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Day 71 Sat 2/5/05 0 miles 5643 Total
A city tour of Oaxaca was on the agenda for today. We had a four hour guided tour of the city including the Camino Real Hotel which was a 16th century convent, Santo Domingo Church with magnificent gold overlay and the marketplace with vendors packed on top of one another selling fruit, embroidered clothes, leather goods and everything else imaginable. Enroute to the market we stopped at the chocolate factory where we tasted different types of chocolate with almonds, cinnamon and varying amounts of sugar. After we decided which one we liked they made a custom 2.5 kilogram (about 5 ˝ pounds!) batch for us that we split with Shari. The whole thing was $8. We had lunch with Shari in a small restaurant adjacent to the marketplace. We each had Tyalamas, referred to as Oaxacan Pizza. It was a giant tortilla, perhaps 15 inches in diameter, filled with tomato, avocado and cheese then folded in half like a calzone. It was very good and two of them plus two beers was 78 pesos, about $7. After lunch we went to the Women’s Craft Cooperative then did some more street shopping before catching the van back to the campground. Even though it was 45 degrees this morning, it was over 90 in the late afternoon. We are getting used to the heat which is a good thing since we are heading further south to the coast where it will be hot and humid for the next four weeks. Tomorrow we visit our first Mayan Ruin at Monte Alban.
Day 72 Sun 2/6/05 0 miles 5643 Total
Today we visited our fist Pre-Columbian ruins of the trip. Located on Monte Albin at 6000 feet above sea level, this site was occupied from 500 bce to around 800 ce. The view from the site across the central valley and the city of Oaxaca 1000 feet below was beautiful. The excavated portion of the site is about a half mile long and three quarters of a mile wide. Around the central plaza are 50 and 100 foot high pyramid bases upon which temples and other important buildings stood. Many of the buildings are inlaid with large stone carvings, depicting, it is believed, likenesses of defeated kings and nobles who were taken prisoner. A fascinating site, made more intriguing when we remember that all of this was built without metal tools, pack animals or the wheel! After returning from Monte Alban, we got cleaned up and headed for our Superbowl party one of our caravaners had arranged with a local restaurant to host our party. The food was good, the beer was cheap and the Patriots won. We watched on a projection screen TV, in Spanish of course but 24-21 comes across in any language.
Day 73 Mon 2/7/05 153 miles 5796 Total
Today was a relatively easy drive though the mountains. We went from 4000 feet to 2,000 feet to 7,000 feet to 300 feet on a narrow winding road through villages with many topes. Here in Mexico, that’s an easy day and the scenery was wonderful. We had lunch beside a bridge over the Rio something and the birds in the trees along the river kept us there for over an hour (instead of the usual 30 minute lunch stop. Our “campground for the next three nights was supposed to be the parking lot of the Hotel Calli. However, after we got set up, the new management reneged on their agreement and wanted to charge us each $38 per night with no use of the hotel facilities. Our wagonmasters wisely decided to pack us all up and move to another “campground” a few miles away. This one is just an open field with a few trees but the sunset was superb. We are down close to the Pacific ocean now so there are palm trees and it is hot and humid rather than just hot
Day 74 Tue 2/8/05 0 miles 5796 Total
Up again at 5:30 to go birding at 6:45. We went to La Ventosa Marsh, a dry and dusty spot alongside a lagoon where we saw many common gulls and terns and some less common wrens and buntings in the thorny underbrush. Carl walked through the brush to take some pictures and came back bleeding from the long thorns on the bushes. The highlight of this morning was the sighting of a Rufous Naped Wren, a cute little bird found only in this area. We also saw an unusual lavender colored cactus plant. We returned to the coach for lunch then went in search of an ATM machine and grocery store. We found both then spent the afternoon doing chores “at home”. At 5:30 PM we drove a short distance to a rookery where over a thousand Cattle Egret roost for the night. It was great fun to see them flying in 10 to 50 at a time as well as seeing many other birds. After the sun set we could see the local bats begin their night patrol in search of insects. Back at the coach for grilled chicken, green beans and rice for dinner with a glass of Chardonnay. Life is very good indeed.
Day 75 Wed 2/9/05 0 miles 5796 Total
We took a break from birding today to relax and do some more shopping in the local market place. We slept until 9, the latest we’ve slept on the entire trip. We caught up on some chores around the coach and after lunch, drove into Tehuanepec. We bought fruits and vegetables in the local market and then found a store selling pollo asarte, barbequed chicken. They had a sale going so instead of paying 42 pesos for one, we got two chickens with tortillas and salsa for 50 pesos. When Judy Smith heard we had a “spare” chicken she bought it right away. No need to cook when it is 97 degrees!
Day 76 Thu 2/10/05 51 miles 5847 Total
We only had about 50 miles to drive today so we could sleep late. However, Sandy wanted to see and hear the owls so she got up before 5 AM to go owling. She heard three kinds of owls and saw one species, the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl (OK, OK, we don’t name them we just look at them). After breakfast we both did some birding around the campground, seeing several beautiful orioles and woodpeckers and a rufous capped Mot-Mot. The short drive was uneventful and we arrived at our new “campground”, behind a Pemex gas station, around 4. We got our rigs set up then had a margarita party where we talked about the great list of possible birds for tomorrow when we enter the rain forest for the first time. Lots of toucans, trogons, parrots and hummingbirds are likely to be seen. Time to go to sleep, we depart for birding at 6:15!
Day 77 Fri 2/11/05 0 miles 5847 Total
Today was a looong birding day. We departed at 6:15 and returned about 5:30. In between we saw 22 different birds that were new for this trip including 14 life birds. Even the ones we had seen before were exciting since it’s always a thrill to see a keel billed toucan fly overhead. The only downside of the day was that Bert and Cindy spent an inordinate amount of time in search of a single species they had never seen before, a Nava Wren. That fruitless search wasted a lot of our time and got us back quite late. After cleaning up from the birding we drove into town for dinner. The town of Matias Romero is like a Potemkin Village in the old Soviet Union, a showplace uncharacteristic of the rest of the country. This town is dominated by the Cruz Azul cement plant and it is a “company town” with clean streets, groomed hedges and row upon row of neat, well kept, though identical homes. We ate in a lovely restaurant. We were the only patrons and they shut off the lights when we walked out.
