1968 Mexico City Olympics

Tamil, John y Yoko, Coyoacan, DF

I drove into Mexico City on Tuesday afternoon rush-hour without getting stopped by any police – in fact I was blasting by some of them at twice the speed limit on the peripheral roads in the hopes that they wouldn’t notice I was a foreigner ripe for a little bite bribe/fine and wouldn’t want to bother catching up to me.   The congestion wasn’t too awful but once I got within La Condesa neighbourhood where I was going the GPS was telling me to go somewhere I couldn’t understand. So after 45 minutes of doubling over bridges and through the Chapultepec park several times I eventually asked someone in a car who led me to a recognisable part and I got to Tamil and John’s flat.

Offices on Circuito Interior, Mexico D.F.

I spent one night resting and then the following three going out to several fancy and seedy bars in the city.  The final night was the best where for Tamil’s birthday we went to Coyoacan in the south to see a satirical performance of in the Bed With John and Yoko.  Despite understanding about 60% of what was said it was quite funny and raucous.  One bottle of tequila was followed by another and then quite unnecessarily, a third.  The night ended (for me) at about 4am singing kareoke in Tamil’s neighbours flat.

This was not the intended way to start the long 6 hour trip to Oaxaca.   So leaving at noon I managed to get out of Mexico City with light Sunday traffic and found myself on the outskirts looking up through the dry pine

Popocatépetl, Mexico

forest foothills at the most beautiful snow covered Popocatépetl imaginable.  The recent strong winds and cold temperatures had cleaned  the valley of Mexico’s air so well that it felt like I imagine it must have before the combustion engine laid waste to Mexico City’s climate.  With my 4th GPS power cable malfunctioning I followed the pay highway signs through the valleys near Puebla and up through the mountain passes near Tehuacan where it started to rain.  These mountains ended and the nature result cactus forests began covered the entire valley floor.

As dusk fell the terrain changed with the mountains becoming softly rounded and desert like – similar to the hills inland from San Francisco, California.   Having paid about $25 USD in tolls to get there I arrived in Oaxaca city sometime after 7pm.   The huge industrial Paulina’s Hostal was mostly empty but on the roof I sat and talked to some other tourists including Danes, a German, a Swiss, a French fellow, and two Mexicans – who patiently answered silly questions about tequilla.

Cactus Forest, Tehuacan, Mexico

Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido, MX

After buying my 5th GPS cable I made for the muy peligroso highway that winds endlessly through the mountains towards Puerto Escondido on the coast to pickup Kai at the airport. It was about 250 kms but takes 6 hours or more to drive.  It was endless tight blind curves with the last 1.5 hours completely full of potholes or eroded. The recompense was it wound through desert, to lowland jungle valleys, big valley vistas from cool pine forests and finally down to the sweaty little touristy town of Puerto Escondido.   The timing was perfect and I got to the airport straight from the drive only five minutes late for Kai’s arrival outside the doors.   We swam and body surfed the famed Mexican Pipeline waves on the Zicatela beach in the late afternoon.

San Miguel, GTO to MC D.F., MX GPS GPX