Soggy Zipolite

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  Zipolite, Oaxaca, Mexico
Saturday, September 6, 2008

Greetings from soggy- rainy, sweaty, ocean-salty- Zipolite. 

Here I am, on "Mexico's only clothing-optional beach," staying in a "embryonic ashram," whatever that means.  Life is good.  Traveling is amazing.  (Don't worry- while I think nudity and sand are fine things independent of one another, I'm not convinced that they mix for me personally, especially when you add Mexican men into the equation.)

(In case you're wondering about the farm thing: the more and more I thought about it, the less and less appealing it seemed.  Especially after they sent me an 11 page document of  rules, including one that literally said "to avoid odors, we encourage you to change your socks daily."  As much as I sometimes ache for structure and purpose, thatīs not the kind I need.)

I fulfilled my promise to myself and left Oaxaca by my self-imposed Thursday deadline.  It feels so good to be out.  ...Not that there was anything inherently wrong with Oaxaca (want to be clear about that)... it was just that I felt like staying there was sucking all the life out of me.  I think it probably has something to do with me playing it up so big before leaving Mexico, making it my only planned-out destination and all of that.  (Had a similar experience with Mongolia.)  I don't know.  Again, I just know, that for whatever reason, it just feels good to be gone.

Had a nice couple of last days in Oaxaca though.  Knowing I was leaving gave me a bit of a different prospective, and I did a things I had been wanting to do for awhile but had been putting off, like buying some stuff that I now have to carry- a sweatshirt and two quirts (wanted a lucha libre mask, but will wait on that)- and going on a tour to see the Tule tree (widest tree in the world), Mitla (very elaborate Zipolite/Mixtec ruins where to walk down in to a tomb- so cool, in a goose-bumpy kind of way), Hieve de Agua (an underground natural spring with an absolutely amazing view, and where I got to go swimming), and a mezcal factory (similar to tequila but with flavors like "pechuga de pollo"... chicken breast mezcal anyone?).

(Before I continue, a disclaimer:  I'm about to violate one of the unspoken rules in the backpackers' code of ethics here- a rule which says you should never write home and say you're having (or had) a crap time, and a rule which, frankly, sometimes makes life very difficult- but please indulge me and except this something normal and nothing meriting special concern.)

Some things about these past couple of weeks have been really hard.  My run last Sunday was a 7-miler (the exact halfway point of my training), and I ended up getting about 3-4 miles outside of town and just broke down- sat down on a curb and cried.  Nothing like that has ever happened to me while running; I've never not completed a training run.  I wanted to get on a bus, but told myself "just sit here, as long as you need to, until you find something in yourself that will allow you to get back to the hotel with your own power," and, though it wasn't pretty, I ended up walking back to town, feeling like I'd been taught a lesson.

The next day, I was in a church, and the same thing happened.  Tears.

It's an incredible soul-transforming experience though- feeling so alone, far away, lost, and just sitting with that.  It's like a literal manifestation of what I feel in the US, but one I can actually work through... and it ends up being empowering.

After first moving in the dorm room at the hostel in Oaxaca, I continued to be depressed and emotional.  There wasnīt anyone in the room that first night, so I was thinking "Just great!  I give up my nice, comfy, inexpensive room because I'm lonely, only to be in a bigger, emptier, less comfy, and more lonely room!"  but it ending out working out, and by the time I left, the place was nearly-full, with a very diversity cadre of travelers.  Met some cool people, and spend some time actually interacting with other human beings, and feel much, much better.

And then Zipolite...

Zipolite is very close to Puerto Angel (where I went snorkeling yesterday), and is an interesting town, apparently "founded" by a bunch of Americans hippies in the 60's, looking for the perfect place to experience the solar eclipse.  Suffice to say, the hippies never left, and I can see why.

I arrived here yesterday morning, after a 9 hour bus ride from Oaxaca.  I elected to take the slightly more expensive bus, the one that takes the longer, but less apt to cause motion sickness route, in hopes of getting some sleep (and not having to pay for a hotel room) and avoiding vomiting.  It was still a really curvy road (as in luggage flying), but I was okay (with a Dramamine) beside being really, really cold (sat at the front of the bus- again, attempting to avoid vomiting- but it was a trade off because it also put me close to the artic air conditioning).

The bus dropped me off in Pochula (about 30 minutes from Zipolite) at 6:00 AM.  I wasn't in the best frame of mind to bargain with an obnoxious taxi driver at that early hour and after I fitful night's sleep, but I didn't have a choice.  After he tried to double our already negotiated price, I got angry and told him to let me out of the taxi.  It was pitch black, and I had my heavy backpack, but I was able to stumble towards the sound of the ocean, and following the hotel's signs, came up on a big hill, climbed the hill, and saw it- the ocean.  It was one of those moments out of a novel- the sun rising, the surf crashing, etc.- any description I could give wouldn't do it justice and would come off as cheesy.  The hotel's office didn't open until 8:00, so I curled up an a hammock and slept an amazing, hypnotized sleep.

How to describe my accommodations?  It's sort of like a tree house, with a 3 bed "dormitory" in it (though I'm the only resident at the moment).  Saying that there the room has walls might be a bit of an overstatement, but who needs them with a view this amazing?  I'm over the kitchen and the smell of pancakes (more indicative of paradise than anything the natural world has to offer, in my humble opinion) wafts up into the room.  Sigh.  And the very best part?  Something that made me want to weep with happiness?  Mosquito nets!!  Yes!!! I slept under a mosquito net again, for the first time in almost two years, and while I know that this is something that not many people will understand, that probably by tonight, I'll be annoyed and opt not to use it, and that it will sound very cliche, but it made me feel so safe and protected- like a baby being back in her mama's arms after a long separation.  It feels so right that I wonder if I'm destined to live in a insect and disease infested place (though, to be fair, Zipolite is not).

This place is doing funny things to my heart.  It reminds me of Nkhata Bay, Malawi, which makes me think of it's Tanzanian counterpart, Mbamba Bay.  Of all the places I've been in the world, Mbamba Bay has most mesmerized/captured me.  I can't explain why exactly, or what I'd do, but I think a lot about going back there.  This probably sound crazy but last night there was no electricity at the hotel (actually not a very common occurrence here), and I wonder if I caused that to happen by projecting Africa on the place.  This morning, I was writing in my journal, looking out at the ocean, and the hotel started playing this African music (not in Swahili, but definitely in some Bantu language that I could understand a few words of)... I don't know how to explain what I felt.

I'm going to spend today, since it's kind of rainy, being introspective, and reading and writing.  Tomorrow, I'm going to go boogie boarding. :)  Monday, I go to Puerto Escondido.

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