Limping back to Oaxaca

September 9, 2023

Soon after midnight I knew that it could be a long day. My stomach started to cramp and I had diarrhea and nausea. The booms of the amplifiers and fireworks continued all night. I didn’t even notice the minor tremor during the night. I took an anti-diarrheal med around 3 am to have the greatest chance of not having an accident on the car ride back to Oaxaca later in the morning and als placed an anti motionsickeness patch. At 10 am our taxi arrive, a little tiny red car. No federal police drivers. I had hope that the drive could be more gentle and I would not get sick in the twisting mountain roads.

The hillsides were verdant as we wound around the newly paved mountain road that leads from Zoquitlán to the main highway, the Panamerican highway. This is the rainy season and it has rained two days in a row, after 5 weeks of no rain. The hillsides were dotted with tall organ pipe cactus and trees, but the variety of trees varied as we changed elevation, with the cactus gone above a certain elevation.

We arrived at the Panamerican highway and turned toward Oaxaca. The military checkpoint was no longer present in town, a sign that the narcotics traffickers had moved on to a new region. The highway had little traffic, but getting behind huge trucks with diesel fumes coming into the car made me feel sick. I laid down in the back seat and made time go by faster by dozing. Finally we came to the last pass and Oaxaca valley opened up ahead. People have occupied this fertile valley for thousands of years, and there are tiny hints of their lives on the cliff paintings.

We dropped of Stephen first in the Noria neighborhood, and then drove north to an area near the arches of the old aqueduct. I have the taxi the wrong address, so I walked about 7 blocks to Porfirio Diaz. I was thankful that my friend, David Taylor, was there waiting for me. His apartment was a beautiful home, so different from the modest apartment that Alice and I had stayed in a few years ago.

I dedicated the rest of the day to rest and healing. I stopped at a little convenience store and picked up some fruit and yoghurt, and also went to a very old barber shop to get a trim. It was time to rest at the house, go to bed early and hopefully be well the next day.