A Trip to the Country: Making decisions

Our landlord, Daniel, drove us outside of town Sunday to a lake that is frequented by the city folk around here.  The lake is nestled in the foothills of this mountainous region. There is a large lakeside restaurant and it  was full of patrons. No tourists, except us, just a day away from the hustle bustle for Oaxacans. It was tranquil, yet energetic, because restaurant scenes are pretty much universally energetic in what we have seen of Oaxaca. Rather than tables of people looking at their cell phones, we see tables of people animatedly laughing and talking. One very unusual feature of the restaurant at the lake is grass. Grass is extraordinarily rare in water starved Oaxaca.

We ordered beers and sat talking and looking out at the lake. Daniel educated us about the surrounding geography and history. Two very famous Mexican presidents have hailed from Oaxaca, Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz.  Juarez, a Zapotec, was popular and the first indigenous president of Mexico. Diaz was much more controversial. There are numerous statues of each in the city. In what I find to be a fascinating fact, Daniel informed us that each was a Free Mason, and that there is a long-standing tradition of Free Masonry in Mexico from the 19th century forward.

Enough history. We also ordered a molcajete to share. Some of you may remember a blog from months ago in San Miguel de Allende where we ordered a molcajete. This one was less grand than the San Miguel version, and not quite as tasty. Nevertheless it was a wonderful conglomeration of octopus, shrimp, nopales (grilled cacti), and ribs sitting in a boiling hot pot of vegetables, fish and steak bits. It was more than enough for the three of us as we failed to eat the entire meal.

This morning we went to one of our morning hangouts, Cafete Cacao. It is the one place we know of where Sheila, with her dairy and sugar allergies can have hot chocolate. They take hardened cacao and grind it with a mortar and pestle. You have your choice of cacao with or without sugar. Then they also give you a choice of having it in water or milk. Amazingly sugarless in water is amazingly flavorful. It is one of our favorite places to hang out.

Afterwards we were strolling through the centro area taking in the amazing architecture and talking about the near future. Our time here is rapidly coming to an end. We have a lease until April 1, but have decided to forfeit about 10 days of that. We had wanted to go to Panama, but from Mexico to Panama is incredibly time consuming and expensive. We have decided to shift gears and spend some time in the Mayan Riviera. We have never been to the Caribbean side of Mexico so it will be a new adventure, an adventure with the potential for a lot of environmental and historical outings. We likely will return to Spokane on about April 1st. Another factor in our plan revision is the many business loose ends I need to be in Spokane to resolve. We have until April 30th when we leave for Scotland to take care of business.  We are firm on leaving for Scotland on April 30th. The rest of April is open to changes. That means we can spend as much time along the Caribbean as we desire (kind of).

As we walked we were reminded, once again, how much grand architecture the city of Oaxaca has.  If it was better maintained it could rival some of the great European cities. There are a lot of crumbling and abandoned structures here. Also, as noted before, a lot of graffiti. Much of the graffiti is on the walls of structures that are crumbling and abandoned.  But, there is also a lot of graffiti on some gorgeous structures in prime tourist areas.

That factor is understandable in this respect. The political and social inequality in Oaxaca is so longstanding that the frustration of not being heard may make people desperate. I believe the desperation can show as graffiti. Over time pride can diminish until even the greatest structures in some of the most visible areas of the city are defaced, over and over. After all, where better to get your message seen than where people congregate. I leave you with a few less than grand photos of some grand structures.