on the edge

Bucerias: The Fiesta Of Our Lady of Peace

A reminder to those who are interested, the festival of Our Lady of Peace, the patron of our local Catholic Church is just gearing up. It will run for about 10 days, culminating on January 28th with the blessing of the boats which happens around 12:00 noon central time. The nearby restaurants are usually jammed so reservations are necessary for a good seat. Adrianos is the the place to be for a view of the boats. There is always plenty of standing room on the beach and on the plaza. The festival culminates in the evening at around 11:00 pm central time with the lighting of the castillo, a three story tower filled with fireworks. An event not to be missed. Unfortunately, I will be in Oaxaca this year...

Here's last year's report...

Road Trip: Oaxaca

Tomorrow I head off for a three week trip to the Mexican city of Oaxaca. I will be attending 2 weeks of Spanish language intensive and for the third week my wife Mary will be joining me for a week of exploration. I have never been to Oaxaca so this will be a new experience and if I can get online to download pictures, I will share with you my experiences there.

The language school is Academia Vinigúlaza which comes very highly recommended by several friends who have studied there. I will be reporting back on how that experience turns out. Through the director of Vinigúlaza I was able to connect up with a Mexican family with whom I will be staying for the two weeks of language school. This will minimize my reliance on English to communicate and force me to get up to speed quickly. I have done several intensives before but never a total immersion experience. We'll see how that works. My goal is to be able to read and communicate on a conversational level.

Oaxaca is known for it's cuisine. I am looking forward to that and to taking a cooking class or two to learn how to make moles, one of my favorite dishes of Mexico.

The valley around Oaxaca contains many towns each of which are known for their arts and crafts. That is also a high priority for exploration.

Another must see is the ancient Zapotec city of Monte Alban. We'll have a report on that too.

Stay tuned....