Feb. 27: Nancy and Roy Reisinger arrived in late evening. Before that, we wandered around a fair amount. Saw an art exhibit of hanging tortillas cut into various designs. No trip to Mexico would be complete without Gary falling in love with one or two dogs. A young Mexican girl gets photographed for her quincenera party--I have no idea how to spell that word, but the event is a big deal here.

Feb. 26: We took a bus to the famous Sunday market out in Tlacolula. The ride out was smooth. On the ride back, we wanted to stop in Tule to show Gary the "world's biggest/at least widest tree." We asked lots of people on the return bus, including gringoes and locals, where we should get off. Everyone pitched in to help. When we got off, we found out we had passed five miles beyond Tule. This was one of those plans that didn't come together. However, the market was colorful, real, good fun. Can't find my photos right now. Later saw a wedding back in Oaxaca and some local guys painted in black to get ready for Mardi Gras in three days.

Feb. 25: Cristina has really hit it off with the gym owner, Maria, who also organized the 6K race that we ran. Her gym is a strong reflection of Maria's personality, right down to the flourescent lime-green colored equipment. Cristina is loving Maria's pilates class, which apparently is completely different every day.
Meanwhile, I'm doing--what else--a lot of reading on a recumbent bike. I especially like the February Valentine's Wall which says, "Love. Friendship." and "Be sure to make your payments on time."

Feb. 24. It's Gary's birthday. To celebrate, we made him go to a nice rooftop restaurant--a little fancier than his typical selection. But we had a good evening and got some great photos.

Gary seems to be enjoying his birthday Pina Colada.

Feb. 23: Cristina and I had a quiet dinner at Las Quince Letras. Count the letters. There are 15. Quince. They have one of my favorite mole dishes. And a nice courtyard lined by tall, thin cactus plants.

Feb. 21: Gary played bridge this afternoon at the Library. He had enough fun that he's thinking of joining the "duplicate" bridge get-together Friday afternoon at another location. That's his birthday--maybe he'll be lucky!

Gary doesn't know that Cristina snuck up behind him to get this photo.

Feb 20: Cristina keeps going to the Yarn Ladies shop to sit, crochet, and mainly to listen to their Spanish while practicing her own. She particularly likes the lunch, from next door, that arrives punctually at 3 pm every afternoon.

This young girl is a special favorite.

Feb. 19: A big day, time for the 6.1 K De Corazon A Corazon road race downtown, with the start and finish just three blocks from our hotel. It was super well organized, with a ton of police, including enough to shut down a major, three-lane thoroughfare that we crossed twice. The course was fine until we hit a 1.5-mile hill. That took the steam out of us.
     "Us" included Amby, Cristina, Gary, Jackie Hastings, and Jim Austin, the guy who gave us the tour of the Eco Conservation reserve a week earlier. We called ourselves "Team Oaxaca Gringos." Not that there was a team prize or anything. Indeed, the oldest award category was 50+, so us old guys got skunked. Great fun nonetheless. The race was won by--who else?--a Kenyan.

Feb. 18: Walking around in the evening, trying to decide where to eat, we happened on a large concert outside the Santo Domingo church. It was a very professional group of guitar players, maybe 10 or so, with various lead singers and instrumentalists. They had both a stage and an audience of several hundred, on hastily arranged folding chairs, enjoying the music. We stood at the perimeter, and definitely enjoyed the spectacle.

Feb. 16: A word or several photos, actually, about our gym. It's where we registered today for the Sunday morning 6.1 K road race. Also where Cristina takes Pilates classes, and Amby rides a recumbent bike while reading (what else?)
It's a bit of a strange place, for sure. We think it's a converted garage. Most of all it reflects the personality of the duena (owner) Maria Aurora Zemora Martinez, she of the different-pair-of-colorful-tights every day.
The equipment inside is lime-green colored instead of the traditional gym all-black. And the cement entranceway includes this interpretation of the evolution of man.

Feb. 16: We headed over to the massive and impenetrable Abastos Market in the morning before it got too hot and busy. Tacos for breakfast, then Jackie bought the two things she came off--a sleep-inducing herb, or so it is said, for her husband who has been having trouble sleeping. And a mini pestle to take home to grind her avocadoes into guacamole in Durham CT.
Cristina was impressed by the way the honey guy could pour an exact pint of honey into a jar without spilling a drop anywhere. (And also his "Patriots" shirt.) That is a skill that is apparently lacking in her husband. She bought a pint; it had a dead bee in it. Must be good luck or something.

Feb. 14. Switching to dates. Have completely lost track of days in Oaxaca. I think that's a good thing. I hope that's a good thing.
Cristina came back from her morning run with a huge, helium-filled Valentine's Day balloon for me. Quite the surprise! I had planned to buy her something nice, but the damn jeweler was closed on Valentine's Day. What kind of a jeweler is closed on Valentine's Day?
He has remained closed the next 3-4 days, so I'm trailing far behind Cristina in the gift-giving department.
My brother Gary arrived in mid afternoon, and we took him to an outdoor, balcony restaurant overlooking the Zocolo, with nice views of an orchestra and some dancers below.

Cathy and Jim outside their home.

Day 18, Part B: After "La Mesita," we had a fantastic lunch at Jim and Cathy's beautiful home, with shady porches on two sides. The house is a model of energy conservation with cisterns and dry compost toilets. Cathy runs a small organic lettuce (with nasturtium flowers) business that employs several locals. She has also organized a women's collective that produces foods from amaranth. We had something very tasty that I could only describe as an amaranth pretzel.

Cathy's organic lettuce (and other greens) patch. The shade coverings are necessary to protect the greens from the intense Oaxacan sun.

Lunch included organic salad (and nasturtium flower) salad and amaranth tamales.

Before and After

Day 18, Part A: Quite an amazing day with a lot of photos, so I'm going to do it in two parts. With Cristina back from Houson, she, I, and Jackie Hastings went to visit San Pablo Etla courtesy of Jim and Cathy Austin. Jim is a retired Harvard business school professor who worked on social development projects around the world. Cathy worked in public health. They bought a place in SP Etla, on a mountain slope just outside Oaxaca, in 1994, and have gradually transferred much of their life here. Jim is a lifelong runner who actually ran the 1968 Boston Marathon.

We spent the morning with Jim exploring a wonderful Eco Conservation project in the SP Etla hills called "La Mesita." Basically, a local group is using low-tech means to reclaim land that was previously over-farmed, which led to horrible erosion. The project includes striking sculptures, amazing buildings constructed by students of a RAW architecture group (Real Architecture Workshop), plant and seed conservation, a butterfly house, and more.

Cristina, Jackie, and a little Mexican girl who adopted us.

This building, the "Leaning Tower of La Mesita," was completely unique, captivating and disorienting. We climbed the inside staircase to the top, feeling sure it would tip over.

View from the uppermost outpost.

Outdoor fitness equipment station.

Day 17: I did a 2:45 run this morning without ever going more than 1.5 miles from our hotel. I managed this by lacing together a modest number of urban Oaxacan mini-parks, long blocks with sidewalks, and a government-built and maintained sports park. This park is a marvel. It includes a modest-cost health club and indoor swimming pools, as well as a wide assortment of outdoor playing fields, ranging from soccer fields to basketball, handball and more. There's a children's playground at one end, and some funny outdoor fitness equipment for adults in another area.

The track is 8 lanes, rubberized. It is ringed by a 1000 meter "jogging trail" that winds around all the fields, and includes two concrete rises or hills (with more rubber surface) to add some variety. The whole thing is quite wonderful, if you ask me. The mountains outside Oaxaca are everywhere in the background.

The while ramp to the right is one of the "hills" on the 1000m jogging trail.

I keep wishing this curve on the track, with palm tree, also had a steeplechase water jump.

Day 16: Along with Jackie and John Hastings and Nancy and Gary Johnson, I went for a lovely dinner at the home of the people, Tanya and Ralph, who took us to Hierve de Agua last week. We started with drinks up on the rooftop patio, then moved downstairs to their cozy home for dinner.

John Hastings and cat who looks a bit like our Leo. Photo taken for Cristina, still in Houston. Behind John, from left, Nancy, Jackie, Tanya.

Day 15: Friday is market day at our nearby Illano Park, where we do a fair amount of running, strolling, and buying jugos and licuados.

Roasting park, then slicing it thin.

Breakfast tables. There are dozens of similar mini restaurants within the market.

Day 14: Losing track of time again. The days fly by remarkably fast with a mix of runs, working in hotel room or Library, going out for smoothies and other jaunts about town, and then a leisurely evening meal.

Amby was doing his normal "walkabout" after dinner the other night, Cristina being in Houston, when he came upon a light and music show projected against the facade of the famous Santo Domingo church. The colorful patterns moved about in a totally abstract manner, which was quite mesmerizing.

Day 13: After 10 days of eating scrambled eggs sin carne as part of our limited but free breakfast, we were asked: "Would you like a vegetable omelette?" Yes, of course! The omelettes have been delicious with long strands of green beans, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, and more.

We generally eat breakfast late, around 11 am, after morning exercise and some work time. Cristina still needs her 4 or 5 pm refuel, but Amby can generally get away with just a banana smoothie before dinner. That's $1.25, thick and delicious.

Dinners at nice places have been costing about $25 for two, including drinks. Amby's threatening to go to a few "dives" where two cold beers and some bean and cheese quesadillas would be about $8. Hasn't happened yet, but he's expecting Gary to join the quest soon.

So, as you can see, food is cheap. We're trying to convince ourselves that we're saving money by spending 6 weeks in Oaxaca. No doubt that is true about food as one of several basic expense items.

Yesterday Amby got a haircut for $3. This morning Cristina left for her Houston weekend, and the conference where her grandfather's poetry will be presented.
https://artepublicopress.com/recovery-project/news/recovering-the-u-s-hispanic-literary-heritage-project-25th-anniversary-conference-writingrighting-history/

Breakfast omelette and beans