Oaxaca, where it's all happening!

This is my third day in Oaxaca, I think. Great food! So beautiful around the historic centre. And every day, it seems, is a fiesta. 

The day I arrived there was a parade down the street with all the kids wearing traditional Oaxacan clothes. Very cute (when you're not listening to them scream aboard a long-haul flight.) It's a paradise for photographers here. At least, I've taken so many photos, I haven't had time to edit them all, or even look at them again. That's why I've been slack with updating the blog. Between running around taking photos all day and not able to sleep well at night, well, I'm tired and a little slack. Then, on Saturday, there were three weddings and a 15th birthday party, all with their own parades down the street. It seems it's traditional here for the weddings to have a humungous bride and groom in the parade. (You can see the much smaller person controlling the groom peering out from his belly button.) I just thought this groom was a cracker. He's got such a beautiful smile. 

Today I went to a big market. Very hot and very crowded. I wanted to eat, but I didn't want to risk Montezuma's revenge, so I'll eat here in town again. 

Yesterday, you tried to call me Sophie, but apparently I don't have the right plan to receive and make calls to Australia. Please contact me on the new number from WhatsApp. It's not a scam. I have sent proof to Emanuel. (I don't want to put the Mexican number here because the blog is not as secure as WhatsApp.)

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours over breakfast, sitting in a cafe. I took photos of the zocalo from the shadows of the cafe which is right on the square. I had my Spanish lesson, with Breyner, there. 

I'm thinking of doing a day trip tomorrow, but I'm not sure about the sleeping situation. It's a bit tiring to be out all day and it's exhausting in the Mexican sun. Everyone dives for shade wherever they can. 

Ok, I'm going to sign off so that this entry can  go to you. 

Coyoacán

Was able to sleep almost normally last night. I didn't eat after a snack on the plane that morning, having bloated myself with the airline food the day before. This morning when I woke I had a great hunger and thirst.

Took an Uber to Coyoacán, famous for being the barrio where Frida Kahlo's house is. I remembered it as very pleasant, lots of trees and parks, with good restaurants. I found one of those and hung there for a couple of hours, eating and drinking and taking photos from the shade of the restaurant out on the parade of people passing and the hawkers selling hats and blankets, in the bright sunshine outside. 

When I couldn't squeeze in another mouthful, I walked down to an artesanal market. After that I found a bench in the shade and sat there for another hour. In the sunshine, it's pretty exhausting. 

Everyone finds shade and walks in it, if they can, or sits in it. I guess I'm still a bit tired, but there is also something about being at this altitude that wears me out more. 

Then I dragged my weary body to the church: Parroquia San Juan Bautista.

Tomorrow, I'm going to El Palacio de Bellas Artes, where I hope to see one of Diego Rivera's famous murals. Alex has recommended a restaurant there, too. I'm afraid I'll be wearing bigger muffin tops by the time I get home. 

In Mexico again!

 Finally arrived here in Mexico City after a 21 hour journey. The flight from Sydney to LA took 13 hours, during which time the seven or so children sitting in my vicinity screamed and cried, almost without pausing. When one stopped, another one started. That wasn't the worst though. One of the little darlings was kicking the back of my seat. I gave her and the mother a few dirty looks through the crack of the seats but the mother didn't take the hint, so I said: "Can you please stop your daughter kicking my seat? It's uncomfortable." I heard her explain to the child: "The lady in front is unhappy about you kicking her seat." Gimme a break. She should have said something like that the first time she saw it, and slapped her on the legs the second time. That would have given her the picture and I wouldn't have had to suffer for nearly 13 hours. 

However, I'm trying to put that behind me. Eduardo in reception has been really helpful about telling me where to eat around here, and other good advice. Got a new (Mexican) sim for the phone so I won't have the problems I had when I first arrived. For some reason, the Booking.com information about the place I booked was missing. I was trying to find the address on the internet, but the free wifi kept cutting out on me. 

I've already been out on my first photowalk around here. It's 7 pm and starting to get dark, but I'm so tired. I feel a little breathless, too. Probably due to the altitude of Mexico City and the fact that I haven't slept for 30 hours now. 

So, I'll make this a short one: I'm enchanted with the city. Here are a few photos from my short photowalk this afternoon. 

Testing, testing, testing. . .

 Just about to set off from Oz, again. Just wondering if you would like to follow me again. Here is the link, I hope. Every time I do it, I have to learn again, so we'll see if I have remembered. I will leave for Mexico on ANZAC Day, and I won't see you again until June.  

Back on the Road, and Famished

Having just recovered my sleeping patterns from before the trip to the UK, I decided it was time to leave again, this time to take the opportunity to see WA's wildflowers in the spring. 

I had originally thought I'd take the Indian Pacific, but then I saw a doco about that journey, which changed my mind completely. One of the passengers talked about the advanced age of most of the passengers, and I decided that maybe I could find some livelier company.

Couldn't sleep last night--too wound up--so when the alarm went off at 4:30 this morning, I was already up and packing a couple of last-minute items. The taxi arrived at 5:00.

Caught a budget flight to Perth--Virgin was the cheapest. Well, the cheapest airline I was willing to risk. (I will never travel Jetstar again.) I saw on Virgin's advertising that they had a meal service, so I didn't bother with breakfast. But, the meal service is not what I was expecting. It's not free and what they offer is overpriced: beef noodles ($7.50), ham and cheese toasted sandwich ($10), Pringles ($5). I smelt hot food and I was ravenous, having not eaten since dinner the night before, so I was hopeful the food would reach us eventually, but, no. . .  it was for business class. They gave us coffee/tea/water. 

For free!

Arrived in Perth and made my way to the bus stop where No Birds would pick me up to take me to collect the car. (A tip: the car is cheaper if you don't pick it up from the airport. But, it's more inconvenient, of course.)

Wasn't able to buy something to eat at the airport because all the food stands were on the wrong side of the  luggage claim. I figured I'd get to a little cafe in a country town and get a snack, but I drove 150 km before I encountered a cafe. Every time I saw the name of a town and the distance in kilometres, I thought, surely if the town's name is on a road sign, there'll be a wee place where you can get something to eat. 

Not so. Rural WA is very different from rural NSW. It was 2:30 before I had my brunch. 

However, I did see my first spring wildflowers, and they are lovely. The rain that had been falling on and off while I was driving, let up for just enough time to allow me to do a short walk in Lancelin, which is about an hour's drive away from Cervantes, where I am staying tonight and tomorrow. I thought I would photograph the sunset and the Milky Way at The Pinnacles, just out of town tonight, but you can't see the Milky Way if there are clouds, and the rain washed out the sunset. 

So, they're on tomorrow's program. 

An Unplanned Stop--in Newcastle

After a train trip that turned into Bedlam,  I’m compensating myself with a big, cold glass of wine and a dish of mixed seafood in a little Thai restaurant in Quayside, Newcastle. 

You’re right! At the time you're reading this, I should be home in Sydney. But not to be, just yet, I’m afraid.

I’m not sure when I can get home now. Flights are tight. 

The train I was travelling in from Aberdeen to London was held up for two hours because of a problem with overhead electrical wires between Newcastle and London. It held up all the trains on the network. Then, after we sat waiting in the train for two hours, they told us the train had been cancelled. This was at 2:00 pm, and my flight left at 9:05, about half an hour ago. 

The Station Master called a taxi for me to take me to the Newcastle airport to see if I could get a plane from Newcastle to London.

No seats available. 

I waited on the phone for an hour to I talk to the Philippina at the Qantas call centre, who quoted me $10,000 to fly home tomorrow in Business Class. I think it will be cheaper to hang out in a hotel for a week until I can get an economy flight, but I’ll know more about that later, I hope, when I get a chance to speak to Scott at Helloworld, Baulkham Hills.

That may be harder than I thought because I've just run out of data, which I wouldn't have needed if I hadn't missed my flight, and I might not have run out of if I hadn't had to wait for an hour to speak to QANTAS. I may have to wait until the shops open tomorrow to do anything because I can't do it without data, and I don't understand the app.

I've been looking for Vera everywhere. She'd know how to solve this one. But she wasn't out and about this evening when I was roaming the Quayside. 

The Road to the Hide

 Today it's a bit overcast and wet, the first day like this since I arrived on Mainland Orkney. Yesterday I had quite enough adventures for two days, so I think I'll take today a bit quietly until the sun comes out, and catch you up with what I've been doing. 

So, since I got the Peugeot, I've been wrestling with the idiot satnav. Sometimes she takes me to the place at the address I've keyed in. Sometimes (often) she drops me short or doesn't understand the address at all and I have to ask Siri, which is dangerous because she won't let Siri's voice come out of her sound system, so I have to look at the phone while I'm trying to drive down single lane roads.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to go to a bird hide I was recommended on the first day. It appears on the tourist map I was given as Cottascarth. The satnav took me down lanes of broken stones and dirt lanes in which the wildflowers grew so high in the middle and at the sides that the Peugeot was sounding its alarm.

Then the satnav told me I had arrived, but there was no sign and I had no clue. I passed the baton to Siri and she took me into a farm onto a track that ran along a paddock in which there was a gang of half-crazed steers, mooing loudly and trying to push down the fence to get at the big orange car. It was terrifying. I had to reverse out of there as fast as I could, checking that I wasn't reversing into the fences to the left and right. 

I felt that I must be somewhere close to the bird hide, and then I saw the first person I’d seen since I got into the farm. I asked him and he pointed out the sign to Cottascarth, hidden as it was on a fence post behind a digger. That road was sealed. I parked in the empty parking lot and followed the road and the signs through a flock of sheep towards a house. 

I reached the hide, and this was my view from inside, and a closer view of what I saw out of the window.

A lot of hill, but no birds (specifically, hen harriers) in the sky. I waited for an hour and saw one hen harrier (maybe) in the sky, but too far off to take a photo of. Apart from that there were a few pied wagtails, but I already have a good photo of one.

My bum's a bit sore from sitting on the sofa typing this, now, so I'll sign off and publish this. Maybe I'll key in another post tonight with my adventures around the Ring of Brodgar.