You Grow Girl™

I'm itching to read Oaxaca Journal by Oliver Sacks. I had planned to wait for the lower priced softcover but couldn't wait and bought a copy online today.

I love Oaxaca. Something about it just keeps pulling me back. We've even contemplated living there for three months. I've been twice and had hoped to go November 1 for this year's Day of the Dead. It is possible that we still may go but I'm doubting it. I'm pretty sad about that.

Oaxaca is a great place. I love everything about it. I was really hoping to travel around the Valles Centrales this time which is the area directly surrounding Oaxaca City. It is an incredibly archeologically rich area with pre-Hispanic ruins in practically every town. We saw a few things on our last visit in April 2000, but didn't travel to all the towns as I had hoped. Neither Davin nor I can drive, so travel is always a pain for us. On our last trip we took alot of long bus rides and let me tell you aside from the beautiful scenery they were not fun -- especially since every hour or so brought us past a military blockade of guys with big guns. I spent most of the 14 hour journey from Oaxaca City to the Pacific Coast with my head to the window and the digital camera out taking blurry through the window shots of mountains and hillsides littered with giant cacti and fields of blue agave. I even saw tons of tillandsia in the trees which made me beyond desperate to get off the bus. Leave me in the middle of nowhere. See what I care. There was stuff to look at in every direction. I might die of heat exhaustion but at least I wouldn't be bored.

I have bombarded friends, vistors and strangers with tales of our trips. Don't even utter the word "Mexico" in my company unless you are prepared to sit through a good hour of blabbery followed by photo after photo if my albums just happen to be near by. If they're not available, don't worry I can always go home and get them. For someone like me who has grown up in the north but who is fascinated by tropical plants, Oaxaca is a wonderland. Every single living thing is a miracle. Rubber plants are huge trees! Trees turn out to be giant cacti upon closer inspection. You can eat cactus pears and they taste like strawberries. Watermelons grow in ditches. Passionflowers grow everywhere and they actually produce fruit.

I can't wait for my book to arrive. Of course my biggest fear is that it will compound my sad feelings about not going to Oaxaca this year. There's always next November.

If you're interested I have a flora-logue of Oaxaca on this site as well as a bunch of photos from the 2000 trip up on Fluffco.