Mexico Lindo (Mexico City, Mexico)

Update. 10 measely days to go. Every last one is sure to be awesome, it's just that there are so damn few!

Before Oaxaca City and after San Cristobal de las Casas we managed to squeeze in one last run at the beach. First tiny Puerto Angel and then busy Puerto Escondido, surfers' paradise and mecca for very very tan very very skinny very Italian Italians. We explored different beaches every day, swam in varying degrees of crashing waves with various extremes of currents and pull. A few near-drownings, some exaggerated tan lines, many Coronas with lime - a great week! The first place we stayed in Puerto Escondido had an incredible swimming pool which was a serious new luxury and quickly had Amanda and I wondering why we've ever scoffed at the idea of resort hotels with infinity pools and swim-up bars. If you're looking for me next winter...

From the beach we took a windy mountain road North to beautiful Oaxaca City which smells like passion fruits and is currently under a bit of political siege. The zocalo there has been overtaken by camping protesters and the entire center of town had been blockaded and grafittied. Windows and cars smashed, streets blocked with corrugated metal and trashed cars, burn piles in the streets. It made for a bit of an eerie calm most of the time. Local government has been all but shut down and there is absolutely no police presence in the city. The only action we encountered ourselves was en route to the post office one afternoon, when we stumbled across hundreds of people lining two blocks chanting political messages. They appeared to be waiting for something, but we had no idea what it was until a teenage boy ran by with a huge Mexican flag followed by pallbearers carrying a coffin. The crowd grew more empassioned as the coffin passed and fell in behind it in prosession chanting about avenging the death of the deceased, fists raised. It was intense. We heard a lot of tourists talk about avoiding the protesters and central areas of town, but we felt pretty comfortable exploring freely. We checked out a bunch of great galleries - Oaxaca is known as the heartbeat of Mexico's art world - and took a cooking class with a lady named Nora because Oaxaca is also known for its delicious food. We did more watching than cooking, though I did peel the skins off some blanched almonds rather expertly. We made chiles rellenos stuffed with rice and guacamole and a squash blossom soup and drank cactus fruit juice. Please don´t ask me to recreate any of these things for you at home. I promise you I´ll fail. But it was a fun day. Oaxaca is famous for its delicious Mexican chocolate so we swung by a sample-happy chocolate factory which was another highlight, and we were off.

Yesterday was Monday in Mexico City. DF to those in the know. Those not so in the know don´t realize that everything in DF is closed on Mondays. That would be us. Since every museum we wanted to see the inside of wasn´t open, we spent the day exploring and absorbing the madness of this gigantic busy city with its famous beautiful zocalo and a big handful of central streets entirely overtaken by political protesting. Lucky for us, God doesn´t close so we poked our heads into two beautiful cathedrals. At the first, there was a normal looking lady sitting on a pew apparently praying, but upon closer inspection, we realized she was cutting her fingernails. At the second, Amanda watched a well-dressed woman in high heels dip her hands in holy water and use it to tidy her hair, twice. Love me some religion. We wanted to attend a Mexican wrestling match at night, but there wasn't one so we watched Miami Vice at the local CineMex instead. By 10 pm or so, when we were walking home, the protest zone had kicked into full gear with blocks and blocks of churros and movies, street musicians, and kiddie carnival rides. We paid 2 pesos each to ride with 7 year-olds on something that went up and down and around in fast fast circles and made us both sick, but it was hilarious. Then we went back to our ancient rundown hotel where DH Lawrence once stayed and where our room makes up for its windowlessness with an antique knob you turn to make ambient music come out of the ceiling. Amazing.

Today is Tuesday so there was a whole world of open attractions at our fingertips. We made it a Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo day and went to two of the homes they lived in, filled up with art and memorabilia, before checking out a Diego mural. It was a solid 8 hours of D&F sustained by many a mango and tuna (cactus fruit). Any minute now my good friend Lauren Judith Saxton will arrive from Oregon and tomorrow we'll journey up to San Miguel de Allende to meet our other good friend Sarah Pope, who I've known essentially since birth, and we'll all drink margaritas on the roof and vacation within vacation will begin in ernest.

Hope everyone's enjoying the end of summer. Love, d.