretty innocent (a cute dog helps that) so we were allowed in the USA without much delay. From Detroit through Toledo and south through Ohio the road is fast and long, with all the usual rhythms of cross-country freeway driving unchanged. Gas, sandwiches, radio, and the occasional dog walk at a rest area punctuated the 1600 kM to the familiar cheap motel zone of West Memphis, Arkansas, where we landed at the Delux Inn (only the best for us!) for the night. They spent the money saved on the extra "E" on the sign making our stay particularly restful, I'm sure. For dinner we had Mexican food, not to prepare us for Mexico but because after crossing the border the northern form of Mexican food would not be available.
Our 2012 route south on Google Maps |
I needed to UPS some monitoring equipment to my client in Colorado so we got to that errand in Little Rock on Monday morning and continued through Texas, choosing the slightly less boring (more trees) route through Houston which has worked well for us lately. We got through Houston without trouble and to a la Quinta in Corpus Christie for a subsidized room on my LQ points and a $45 dinner. The van was doing fine, as were Daisy and the rest of us, with over half the distance behind us. We could have crossed the border Tuesday by noon if we had chosen that goal but this being Tuesday, November 6th in the USA on a leap year there was an election going on. Maybe you've heard of it. So we took our time, did some USA shopping at Target, Best Buy and Harbor Freight Tools, and landed another subsidized LQ room in Pharr, TX, where I stayed up late to watch the election returns come in.
Joshua Trees and Sierra Madre in northern Mexico |
In the courtyard at the Puesta del Sol, S.Maria del Rio |
We decided to take advantage of the free (for the price of dinner) lodging in Oaxaca and spend Friday in the city catching our breath and some culture, and letting the dashed highway lines fade from our retinas. Mara's apartment is near the downtown, so very convenient to the museums. A bit more of a stretch to the mercado in the south of downtown, but a packed Avenida Crespo bus got us conveniently close with our purchased bedding. By the way, this minivan is now about to burst, although the settling of the contents over 5000 kM did allow these things to fit in some cracks.
Early Saturday we were on the narrow, twisty road to Puerto Escondido, over two sets of mountains. It is just 260 kM but really does take about 6 hours, between the curves, the hills, the slow trucks, the towns, and the groups of pilgrims to Juquilla, biking and running on the narrow road with their support trucks crawling along. Juquilla is the site of a modern miracle, a plastic doll of the virgin having survived a church burning down. The slow road to Puerto may be out of use in a few years, as they are building a new toll road to Oaxaca now. They have a lot of mountain road-building to go but the drive will probably go to a couple hours rather than six. As nice as it would be to get to and from Oaxaca quicker, we worry that the resulting growth will change Puerto Escondido in many ways. Hopefully our little neighborhood and beach will still be recognizable.
For the first time in five years our first stop in Puerto Escondido would not be at Derek and Christine's house...they were on Long Island, cleaning up the home they own and rent out there from the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Their place (and Derek's mom's and brother's places) were all pretty much OK but there was no power and scarce gas for a while. With hurricane Carlotta making a direct hit on Puerto Escondido last summer -- and tearing off part of their palapa roof -- they managed to have both their houses in the paths hurricanes in five months. They had planned their visit north well before the storm, and had they not delayed it a couple days they could have been in Sandy as well. Our first stop in Puerto turned out to be to Dan's Cafe, for some quick internet contact and some tasty fish tacos, a weekend special at Dan's.
We were finally unloading the Quest at the casa by early afternoon. The first order of business, however, was checking out Liz's new studio. We had seen the excavation start before we left last February, and Derek had kept us supplied with pictures (and questions, and requests for money) over the months as it grew from paper to concrete, but it is another thing entirely (or a whole 'nother thing, as some say) to see it before you in real life. But that's a whole 'nother blog post.
Our Derek-arranged house-sitter, Clay, had moved on, but had left a welcome cold case of beer in the fridge so the afternoon sun wasn't too hard to take as we unloaded everything into piles in the apartments, on the terrace, in the bodega, into the studio, and so on. We had decided to move onto the second floor, with the better views and wrap-around deck, where we had never lived before. We had things well enough sorted and stowed to even make a first walk down to the beach for a quick dip in the warm pacific waters before a sunset drink. 5000+ kM from home, it was time to relax. Or so we thought. It turns out that owning a spare house does make for a bit of work. But we made it there just fine, happy to be 'home'.
From La Punta, (the point) downhill from the casa, rocks, waves, surfers.. the usual. |
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