Downtown Walk

We walked the zocalo, the main square in Oaxaca and then wandered the Benito Juarez market mostly looking and buying a few things as we went. Monday is the birthday of Benito Júarez, the main founding father of Mexico as an independent state. I should point out there have been a few revolutions over the centuries with many heroes of independence but Juárez is revered everywhere.

I bumped into the balloon seller coming round a corner and snapped a quick shot as she drove over me with her balloons, me fumbling with my camera. In Mexico you just never know what’s coming. 

You can take the number of people in the main square on a weekday as a mark of a laid back lifestyle, a shortage of gainful employment or work schedules that allow for breaks in an otherwise busy schedule. I enjoy the atmosphere whatever it is and I paid a guy 50 pesos to clean my shoes, a job for which he charges 30. It’s a way to spread it around as I do the opposite of bargaining small sellers to death. 

I also talk to them as they work. We discussed Oaxaca, history, he archeological ruins we had seen, the abilities of the Mixtecs who inhabited the area and the likelihood the ruins of Monte Alban would outlast modern Oaxaca. Our money was on the ruins. 

I was serenaded in the background by a marimba crew who also got a slice of gringo wealth. Their tip jar was a rather decorative piece of bamboo.

Oaxaca isn’t exactly undiscovered and as we ambled we passed a few gringos, most on foot, but none of whom acknowledged other foreigners in their midst. I like to hear other peoples’ stories but I’ve given up forcing conversations with tourists and reserve my curiosity for fellow travelers. Tourists avoid eye contact, travelers engage. 

The zocalo in Oaxaca is heavily shaded but it is also surrounded on all four sides by buildings only two stories tall which gives it a low forested feel. I found it very relaxing.

The Benito Juárez market in Oaxaca:

I have no idea what this is:

We bought tamales for dinner:

I got a quesadilla for breakfast:

With optional onions. It was delicious with green leafy vegetables and a soft cheesy tortilla. 

Store owners pay the trash collectors a few pesos to remove garbage. 

Oaxaca is also famous for it’s cheese:



Tejate is not beer, it’s a dry savory chocolate drink  sweetened and frothed.

Silvia showed us how it’s done. She asked did we like Oaxaca. I said it’s okay… her friend took instant umbrage asking what had we seen? Had we been here…or there…? Silvia got the joke right away finally Silvia intervened and told her friend “He’s pulling your leg…” I admitted it was so and as usual there was some surprise that a foreigner can have a dry sense of humor. This drink really is odd but it looks healthful doesn’t it? 

Then we talked seriously for a bit about the various pleasures of Oaxaca.

We stopped at one chili place where Layne got enthusiastic and I expect some Mexican spices may cross my plate soon.  

After all the excitement of wandering the Benito Juarez market we had a lunch date. Rusty was permitted at Casa Taviche, we checked, but he was not in the mood to leave his air conditioned bed (large battery banks rule!) aboard GANNET2 so we proceeded without him. 

As absurd as it sounds our friends  are people we met a few days ago mentioned in my post about Hierve el Agua. Layne takes everyone’s contact details of course and Rosemary and Ron were staying in Oaxaca so…

…it was inevitable we’d meet up again. They suggested Casa Taviche and we gladly agreed. They are travelers and even though - gasp!- they don’t have a van they know their way around Mexico.  Like I always say there’s more than one way to travel and they are travelers not tourists. 

We meat eaters went straight to the fixed menu starting with cauliflower soup. I’ve loved the vegetable since before it became fashionable but I’ve never had it like this:

They shared a large slice of tuna. 

We each had a beef roll up. 

And concluded with a corn and strawberry pudding. 

In the meantime someone delivered a pile of tostadas. I guess they mean business…

Back to the sleeping boy. 

It’s too convenient having our home parked downtown on a city street. It just takes getting there early enough to find easy parking where you want it. 

Satellite Man

We have joined the 21st century, slightly reluctantly and  I am posting this using our new Starlink satellite dish. 

Twelve hours after I set it up I can say it provides excellent service and if you are used to high speed broadband Starlink can keep up providing all the performance I need. I’m not technically inclined but we tested it by watching a streaming movie and it was excellent, the picture came up and ran uninterrupted with no buffering. Using Starlink you can surf the web like an old fart with no delay and I assume games and stuff must be catered to for youngsters. Beyond that I read of other people who upload videos and work online using the satellite receiver without worries almost anywhere they drive. The dish needs a clear sky to the north and then it directs itself to find the signal. It boggles the mind. 

We purchased the residential version which sells in Mexico for about half the US price, about $415 and  DHL delivered it from Mexico City in two days. However the DHL driver covered himself in dishonor by completely by failing to locate our delivery location for a few days. That caused some stress as our paquete went AWOL. Nevertheless here it is finally and we can leave the campground Sunday morning.  The RV version which works while driving costs $2500 which seemed rather excessive, and unnecessary for us. Stop, set up and surf the web is good enough for us. 

Using the Starlink app you plug the various waterproof components in and the dish locates a satellite and you have a modem (above) that connects you to the world. Done and dusted. For $75 a month we can use it anywhere from Alaska to Argentina where the dish can find a satellite and by the end of 2023 that should include Argentina Bolivia and Paraguay leaving only Venezuela as the sole South American country not served. 

If you want to consider a Starlink for yourself there is tons of information on YouTube with technical specifications and user experiences but if you want to overcome local internet WiFi logjams in the US this dish which also has a tall pole option is very serviceable. Stick the dish up high, log on and surf the web to your hearts content and let your neighbors  struggle with local WiFi signals. 

DHL first tried to deliver my package at 8:50 pm Monday evening before I even knew it was in Oaxaca. The second night I kept vigil outside the campground because they will only try three times so Omar and Greg brought mezcal and a guitar to keep me company on a cold rainy night. My luck of course had the weather turn foul as I waited at the gates for DHL. The driver on Tuesday was not going to claim he tried to deliver the package by buzzing the door bell to the campsite and running before anyone answered as he did on Monday. You meet remarkable people on the road and when my friends heard of my vigil they came and sat with me in the cold damp night. We had fun even if the package didn’t arrive! DHL fooled us again. 

Our departure from Oaxaca has been delayed by a week but I think it’s worth it. Phone service south of Mexico is dependent on local SIM cards which you put in your phone and pay as you go. Every time we cross a border we will need a new local SIM card and in some countries you need a local address or social security number to get service. They are obstacles that you can overcome by begging for help from locals  but I hope Starlink will reduce our dependence on phone service. Most of Latin America is on WhatsApp so we will be able to make phone calls using Starlink as we go.  

I am not a fan of Elon Musk and his peculiar style of mixing politics, show business and commerce in the public eye but I would consider a Tesla were I in the market for an electric car as I try to focus on the product not the personality. I don’t think I’d buy shares in any Musk enterprise  and I doubt he cares one jot if I prefer corporations run more traditionally. I suppose it’s normal to think your pronouncement matters when you have more money than anyone else but on the road those considerations don’t resonate. Equally I understand the disadvantages of filling the night sky with satellites but at the same time I’m not going to imagine my decision to buy or not buy Starlink would change anything in the world of astronomy. So here I am, a sell out to the future and enjoying it. 

No idea what the above screenshot means from the Starlink app. I know Starlink works for now and that’s enough. If it doesn’t work on the road south I will be howling because I’m hooked! 

Art Aboard

Rachel wrote and asked me to post some pictures of our artwork aboard GANNET2. Visitors sometimes express surprise that we stick souvenirs of our travels in the walls of our monsters home but we like to brighten things up. This collection of found objects and buttons we picked up in Franklin Tennessee when Gary and Barbara took us on an outing to the Carnton House before saying goodbye in January. 

This picture below is on our fridge and gains significance as we prepare to launch towards Panama. It was us with Emma and Debs on Miki G our 34 foot Gemini Catamaran just before  the Panama Canal in 1999 as we prepared to transit to the Caribbean Sea. 

Paula from Ireland gave us this fridge magnet before we left Key West. Ever since I discovered one grandparent was Irish I have tried to come to terms with my Celtic ancestry. I was quite happy being English. But one cannot reject any appeal to luck under our circumstances! 

We covered up a failed hook placement by sticking some small rocks over the hole and creating art. All our souvenirs have to be small to fit in our van life. 

The sunflowers we bought in Quebec City in a market in 2016. Sunflowers are Laynes favorite and she says that was the first piece of art we bought for our future van. We planned ahead. 

We seem to end up collecting bits and pieces that resemble creatures of the sea and I don’t quite remember where they all came from. 

We bought this painting below in Dubrovnik in Croatia when we drove around the Balkans for a second time in 2007 and we wanted a small souvenir to take home. 

This year we went to Monument Valley Arizona and got this:

This mask we bought at Monte Alban, the archeological digs outside Oaxaca:  

This was us getting married in Santa Cruz in 1994 in a friend’s expansive back yard. It was a sunny summer in California that year. 

Layne went to Turkey with some girlfriends a few years ago, well before Covid and brought back some oval charms which are supposed to ward off the evil eye. The sousaphone player she bought in New Orleans to remind me of my youthful musical efforts. 

We bought the painting below as a reminder of our pleasure in the desert southwest. We happened upon a street fair in Mesilla, New Mexico and liked the art. In front of it we bought the tall wood statue in a museum in Alamos last year in Sonora State, next to it the day of the dead statue and next to that one of our more recent pieces a wheelbarrow from the mining town of Real Del Monte. 

The paper towel holder we like as it’s not like the regular holders and I like the cheeky sombrero art. We found it in Tzintzuntzan on the shore of Lake Pátzcuaro last year. 

Layne finds odd spots for various pieces and when she goes by looking she always asks for the smallest examples. We live in a Casa Rodante - a moving home. 

We don’t have anything much from Key West now I’m looking and I find that disappointing. I do have my going away police medal stuck above my desk. It reminds me where the money comes from to live this life on the road. 

The latest was the black clay mask in San Bartolo Coyotepec.  Small of course but beautifully detailed. 

All this stuff travels around with us. Last years’ haul is stored on our storage locker in Miami for now. 

Decoration in our van makes it a home. Cheers. 

Adding art is an ongoing process and I forgot a few. 

Layne’s favorite turtle above has never moved in 70,000 miles. Below we bought a basket to hold our Berkey water filter and it’s worked perfectly. We thought it would break and we bought a spare expecting the worst. So far so good and the spare basket is stashed under the bed. 

A piece of weaving art purchased from a family owned weaving shop near the Oaxaca cathedral. 

And two views of the pyramid preferred by Trish. Also used to hold papers and permits and stuff. 



Note the nice clean art -free area at my end of the bed. I’m holding out against dust catchers.