Home » Mexico » Paradise (?) Revisited, 4 Countries in 1 day, Guatemala Still Gorgeous, Mediocre Moles and More Mexicana Madness in Puerto Escondildo

Sorry, I’ve edited and re-edited but it’s still a long tail!

Starting off…..Back in sweaty, sultry, sloow, San Juan del Sur, if Puerto Viejo was desultory San Juan is sultry…..more gringo developments arising around us and a Japanese funded port facility (many Nicaraguan road bridges are signed “with the love and friendship of the people of Japan”, now I understand!) and the dolphin research centre next maybe?… but it’s still beautiful, maybe No. 2 after Bocas, went for my early morning dip and copped a sea wasp across my arm, blisters and pain, vinegar cure, sunsets at the Iguana Bar, D still hanging in, the usual crowd and some interesting travellers as always.

Paradise (?) Revisited, 4 Countries in 1 day, Guatemala Still Gorgeous, Mediocre Moles and More Mexicana Madness in Puerto Escondildo

Bill Shum
2006-08-21 17:09:01

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failure to hand in papers on the way out! Fang off to catch up time and10 kms down the road I come across all the vehicles that passed customs while I waited, plus many, many more, a 5 km hold up, I take the outside and pass 500 vehicles, finally the one-lane bridge and Oaxaca, Mexicoan accident, I sneak thru’, laughing, just made up 5 hours time.

I must say, throughout all latino America, the truck and bus drivers have been exceptionally professional, polite and helpful, sometimes you have to get out of their way, but they have a big job to do. Most of the car drivers however, shite!

So now Mexico, long straights, hot and dry, need the music and the armour to stay sane and cool, now turning inland, back to the magic of Oaxaca where I spent a couple of fabulous weeks some 5 years ago(?) the road up, omg, only in Mexico roads this good, I’d thought some of the roads in suramerica were good, but this is the real thing, 200 kms of endless, winding, curvery, perfectly engineered, line marked, paved and signed, perfecto!
But what happened to Oaxaca? I ride into a big city, wide freeway style roads, modernity, where’s the little mountainside village I knew and loved? I knew there was an airport here but now big jets scream on over the city constantly. I stop a taxi and ask the driver, he laughs, much has changed, si senor, shows me where I am Oaxaca, Mexicoand the way to the zocalo, I’m really hanging out to sit in that square again, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, however, he tells me it is closed off for traffic, 5 million teachers from Oaxaca state are staging a sit-in strike, they have taken over a dozen blocks around the zocalo, they have been there 2 weeks and maybe 2 more to come! So, I find a hotel just off centre and stroll to the zocalo, the streets are covered in plastic sheet roofs, little tents, families camped out in the streets and in doorways, unbelievable, but all orderly, (well, ...