Today is a public holiday in the middle of feria season so the soundstage came into its own last night. Not only that, there were street parties everywhere, including at least two directly outside our window. Over the course of the evening the sound swelled, the salsa from the stage and all the different types […]
Unconscionable
An unconscionably late post. (Soon I will run out of embarrassed titles for late posts and then there will be a reckoning). Not much has happened in the past week. I have been going for my lessons and finding out a little more about Colombian history and life in Laureles from my teacher. It’s a […]
In centro
Today, Saturday, the GF and I walked over from Laureles to Centro for a spot of tourism. (The GF arrived a few days ago, after my last post). It was not a long walk, maybe about 25 minutes, but along the way it became very different indeed from green, wealthy Laureles. First, walking along the […]
Lost plane
At 7 this morning a colectivo picked me up from the homestay and took me to the airport. It was a colectivo but there were no other passengers, so it was a quick journey. Of course, it was also 7 in the morning on a Saturday. It also turned out to be a very early […]
Farewells
Last day in Oaxaca. I’ve been feeling rather sad. The city is overflowing with people and cars and dancers and music and excitement, which is making it feel like I’ll really miss out but also the city is starting to be unrecognisable. There are vast tents set up on some streets, and filled with stalls […]
A final outing
It turns out that my Instagrammer acquaintance is well known in Bangkok’s food scene. Last night she invited a few of us over to the place where she is staying for a Thai meal. So I went to the market for fruit, met up with Vida Loca (who arrived at our meetup point late and […]
Spiritual cleansing
This morning, I and one of my housemates met my teacher in town to catch a taxi to a village near Tule, the home of the largest tree. Unfortunately, the road was very, very crowded and eventually turned out to be blocked – we would have to walk the rest of the way, about 3-4 […]
What could have been
An unexpected successful, if short, excursion this evening. I went out to get dinner and had thought I would go to Llano park for the delicious elotes from the cart one has to queue for 20 minutes for. At the last minute, as I walked towards Porfirio Diaz, I changed my mind and decided to […]
Bigger class yet
Two more people joined the class, bringing the total up to four (another left over the weekend and may or may not be back the next weekend). They are perfectly pleasant, even interesting – one a soldier who was posted to Afghanistan, and the other an Instagrammer in the flesh. But yes, too many people. […]
Worst end of farmyard
It was the 14th birthday of my Spanish school and in the break there were two cakes. One, a tres leches cake, the other a jelly made with cream and with bits of regular green and red jelly suspended in it. It looked like something out of a 1950s American cookbook. Glad to have tried […]