Puerto, 2008

December 2, 2008

Work continues on the house apace; this morning I went over to see Lencho at 8:00 AM and the crew was already at work, laying the block for what will be the water tank, mixing mortar in a depression on the ground above the house -- on the land of the neighbor I've never met. People tend to be tolerant but I'd prefer they mixed on the street, but the street isn't level. There are also piles of 3/8" and 1/2" rebar around, and a pile of blocks, grey solid rectangles. I gave Lencho another 11,000 pesos and might not need to provide more till Saturday, though I had better keep withdrawing 5,000 a day for a while.

With only that little to report about the house, maybe the time has come to discuss Puerto Escondido this year. It is the year of the road project. Apparently the Governor of Oaxaca came by in July to kick off three projects: 1) the expansion of the coast highway to four lanes from the bridge near downtown to the east end (including past zicatela beach, our lodging here at Derek's, and past my property), 2) Calle Del Morro along the town end of Zicatela including the biggest surf area, and 3) repaveing of the Adoquin pedestrian walkway. These happen to be the three main roadways for tourists (and in the case of the highway, for trucks, busses, and everyone else). At this point none of the projects is finished, though they seem close enough on Del Morro that it might open any day, and should before the main holiday rush, and we have heard the Adoquin is near completion also.

The highway is another story. It is a huge mess/obstacle course. For much of the route to town they have removed a couple feet of material right up to the side of the old roadway, which is still in use, so if you happen to drift a bit to the right you will drive off a cliff. In places one lane or the other is diverted to the lower surface over badly made and mostly unmarked dirt ramps, one of them abrupt and steep enough that we have see two tractor-trailer trucks stuck trying to climb up to the roadway in the last week, blocking westbound traffic. As the edges of the roadway collapse in places the road gets narrower, leading to minor games of chicken at the pinch points. There's sand and dust everywhere, and no reduction on overall traffic as there is no other route for long-distance traffic on the coast. At night there is scant lighting (some flaming cans of oil mark one of the diversions down) and no other markings. One wonders how much safer it could be with, say, $100 worth of little red reflectors carefully placed. Last night I was taking Dan back to Zicatela after dinner at our house and there was a vender wheeling a unlit food cart up on the edge of the highway; if a east-and west-bound bus and truck happened to meet near him he was going to lose at least his lunch.

Other than the roads, there is a bit of new building going on, though not so much as some years. the new Super-Che (Chedraui, a chain grocery/clothes/housewares/everything store) is open near downtown which is a big improvement but still not exactly a northern super-center. It has been cloudier than we remember from years past, or is it just selective memory? Not much else has changed too much. The stronger US dollar is helping me out with the Peso prices mostly unchanged. Gas is cheaper than in Canada but more than the $1.80 a gallon we were seeing in the US, which is simply too cheap. There are the usual roosters, dogs, construction sounds, fireworks, and car-roof distorted-loudspeakers touring the roads blaring about tortillas or fruit. We have seen some hummingbirds and a whale, leaping rays and fish, plus mosquitoes, dragonflies, and a scorpion or two. Derek's getting bananas from his trees, though no papaya lately, and the many flowers are seemingly always in bloom.

The gringo permanent and snowbird population seems typical, and it has proven difficult to get lodging during new year's week, though some hoteliers are worried that some clients will fail to show up with the state of the economy. The economy here seems less affected. Maybe there is something to be said for not having mortgages in the first place, let alone sub-prime ones. It goes without saying that the typical Mexican family has lost nothing in the stock market this year.

That's not so true for us; looking at my retirement funds makes building a house here seem cheap; also makes it look like we will need to raise enough fruit and vegetables on my fifth-of-an-acre here to feed ourselves in retirement. But it's hard to get too worried, sitting here in the shade by the pool. And the federal police below have finally run out of last nights' confiscated fireworks to blow up so the dogs have settled down for a nap.

Cd Victoria to Puerto Escondido

Saturday, November 22. Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico

So we made it! Again there are road stories, naturally. We left off in Ciudad Victoria on 'the rack', the bed with no apparent mattress. After the uncomfortable night with little noticed actual sleep, we hit the road a bit late again. After looking at the map decided to take the inland route through Ciudad Mantes, Ciudad Valles, and on to Pachuca all on varius grades of windy mountain roads, rather than drive the 'extra' 40 kM to Tampico and take the coast road. We've taken most of these roads before, and enjoyed the views and crazy curves, so south it was, Thursday morning, on Highway 85. The route was slow and curvy as expected, but relatively free of topes and problems. At a small town called Tamazunchale, we chose to leave Highway 85 to catch 'a shortcut' over to Highway 105 at Huejutla de Reyes, and save a few kM going south to Pachutla. The shortcut turned out to be badly paved, twisty, as expected, with lots of topes so it seemed maybe not such a good idea, but we were comitted by then. We made the turn at Heujutla, a bit concerned we might not make Pachuca by night, but with no other real options. Going continued slow for a couple hours, until we came to a line of cars and trucks stopped on the entry to a small town. I still don't know which one.

Eventually Liz and Sophie went to see what was the delay. It was a strike/demonstration of some sort, a couple trucks across the road at a critical point with no alternate route, and a bunch of guys having a rally. She came back with Sophie and we sat. And Sat. About 5:15 I went down to see if I could learn anything. Two cops were there from the other direction but were doing nothing. I asked what was the issue and one pointed to a sign on a sheet draped over the blocking truck. I memorized key words to translate back at the car, which came out to be something like "Our Demand: Respect for the Agreement". This didn't seem to answer my question, for all we know it's a sign they keep around for whatever occasion. In any case, a few minutes later (coincidentally, to be sure) people started running up the hill toward their vehicles and it was clear that, whatever it was, was over. At this point there are vehicles in both lanes on both sides of the roadblock so things take a while to sort out, and the net effect is that the last two hours of daylight have gone and we are in the MOFN (middle of nowhere), as night and rain start to fall, on a twisted mountain road populated with pissed-off, reckless, long-delayed drivers. It wasn't too bad being the car following a tractor-trailer rig through the (now) fog and rain in the now pitch dark on a bad curvy mountain road. But then he pulled over to sleep and I had to lead the 8 or ten drivers behind for a while. It was like playing a video game with really lousy graphics as I had to drive with less and less information until I was just hoping to glimpse one of the roadside reflectors or the (sometimes) painted stripes on the center or edges of the road to tell me which way we were currently curving. Finally I glimpsed a place to turn off, and did, leaving some other fool to lead the pack. I became the last car of a samller group, and we never saw the new leaders again, so either they made it or drive off a cliff without a trace.

Eventually we came to the largest dot on that part of the good map, Zacualtipan, and not finding any highway hotels we headed downtown. We saw a hotel sign or two, but not the actual hotels, until on the way back down to the highway spotted one, and checked in for 300 pesos, parked the car and resumed breathing. The two flights of glossy marble stairs up were wet with condensation but we didn't fall and brain ourselves on the steps and settled into a cold hotel room, happy to be alive. What a day. 12 hours in the car and about 320 miles.

Friday worked out amazingly better. We got another late-ish start but the road immediately got straighter and faster (not to mention day-lit and visible). Now that we could see more than 10 meters we noticed we were heading into and out of a deep canyon, w1th amazing views. The road got better and we were in Pachuca ahead of "schedule". We discussed various options at that point but it appeared the possibility of getting to Oaxaca that night was back on the table, and we went for it. The roads and navigation from Pachuca to Cuidad Sahagan to Apizaco to Tlaxcala all went without a hitch on progressively better highways until we were cruising down the toll highway from Puebla to Oaxaca, and arriving in time to actually see the art exhibits there. Several times recently we had managed to get there to late or on the wrong day so this was a bonus. We toured the Contemporary Art Museum, the print institute, the steets, had a drink at the zocalo (square) and dinner a few blocks away. Sophie was napping in the car till we got there and drove out of town to a roadside hotel a few miles along the way to Puerto Escondido. That made three nights (all three nights) in Mexico where we each night failed to follow the first rule of local driving...don't do it at night. Our luck held out.

Saturday started well and we were headed to Puerto. 131 over the Sierra Madre del Sur was in rougher shape than last year, but passable enough for us. We stopped for breakfast, finally, at a place in Sola De Vega, where we had been well served before, but were somewhat disappointed at the current state of cleanliness. Breakfast doesn't seem to have made us sick yet, though. We pressed on to Puerto Escondido for a mid-afternoon arrival. By now we've unloaded the non-tool stuff, moved into our poolside apartment at Derek & Christine Tompkins place, and had a nice fish dinner upstairs with them and a bit of beer and wine. all around a good start to our time in the warm winter sun here.