East Coast Fall Colors.....Look Out Here We Come!!!!

11:15 p.m. Huatulco autobus station, Christy, Alan, and Mac board the first class bus headed for Oaxaca, Mary, John, Pumpkin, and Mekka to follow the next day in their car. We arrived in Oaxaca at around 6:30 a.m. after a night of hairpin turns and believe it or not, some sleep. We headed for the hotel and were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was vacant and ready for us so we dropped our bags, use the “head” and headed out for some breakfast. We arrived in the Zocolo just as the businesses were opening up and had some breakfast. After breakfast we headed for the central Mercado. After seeing two of our favorite places in any Mexican town we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before John and Mary were due to arrive.

The buildings and town

layout reminded us of

Old Town Mazatlan.

Zocolo/Town Square..........

Zocolo’s are the central squares in Mexican towns. They usually have a church, or cathedral located on or near by, restaurants, trees, gazebos, etc. It’s a place for people to gather and often times enjoy music or entertainment.

Central Mercado/Open Market.....

The Central Mercado or open markets are where people shop for meat, veggies, clothes and various other items. They are always colorful, full of wonderful and different smells, and full of interesting items…….such as Alan’s favorite tubs of various dried bugs.

Monte Alban........

That's us in the middle of the site.

One of Oaxaca famous sites is Monte Alban, an archaeological zone where the Zapotecan culture began around 500 BC. At one time they had around 30,000 people living there. It was built on the top of the hills. At that time the lower regions were very tropical with many lakes, rivers,

and wild life. We had a wonderful guide and spent 2 ½ hours exploring the site. There was a medical section that had large stones depicting deformities of the time such as short and deformed limbs, dwarfism, etc. The size and magnitude of the buildings was impressive for so long ago. Alan took 12 pictures to later stitch together to give some

what of an idea how large the area was, but like most things, you had to be there to really appreciate the site.

Their "Sun Dial"......the sun, moon and stars were essential for their survival.

Tule...&...."The Big Tree"

We hired another tour guide to take us to Tule to see “The Big Tree.” The tree is believed to be the widest in the world and is 2,000 years old. It was massive and had interesting figures and knots on its limbs. Tule is a quiet little town and is basically supported by tourism from the big tree and the last place Mac expected to find the perfect dress for Amanda and Donavan’s wedding, but there it was! (Perfect shoes where found in Huatulco shortly after our return from Oaxaca.)

After leaving Tule and on our way to Teotitlan del valle, we stopped at a church built in the 1600’s. They are currently restoring it and are using the same techniques used in the 1600’s when the church was built. We climbed up the organ tower to see the beautiful 400 year old organ brought from Italy.

Teotitlan del valle ..........

Next stop, Teotitlan del valle, the town of woolen tapestries….our tour guide took us to “The Bug in the Rug” home of Isaac Vasques and his family of rug makers. Isaac is one of the most famous rug makers of the town and has pieces in museums all over Mexico and even has one in a museum in New York.

He sat us down and showed how they first “rake” the wool….then let us all take a shot at it.

He then explained how they color the wool naturally. One of the most amazing things is the color of red. It comes from a small bug that attaches to the cactus plant. They put lime stone on the cactus plant to protect the bugs who are attached for nourishment. Once you have red you add lime to make orange then baking soda to make maroon.

He also showed us how they spin the wool and let us all take a crack at it…..Alan was pretty

good. If the stock market gets any worse, we have found a new career for him. All the family make rugs and it takes them anywhere from 30 to 90 days to make them, that’s working 8 – 10 hours a day.

Oaxaca was a wonderful place to visit and we could of spent lots more time there, but it was time to head back to Huatulco. Again the bus was scheduled to leave at 11:45 p.m. (I don’t think they want you to see the roads you’ll be traveling on or you wouldn’t go!) so we took in a dance performance at the Hotel Monte Alban just before we had to board the bus. The dancers depicted dances from different villages. It was interesting to see the different dance styles and all the beautiful costumes.

The final dance was the “Feather Dance”……it represented the historical landscape of the Spanish conquest of Mexico and the triumph of Christianity.

We had a wonderful time in Oaxaca shopping til we almost dropped, seeing the interesting sites, enjoying the familiar Zocolo and open markets, enjoying the local cuisine, but most of all enjoying it with our dear friends, Christy, Mary, John, Mekka and Pumpkin.

It was sad to leave Zihuatanejo but we were excited about the new adventures that await us.
We

left with SV Endeavour, Kim and Linda, and SV Java Moon, Skip, with the plan to stop in Acapulco. We had a good afternoon sail with light winds and flat seas but had to motor once the sun set. We arrived in Acapulco the next morning and continued on past the first bay, Bahia de Acapulco, to the second smaller bay, Bahia de Puerto Marques. It was a beautiful little anchorage away from the hustle and bustle of Acapulco proper. Not long after setting the hook we had swimming suits on and were in the water. It was 86 degrees and clear............can't beat that.

We relaxed the rest of the day in our small little bay then set out to explore Acapulco the next day. We walked about a mile and caught the "autobus" to downtown Acapulco. On the way we had a great view of our little bay. We found Acapulco with the anticipated high rise hotels but were surprised at how clean and well maintained it was. Lots of trees and grass but we were put off at the "fake palms" we saw along the way.

The Effietubbies do Acapulco!!!

Old Acapulco

Acapulco Today

Fake Palms Tree and All

First stop was the Fuerte de San Diego, a pentagonal fort built in 1616 for protection from the marauding Dutch and English buccaneers.

Linda and Mac at the entrance to the fort.

View from the fort over looking the other anchorage/marina in Acapulco.

Next stop was the zocalo (town square), always one of our favorite parts of Mexican towns. We went to see the Cathedral then walked around the square which was beautiful. It had fountains and the most spectacular trees, one banyan tree in particular. Then it was off in search of the cliff divers.

After an accelerating walk up the hill we arrived at the famous spot. We had about an hour wait but it was well worth it. It truly was amazing to watch the divers first climb the high cliffs then dive into the waters below. You could see the concentration on their faces as they waited for just the right wave to come in before soaring down the cliffs into the water. The first diver was only 11 years old, then

they dove from higher up first two at a time, then three at a time. Although we took pictures, it something you have to see in person to appreciate.

Kim lost all his videos but Alan took one of them while they did practice dives....not the best but it gives you an idea of what it was like.

We stopped back at the zocalo and had a snack and some refreshments before we headed back to the boat via Costco. Original plans were to leave on Thursday for Huatulco but due to an anticipated heavy blow in the Tehuantepec we decided to stay until Saturday. We spent the two days just relaxing with Linda and Kim in the beautiful little bay of Marques.