BRAZIL

goodbye to de jefe, for that matter mexico and central america!

sao paulo airport fills me with comfort and dread, the familiarity of disorganisation all around, a token israeli and the words caiprinha and samba flying around but i cannot speak a word of portugese and suddenly realise how much my spanish had come on from talking quite freely to an array of blank faces and i´m once more a gibbering wreck like 3 months before.

well after battling my way through the streets of rio to find a well hidden hostel and eventually meet raech after a wee mix up with plane times! i arrive...Rio; sequins, tassels, beautiful people and beach again at last!

De Jefe

mexico city starts with a bang, late night rum session and a lobbstered attempt at music genre talk with mexican barman followed by a day of huge temples and avenues of death!

magnificent aztec ruins, with guide by local english teacher and UFO spotter, proceeded by amazing enchillades con mole(not the animal), gourmet hot chocolate, a private show of fine artists studio and an ace house party into the wee hours.

the pace at last drops:
strolling along a 5 lane busy road after mastering the metro system where it is believed you should "accidently" grope anyone you can in the crowd.
despite the traffic it feels strangely peaceful outside and the pavement is lined with individually designed and painted fibre glass cows, which offers a great amount of visual stimulation and amusement for me.

mexico city, the biggest city in world is certainly overwhelming, the buildings, the people, pace colours, heat, pollution , the cows! and right now i´m enjoying doing it alone, i´ve no inclination to meet new people at the moment, so i´m pleased to be part city girl (looking like a dirty, derranged, hippy) and have a clue how this type of world works.

time to move

my last day in oaxaca and i was getting used to living here, but its clearly time to move on, sad as i am to leave those i´ve grown close to here.

last night we sampled the delights of some gypsy jazz followed by a visit to a notorious(ly bad) club called... libido, fopr qa night called... orga´smos - well when in rome!

today was a the total contrast, a wonderful, peaceful afternoon in old old convent with dusty surroundings and behind the dusty mountains.

i´ll miss these mountains.

return to the city

well the next few days were more of the same, beautiful walking and climbing, relaxing in the breezy, sunny hills, eating great cheap food, barely any tourists and lovely locals.

i headed back to stay at some friends in the city after the excursion and a small trip into a hilarious bar. it felt like living somewhere , a mixture of satisfaction and itchy feet. ill move on soon after the zapatista demonstration.´

La Otra Compaña
The zapatista demo was pretty incredible. sadly no pictures of the man marcos came out. he would seem to be quite an incredible revolutionary man, but an idol none the less, with pipe, hat and other garb, somewhat che alike you might say.

however so many groups that are ordinarily repressed here were represented and heard and cheered; transexuals, homoesexuals, the indiginous people, women and more.

it was an honour to be there and it was colourful and full of warlike cries and chants, flags and banners. the feeling of deep privelige to be amongst these people, struggling and fighting for change and a kind of freedom. also to see a clearly idolised man giving an example of equality to the men here, when he talks of being done with the macho image and respect of women.

oaxaca montañas

back in the mountains, now in oaxaca, and this time it has a totally different flavour. a crazy welshie(called welshie) with herbal remedies and tales of cheese stealing and tree hugging with vertigo, myself and a lass who lives in sanfran, set off to catch the most awe consuming and vast sunset i have ever seen. we had a 270° vista and it lasted for ages and changed every mountain and valley.

its nice to tread with some ladies for a change and we arrive to beautiful cabañas in the woods (living it up this time). having brought more than just refried beans to last 3days we ate, chatted and slept early.

for once i am pleased that my bladder wakes me up at 3am, as when i´m trudging out to the ecotoilets i glance around and the stars give me the impression that i must have moved to a different planet, the brilliance and quantity i cannot describe and only when my bones began to quiver with the cold could i tear myself away and back to bed.

later in the morning had its own delights; misty woods, the sound of brooks babbling, tall, slender pines filling the forest with an aroma almost to pungent for our city noses, views of trees and mountains unceasingly beautiful.

after a not to strenuous 4 hour walk, interspersed with tortillas and sap collecting breaks, we arrive at the next village within the cooperative 8 pueblos who sell and share thier produce together as well as sharing the proceeds of the ecotourism.

our new cabaña looks down onto a village of roofs covered in drying corn, bright clothes hanging to dry and streets named unity, peace, freedom, reformation. the cabaña has an enormous fireplace and hammocks outside, where the 3 tired girls lay about to eat and rest as the altitude of 3100 metres has taken its toll a wee bit.

oaxaca city

from the beach back to the city, now in a dorm room full of scandanavians, infact i´m the only honourary scandi!

at first i didn´t care much for this city but this morning i found the things i was hankering after, good local fresh food market, great street food (some of the best i´ve had) with a real local feel and social scene, my improving spanish allows me to be a little more accepted and a little less stared at untill i offer the word vegetariana.

the priest in the cathedral sings beautifully in latin over my shoulder and i realise that this city has a lot creativity and opinion to offer that i had not accredited it with.

i feel relit and my hangover slowly subsides as i munch on some fresh mango (covered in chilli and lime of course)

busride thoughts

sometimes i find the cultural differences a little hard to deal with, in the people mostly, but also sometimes when its too hot, i long for a rainy walk in the lush lumpy hills of somerset but then i catch a glimpse of that which is universal.

for this time i see a grandmother, her grandson grabs her hand to drag her to see something. she is different in colour and shape, language and her life is so far apart from that which i know but i believe i would find that look in every corner of the world.

these steadfast thoughts sustain you through the nostalgia and comfort craving.

more of the same and different

maybe someone in higher places believes as a nurse i should understand what it is to be sick in all manner of places. latest health tip: avoid ellotes, street bought corn on the cob covered with mayonaise, chilli and cheese, unless asked by lonely planet to do a detailed review on hostel toilets!

beyond all that yesterday i moved beaches (its a hard life!) puerto escondido was fun ¿i guess? but there was still the classic tourist shops strip and so much was directed towards me, us, the tourists...not my cuppa tea really.

however... this morning i woke up in mazunte, i crawled out of my scummy little bunkbed, with torn mosquitoe net (which the mossys did take advantage of) and as i stand up i hear the sun calling me from behind a series of rocks in the ocean, the birds are calling back and apart from the crashing waves and few wandering dogs there is little other movement. the sky begins to scar and its not long before a ferrocious yet luminous pink sunrises over the rocks, flooding everything in its path with colour and shape. this truelly is a magnificent creature.