Dear Everyone,
My vacation week was very interesting. First me and two girls who go to Hampshire College (one originally from Chicago, the other from MA) took a twelve hour bus ride from San Cristobal to Puerto Escondido, a surfer tourist town on the coast. It was a bit of an insane trip. We rushed from the Women's Festival in Oventic to a forty-five minute bus ride through the mountains to San Cris. The local buses here aren't like in the states, they are actually just big vans called Combis that you pay around eight pesos (less than 60 cents) to ride just about anywhere within an hour distance. The combi we took was jam packed and we rushed at a crazy speed along the mountains, passing trucks full of horses and little cars. In San Cris. We had little less than two hours to get on the main bus to Puerto Escondido in which was did some shopping for food for the ride and a quick stop in an internet cafe.
The twelve hour bus ride was mostly uneventful. The tour book said the movies on these buses are terrible and they were right. We started with a cheesey film called “Conversations with God” and it went downhill from there. The bus we took was first class (theres a class above first which was more expensive). We considered taking a second class bus but it takes longer to get there because they can't pay for tolls for the main highways and are also at greater risk of being held up and robbed. The bus we were on was stopped and searched several times by the military and la migra (immigration). The only person they actually harassed was, uncoincidentally, the only indigenous guy on the bus.
Puerto Escondido had a beautiful beach with rough waves and great food. Still, it was incredibly strange going from Oventic with the simple way of living, less technology, and a certain communal and political way of looking at the world to a rather touristy little town on the beach. It was strange and I was constantly plagued by feelings of homesickness for Oventic and the experience I was having there. Still, having a hot shower, good meals (Chiapas is known for bad food especially at restaurants), and a real bed to sleep on was very relaxing.
After a few days there we met up with two more friends and took a fun two hour bus ride to a tiny town on the coast of Oaxaca called Mazunte (one thing I love about Mexico is that the bus driver always leaves the door open and theres lots of loud music going over the speakers! Also for 20 pesos, which is less than $1.60 you can go anywhere within five hours). If anyone is looking for a beach vacation in a relaxing, hidden town with good food and amazing beach, Mazunte is your place. The town is itsy-bitsy with one main road and no ATMs or big stores. It mainly relies on tourism but the tourists there are generally not American and more “alternative” hippie-ish types. The people there are extremely friendly (we went to a bigger town nearby and got a lot of help from different local people finding the cheapest ride home) and the beach is clean. There is also tons of sea life. Mazunte is the “sea turtle capital of Mexico” but there are also dolphins, whales, tons of (tasty) fish, and sting rays. We stayed in a little cabana on a hill overlooking the sea and could watch see whales from there.
Our hostel is owned by an eccentric couple from Argentina. Apparently the husband was a guerilla fighter for two years in Guatemala and ended up settling on the beach away from the rest of the world. They seemed very spiritual, hippie-ish, and anti-capitalist. They prepared meals from a little open air kitchen right next to our tables that made us feel like we were in someones home (incidentally the food tasted exactly like something Pai (Carlos) would make...I would recommend he go to this place the most out of anyone I know). We did a sweatlodge or “temascal” while we were there with the owner of the cabana. Temascal is very traditional in Mexico, apparently in parts of Mexico some indigenous used it as a way of cleaning instead of just bathing in water. However this one was rather new-agey and very different from sweat lodges I have done in the Lakota tradition, but cleansing and good nonetheless. He had a lot of herbs that he put in with the water so we all felt like we were being steamed in a cup of chamomile tea. Wonderful.
While we were there we met up with four more friends, three from our program and one cool socialist from Switzerland we had met at the Escuela de Lenguas in Oventic. He was a really cool, funny guy and we were all sad to say goodbye to him when we left. He is traveling for a year in the Americas and said he would visit us in NYC when he makes it up to the states. After a few days there all of us (there were now six) took an eighteen hour bus ride from Mazunte to Mexico City. This was also uneventful except for a moment when me and another girl were searched by the military at four in the morning. We pretended we only spoke English as our program head had advised us. After we arrived in Mexico city we met up with everyone else from our program and headed to Toluca De Guadalupe in Tlaxcala. And here we began a whole new set of adventures....
More later. Much love!
Marlena
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