Put chappolinas on the list of things I did not know were grasshoppers... when I ate them.

Oaxaca city. Incredible town, and a great base for exploring the area. I am currently stuck in the loop from Oaxaca to Vera cruz to palenque to San cristobol up the coast to puerto Escondido and back to Oaxaca, I am not alone either, truly a challenge to escape this country. My language school has been excellent, "amigos del sol" ask for Rogelio. My host family has been excellent, (www.cooking.com.mx) as well, on arrival la madre, Socorro, asked if I wanted a beer, no thanks I said,

"Si si tu quieres, es Domingo." So we drank 3 beers to celebrate Sunday afternoon.

The family lives in a really neat house where the have private rooms for 2-3 students and also run a small cooking school. The class includes a trip to the market, which is of incredible size. I am told everything gets sold daily in the market, which is amazing since there will be literally 10 shops in a row stacked to the ceiling with the same products. Fresh vegetables, chickens, fish, beef, chilies. Bread. Tortilla makers....

After a week in Oaxaca I got invited to a birthday party with the family in salina cruz. Parties here seem to proceed in the reverse order of US parties. They start with blaring loud music, then dancing, then eating and then drinking, and more dancing. La madre always makes me dance, in restaurants, parties, or really anywhere we encounter Mexican music. She doesn't laugh or grimace too much, so I think it is good natured. Mexican dancing is like a third language to me, actually a 4th, 5th and so on because there are many types of music here each requiring a different dance. couple this with the fact that I dance like shovel normally and you will have a pretty good idea of a pretty ugly scene.

In Mexico your drinking powers are granted a plus 10 for some reason, so I am usually pretty sober (menos valor) while hopping about. I am seriously in need of a salsa class. I am not going to escape this, in fact I think it's going to become more frequent as the Latin blood thickens and the alternative activities dwindle in the south. I don't need anything fancy (fancy is basically screwing on the dance floor) i just need to know how to tread water out there...

Of note on surfing the coast: there was a pretty big oil spill in salina cruz a few months back which is still very visible in water. There is a black line about 100 Yds offshore. They are keeping it quiet though, and in addition, not cleaning it up. I heard absolutely nothing about it from anyone until I got there, but it made BP look like Greenpeace.
The town is really industrial, with a major port and oil industry. Along with this it was pretty dirty and a little unwelcoming. I didn't care for it. There is also a really strange passive aggressive surfer bulls*** vibe here. Some people will tell you there are surfers all over playa salinas, a main beach, and others will say, "
nope, no waves here best go back to puerto."
It is also highly recommended that you pay a guide to help you. A guide is not necessary, but it is supposed to keep them from screwing with you or your car or whatever. I heard stories of car traps being dug in the sand...it wouldn't bother me as much if it wasn't the guides doing the misdeeds in order to necessitate their services.

s***ty vibe, oily water, dirty town. Pass for me.

Barra de la cruz, on the other hand, up the coast from salina, is incredible. Previously a secret spot, but now there is a sign on the carretera, not a secret any longer. Awesome little village, not unlike la ticla, really good accommodations at pepes cabanas, and good food as well. There is a notebook in the restaurant where you just write down whatever you use. Cabana, surfboard, food, bicycle.... On and on, all done on the honor system. Pay when you leave. It seemed to attract good people too. So refreshing to live in a harmonious community again. I don't know that I've ever been more sensitive to vibes before. All I can say is that there is a lot to be said for positive energy...which pepe has in spades.
Unfortunately Barra is suffering from the rumor mill unlike salina cruz, and also from the reality mill, like salina cruz. It was known for being one of the most perfect barreling rights on earth, take off get barreled, come out, hit a few turns and repeat. but the wave is now gone, hasnt worked since may. Where there used to be 1 m of water and a grinding wave there is now 3 m of water and a big mushy roller. the sandy bottom has all but disappeared. The locals told me the hurricane last year took the sand. The word on the street is that the restaurant, which was built on the beach to service the surfers, was constructed in a way that also blocked part of the rivermouth , which changed the sand deposits. I couldnt tell one way or the other what the truth was. Hopefully the wave returns one day, because this spot is a gem without it, and would be unreal with it.

Side note: I managed to purchase a new iPhone charger (to replace the one i donated to my ex amigo in puerto) in Oaxaca after muuuuuch searching. I then promptly forgot it when I left for salina cruz, necessitating my return to Oaxaca...sort of. I really like this area.

On my return route to Oaxaca. I went to San Jose again...where i stopped again, for three days.... can't get enough of this place.

This time in san jose, there were 9 or so other people in the hostel, whom I immediately clicked with. An awesome group. Sacramento, Bakersfield, New Jersey, oregon, one israeli girl (one of those people who is very hard to love, but a necessary ingredient in good grouping simply for contrast) Australia x 3 and an Irish girl. Also present, but not in the clique were a band of piratey looking Frenchmen.

The Irish girl (not hard to love at all):
She was probably 6'4", grew up in a town of 200 on an island of 3000, and was traveling alone in mexico. The reason; because a "horrible boy" had told her she'd never leave him and wouldn't travel without him.

She was a major foody too, it was actually all she talked about. We bonded over mutual like of the food descriptions in the "red wall" series of kids books.
butternut cakes with rose petal frosting and raspberry cream drizzle... That sort of thing..

More quotes:

"Want to go down to the store and get some bickys and chocolate?"

(That would be biscuits or cookies and hot chocolate to the non Irish)...and your goddamn right ill go to the store with you.

"What would you do for a cold turkey sandwich with mayonnaise, pesto, fresh sundried tomatoes on a crusty bread right now?"

"I once read an article on corned beef."

I can pretty much say now that everything i have ever heard or seen about Ireland is true. Irish humor must be somewhere in my blood because I laughed myself into tears on several occasions with this girl, saoirsa (seersha, like in the movie "willow"I think.)

Her on growing up: ( don't forget the thick Irish lilt)

I usually hung out at damos place, my marms a nag, and damos marms an angel. Damos dad (carl) didn't like us hangin round the house though, once when we were ten, carl came in and said:
"Some tourists hev gotten their jeep stuck in the bog. Get in the van we hev to go and pull them art"
Carl then drove the three kids two miles into the bog, but when they piled out of the van to help, carl drove off.

"Tot it would hev taken ye longer" is what he said when they got back to house."

Also, His typical greeting to her when she arrived at the house:
" I tot id seen the larst o you"

Besides realizing that three 10 yr olds and a van is an un unlikely recipe for retrieving a tourists jeep from the bog anyway, they also learned never to trust the old man.

But the old man was still better than her other friends house, where the kids had to paint creosote on fence posts, and take breaks every so often to laugh off the gasses. Saoirse said she had only just realized that getting conscripted into menial labor when visiting a friends house as a kid is not typical in the states.

More on Saoirse: She loved sports, gambling and boxing (" bit o blood, bit o sweat, oooohhh I love it.") apparently there is a legal bookie about every 10 houses in Ireland she says.)

Her best bet:

She's 16 and goes down to the horse track. Manages to get the street bookies attention, he gives her 17:1 on the blue jockey, her favorite color. She wins around $700.
"Cash man, cha chinnnnng" she says, "that's a lot of money for a 16 yr old."

You are right, that is quite a lot of money for a 16 yr girl to win off a semi legal bookie at the horse races, I say, that would be an atypical American experience.

In another instance of teary laughter for me, we pass by a staggeringly drunk local in the middle of a gravel road in the woods. Although he can barely stand he calls out.

" incoherent sputtering.... cabanas.....gurgles... comida....then gurgles..."

I made a wide path around the guy as he staggered toward me with a brochure or menu of some sort. He was only about 4' tall but I just didn't have a thing in me at the time capable of handling him.

Saoirse on the other hand, cheerily walked past him.
"Can't kill the salesman" she called out.

A story told by saoirsa: she was on a balcony in Guatemala with her shirt rolled up to expose her belly ( a typical locals style when it's hot) she noticed a guy walking down the street who she thought might be cute. She then lets out a whistle which she claims was un conscience, just so he would turn around and she could have a look at him

"Oh my god! I've turned into a Mexican man! I was so embarrassed I ran into the room, I've no idea if he turned around or not."

Participated in another temezcal ceremony, this one was over the top good though. Different shaman, with no credentials (just a family tradition) Much more traditional ceremony, and significantly hotter, i really wanted out at the end. There were about 10 of us in the hut and the whole process consisted of adding 7 red hot rocks to the hut 4 times, which caused the hut to get increasingly hot, about 150 deg I am told. The 4 "doors" as they are called become a true challenge to pass through.

We did have some extra time in the hut though: On the way in to the cabin we encountered a mountain spring falling out of a wooden pipe into a barrel, 3 of us drank from it, one of us (new jersey) had to leave the hut twice. we kindly waited for him...in the 150 deg hut.
the other of us (Bakersfield) ran to the wooded bathroom immediately after the cleansing ceremony to unleash what i am told was a sweat infused category 5 s***icane. It was the most rapid poisoning I have ever seen. I was unaffected, which I am proud of.
We found out later that New Jersey also had to let one go next a donkey on the road, and then had to run the last block to hostel. Violent.

At around the 2nd door (14 rocks, pretty damn hot), when there was a small amount of light in the hut due to the rocks being passed in, I happened to notice a moderately sized tarantula (or gigantic spider) making its way up the wall of the hut away from me and directly over Oregon's head... It was about the size of a cookie...and of quintessential scary spider proportions. And then it went dark again.
I knew alerting people would be akin to calling fire in a crowded theater, and I also reasoned that in reality I was really content before I knew the spider was there, so I shouldn't inflict discomfort on anyone else...also I was pretty sure the shaman would make us pass it around or eat it or something. I just moved away from the wall a little and tried to make my footprint as small as possible, i took it to be my own personal challenge. My spirit animal. By the 4 th door I was so hot and exhausted I was sprawled on the ground with my head against the wall.
"Awww f*** em I thought."

I did tell everyone afterwards though, and they thanked me for keeping it quiet, then saoirsa asked if that was what that rustling noise was, which she had heard between her and I.

"I thought that was you making that noise" i said.

" I thought it was you." She said back.

Joe