Kaydo goes to Mexico

This February it was Kaydo’s turn to go with me to Huatulco.  This blog won’t be as long as some of the others since we did a lot of the same things as  other years.

Kaydo is, like many teenagers, hooked up 24/7 to technology so most of the photos of him will be complete with earbuds.  We had fun though.

Good company A

Good company 2

We went again to the lizard breeding farm at Copalita and I don’t think Kaydo was impressed having the lizards actually on him – most of the grandkids have not been, but it was fun to see all the different kinds and ages of them and see how the eggs are incubated.

A house I really liked near the farm

Another type of lizard

Lizard guest at Copalyta

Sign for the breeding farm

On the way home we stopped at the newly opened Archeological Park.  It is marvellous!  Two old temples have been uncovered and there is a great indoor area with a lot of the finds in cases with explanations of what they are.  It’s really worth the time to get out there and see it.  I wish all the kids had been able to see it.  The only problem is that, thus far, all the written information is in Spanish only.

Dios Cocijo

Dios Cocijo explanation

More information

A map of the area

A peacful rest stop

The Snake Temple

A Sacrificial Altar

Dios Dzavui

Dios Viejo

We found the new location for Los Vaquerros restaurant, which I had loved in the old location, but this new place is right at an intersection in town that is buzzing with truck traffic, so was not so pleasant.  We were the only people there at lunch time, so maybe their custom is all at night now and maybe the traffic dies down then.  The food is still great, but I wouldn’t go there again for lunch.

Lunch at Los Vaquerros

One other thing that we did that was new was to go on the hike to the Emerald Falls.  It’s up in the mountains, so I didn’t make it all the way up, but it is a spectacularly beautiful walk and a great barbeque lunch is waiting for you when you finish the walk and come back to the lower level of the river.  I don’t have pictures of the lunch though.  Kaydo took a lot of the pictures on this trip but has just never gotten around to sharing them so that I can put them on the blog.  A lesson learned.

Family picnic on the river

Last steps to the falls

Walk to Emerald Falls 1

Walk to Emerald Falls 2

Our intrepid guide showing us the vine bridge across the river

Setting up for lunch after the walk to the falls and back.

We also went to the herbal garden this year and now they have two birds and also have someone making tortillas the traditional way.  We used to go to another woman’s place to see that.

The two birds love the tortilla dough – raw!

Woman grinding corn for tortillas

Just a couple of other interesting things.  We saw some wild iguanas too, at the fruit market.  I love to see them, I think they’re fascinating – but I think that about all animals.  And I brought home some Oaxacan hot chocolate.  They form the chocolate, sugar and spices – which vary by maker – into a ball and dry it, then you just pour hot water on it (in a cup of course) and let it dissolve, then you can add more hot water which is the Oaxacan way of drinking it, or add milk if you like.  It is *really* good!

Wild Iguana

Oaxacan hot chocolate

Coming home again is always bittersweet.  It’s good to see friends and family again, and nice to sleep in your own bed, but hard to leave such a lovely place only fractionally explored.

Planes home delayed

Visitor to our room

Sad to be leaving maybe?

Some links you might like:  http://www.tribaltravel.info/   and   http://www.travelcompanionexchange.com/

AS before, I’m having a real problem getting the photos where they are supposed to be, so I hope you can get the gist of the story and enjoy seeing a bit of our trip.

Saturday

Having taken my eldest granddaughter Kate to Huatulco Mexico for a bit of a winter break, I decided to try something new – organised tours.

I’d never done those before, except once over 20 years ago, and in fact hadn’t travelled with anyone for that length of time either.  Lots of new experiences on this trip.  But what’s life without new experiences, eh?

Kate’s off to Uni next year, and I won’t see much of her for a few years after that, so I wanted to have a bit of face time with her before she left.  And since neither of us had been to Mexico before, I decided that the organised tours might be the best way to see lots in the short week we had.

Oh, boy, did we see lots . . . !!

We arrived about noon on Friday and took Saturday to settle in to our little nest.  I’d gotten a small suite, since I thought Kate would have to do school work, and wanted to have a table for her to work at.  This was the view from our balcony.

And this was our balcony.  It was really very large and a lovely place to sit.

Balcony from sliding doors

Huatulco is very mountainous, so the hotels are built up the sides of the mountains.  All have fleets of vehicles like 8 person golf carts that whiz you around the grounds, as walking can get tiring when everything is uphill – both ways <(^o^)>

Our hotel was across the boulevard from the beach, so was built up the mountainside even more so than those on the beach side.  Our room was on the 8th level, and after we got off the cart we still had to walk down one flight of stairs, along a path and then up 4 flights of stairs to get to our room.  I think ours was the most difficult set of rooms to get to, but the beauty of the view made it worth while.

The rooms were clean and quite nice.  There was a bedroom with two double beds, a sitting room with a couch and table and chairs, a full bathroom and a small kitchenette – really just a sink, bar fridge and coffeemaker.

View from roof pool

There were three pools, one on the 7th level, called the roof pool, one on the main level and one across at the beach club.

The carts took you across to the beach club for meals and beach activities.  There were also two other a la carte restaurants at the hotel where you could make reservations to eat, but we didn’t get the energy to try those.

The carts were circulating fairly regularly, and if you had to get somewhere “right now”, you could always call the front desk and have one sent up to get you, so that aspect didn’t seem to be much of a problem.

After we got settled in, we went off to the small nearby town of La Crucecita.  The week was going to be busy, so we wanted to get the souvenir buying out of the way.  Kate wanted something for her mom, and I wanted something for my house-sitters – my house had been flooded just before I left and I had to leave a relative in charge of the insurance, clean-up and so on, so figured a token of appreciation wouldn’t go amiss, especially since there was more water damage while I was gone. *sigh*

La Crucecita is a really pretty town, with a typical town square at its heart.

Zocalo (Town Square) de La Crucecita

I had really wanted to see the inside of the local church, which has a hand-painted ceiling which has been deemed a ‘national treasure’, but both times I went to town the church was closed.  I did manage to get a couple peeks through the wrought iron airways at the top of the walls, and it sure looked worth seeing.

A glimpse of the church ceiling

In order to find what Kate wanted for her mom, we investigated 3 or 4 jewellery stores in the area, but couldn’t find what she had in mind.  We saw a couple other things that might do as a substitute, but decided to go and have lunch and think about it.  Kate ordered a shrimp pasta, and I swear those shrimp hadn’t been out of the water more than 10 minutes.  I ordered the Mexican version of a Club House sandwich, and it came smothered in avocado!  We were both really happy with our lunches!!

Then came the purchasing part.  Now I’ve gotta tell you, I am NOT good with this bargaining stuff.  Though it is, I’m sure a well choreographed dance among those who do it regularly, I just get mad, frustrated, grumpy and tired.  Some jewellery stores in the area have started weighing jewellery and basing the price on the weight, but haven’t figured out that you can price by weight for metals, but you can’t do that for things that are combined metals and stones or wood or ceramic.  And of course, when we went back the second time, the prices had mysteriously gone up.  I was fit to be tied!!

Anyway, we did get a couple things, saw a bit of a Mexican town that had no Micky D’s or Wal-Marts, had a very pleasant lunch and then off we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Monday

Monday was our lazing around day, though not much slothfulness was in evidence.

I had booked a facial and pedicure at the beachside spa, and after that went into town again to get stamps and mail our postcards.

Katie was in the throes of a creative spasm and wrote most of the day, as well as each evening.

La Crucecita church door

Lunch in the palapa by the beach club pool

That night we put on some better duds and went down the street to Don Porfirio’s for supper.  I had heard lots of good things about this place.  He grills out front and the waiters put on a short musical show.

I’d ordered the grilled prawns, and Katie ordered the  steak.  Hers was really tasty, she said.  Unfortunately, my prawns tasted like beef liver.  I’ve never heard of such a thing!  And being the Canadian that I am, I just shut up and ate them, and was mad at myself again!  They sure looked good though.

Lovely looking liver flavoured prawns

Katie and her steak at Don Porfirio

Don Porfirio has the grill in high gear

The entertainment is all on my video, some of which I may post on BoxNet for those of you who want to see it.

So, that was our Monday – off we went to bed to get ready for a big day Tuesday.

Friday

Well, that’s it.  Time to go home.  I’d love to be able to stay for a while longer.  The weather is so perfect – about 30 at the top of the day and 20 or less at night.  Sun all the time.  How can it get any better?

View across hills

Mexico is a hugely varied country in terms of its population.  Someone told me that in Oaxaca state alone, there are 17 different indigenous ethnic groups.  You could see distinct differences in skin tone and facial bone structure, but I expect that as with other countries, now that transportation is opening up so much more and people aren’t staying in their native villages forever, that those distinctions will quickly vanish.

Son of papaya plantation owner

Child in hammock at croc farm

While travelling to the fruit market, we passed a farm which had several peafowl.  I’m not sure why, or where they came from, but it was a giggle to see them there.

Peacock

Fruit market

Huatulco town square with cafe in bandstand

Marina and some condos and shops at Santa Cruz

Well, there are some of the highlights of our trip, though there are doubtless things here I’ve passed over.

I’m going to try and upload some of the video to BoxNet, and if I get to that I’ll post the URL here for anyone that is interested in downloading some of that.