So what *have* we been up to?

 You might have noticed that there was a 5 day gap between my first post in Oaxaca and my second.  I also didn't post much on Facebook during that time? What have we been doing since we arrived?  

Mostly tiring ourselves out.  :-)

On Tuesday November 22nd we went for a hike with Hoofing it in Oaxaca, a group of ex-pats who organize 2-4 walks every week in tourist season. The trip was to the Mitla caves, which contain rock paintings and other evidence of occupation dating back 7-10,000 years.  The caves contain some of the earliest known evidence for the cultivation of corn (or more accurately, its precursor, teocinte).  For context, ancient Middle Eastern civilizations date back perhaps 6,000 years.

This cave was a tool workshop. These are stone tools in various stages of completion.

On Wednesday it was time to go birding.  We ended up at a city park, Parque Las Canteras.

We had pretty good success: we spotted three new species, including the spectacular Black-vented and Hooded Orioles.  On the way home we stopped at La Merced market for groceries and spent the afternoon doing some planning for the rest of our time in Oaxaca. 

On Thursday it was time to go to Monte Alban.  The ruins of Monte Alban are some of the most spectacular in Mexico, as well as being some of the oldest.  The ancient Zapotecs levelled a hilltop at the point where the three valleys of Oaxaca meet, and built themselves an impressive city starting in about 500 BC.   For the geeky amongst you, the Zapotecs studied astronomy and taught it to other ancient peoples of the Americas. 

But we were there primarily for the birding!  We walked up the ecological path to Monte Alban (~4km, ~300m elevation gain) early in the morning.  Among other birds, we spotted our first ladder-backed woodpecker.  

We did a short tour of the ruins too, but it was hot by then and we were kind of tired, so we didn't give them our full attention.  We'll have to visit again another time.

An unrestored pyramid.

Friday was for housekeeping....kind of literally.  The cleaners were coming in so we had to absent ourselves.  We returned to Las Canteras for some birding, then headed over to the local Chedraui supermarket to buy staples.  After that we headed to the centro for lunch (a lovely Pozole soup), and spent the afternoon in the shade on the roof deck of the Oaxaca Lending Library. We wrapped up the day by cooking our first complete meal in our tiny kitchen.  

That may not sound like a whole lot of activity for the week, but there was a lot of walking around in 28C heat involved.  As evidence, I offer up my FitBit statistics:

Tuesday: 11,422 steps

Wednesday: 13,091 steps

Thursday: 16,318 steps

Friday: 19,726 steps

For context, I was averaging about 8,000 a day in Vancouver, none of it in the sun!

Bird-watching: part 1

 We became bird watchers in Mexico in 2011.  One of the things that excited us most about returning to Oaxaca was the idea of really seeing the birds here, now that we're more experienced observers.  

So, how has it been going?

On the bright side, we've added two or three birds to our "life lists" every time we've made a serious attempt to go birding, where "serious" just means that we're spending a couple of hours entirely focused on birds.  We've seen some pretty amazing new birds!

Ladder-backed woodpecker

Roadside hawk

Great Kiskadee

Black-headed vulture

On the downside, in the best locations we've quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of birds we can hear but not see, or see but not identify.  Our e-bird lists have included 10, 15, or 20 different species in places where we could easily have recorded twice as many if we'd had any idea of what we were doing.  We spend as much time on our birding outings looking at our phones (Merlin Bird ID or our other birding apps) as we do looking at birds, and our conversations tend to revolve around which kind of kingbird we've just seen.

(And yes, before you ask, all three of these species are possible here, as is the Cassin's Kingbird.  :-))

Basically, in Mexico we're beginners all over again.

To some extent we anticipated this. Before we left Canada we tried to figure out how to get some mentorship. Any local birding groups?  Not in Oaxaca or Xalapa at least, or not that we could find. How about organized birding tours? We were hoping for one or two day ecotours, similar to the kinds of city tours or ruins tours that are common in tourist hotspots.

We had a bit of luck there, and found and booked two different one-day tours out of Veracruz.  Alas, one was led by a biologist who didn't know a huge amount about birds (it was more of a kayaking/nature tour).  The other suffered from a scheduling mixup that meant we missed the day's best hour of birding, and while our guide was an expert birder, he spoke only Spanish and could only tell us the scientific names of the birds we were seeing (which we could not easily cross-reference to English or Spanish names on the fly).

We also tried to find professional birding guides. Unfortunately for us, the vast majority of bird-based tourism is 7-14 day all-inclusive tours exclusively focused on birding.  These are often organized out of the U.S., even when they use local guides, and are priced accordingly. (For example, one relatively economical 14 day birding tour of Oaxaca state cost the same as the entire budget of our 6-week trip.)  But at least some birding guides have full-time jobs doing something else and do guiding on the side.  So we tried to contact local guides in the hopes that they might willing to do a one or two day outing for us on a weekend.  No dice.  The guide we found in Xalapa never answered our email. The Oaxacan guide wouldn't quote prices, and lost interest when he discovered that we weren't looking for a private 7 day all-inclusive trip.

Oh well, we thought.  We can visit local parks and use eBird to find local hotspots.  We did a bit of research on what birds we might find in various locations, and did some studying on what they looked like.  We headed out to our first eBird hotspot in Xalapa with high hopes!  Only to discover that birding is hard.  :-)

Until then there will be a short delay.....

 Ugh.  

When we travelled to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in 1995, each of us got quite sick from something we ate at least twice.  When we travelled to Morelia, MX in 2006 for 2 weeks, and through Mexico 2011/12 for 2 months, neither of us did.

I talked about it with the doctor at the travel clinic before we left, and she assured us that it probably wasn't the probiotics that I took on our later trips, but that sanitation has improved in Mexico over the last 30 years.

Well, my lucky streak broke.  For two of the last three days all I could keep down was about 1/2 cup of cooked oatmeal, 3 tablespoons of yogurt, a half cup of packaged chicken noodle soup, and a bunch of rehydration salts. 

Ah well.  It was probably the over-priced middle class chain restaurant Toks, where we had lunch just before we left Xalapa.  That will teach me!

In happier news, we've finally tracked down a birding guide for Oaxaca, and have a whole day of birding booked for next week. And we spent a lovely morning visiting the Panteon San Miguel (the cemetery) looking for birds.  

We saw a fair number of birds on our way there, and a few in the cemetery.  But I'm looking forward to getting some feedback from an expert.  It's surprising difficult to identify random unknown birds when all you see is a glimpse from directly underneath.  I keep joking that *I'm* going to publish a guide on identifying birds from an upskirt perspective. 

The other object of note that I spotted on the way to the cemetery this morning was this mariposa linda:  

The meaning of money

Part of orienting yourself to being in new country is figuring out the meaning of money in your new location.  

Basically, you need to understand what things cost. 

This isn’t as simple as knowing the exchange rate.  Things can and are priced very differently in different countries.  For example, the last time I was in Germany I was struck by the fact that non-alcoholic beverages in restaurants were priced much higher than they would be in Canada.  So while your food might cost about the same as it would in a Canadian restaurant, your pop or your tea might well cost twice or three times as much.  As far as I can tell there is no fundamental reason for this to be so – grocery store prices for these things in Germany are about the same as they are in Canada – it’s just the common practice. 

It's taken awhile, but after a week we’re starting to figure out how much things cost, and how much things should cost here in Mexico today.  

Back when we visited Mexico in 2011/12, everything seemed to cost 10 pesos (or 10 pesos part 2), and the “meal of the day” at cheap restaurants started at about 35 pesos.

Things are much more expensive now.  For example, the comida corridas are being advertised starting at 60 pesos, and I haven’t seen a thing priced at 10 pesos.  For a tourist, this has some advantages.  Having a 500 peso note is no longer frustratingly useless! 

But while you’re getting acclimatized, there are awkward interactions.  When I go to the convenience store for bottled water, do I need a handful of change or a bill? How much food should I be ordering in a restaurant?  How much should I be tipping?  How much should a taxi ride cost?

On the Wednesday after we arrived, we had lunch in a nice restaurant just off the central square (Zocalo) of Mexico City.  I picked one thing from the menu section labelled “entradas” (an entrada is an entrance, so I assumed it was an appetizer), and a soup.  Harvey ordered a salad, an entrada, and what we assumed was a small main course dish.  My “appetizer” was priced at about $10 CDN (140 pesos), and my soup at about $6 (90 pesos).  I ended up with about twice as much food as I could possibly eat.  So did Harvey. 

Tips are an even worse example.  When we arrived at our hotel in Mexico City at 2am, we were kind of dazed.  Harvey gave the bellboy who carried our bags up to our room a 20 peso note.  We got indifferent service for the rest of our stay.  Oops.  Too little.  We recalibrated, and left a 50 peso note as a tip for our room cleaner at our next hotel.  She stopped us in the hallway afterwards and thanked us effusively.  Perhaps too much!  Oh well.  For $3.50 CDN we made her day.

Cab rides….we haven’t encountered a metered cab yet.  So you’re at the mercy of the driver.  Our ride from our hotel in Mexico City to the bus station cost $250 pesos.  $17 bucks, not bad right?  Maybe, but it’s three to five times as much as we’ve paid for any cab ride of a comparable length since. So, our first cab driver (tellingly, called for us by the offended front desk at our first Mexico City hotel), took advantage of us.  At the time, we didn’t know better.

It's a journey.  And part of figuring out how to operate in a different country.

Visiting Veracruz

 

We first visited Veracruz in 1995, on our way back from a three month trip to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.  We only overnighted that time, to break up a long bus ride North to catch our plane in Mexico City.  

Some things haven't changed.  There's still music and dancing every night in the historic central square.  Sure it's touristy: but it's also traditional, and the tourists are Mexican.

The Gran Cafe del Portal cafe is still here too.  We had a memorable supper and a memorable cup of coffee there in 1995, and white-coated waiters still foam your latte by pouring hot milk into your glass from a height.  In my memory the pouring was more dramatic (with waiters raising the pots of milk above their heads) but either the waiters now aren't as accomplished, or my memory is imperfect.  But the place is still lovely and is mostly frequented by locals: multi-generational family groups, a group of motorcycle cops wearing matching T-shirts, a group of nuns enjoying fruit milkshakes and sweet bread, and individual diners being greeted by passers-by as they eat breakfast at one of the outdoor tables.  A sign inside says that the cafe has been in operation since 1889.

Some things are undoubtedly different.  We did a kayaking tour in a mangrove swamp south of town on Saturday with a local biologist who does this as side-business alongside his day job with the local Fish and Wildlife service.  

He told us that 20 years ago his hometown, Boca del Rio, was a separate city from Veracruz.  Today it looks like a suburb.  When you drive down the highway to Laguna Mandinga Grande, Boca del Rio is indistinguishable from the cities before and after it.  All you see from the highway is a continuous strip of hotels, restaurants, and big box stores.  It looks just like suburban Canada except here the stores are named Chedruai, Soriana, Pemex, and Carl Jrs instead of Walmart, Canadian Tire, Husky, and A&W.  

But we can't really compare our 18 hours here in 1995 with our three days in 2022.  This time we spent a couple of days visiting local attractions.  None of them matches what you can see in Mexico City, but I don't regret opting for a slower entry into Mexico.  I've rarely regretted taking the less travelled path.

 

Plans are for changing

 

Our preference when travelling is to make just a few plans, and alter as needed depending on circumstances.  Sometimes that works well. Sometimes that leads to the unexpected.  We’d meant to stay in Mexico City for three or four days before heading onwards, but we didn’t book a hotel for all of those nights ahead of time.  As it turns out, every moderately-priced hotel near to the Centro is sold out tonight because of a large baseball-themed event happening in the Zocalo.  Rather than shifting to a different hotel further from the centre, we decided today just to leave Mexico City.

So here I am, writing my first blog entry of our trip on an ADO bus headed towards Heroica Veracruz.  It’s been at least 15 years since we’ve taken a long distance bus in Mexico, but not much has changed.  The buses are still frequent and comfortable. There’s still a video playing for the benefit of the entire bus (go Aquaman!), but there is one improvement: the volume of the audio is much lower than I remember.  It's not blasting my eardrums.  In fact, the movie's soundtrack is so quiet that I can simultaneously enjoy the mariachi music the bus driver is playing.

I am a little sorry to be leaving Mexico City after a single day.  Mexico City is an amazing place, full of history, culture, and impressive architecture and art.  

But yesterday exhausted us.  After 3 years of pandemic, it’s tiring to be in huge crowds – and the population of Mexico City is about 9 million.  The sidewalks were crowded everywhere.  This shot of a pedestrianized street unfortunately doesn't really show the density of people wandering about on a Wednesday afternoon.  It was a lot.

It also didn't help that we were operating on only 5 hours of sleep in a language that we speak in only the most fractured way.  

So, on to Veracruz.  Harvey managed to find a half-day kayaking trip in a mangrove swamp south of Veracruz City for Saturday, and on Sunday we’re doing a pre-booked birding trip to an ecotourism  site to the North.  Let’s see what happens.