Fri 0942 need to write up yesterday, didn't get chance to do it yesterday.
Didn't sleep brilliantly - dorm bed feels practically domed, higher in centre and falling off in all directions - but not too bad. Probably in bed about midnight, think over up and had not-bustinf piss at some point in night, I probably finally woke up about 7ish but lingered in bed deliberately until 830ish as I am in no rush except for booking bus and won't have a bed tonight and am clinging on in hostel til checkout at 12 and may ask if I can pay extra to stay here with no bed during day.
Need to decide about bus. It basically comes down to 1900-0440 or 2030-0540. The latter is a couple I'd hundred pesos more but that is mostly irrelevant. My gut feeling is to go with the former, as it is compatible with walking to the terminal here in daylight and while it means an extra hour probably hanging around in terminal in San cris (until sunrise or first collectivo to comitan, although just possibly if there is one I may apkurge on an OCC/ado bus from sane terminal to comitan), that is not really so different from hanging around at the terminal here if I have to go over super early to walk there in daylight, and since I am not going to have a "comfortable" base to lurk in even if I do get a taxi to the terminal the extra comfort is minimal.
Plus while i don't want to tempt fate with attitude or actions, I would probably feel safer venturing out in San cris in the last bit of darkness before dawn than being on the streets in much larger oaxaca after dark (albeit still early evening, but terminal is a modest walk out of the centre).
Have eaten my rather battered bimbo raisin bread thing maybe 15 mins ago, I will get something easier to eat and less battered for the bus and I figure I can always put off going to Los sabores de la chef til say 2 or 3 so having eaten earlier is no bad thing. Maybe a bit boring going to lsdlc again but it is a solid meal and moderately healthy (eg some vegetables, rice) and it is probably a good thing to eat it while I can and to fortify myself for the bus and longish day tomorrow. Incidentally saw a poster in there yesterday and they apparently have a Puerto Escondido branch which I didn't know about, wish I had seen that before I went.
I do need to book the bus but let me start to write yesterday up while i still have power available to top up phone after. Two other people both on their own reading (one an actual book) so won't use voice typing and haven't been. In theory I could go get my reading glasses and BT keyboard. Ffs it feels a FAFF but I suppose I ought to.
1007 JFC. Put p7 in pocket, went to get keyboard, two mins later p7 has hard locked, screen black, massively unresponsive to attempts to reboot. And the keyboard battery is dead. And I had to come back to dorm jugging two pairs of glasses and the keyboard and the phone.
Going to copy photos to USB just in case.
1047 Yay! 40ish mins of power and table-available time wasted copying stuff to usb. Back on terrace with the fucking BT keyboard, though to be fair it is of coure blameless here.
I still havent booked the bus, I will probably do it in 30ish mins.
I do now have the terrace to myself and could voice type but th keyboard is better now I have it out.
So I woke up 7ish yesterday but stayed in bed a bit late and although I wasnt really late I didnt get changed into the dorm til about 915ish so I maybe lost 15-30 mins compared to the 9 we had agreed. I asked and woman at recetion recomended collectivo to Mitla and I went and got one no major problem, thanks in part to her telling me the color of the cars. It was about an hour each way and cost 50 pesos, I was expecting 25 each way but the locals seemed to be charged the same too.
Walked over to the site no problem, calling in at the rather bare south site (and I checked out the "west" site afterwards), went into the church as I came past it and paid my 100 and went in.
Tried not to milk it. I also felt a tiny bit harried, given the need to collect laundry and to go to the lang exchange, which I tried not to let affect me too much. I could potentially have gone over to hierve el agua too but it would probably have been rammed if guide book is to be believed and I also probably did go there in 2010 and I can always go on my next visit. In the end i think I did the site justice and while I wish my mnd had been a little more at ease it was generally OK.
I ended up sharing the front seat (!) of the return colectivo with a fortunately slim young woman who perhaps knew the driver - these were cars, not minibuses - but not too uncomfortable actually.
Went to LSDLC afterwards, with the aid of the GPS tag on the photos I snapped in there on my first visit I was able to identify the second location and went to that one as it felt slightly nicer - and for whatever reason you pay afterwards rather than upfront there compared to other one. I ate about the right amount and felt moderatey stuffed but not sick. Went and picked laundry up and checked it in the shop and it was all fine.
Dithered around hostel a bit and forced myself to book Comitan accom (which I had free cancellation on u to midnight, just in case I got told about anything amazing here in Oaxaca at the lang exch - i wasn't) and also a bloody split train ticket to go visit family when I get back to London. Not done flight seats yet but touch wood these will not get shittier until about 3 days before flight, whereas train ticket prices would be creeping up daily. I do intend to do the flight seats soon, but I didnt want to do it in a rush yesterday.
Walked over to lang exch which appeared to have started earlier than advertised so it was already pretty full but not a big deal. Some kind of procession with some people wearing the big character figures I have seen round the central streets going on zocalo-ish as I passed, I watched briefly and snapped a few not very good videos and photos. I had taken the O6 with me just in case of mugging on way home and it seems to be going through a phase of locking up and entering crashdump mode.
LE not bad. We did speak a lot of English but did get to speak some Spanish with native speakers as well as with my fellow learners. Met woman from australia who lives in gran canaria and a couple of local Oaxacans and a bloke from the US and a few others who I spoke to a bit less. It was quite social and comfortable and while not perhaps as intensively spanishy as I might have liked it was good to talk to both locals an expats in a friendly way. There was very low key karaoke later on from about 9 and in the end - noticing almost that no one was even paying attention to the singers a lot of the time, and that some people were just as awful as me - I sang "muerte en hawaii" and didn't make too much of a hash of it.
I left about 1130 I think - australian woman had told me it was a bit iffy after 11 but then backed down slightly and I felt it was probably OK - and got back no problem maybe midnight and cleaned teeth and went to bed and discovered the domeyness of it but not a huge deal.
It had definitely thinned out a bit by then with a lot of the foreigners gone. I was chatting with a Oaxacan called Gustavo who might have invited me out for a pizza but it was a bit unclear and I didnt feel it was smart anyway so we sort of let the idea drop with no hard feelings.
I was and am a bit sad to be leaving but the usual wafflings apply. Oh, people told me the grasshoppers sold in the street are often from Puebla and are not the famous Oaxacan ones and have no taste. I was dithering anyway but since I am really not that fussed I think I will probably not bother forcing myself to try any. Yes it would be a bit of a story to tell but not much of one and I am not really that bothered, except for vague missing out/regret type thoughts. Also the attempts I see to force crickets into general food make me reconsider a bit, I have no fundamental objection to people eating insects or even doing it myself, but I resent being coerced and lectured about it.
All the options for the bus suck a bit but none are massive trip-ruiningly awful and fingers crossed will be rapidly forgotten once I am in bed in Comitan tomorrow night maybe 8ish. I think I will book online for the 1900ish one in a few minutes.
While I remember, Mason and maybe Jim were talking in San Cris about buying property nearby and I think Mason said he was looking at a biggish house with some land for USD7000. OTOH, and I suppose it is possible both could be true, one of the several real estate agents in Zipolite was advertising what was probably a condo for USD250k. (It is also evidence of how different people can be that presumably some people go to Zipolite and think "OMFG, this is paradise, I want to live here", which I find difficult to understand on an emotional level even if intellectually I can accept that some people would.)
It is quite nice - and would probably be better with more practice - writing on the BT keyboard, albeit I am still getting a bit of a crick in back from perhaps poor table/chair/posture/tendency to lean forward. It is not as good as a real computer with proper keyboard and monitor but I do feel I am able to express myself with less pain than with the onscreen keyboard (where I think the trick is to watch the keyboard as you type and not try to assume you can get the positions from memory or that the autocorrect will fix it, but it is still annoying because you type a word like sabores and it gets auto corrected to Angeles and if you dont *immediately* backspace you get stuck with the correction and have to retype the damn thing again, then repeat that a time or two more) or the voice typing (which does get words wrong and will just throw away chunks it doesnt unerstand with no warning so you have to be careful to keep an eye on what it wrote and remember what yo said, not to mention the privacy concerns if you are not in a private room.)
It pains me that this blog will probably seem illiterate or slapdash when I come to read it in future compared to most of my earlier entries but it can't be helped and it is better to have something than nothing.
1109 FFS, let's book the bus. Need to remember that while sucky none of this is terrible or long term, it will all be over tomorrow evening, even kind of tomorrow midday as that is when the official check in is.
1854 ffs. On bus. The guy checking tickets would not let me bring my bag on even though it would have trivially fitted in the overhead rack. As I was forced to check it and I had been rushed at the terninal, I had to hastily pit the necessary stiff in my saypack and forgot the fleece which is needed in case aircon gets fierce and cos it had headphones in pkcket so I had to jump off and ask the guy filling boot if I could get something out of vag, luckily he was cool about it. Absolutely no reason not to let me bring the main bag on. It maybe looked a smidge bigger as I had had to open it for an ultra cursory security inspection and I was a smidge rushed but anyway just utterly unreasonable.
I got to terminal 45 mins early but called parents and also realised the bus actually goes to xonitan so went to ticket booths to discuss an extension and long story short I couldn't keep my seat if we change the tk ket so I bought a second ticket from San cris to comitan but for stupid glitchy reasons I couldn't book the same aeat because it somehow got reserved by our earlier booking attempts and after waiting 10 mins and returning it was still reserved so I didn't want to wait longer as we were getting close to bus time and so I got her to sell me the currently free seat next to me so with luck I won't have to but if I have to move over to the next aeat in San cris not end of world.
I therefore has no time to patiently pack saypack which has been carrying round all day so didn't eg want fleece and USB cables and power bank in it and hence rushing already described when I had to put my bag in boot for no good reason at all. I ficking hope I have everything I will want, and even if I do it is much more reassuring to have my bag under my eye and to know that push comes to shove i can get anything I want out. But can't be helped.
Today has actually been pretty good touristing. I hung around hostel too 12 and left my bag there. I then went and had an ice cream, went to museo de las culturas (not bad, but just to be arsey you not allowed to take liquids in so I left my bag with my water in at the free cloakroom).
1902 we are pulling out so will stop writing.
2231 Tehuantepec.
Mdlc not bad, building itself the highlight though. Annoying medieval war type film playing over speakers on bus too loudly.
When came out was another procession with still walkers etc, took some bad photos and video and went to eat at sabores. Felt mildly stuffed but just about OK. Went into the market after, it is a mix of local vendors and some almost airport level tourist good shops quite swanky. I saw some people selling chapulines and dithered but decided to buy some, 20 for a small scoop full. I tried them out on the street later (I was feeling quite full as went round market) - I got the con Chile ones and they so basically just taste of chilli and aren't tremendously threatening or weird, mahbe a tiny 5pc ick factor at most.
2235 off again.
2303 juchitan.
Having ticked off the chapulines (but not the fat bottomed ant things which I learned the name of last night but can't remember, or the grub type things I saw being sold by the grasshopper sellers - maybe next time) I was going to go to cafe Trebol and did but it was shut, so I went to el cantabrico on the zocalo and got a mezcal so I had had one in oaxaca which felt like a good thing to do. It was maybe a bit smoky butbitheriwse hard for me tovdeacribe, not bad. Probably had mezcal before anyway but fwiw. Had a couple of coffees as well and did a bit of vague people watching and it was kind of nice to be there in the nakn square and tho the mezcal was a bit pricey (100, plus about 55 for each coffee then tjp) it was probably worth it.
Then back to hostel, got bag and sneakily cleaned teeth and walked over to bus terminal in daylight no fuss.
So I think that is about me caught up. Bum hurting a bit from sitting and toilet on bus is a bit rank but at least it is there.
A collectivo from San cris to comitan might be cheaper than the modest 78 pesos for the extra travel but this way I get to stay on this bus longer which is good as it will likely take me to daylight, plus FWIW this bus has the toilet and a colectivo wouldn't.
Annoying film was The Northman. It has finished now and with luck there won't be another film. Been listening to music on phone with Nc headphones but they can't completely block the loud fight noises and dramatic music from film.
Was able to charge p7 up from USB socket on bus, having grabbed USB cable during my hasty transfer before getting on bus. So I am probably fine for power, and I do have my full powerbank too and the o6 is turned off with a near full battery too.
I had a few Chapulines on the bus earlier too, but still have some in bag in my pocket and will eat them tomorrow in daylight, somehow eating them in the dark feels a bit wrong/cheating/over casual.
I picked mezcal convite espadin esencial at random off the list at el cantabrico, it was third or fourth cheapest, absolute cheapest was IIRC 90.
Sat 2217 In room at hotel with wireless keyboard, I do actually have a desk and chair. Not a bad day's touristing as it turned out. But let me resume the narrative where I left off.
So I did kind of fall asleep on the bus. We didn't get stopped for any passport checks. We did arrive at San Cris about 0440 and I was pretty glad I didn't have to get off. There was that womb-ish feeling, albeit the womb wasn't super comfortable and I wasn't looking forward to being birthed shortly. It was at least daylight when we came into Comitan. An old and presumably Mexican woman asked me where to get a taxi while I was fiddling with my bag in the terminal after getting off, which is somehow vaguely flattering as it suggests I am not too obviously a tourist (but I said I was).
Trogged over to hotel, no problem although I started going down a very slightly rural looking lane and saw a down outside a house which would probably have been no problem but turned round and walked a slightly longer way round.
Got to hostel about 7 and the slightly odd guy at reception checked me in and took me to the room without me asking. I had been half fantasising about getting into the room and going to bed while on the bus, though had dithered about whether it would actually be a good thing or not. I was grateful but my gratitude wa diminished (perhaps reinforcing an already half learned life/psychology lesson my part here) by him telling me in Spanish that it meant double the cost (to them I assume, not me!) for the light and water but that on this occasion he would let me check in early. Which is silly. I do appreciate it, but in practice I had the light on for about 15 mins and went to the toilet and other than that all I've done is soil the sheets for an extra few hours but they are not going to be laundered until I leave anyway, so there is no extra load/cost there.
I did go to bed although I had slept a bit (badlyish) on the bus, but didn't go straight to sleep, and in the end I was kind of weirdly cold and shoulders hurt a bit at times (probably from the bus) and I was drifting in and out of sleep in a vaguely uncomfortable way and I eventually forced myself to get up about 1 after snoozing quite a bit on 11ish alarm I had originally set.
I had a (cold; the water was hot this evening when I noticed by accident while doing some laundry in the sink, but it wasn't hot this afternoon) shower and put some clean clothes on and went out for a wander, with food being primary goal. Maybe it's weak but I kind of fancied pizza rather than faffing with local stuff and worrying about sauces and stuff. Apart from a dried up looking "by the slice" stall and a littered flyer for an address some way out of centre I didn't find any naturally but looked on OM and trogged over to Yungla pizza where I had a not bad but a bit pricey Pizza Yungla.
The weather was intermittently sunny and over warm and mostly overcast and just a smidge cold. It feels a bit odd when altitude is perhaps same as Oaxaca (not double checked) but maybe the climate this few hundred km east is different - I have only had <1 day of experience with it here so may be just randomess, but this does feel a bit like San Cris climate but maybe a bit colder. It even spat with rain very lightly as I was coming out of Yungla.
Anyway, so I wandered some more, there are some niceish (colourful) market stalls off some streets near main square (including some with lots of those claw gaming machines). The main square is full of valentine's day "structures", hearts and "love" and "amor" big writing. Sort of cool to see it though.
I went to the free archaeological museum and did actually get mildly into reading about all the different epochs of the local culture pre-conquista, having seen the terms before but at least not remembering reading much detailed description.
That took me to about 1630 and I went and had a couple of white coffees on the square (but sat inside, and FWIW was wearing fleece, as in San Cris this felt like the sort of place where carrying it round was desirable) at Cafe-Bar Central and then went back to hotel to call parents and do a bit of laundry and leave a couple of reviews on booking.com. I had toyed with having a quiet night in but as it was Saturday I had been saying to myself when I came back from coffees at CBC that I would go out again and have a beer or two.
Will interject at this point to say that back in Oaxaca I was a bit worried Comitan was closer than the FCDO 40km border exclusion from the Guatemala border at this point - I didn't look too hard but I couldn't find a way to measure distance between arbitary points in OM, but now I am here I can measure the distance between my location and an arbitrary point, and I not that close. I will probably avoid the I think archaelogical site right on the border but there are a couple of nearby things I will probably go to which are SW-ish of here and probably fine. That will be day after tomorrow, plan for tomorrow is to see some of the districts of the town and do some museums and do a bit of general wandering and so on.
Let me also say that while in CBC having coffee I was mildly pleasantly appreciating being here in Mexico and in Comitan (where it feels like I am the only gringo; not 100% sure I haven't seen a few others, but we are scarce and the other possibles have looked a bit odd somehow and eg might be white Mexicans for all I know, still, it does feel kind of cool to feel I have got a bit off the beaten track) and also reflecting that I have 2 and a bit weeks left and that is a long time but it is the getting back to Cancun that is the issue. If I were in (modulo fear of getting mugged) Mexico City, say, and was flying back from there, if I had 2.5 weeks in MC left I would hardly be thinking "hmm, got to get back soon" all the time (assuming I wanted to be there, I would be thnking "wow, I have 2.5 weeks to explore MC"), but as it is the problem is I am far enough away from my flight that is *is* a concern. This isn't a complaint as such or blaming myself for eg going to Oaxaca, just an observation. I still may fly back from eg Tuxtla but we will see how things go.
So I did go out about 1930 feeling mildly edgy for no reason and was actually genuinely almost childishly delighted to see all the valentines stuff in the main square was illuminated and it felt oddly cool. I bought some churros at a stall I had seen earlier down a side street - I asked how much, guy said 50 which seemed excessively but I thought WTF and handed it over and he gave me 5. I was offered some presumably sweetish sauces I could have on them by name but I didn't recognise them and wouldn't necessarily have wanted them anyway so I said nothing thanks. I gorged on the churros as I wandered round, it was quite busy but probably not Oaxaca zocalo levels.
I then lucked out and discovered a free music thing at the museo Belisario Dominguez (which afterwards turned out to be "Comitan a la luz de las velas") where some guy was playing violin to a backing track of popular-ish songs. They also had some guy giving out free coffee (I asked how much and he was like no it's free) and the atmoshere was quite nice and I also really liked (presumably this is "the theme", but I didn't know this til the end) the way they had put out electric candles in a geometric pattern on the floor and it all felt very cool and serendipitous. There had actually been an earlier part to it at IIRC 1830 which I missed, and I didn't see the start of the violin performance either, but it was still cool. From the poster which I photographed on the way out the violinist was Jonathan Prado. I 80%ish understood the various Spanish announcements by him and the woman doing a sort of wrap up and awarding of certificates at the end.
After the I went and had a couple of beers on the square, choosing somewhat at random Los Portales de Comitan - I had half been aiming for the actually next bar over where a guy was performing on guitar but it was no big deal anyway as every bar had its own music and there was some difficulty hearing anything too clearly anyway. It was far from deserted but also not heaving despite it being Saturday night and I (like most people) was sat outside and even with fleece on it was just a smidge on the over-cool side. Not painfully so, but not all that pleasant either (except insofar as I might try to think back to the stifling stickiness on the coast, or to a lesser degree in Oaxaca - though O on the whole was not too bad, a smidge over warm at times but also in a kind of "yes, I am holiday in the tropics escaping the winter back home" way).
So what with the quietly enjoyable museum visit and then lucking out with the nicely serendipitous cool music event it feels like a fairly solid day's touristing.
I will look into whether I should stay overnight nearby or do day trips to the nearby places I have seen in guide book tomorrow. I am broadly open to extending at this hotel if necessary and possible, though ISTR there were some reviews mentioning iffy charging extra on checkout after agreeing a price stuff so I may prefer to book extensions through booking.com (if these reviews were on this hotel) instead of negotiating directly. As I say, tomorrow's actual physical touristing will be just in town, not going anywhere.
In a strange way having slept here post bus makes it feel like I have three nights here instead of two, which is sort of nice.
Probably noted this before but an irritation with the bt keyboard is that if a finger happens to brush the screen (I think this happens mainly but not exclusively when typing a number on the top row of the keyboard) the cursor position moves and I end up typing in the middle of another sentence all of a sudden. But practice makes perfect etc and while annoying it is still probably the better of the three input methods I have available, subject to having time and space to set it up.
Let me do fucking Duolingo and clean my teeth and then move towards bed. If I think of anything I have forgotten to say while doing that I might add it.
2259 Did have solid but somewhat unexpected dump after getting into hotel room. (It is a hotel not a hostel, and I really don't see any common areas or expect to get chatting to anyone. Not a problem, just saying.) Slightly worrying but I had been a few times (having a piss only) on the bus and maybe it was just because I "could" that the need came on.
Using the toilet on the bus (which I think I did three times) felt like taking my life in my hands given the shaking around of the bus and the fact that some parts of the toilet process (trouser manipulation for example) are inherently two handed (maybe I could have tried harder) and therefore you can't hold on to the handrails and I had no trouble imagining smashing my face into the wall at a sudden swerve, not to mention the admittedly unlikely possibility of a crash as you are standing in there.
I did wear the seatbelt (although the retracting mechanism felt weak) on the bus, but generally it seems - and I do like this on practical freedom grounds, even if I would still be inclined to wear one by choice sometimes when I don't have a choice - that seatbelts are not a big thing in cars.
Can't think of anything else to say so I will send this now and get into bed. Don't want to force myself up super early tomorrow - it should be a relaxed-ish day - but also don't want to waste too much of the day oversleeping and I do feel slightly tired now.
Didn't sleep brilliantly - dorm bed feels practically domed, higher in centre and falling off in all directions - but not too bad. Probably in bed about midnight, think over up and had not-bustinf piss at some point in night, I probably finally woke up about 7ish but lingered in bed deliberately until 830ish as I am in no rush except for booking bus and won't have a bed tonight and am clinging on in hostel til checkout at 12 and may ask if I can pay extra to stay here with no bed during day.
Need to decide about bus. It basically comes down to 1900-0440 or 2030-0540. The latter is a couple I'd hundred pesos more but that is mostly irrelevant. My gut feeling is to go with the former, as it is compatible with walking to the terminal here in daylight and while it means an extra hour probably hanging around in terminal in San cris (until sunrise or first collectivo to comitan, although just possibly if there is one I may apkurge on an OCC/ado bus from sane terminal to comitan), that is not really so different from hanging around at the terminal here if I have to go over super early to walk there in daylight, and since I am not going to have a "comfortable" base to lurk in even if I do get a taxi to the terminal the extra comfort is minimal.
Plus while i don't want to tempt fate with attitude or actions, I would probably feel safer venturing out in San cris in the last bit of darkness before dawn than being on the streets in much larger oaxaca after dark (albeit still early evening, but terminal is a modest walk out of the centre).
Have eaten my rather battered bimbo raisin bread thing maybe 15 mins ago, I will get something easier to eat and less battered for the bus and I figure I can always put off going to Los sabores de la chef til say 2 or 3 so having eaten earlier is no bad thing. Maybe a bit boring going to lsdlc again but it is a solid meal and moderately healthy (eg some vegetables, rice) and it is probably a good thing to eat it while I can and to fortify myself for the bus and longish day tomorrow. Incidentally saw a poster in there yesterday and they apparently have a Puerto Escondido branch which I didn't know about, wish I had seen that before I went.
I do need to book the bus but let me start to write yesterday up while i still have power available to top up phone after. Two other people both on their own reading (one an actual book) so won't use voice typing and haven't been. In theory I could go get my reading glasses and BT keyboard. Ffs it feels a FAFF but I suppose I ought to.
1007 JFC. Put p7 in pocket, went to get keyboard, two mins later p7 has hard locked, screen black, massively unresponsive to attempts to reboot. And the keyboard battery is dead. And I had to come back to dorm jugging two pairs of glasses and the keyboard and the phone.
Going to copy photos to USB just in case.
1047 Yay! 40ish mins of power and table-available time wasted copying stuff to usb. Back on terrace with the fucking BT keyboard, though to be fair it is of coure blameless here.
I still havent booked the bus, I will probably do it in 30ish mins.
I do now have the terrace to myself and could voice type but th keyboard is better now I have it out.
So I woke up 7ish yesterday but stayed in bed a bit late and although I wasnt really late I didnt get changed into the dorm til about 915ish so I maybe lost 15-30 mins compared to the 9 we had agreed. I asked and woman at recetion recomended collectivo to Mitla and I went and got one no major problem, thanks in part to her telling me the color of the cars. It was about an hour each way and cost 50 pesos, I was expecting 25 each way but the locals seemed to be charged the same too.
Walked over to the site no problem, calling in at the rather bare south site (and I checked out the "west" site afterwards), went into the church as I came past it and paid my 100 and went in.
Tried not to milk it. I also felt a tiny bit harried, given the need to collect laundry and to go to the lang exchange, which I tried not to let affect me too much. I could potentially have gone over to hierve el agua too but it would probably have been rammed if guide book is to be believed and I also probably did go there in 2010 and I can always go on my next visit. In the end i think I did the site justice and while I wish my mnd had been a little more at ease it was generally OK.
I ended up sharing the front seat (!) of the return colectivo with a fortunately slim young woman who perhaps knew the driver - these were cars, not minibuses - but not too uncomfortable actually.
Went to LSDLC afterwards, with the aid of the GPS tag on the photos I snapped in there on my first visit I was able to identify the second location and went to that one as it felt slightly nicer - and for whatever reason you pay afterwards rather than upfront there compared to other one. I ate about the right amount and felt moderatey stuffed but not sick. Went and picked laundry up and checked it in the shop and it was all fine.
Dithered around hostel a bit and forced myself to book Comitan accom (which I had free cancellation on u to midnight, just in case I got told about anything amazing here in Oaxaca at the lang exch - i wasn't) and also a bloody split train ticket to go visit family when I get back to London. Not done flight seats yet but touch wood these will not get shittier until about 3 days before flight, whereas train ticket prices would be creeping up daily. I do intend to do the flight seats soon, but I didnt want to do it in a rush yesterday.
Walked over to lang exch which appeared to have started earlier than advertised so it was already pretty full but not a big deal. Some kind of procession with some people wearing the big character figures I have seen round the central streets going on zocalo-ish as I passed, I watched briefly and snapped a few not very good videos and photos. I had taken the O6 with me just in case of mugging on way home and it seems to be going through a phase of locking up and entering crashdump mode.
LE not bad. We did speak a lot of English but did get to speak some Spanish with native speakers as well as with my fellow learners. Met woman from australia who lives in gran canaria and a couple of local Oaxacans and a bloke from the US and a few others who I spoke to a bit less. It was quite social and comfortable and while not perhaps as intensively spanishy as I might have liked it was good to talk to both locals an expats in a friendly way. There was very low key karaoke later on from about 9 and in the end - noticing almost that no one was even paying attention to the singers a lot of the time, and that some people were just as awful as me - I sang "muerte en hawaii" and didn't make too much of a hash of it.
I left about 1130 I think - australian woman had told me it was a bit iffy after 11 but then backed down slightly and I felt it was probably OK - and got back no problem maybe midnight and cleaned teeth and went to bed and discovered the domeyness of it but not a huge deal.
It had definitely thinned out a bit by then with a lot of the foreigners gone. I was chatting with a Oaxacan called Gustavo who might have invited me out for a pizza but it was a bit unclear and I didnt feel it was smart anyway so we sort of let the idea drop with no hard feelings.
I was and am a bit sad to be leaving but the usual wafflings apply. Oh, people told me the grasshoppers sold in the street are often from Puebla and are not the famous Oaxacan ones and have no taste. I was dithering anyway but since I am really not that fussed I think I will probably not bother forcing myself to try any. Yes it would be a bit of a story to tell but not much of one and I am not really that bothered, except for vague missing out/regret type thoughts. Also the attempts I see to force crickets into general food make me reconsider a bit, I have no fundamental objection to people eating insects or even doing it myself, but I resent being coerced and lectured about it.
All the options for the bus suck a bit but none are massive trip-ruiningly awful and fingers crossed will be rapidly forgotten once I am in bed in Comitan tomorrow night maybe 8ish. I think I will book online for the 1900ish one in a few minutes.
While I remember, Mason and maybe Jim were talking in San Cris about buying property nearby and I think Mason said he was looking at a biggish house with some land for USD7000. OTOH, and I suppose it is possible both could be true, one of the several real estate agents in Zipolite was advertising what was probably a condo for USD250k. (It is also evidence of how different people can be that presumably some people go to Zipolite and think "OMFG, this is paradise, I want to live here", which I find difficult to understand on an emotional level even if intellectually I can accept that some people would.)
It is quite nice - and would probably be better with more practice - writing on the BT keyboard, albeit I am still getting a bit of a crick in back from perhaps poor table/chair/posture/tendency to lean forward. It is not as good as a real computer with proper keyboard and monitor but I do feel I am able to express myself with less pain than with the onscreen keyboard (where I think the trick is to watch the keyboard as you type and not try to assume you can get the positions from memory or that the autocorrect will fix it, but it is still annoying because you type a word like sabores and it gets auto corrected to Angeles and if you dont *immediately* backspace you get stuck with the correction and have to retype the damn thing again, then repeat that a time or two more) or the voice typing (which does get words wrong and will just throw away chunks it doesnt unerstand with no warning so you have to be careful to keep an eye on what it wrote and remember what yo said, not to mention the privacy concerns if you are not in a private room.)
It pains me that this blog will probably seem illiterate or slapdash when I come to read it in future compared to most of my earlier entries but it can't be helped and it is better to have something than nothing.
1109 FFS, let's book the bus. Need to remember that while sucky none of this is terrible or long term, it will all be over tomorrow evening, even kind of tomorrow midday as that is when the official check in is.
1854 ffs. On bus. The guy checking tickets would not let me bring my bag on even though it would have trivially fitted in the overhead rack. As I was forced to check it and I had been rushed at the terninal, I had to hastily pit the necessary stiff in my saypack and forgot the fleece which is needed in case aircon gets fierce and cos it had headphones in pkcket so I had to jump off and ask the guy filling boot if I could get something out of vag, luckily he was cool about it. Absolutely no reason not to let me bring the main bag on. It maybe looked a smidge bigger as I had had to open it for an ultra cursory security inspection and I was a smidge rushed but anyway just utterly unreasonable.
I got to terminal 45 mins early but called parents and also realised the bus actually goes to xonitan so went to ticket booths to discuss an extension and long story short I couldn't keep my seat if we change the tk ket so I bought a second ticket from San cris to comitan but for stupid glitchy reasons I couldn't book the same aeat because it somehow got reserved by our earlier booking attempts and after waiting 10 mins and returning it was still reserved so I didn't want to wait longer as we were getting close to bus time and so I got her to sell me the currently free seat next to me so with luck I won't have to but if I have to move over to the next aeat in San cris not end of world.
I therefore has no time to patiently pack saypack which has been carrying round all day so didn't eg want fleece and USB cables and power bank in it and hence rushing already described when I had to put my bag in boot for no good reason at all. I ficking hope I have everything I will want, and even if I do it is much more reassuring to have my bag under my eye and to know that push comes to shove i can get anything I want out. But can't be helped.
Today has actually been pretty good touristing. I hung around hostel too 12 and left my bag there. I then went and had an ice cream, went to museo de las culturas (not bad, but just to be arsey you not allowed to take liquids in so I left my bag with my water in at the free cloakroom).
1902 we are pulling out so will stop writing.
2231 Tehuantepec.
Mdlc not bad, building itself the highlight though. Annoying medieval war type film playing over speakers on bus too loudly.
When came out was another procession with still walkers etc, took some bad photos and video and went to eat at sabores. Felt mildly stuffed but just about OK. Went into the market after, it is a mix of local vendors and some almost airport level tourist good shops quite swanky. I saw some people selling chapulines and dithered but decided to buy some, 20 for a small scoop full. I tried them out on the street later (I was feeling quite full as went round market) - I got the con Chile ones and they so basically just taste of chilli and aren't tremendously threatening or weird, mahbe a tiny 5pc ick factor at most.
2235 off again.
2303 juchitan.
Having ticked off the chapulines (but not the fat bottomed ant things which I learned the name of last night but can't remember, or the grub type things I saw being sold by the grasshopper sellers - maybe next time) I was going to go to cafe Trebol and did but it was shut, so I went to el cantabrico on the zocalo and got a mezcal so I had had one in oaxaca which felt like a good thing to do. It was maybe a bit smoky butbitheriwse hard for me tovdeacribe, not bad. Probably had mezcal before anyway but fwiw. Had a couple of coffees as well and did a bit of vague people watching and it was kind of nice to be there in the nakn square and tho the mezcal was a bit pricey (100, plus about 55 for each coffee then tjp) it was probably worth it.
Then back to hostel, got bag and sneakily cleaned teeth and walked over to bus terminal in daylight no fuss.
So I think that is about me caught up. Bum hurting a bit from sitting and toilet on bus is a bit rank but at least it is there.
A collectivo from San cris to comitan might be cheaper than the modest 78 pesos for the extra travel but this way I get to stay on this bus longer which is good as it will likely take me to daylight, plus FWIW this bus has the toilet and a colectivo wouldn't.
Annoying film was The Northman. It has finished now and with luck there won't be another film. Been listening to music on phone with Nc headphones but they can't completely block the loud fight noises and dramatic music from film.
Was able to charge p7 up from USB socket on bus, having grabbed USB cable during my hasty transfer before getting on bus. So I am probably fine for power, and I do have my full powerbank too and the o6 is turned off with a near full battery too.
I had a few Chapulines on the bus earlier too, but still have some in bag in my pocket and will eat them tomorrow in daylight, somehow eating them in the dark feels a bit wrong/cheating/over casual.
I picked mezcal convite espadin esencial at random off the list at el cantabrico, it was third or fourth cheapest, absolute cheapest was IIRC 90.
Sat 2217 In room at hotel with wireless keyboard, I do actually have a desk and chair. Not a bad day's touristing as it turned out. But let me resume the narrative where I left off.
So I did kind of fall asleep on the bus. We didn't get stopped for any passport checks. We did arrive at San Cris about 0440 and I was pretty glad I didn't have to get off. There was that womb-ish feeling, albeit the womb wasn't super comfortable and I wasn't looking forward to being birthed shortly. It was at least daylight when we came into Comitan. An old and presumably Mexican woman asked me where to get a taxi while I was fiddling with my bag in the terminal after getting off, which is somehow vaguely flattering as it suggests I am not too obviously a tourist (but I said I was).
Trogged over to hotel, no problem although I started going down a very slightly rural looking lane and saw a down outside a house which would probably have been no problem but turned round and walked a slightly longer way round.
Got to hostel about 7 and the slightly odd guy at reception checked me in and took me to the room without me asking. I had been half fantasising about getting into the room and going to bed while on the bus, though had dithered about whether it would actually be a good thing or not. I was grateful but my gratitude wa diminished (perhaps reinforcing an already half learned life/psychology lesson my part here) by him telling me in Spanish that it meant double the cost (to them I assume, not me!) for the light and water but that on this occasion he would let me check in early. Which is silly. I do appreciate it, but in practice I had the light on for about 15 mins and went to the toilet and other than that all I've done is soil the sheets for an extra few hours but they are not going to be laundered until I leave anyway, so there is no extra load/cost there.
I did go to bed although I had slept a bit (badlyish) on the bus, but didn't go straight to sleep, and in the end I was kind of weirdly cold and shoulders hurt a bit at times (probably from the bus) and I was drifting in and out of sleep in a vaguely uncomfortable way and I eventually forced myself to get up about 1 after snoozing quite a bit on 11ish alarm I had originally set.
I had a (cold; the water was hot this evening when I noticed by accident while doing some laundry in the sink, but it wasn't hot this afternoon) shower and put some clean clothes on and went out for a wander, with food being primary goal. Maybe it's weak but I kind of fancied pizza rather than faffing with local stuff and worrying about sauces and stuff. Apart from a dried up looking "by the slice" stall and a littered flyer for an address some way out of centre I didn't find any naturally but looked on OM and trogged over to Yungla pizza where I had a not bad but a bit pricey Pizza Yungla.
The weather was intermittently sunny and over warm and mostly overcast and just a smidge cold. It feels a bit odd when altitude is perhaps same as Oaxaca (not double checked) but maybe the climate this few hundred km east is different - I have only had <1 day of experience with it here so may be just randomess, but this does feel a bit like San Cris climate but maybe a bit colder. It even spat with rain very lightly as I was coming out of Yungla.
Anyway, so I wandered some more, there are some niceish (colourful) market stalls off some streets near main square (including some with lots of those claw gaming machines). The main square is full of valentine's day "structures", hearts and "love" and "amor" big writing. Sort of cool to see it though.
I went to the free archaeological museum and did actually get mildly into reading about all the different epochs of the local culture pre-conquista, having seen the terms before but at least not remembering reading much detailed description.
That took me to about 1630 and I went and had a couple of white coffees on the square (but sat inside, and FWIW was wearing fleece, as in San Cris this felt like the sort of place where carrying it round was desirable) at Cafe-Bar Central and then went back to hotel to call parents and do a bit of laundry and leave a couple of reviews on booking.com. I had toyed with having a quiet night in but as it was Saturday I had been saying to myself when I came back from coffees at CBC that I would go out again and have a beer or two.
Will interject at this point to say that back in Oaxaca I was a bit worried Comitan was closer than the FCDO 40km border exclusion from the Guatemala border at this point - I didn't look too hard but I couldn't find a way to measure distance between arbitary points in OM, but now I am here I can measure the distance between my location and an arbitrary point, and I not that close. I will probably avoid the I think archaelogical site right on the border but there are a couple of nearby things I will probably go to which are SW-ish of here and probably fine. That will be day after tomorrow, plan for tomorrow is to see some of the districts of the town and do some museums and do a bit of general wandering and so on.
Let me also say that while in CBC having coffee I was mildly pleasantly appreciating being here in Mexico and in Comitan (where it feels like I am the only gringo; not 100% sure I haven't seen a few others, but we are scarce and the other possibles have looked a bit odd somehow and eg might be white Mexicans for all I know, still, it does feel kind of cool to feel I have got a bit off the beaten track) and also reflecting that I have 2 and a bit weeks left and that is a long time but it is the getting back to Cancun that is the issue. If I were in (modulo fear of getting mugged) Mexico City, say, and was flying back from there, if I had 2.5 weeks in MC left I would hardly be thinking "hmm, got to get back soon" all the time (assuming I wanted to be there, I would be thnking "wow, I have 2.5 weeks to explore MC"), but as it is the problem is I am far enough away from my flight that is *is* a concern. This isn't a complaint as such or blaming myself for eg going to Oaxaca, just an observation. I still may fly back from eg Tuxtla but we will see how things go.
So I did go out about 1930 feeling mildly edgy for no reason and was actually genuinely almost childishly delighted to see all the valentines stuff in the main square was illuminated and it felt oddly cool. I bought some churros at a stall I had seen earlier down a side street - I asked how much, guy said 50 which seemed excessively but I thought WTF and handed it over and he gave me 5. I was offered some presumably sweetish sauces I could have on them by name but I didn't recognise them and wouldn't necessarily have wanted them anyway so I said nothing thanks. I gorged on the churros as I wandered round, it was quite busy but probably not Oaxaca zocalo levels.
I then lucked out and discovered a free music thing at the museo Belisario Dominguez (which afterwards turned out to be "Comitan a la luz de las velas") where some guy was playing violin to a backing track of popular-ish songs. They also had some guy giving out free coffee (I asked how much and he was like no it's free) and the atmoshere was quite nice and I also really liked (presumably this is "the theme", but I didn't know this til the end) the way they had put out electric candles in a geometric pattern on the floor and it all felt very cool and serendipitous. There had actually been an earlier part to it at IIRC 1830 which I missed, and I didn't see the start of the violin performance either, but it was still cool. From the poster which I photographed on the way out the violinist was Jonathan Prado. I 80%ish understood the various Spanish announcements by him and the woman doing a sort of wrap up and awarding of certificates at the end.
After the I went and had a couple of beers on the square, choosing somewhat at random Los Portales de Comitan - I had half been aiming for the actually next bar over where a guy was performing on guitar but it was no big deal anyway as every bar had its own music and there was some difficulty hearing anything too clearly anyway. It was far from deserted but also not heaving despite it being Saturday night and I (like most people) was sat outside and even with fleece on it was just a smidge on the over-cool side. Not painfully so, but not all that pleasant either (except insofar as I might try to think back to the stifling stickiness on the coast, or to a lesser degree in Oaxaca - though O on the whole was not too bad, a smidge over warm at times but also in a kind of "yes, I am holiday in the tropics escaping the winter back home" way).
So what with the quietly enjoyable museum visit and then lucking out with the nicely serendipitous cool music event it feels like a fairly solid day's touristing.
I will look into whether I should stay overnight nearby or do day trips to the nearby places I have seen in guide book tomorrow. I am broadly open to extending at this hotel if necessary and possible, though ISTR there were some reviews mentioning iffy charging extra on checkout after agreeing a price stuff so I may prefer to book extensions through booking.com (if these reviews were on this hotel) instead of negotiating directly. As I say, tomorrow's actual physical touristing will be just in town, not going anywhere.
In a strange way having slept here post bus makes it feel like I have three nights here instead of two, which is sort of nice.
Probably noted this before but an irritation with the bt keyboard is that if a finger happens to brush the screen (I think this happens mainly but not exclusively when typing a number on the top row of the keyboard) the cursor position moves and I end up typing in the middle of another sentence all of a sudden. But practice makes perfect etc and while annoying it is still probably the better of the three input methods I have available, subject to having time and space to set it up.
Let me do fucking Duolingo and clean my teeth and then move towards bed. If I think of anything I have forgotten to say while doing that I might add it.
2259 Did have solid but somewhat unexpected dump after getting into hotel room. (It is a hotel not a hostel, and I really don't see any common areas or expect to get chatting to anyone. Not a problem, just saying.) Slightly worrying but I had been a few times (having a piss only) on the bus and maybe it was just because I "could" that the need came on.
Using the toilet on the bus (which I think I did three times) felt like taking my life in my hands given the shaking around of the bus and the fact that some parts of the toilet process (trouser manipulation for example) are inherently two handed (maybe I could have tried harder) and therefore you can't hold on to the handrails and I had no trouble imagining smashing my face into the wall at a sudden swerve, not to mention the admittedly unlikely possibility of a crash as you are standing in there.
I did wear the seatbelt (although the retracting mechanism felt weak) on the bus, but generally it seems - and I do like this on practical freedom grounds, even if I would still be inclined to wear one by choice sometimes when I don't have a choice - that seatbelts are not a big thing in cars.
Can't think of anything else to say so I will send this now and get into bed. Don't want to force myself up super early tomorrow - it should be a relaxed-ish day - but also don't want to waste too much of the day oversleeping and I do feel slightly tired now.
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