Bus debaucle

Another day another adventure.

With Eric's arriving yesterday, we decided to go to the airport to pick him up. Huatulco is around 2 hours away, but driving seemed.....risky. Our VW is great, just not all that highway worthy. so off to the Bus.

The "intermediate bus" was 40 Pesos (about $3.20) but it takes about 3 hours to get there as it stops where ever people stick out their thumbs. So we chose the "Primera" bus. Premera is a whopping 92 Pesos ($7.20) and takes 2 hours, HOWEVER, we were not aware that it doesn't stop at the airport it goes into La Crucecita! La Crucecita is about 15 minutes past the airport. so we hired a taxi at the bus depot to take us back to the aeroporto. We really thought we would be late and poor Eric would be freaking out, but no, he was the last person to exit the airport.

Now there is a bus that goes back to Puerto but with the day's events, we decided to hire the same taxi from the bus depot to take us to PE. He was happy to do it (600 Pesos, $48.00), but he was forced to park his taxi outside of the airport because he is not officially authorized for the airport. The security guard was not happy with him:)

We finally made it to our house with Eric in tow. He'll take the intermediate bus to the airport next Tuesday, let's hope  he has an easier time of it!

Stay tuned for some pictures, we finally have a card reader and will be downloading when we aren't busy at the beach :)

Hasta la vista!

VW Beetle Juice

Yesterday Adrian picked up a rental car! A 72 (ish) VW Beetle, probably built here in Mexico at the VW plant in Puebla. Here is Adrian's blog of the event:


"Frank picked me up this morning around 9:00 am to go shopping for a rental car. We ended up with an old VW beetle and cost us 2,500 pesos to rent for a week. Not sure if this was a good deal or a wise decision, but whatever, it will make things getting around a little easier. The VW is bit of a bugger to drive with my long legs. The pedals and gear shifter are crammed together and there is very little room for your feet to work the pedals. No power brakes or steering, but for the most part the car seems to run ok. I think it will be a lot of fun to drive around and help us to get around seeing more of PE. Saves us from walking in the hot weather, but now we won’t get our exercise anymore."


Today Eric arrives! We are really interested to get his perceptions of PE, the town itself is a bit dumpy, and the first impression is not all that great. Once you get to the beaches that all changes. The beaches here are from West to East: 
Bococho
Carrizalillo
Angelito
Manzanillo
Marinero
Zicatella
Pointe de Zicatella
We haven't even seen them all yet! With Beetle juice (my new name for the car) we should be able to get to them all quite easily.


Yesterday we finally saw Pointe de Zicatella, this seems to be the young surfer's hang out. I have a feeling Eric will like this one the best, lots of beautiful girls there.


Manana mi Amigos!

Meatless in Puerto

Christmas this year brought me a great book from Bryce. "The Omnivores dilemma" is a book about how food is produced in the US, and likely similarly around the world. With this topic in the back of my mind, and the other challenges associated with food smell, appearance and the availability of key ingredients, eating here is proving to be a test! So far all of my cooking efforts have turned out to be vegetarian. Veggies sauteed in Marinara sauce over spaghetti, refried blackbean and sauteed vegetables in a quesadilla.

Shopping is interesting here, the market is one of my favorite places. I love the fresh fruits and veggies, my favorite so far are the small bananas. The first time we picked them up at the market, we bought them under ripe and they were awful! Very very starchy and not at all sweet, almost like a plantain. But i've had them before and they can be really good, so we tried them again, this time they looked over ripe and brownish, but they were amazing. They taste a little like an apple or pear in a banana texture and taste. mmm.

On the last trip to the market we were able to find some spices for our next pasta dinner, rosemary was in the flowers stalls, and oregano in the spice and dried peppers stalls. My next shopping challenge is to purchase some shrimp, chicken or fish at the market, stay tuned!

I will upload some pictures when Eric brings a card reader. He arrives tomorrow January 4th at the Huatulco airport at around 6 pm. We are excited to show him around PE, can't wait to see his reaction to this place :) should be priceless!!

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

We spent the night with some new friends, Frank and Mary from Rhode Island NY. They had a lovely spot down on the Zicatela Beach that their future son in law arranged for a crowd of themselves and their friends. It was very nice of them to include us Canadians:) The beach was decked out in some arranged tables with beautiful palapas over top.

There was mucho fireworks going on but the best was the fire dancers on the beach. They lit batons, and other types of juggling/spinning instruments PLUS a circle of fire in the sand around them, and entertained the crowd at our spot on the beach! They came collecting donations after the show, which seems customary in Mexico.

At around 1:30 we headed out to look for a hotdog for the guys, which was Franks first in Mexico, and he seemed to really like it. Hot dogs here don't get your regular ketchup, mustard and relish.... try tomatoes, onions, mayonaise and pickled Jalapeno pepper! Sounds weird but tastes pretty good! Mary and I were hankering for a sweet treat so we stopped at a restaurant for Flan, which is Mexican for custard cake.

Happy New Year!

First days on the Beaches of PE

We landed in PE as all the Mexican Nationals have. Bus after Bus of Mexico City tourists rolled into town pretty much at the same time as us, or so the traffic jam of busses indicated! Our taxi driver wasn't too impatient, so he didn't try to pass everyone only 90% or so....

We've had wicked hot weather so far, and the forecast calls for more of it for at least a week. We went to Bacocho beach, there is a private beach club there, so for 60 pesos (roughly $5) we get a pool and service for beers :)

The waves on Bacocho beach here can be brutal though. I have been tossed in the waves twice now! Adrian of course can stand up to them. I've got a bump on my elbow, and a sore neck, but I have gotten away lucky. We were walking down the beach and a Retired Canadian woman and her friend were tossed, one woman was limping quite badly and by the time she had to leave, she couldn't walk, she had to be carried by her friends to her car. Looked to me like it was a broken ankle. Bummer.

We've also been cooking and eating in quite a bit, the food here is greasy at worst, and very few veggies in them either.

Mexico City; COOL place

We our flights to PE were going really well until we had our 9 hour layover in Mexico City.

Now Mexico is known for it's warm weather and sunny destinations, what we didn't know is that Mexico City is also a cool destination, cool as in COLD. The reported temperature for the night we spent at the airport was 2 degrees celcius. The people there had toques, mitts, winter coats and even winter boots on! Central heat in Mexico City is either not turned on or is not in existence at all! We Froze.

To keep warm, we dug our beach towels out of the suitcases, put on our coats, all of them, and hunkered down, kind of like camping on the May long!

Once 4:00 am came around, the airport started really hopping, people catching flights to their own vacations, unfortunately our flight didn't leave until 9:00 am. We were tired, cold, and we looked like 2 homeless Canadians. If I had put a ball cap and a sign on the ground, I'm sure we could have made some money for vacation.

One month later...

Well we are getting ready for our trip, but found out this morning that US air will charge us for each bag we take along, so does this mean we pay in Calgary, then in Phoenix? What a scam....

Oh well, travel is not free :)

We have a few ideas of what to do once we get to Puerto Escondido:
Learn to surf
Learn Spanish
Learn to cook Mexican (our condo has a kitchen!)
Day trips around the south of Oaxaca

Any other suggestions?