We have arrived in Oaxaca. Yesterday, after breakfast and coffee we went off to the bus station and embarked on the 4 1/2 hour journey south and west. The landscape changed along the way, from the dry plateau of Puebla to become more hilly. Then the hills came closer to the road, and started varying between dry scrubby brown and startling green. Then there was a section where they were green and covered by forests of stave-like cactuses. Another bit had the stave-like cactuses interspersed with large beachball cactuses. Then there was a bit with a traffic jam which delayed our journey by about an hour. Then the hills became green and grassy, and the clouds started pouring down rain, and we drove around a hill and down into Oaxaca.
Which is quite ridiculously beautiful. Our flat here is small and less comfortable than the last, but is perfectly adequate, once we found space to put everything away. Outside is the old stone wall of a church. This morning, as I made my tea, I saw a flock of laughing nuns get into a van and drive off, followed by a troupe of schoolchildren, around 13 or so, walking backwards to take selfies and singing along to ‘La bamba’. The city itself is like the Chiang Mai of the west, full of crafts and arts and style, little galleries everywhere, cafes, well-dressed people, foreigners who have fallen in love with the town. There are colonial streets, colourful little streets, the people are Maya and Mixtec and Zapotec, the politics are revolutionary. I’m here for about 7 weeks, and I’m looking forward to setting in.