December 10, 2016 – Not Dead Yet.
Well, here we are in Huatulco!
The weather was forecast to turn crappy in Calgary, so we went one flight early to make sure we didn’t miss our connecting flight. Sadly, that meant we had to fly out at 06:25, which meant we had to be there at 05:30, which meant… Ick. Then we got to mooch around all day at the hotel, as we did NOT bring Calgary Clothes along (we can be stubborn like that), and it was -18 when we got there. Luckily, there was a Chili’s restaurant just out the back door about 100′, so supper was a breeze. Until we got back, and the key to the back door wouldn’t work, both sides of the hotel were fenced off, and no one in the hotel could hear our screams. I had visions of us being found in the morning, sitting on the ground beside the door with blue skin and hoary eyebrows. Luckily, a nice man came along at the nick of time, and his key worked!
So, why was it again that we’re going to Mexico?
The next morning was a great sleep-in as we didn’t fly out until 08:25, which meant we didn’t have to take the limo until 06:30! Yippee! So then, of course, we taxied out onto the tarmac, stopped, the newest guy up in the cockpit came onto the blower and announced we had to go back for more fuel, and that blew about 1.5 hours in total. Which is, I guess, on balance better than running out of fuel somewhere over Butt-Lick Mexico. But still. Really? Did I mention that they forgot to load the meals onto the plane? We ate a LOT of pretzels on the way down… I don’t want to be judgmental and give you the name of the airline, but their initials were W.E.S.T.J.E.T.
In the end, it was a perfectly fine flight, no one starved to death, and we got there only about an hour late. When we walked out into the parking lot, it was like walking into a steam bath, 32 °C and 100% humidity. Welcome to the tropics! Our landlord’s friend Enrique was there to pick us up, as the airport taxis are highly carnivorous and the walking path out to the real taxis on the highway is littered with the bleached bones of weaker tourists. He turned out to be a very nice young man, chatted us up, and showed us around the downtown of Crucecita before taking us to our apartment. We were a bit nervous about our new digs, as the photos left something to be desired and email exchanges in a second language are always fun. Turns out we had nothing to worry about, it’s just fine. Kind of a big studio apartment with a large (removable) screened alcove for the king-size bed, a two-room cheater ensuite. and a nice little balcony with a table and chairs for swilling wine and a little barbecue, and we can listen to the Blues band from one block away. Everything is brand-new from the paint out, and all for the princely sum of $550 USD/month plus hydro. That will be an interesting bill. We’re one block from the central park, two blocks from the beach, and the next town over is a 20-minute walk or a $2 cab ride. We can do this. This is what it looked like on the 1st day, but then Princess rearranged it. Will repost an updated one at a later date.
The Princess in her new castle.
Our first night here, we saw the 1st of many small parades for the celebration of Guadalupe on Dec.12
Then it was off to find something to eat, seeing how we had nothing to eat on the plane except for those pretzels and a continental breakfast at 6 a.m. Just 1 block away from home, we settled on this little restaurant, but first, a Caesar and a beer are in order.
Despite the best efforts of our landlord, there were, of course, things we needed to round out any civilized accommodation (or so I was told a number of times the next morning). List in hand, it was off to Chedraui, one of the two big-ass stores in Crucecita. It’s a combination supermarket and everything store. I had no idea you could walk that far in one little store. The good news: they had a pretty good deli/lunch counter. Weighted down with enough stuff to fill the trunk of our taxi, we were off to the apartment to make it more homey. The rest of the day was pretty much spent fluffing the nest, but we did manage to get in some creative wine-swilling out on the patio that night. Still haven’t seen the beach…
OK, that’s out of the way, so the next morning we can – go shopping! Wait, what? Please refer to the previous paragraph if you’re not sure exactly why. This was a different routine, though; we planned to walk there via this really nice walkway they have constructed that offers a shortcut between the two towns. From now on, this will be referred to as The Gulch Of Death, as it goes through a cut in the hillside that reflects sunlight kinda like a toaster oven, there is no water, and ‘the cool of the morning’ is a cruel joke cooked up by the real estate agents around here. But Canadians are tough, and we eventually found ourselves at the zocalo (central park), which is surrounded by eateries, and we had a perfectly nice ‘Canadian Breakfast’ (coffee, juice, hotcakes or French toast) al fresco whilst people-watching and soaking up the ambience. Nice location, we will be back to the zocalo many more times! No camera this morning, so photos next time.
The other big-ass store in town is Soriana, another national chain like Chedraui. Very nice stores. Holy crap, are my feet sore. An even bigger load for the taxi driver, this guy is getting a healthy tip.
After unloading everything back at the apartment and getting everything spiffied up, we decided that since it was the afternoon of Day Three, maybe we should walk two blocks down to the beach already, maybe see if the ocean is still there? Turns out it is! ‘Our’ beach is pretty small, maybe 200-300 metres long, but it is quite nice and is fronted almost continuously with mom-and-pop restaurants with tables and umbrellas out on the beach. Looks like an excellent place to loiter all afternoon, drinking beers and watching the water go in and out. We live on the west end, the east end has a significant marina and a cruise ship dock, don’t know how often a cruise ship shows up…. I guess we’ll find out!
Then we walked over to the next beach, Chahue, which is about a 20-minute walk. It’s much bigger but not our kind of beach; quite steep, so walking is tough, and not a lot of places to hang out. Since we’re not ocean-people (no pectoral fins, no blow-holes), walking and hanging out are our main pursuits. We like our little beach much better! There are at least five more beaches around here, but they will be adventures down the road as we settle in.
Day Four and the nest-building is almost complete! This morning was getting the cell phone working, getting hooked up with The Water Guy (delivers 5-gallon carboys to your door), and a few odds and ends for the apartment(!). Then we can finally settle in and have some fun! Almost right across the street from our apartment, there is a hotel with an ‘eat, drink, swim’ sign out front. Since those are three of our favorite things, we decided to check it out. Turns out you can hang out and use the pool for as long as you like, so long as you do the eating and drinking thing every once in a while. Lots of loungers, lots of shade, great pool, cheap food, and beer. Our own semi-private pool; we can do this!
Life is good. Our new almost-private pool across the street.
We ordered the Planton Oaxaqueno (Platter of Oaxaca). We were a bit surprised to find these little brown critters on there. Upon closer inspection, I saw little legs. We discovered they were Chapulines, aka ‘crickets’. I kept staring at them, trying to decide if I was going to try them, almost expecting them to jump off the plate while I made up my mind. So, the saying goes, “God hates a coward”, so I stuffed them into my taco, along with the cactus, guacamole, chorizo, grilled red pepper, and chipotle sauce, and viola, the crickets just blended in. I needed some floss to get that leg out, though.
The Planton Oaxaquino: Nopal (cactus), queso (cheese), Chorizo (hot sausage), tasajo asado (jerked meat), Chicharron (pork), Chapulines (crickets), Quacamole (avocado), frijoles (beans)
Today we split up in the morning, Deb went over to the pool, and I went to scout out walking routes as I gotta get my fat ass in gear and start walking every morning. I almost immediately started running into Japanese people with cameras (is that a redundancy?) and very large Americans in loud shirts (that IS a redundancy), and sure enough, I rounded the corner and there was not one but two cruise ships docked in our little bay! Looks like it’s a weekly thing, it’s great for the local economy, and things still look surprisingly normal around here because hordes of buses descended on the town and took them off for various adventure tours. Probably a bad day to be a lemur…
Our cute little bay with some new tin floating in it.