A few days ago, I found myself catching horses at midnight on a hill - and riding one (under full moon) half an hour later - without a saddle. And five hours earlier intended to go to bed early. That's what I call an adventure! ;-)
Kate is gone. She left yesterday morning for Quite, Ecuador, from where she will return to Poland on Tuesday. We essentially spend 24/7 together for the past month. It certainly takes some time to readjust. It was great to have a travel-partner; and it taught me a lot about myself. She is a great person.
Zipolite. My last blog, I believe, was written in Huatulco - which is a travel-resort for rich Mexicans on the southern coast of the state of Oaxaca. It's, of course, no place for budget travellers - so we continued that night to Puerto Angel, the second of the three major beach towns in Oaxaca. We were quite tired when we arrived, it was dark, and the town was almost shut down. Some very friendly people that we still found on the streets pointed us to a place where we found a cheap hotel for the night. The next day we went snorkeling.
We had been trying to arrange a scuba-diving trip since Huatulco, but things just didn't seem to work out. The snorkeling trip made up for everything though. Despite getting a decent sunburn, watching dolphins swim with our boat,
The last bay we went to I skipped the snorkeling (I'm not a big snorkeler, scuba is more my thing). Instead I went to check out the awesome hotel someone had built there, - with $400/night rooms as they told me. The guide warned me - try if you can get in. As I approached there was a big (closed) gate and two guards in a guardhouse. I put on my best 'I'm-important-even-though-I'm-in-a-bathing-suit' look and told the guards I would like to take a look around the hotel. The guard picks up the phone and calls someone. Two minutes later I'm in. Another 3 minutes later someone is with me and shows me the entire compound - which was absolutely amazing! Two-story rooms with private jacuzzi's, a sink where the water is dispensed from a big seashell etc - the whole thing was an incredible work of art. In the restaurant the supposedly "best chef of Mexico" showed me their menu. Sorry - no pictures, couldn't take the camera w/ me from the boat.
We meet some new friends on the boat - an Italian couple, who spend their last two weeks of a 3-months trip here, and a guy from Puebla, whose wife just divorced him. His friends send him down there for 3 days to have a little fun again. He'd been there for a month now. ;-) We spend the next night in the same hotel they were staying in at the beach of Zipolite - 200 pesos got us a room with private bath and a spectacular beach view.
Next day we took off to Oaxaca. On the way we had lunch in the mountains - a primitive stove, a small wooden hut, and basic ingredients can be all you need for a restaurant - and a super-friendly family:
checked out the city at night, spontaneously went dancing at a club full of mid-aged locals, and took off the next morning at noon. Arrived at 2am in the morning in San Miguel de Allende - and it felt like coming home for me again.
On Tuesday afternoon Kate and I were walking around town when we met Josh. Josh is a new-good friend of mine that I met in San Miguel in January - he's been here for 14 years. He has a house in town that he is building on, and a ranch outside town. He has 6 horses on the ranch and give horse-riding tours. So as we meet him, he tells us he just got a 6-person tour for tomorrow. And if we don't feel like coming out to the ranch with him to get the horses ready. We spontaneously say yes. But first he shows us around town some more. We "break" into a house-ruin, go out on the other side on a small path through brushes, until the path runs into a gate. We jump the fence - and are suddenly in the courtyard of some building complex. Two young women look at us from a balcony. We smile and ask if we can get to the street from their courtyard. They laugh, and show us the way. After surviving their Puddle's attack, we finally step through a metal gate back onto the street.
I don't have the pics from here on yet - so I'll pause here and continue once I get to Utila. ....
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03eOaxaca#
Here also some pictures from San Christobal, Cardenas, and the ruins of Jayha from earlier:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/SanChristobal#
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/Cardenas#
http://picasaweb.google.com/joegrass76/03jJayhaYMonami#
Love it! Sorry that Kate is gone. Poland is not that far, though... ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt is a great story about riding horses. I envy you so much! It is one of my dreams, to really ride a real horse, and not what you get here if you do the horseback riding somewhere in Pigeon Forge.
ReplyDeleteHey, you got completely lazy there. You are on a vacation and you can't find time to update your blog for 2 weeks??
ReplyDeleteI second Valentina. If it weren't for Facebook, I'd be worried. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThree weeks... just sayin'. ;-)
ReplyDeleteA month now since the last update. Too busy scuba diving and doing nothing?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the new photos. We also need new stories, particularly with regard to your "roommates"... ;-)
ReplyDelete