Oaxaca

A close friend of mine had some serious gut problems for a quite a while. He had to go to an ass specialist to get a faeces transplant (that's right) to sort it out. We shared a bathroom for a few years, hence my knowledge of this fact.

It´s also how I know that there's between 300 and 1000 different types of bacteria in your intestines, and one of the reasons they change ratios is affected by your diet.

The bacteria in my gut need to redeploy fast. I've been existing on a diet of street tacos and burritos (choose your type of meat-beef or churazo-they'll chop it up in front of you and then grab it by the handful to put onto a burrito or taco. There might be some onions and is always lime and chilli sauce to flavour it with. All served by a fat sweaty man cooking in his roadside burrito cart) which are delicious. I really like the street food here, it's fantastic. However, until yesterday I hadn't seen a vegetable for 10 days.

Anyway I can put down about 12 of these tacos, they really are great. My gut has no idea what to do with it all so it mushes it up and turns it all into a milkshake which it can then (and does) get rid of really fast.

This guy didn't need to eat vegetables

So after I arrived in Oaxaca I went on a mission to find some fruit and veges. Since then I've eaten (among other things) three tomato's, three bananas, 2 avocados (small), a fruit salad, a large orange juice and a large peach nectar and things feel back on track, although the chilli grasshoppers (chapulines) I ate this afternoon might change that.

Glad this didn't happen while I was there!


Of no relevance but...mo really starting to look good

Got out of Mexico City a few days ago. It felt great to be back on a bus in Latin America-reminded me of going up to Rio from Montevideo 9 years ago. The scenery on the way down (it's about 400km south east of MC) is seriously impressive-lot's of gorges, valleys, crags and cactus. The cactus line the slopes and look like those inflatable stick figures that wave around in front of used car yards. It's a beautiful place-the landscapes are huge. The plains roll on forever until they are broken sharply by huge, steep mountains rising out of the dust haze. Sometimes they have snow on top, even though it's 35C down in the valley.


This is the sort of place I would love to ride through on a motorcycle. You could never get sick of the scenery and the views. At one popint the mountain sides were flecked with a yellow sandstone that looked like gold shining through the cactus in the mid afternoon sunlight-righteous!

Before leaving MC I saw some of the sights. I took a brief tour of the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) which was an explantion of the mural that was painted there (by Diego Rivera) detailing Mexican history. This place has 500 years of history-the Spanish came and wiped out about 22m local Indians, through fighting but mostly from disease, leaving about a million.

Beautiful fountain


Then they built hundreds of beautiful, awe-inpiring cathedrals, some of which took hundreds of years to finish. They really are spectacular achievements. The Historical Centre in MC is dotted with beautiful monuments to God and that they are still standing today is a testament to their construction, especially given that the land they are standing on is sinking. (It is a dried lakebed). Some of the building are 10m below street level.

The inside of the cathedrals are stunning examples of artistic invention, application and expenditure. If you want to worship in MC, you can really do it in style! Most of the historical centre in MC is a couple of hundred years old and the buildings are solid. They could really build back then-it´s hard to see most of the stuff we have around today seeing the 25th century! (Blues Point Tower anyone??)

Fine Art Gallery

Outside the churches are a lot of pitiful beggars, old men with no arms and legs perched on trolleys, women with twisted legs clutching babies, disfigured people in dirty rags, hoping tourists will give them an offering as they leave. It is very sad and frustrating because there is nothing we can do. I wondered if they are located in this fashion so they can easily go somewhere after they clock off to pray to God and ask why He has forsaken them. Well, I'd want some answers at any rate. A few less churches and a few more universities might have been a better way to go.

I actually went to two art galleries while here, and enjoyed them. I won't be making a habit of it but they are good ways to get a sense of the history of a place. The National Gallery was really interesting and cost $3 to get in. The other place was Frida Kahlo´s house. She was a famous artist in Mexico, with a monobrow. She lived with her husband, also a famous artist, the abovementioned Diego Rivera. Anyway a few weird facts took my notice while there:
-Frida had an accident and couldn´t walk for the last few years of her life
-Trotsky the communist lived around the corner
-Apparently Frida and Trotsky tooted a few times
-Trotsky was hacked to death by a guy with an ice pick (in Mexico City where it´s never less than 30C)

Anyway the killer was never found but it seems obvious to me. Frida´s husband was naturally upset that the commie bastard was putting one through his paraplegic wife and took matters into his own hands! Of course I could be wrong, but I guess we´ll never know.

Diego Rivera was a staunch communist. He also did this mural in the Palacio Nacional. If you look closely you can see the Reds represented in the bottonm right of the quadrant. In fact, I think that's his mate Trotski in there!

To me, an art gallery is like a giant picture book, which makes them a great place to learn Spanish. If there's a painting of a young chap sitting on a wharf with a fishing rod dangled into the water, and it says "El Pescadore" I now know how to say ´the fisherman´ in Spanish-you beauty! Either that or ´dole bludger´, but I doubt it!

Proof I went to an art gallery-these are the lights on the courtyard to the National Gallery, which I thought were particularly cool

Funny thing I´ve noticed about being in a less developed country. Westerners spend all day ignoring the hell out of each other when they pass buy on the street, or give each other meaningful glares.

Then they all congregate in the same places at night and get plastered together, becoming best mates. Not sure what´s going on there but it´s fun to break down barriers...