Puerto Escondido

On Dec 28, we arrived in time for sunset, and plan to be present for every sunset for the duration of our stay in this little beach town. There’s another story to tell that involves humility, anxiety, distress and great amounts of forgiveness that I will share with you now, hoping to save others from this sort of fiasco.

After our brief Mexico City stay, we showed up at the airport nice and early with our prepaid e-ticket itinerary in hand ready to drift over to Puerto Escondido after the madness of the city. I planned this trip so far in advance that, lo and behold, my memory and mixture of potential travel options the days following language school trumped the very basic duty of DOUBLE CHECKING FLIGHT ITINERARY DEPARTURE DATES. I was sure we were scheduled to leave on Sunday the 28th because that’s when our lodging rezzos began in Puerto.

Imagine my horror when I went to the ticket counter, presented our printed itinerary to the agent, then saw on the itinerary TUESDAY DEC 30! I had the departure date mixed up and our Sunday departure was scheduled for Tuesday. TWO MORE DAYS IN MEXICO CITY??? No way. After multiple lines and “speaking to supervisors”, we forked over the credit card and paid a pretty price to get ourselves to the beach. The flight to Puerto Escondido was full, but we could catch a flight to Huatulco, the nearest town to the south. A very quiet flight, a car ride, 2 low rent buses and 2 and half hours later we arrived in our winter home.

Thankfully, friends Frank and Vanessa from Bend were here to greet us with their sweet, handsome hijo – “Diegito”. This past week it has been very nice to be with familiar friends and to speak English. We’ve also enjoyed the company of a new friend we met playing cribbage in a café, and guess what? He’s from a town called Bend, OR. Dan, we look forward to continuing our games when we return to the Beaver State.

Vanessa and I enjoy our grocery trips – produce is fresh and food cheap. Cooking fulfills that creative need I’ve lacked over the past 3 weeks traveling. There are so many flavors to try here, yet fewer choices in brands and products. It’s amazing how many different dishes are made with tomatoes or chiles. Roger taught Frank to play cribbage and also looks forward to catching up with some football since he can find the games here in English thanks to our Canadian hotel owners who bring down satellite TV from up north.

Our winter friends are arriving from all points north and we’ve begun swimming with the group that meets at 7:30am MWF for our 30-40 minute ocean swim. It’s a good day when we don’t get stung by jellyfish. Okay, every day is a good day because we get to see so many fish, but I still have yet NOT to get stung during our morning swim. I’m kind of a wimp. They just plain FREAK me out. Gazillians of tiny things the size of your fingernail floating everywhere, and they probably get in my mouth too. ICK!

Unfortunately, our internet connection is a MYSTERY. With our Mac we’ve had trouble ever since we came to Mexico – which is new this year. I’ve spent hours trying to figure this out (bad airport card? Interference? The brand of the router? Antenna? Operating system?). Some people with Macs do fine, others are in the same boat as us. For now, I must go to a café to send and receive mail or update the blog and sit right next to the router (still fading in and out of a connection) or plug in with Ethernet. It’s a huge bummer. This “loss” of connection has taken a gigantic toll in my world and it’s been interesting to psychoanalyze myself and admit that my life is very intertwined with the Internet (Did you know you have to capitalize Internet? Like God). Seriously, I often have moments where I want to be at home because I want to be connected. THIS IS ADMISSION HERE – Hi, My name is Connie and I’m addicted to the Internet. Roger? Blissful (except in the Mexico City airport).

Tonight we went to the birthday party of the 7 year old son of the lovely woman that cleans the rooms in our little apartment building. We’ve been in touch with Fabiola ever since we started coming here 4 years ago (I don’t know if I should tell her I named one of my chickens after her or not). Being the only gringos at the party, we felt somewhat out of place, but pretty honored. It was very interesting to be invited into the home of a local. Very Spartan, but so generous. Tacos were served to all (5 each), a sort of milk/fruit/nut/water drink poured in plastic cups, and gifts, pastel (cake), and of course… the piñata.

Now that we’re here in Puerto, we will continue our Spanish studies, but not so intensely. We’re scheduled for 2 days a week instead of 5. Even with our challenged Internet connection, I’ll try to keep up with the blog. So when your own Internet addiction kicks in and you want to know where to go while you surf, look us up. Please send us a note, we miss our friends and family.
rognconz@gmail.com