Back to Coyoacan

My blog has fallen a couple of days behind, but such is my pace now that I’m on the move again that I’m several towns and adventures behind.  Tonight I’m in the mountain town of Jalpan, within the National Park known as the “Reserva de la Biosphera Sierra Gorda”; I’ve got a private room on kind of a dormitory hall in back of a restaurant (courtesy of AirBnb), with two beds, bare walls, and doors to a little balcony that I’ve opened to try to cut the sweltering heat now that the sun has set.  A thunderstorm has just passed off, leaving my floor wet where the rain blew in under the closed balcony doors; the air is still hot and humid.  This is the thick green wilderness region of San Luis Potosí.  Tomorrow I’m hoping to explore some of the Sierra Gorda; the next day I plan to visit the mysterious jungle art gallery of Las Pozas nearby.

So how did I get here?

First, let me catch up with some general thoughts and plans.  Since leaving Zipolite on the Northward turnaround I feel happier and happier with my decision.  I have an immediate goal: I’ve successfully signed up for the “Algonkian Novel Writer’s Retreat,” in Sterling, Virginia (just across the river from Rockville, MD), from Sept. 12-17, where I’ll be putting my unpublished novel’s feet to the fire of professional criticism.  The retreat cost about half of what it would have to ship my car across the Darien Gap.  To me it feels like the better investment, which tells you something about where my heart lies as well as the riptide of future financial reality asserting itself to reverse the momentum of the dream.  Driving North I feel on solider ground.

I’m also effectively commencing a whole new road trip, as I have a little over four weeks to get to Eastern Virginia.  Hence my pace upward from Oaxaca.  My plan is to swing through Monterrey, cross into the USA at Laredo sometime next week, and then, as I mentioned in an earlier post, explore my way East through the Mid-Atlantic States, the Blue Ridge Parkway, etc.

And I’m off!  From Acapulco, my next stop was back at Mexico City.  The drive up from the coast wound over mountains that were an exercise in changing shades of green.  Near the ocean the vegetation was so thick that the hills seemed to boil with it, but as we got higher the trees changed to a thin-trunked species with all the leaves at the top, so that hillsides looked like scalps of thinning hair.  Later were meadow-green mountains studded with gigantic boulders like necklaces of chunky jewelry.  Then of course came the urban sprawl and traffic of Mexico City, and I pulled right back into the friendly garage at good old Hostal Cuija in Coyoacan, where I had spent a month.  The staff all welcomed me and I felt right at home.

I was in Mexico City for two reasons, neither of which panned out.  I was checking at Hostal Cuija to see if my driver’s license (snail-mailed by Washington State DOL on July 18) had arrived; the staff was supposed to call me if it had, but I figured I’d check for sure.  Nope, still not there.  I was also thinking that maybe I could find a camera repair store.  At first I thought I’d struck gold, as a Google search pinpointed one right in Coyoacan.  But after a nice walk down gorgeous Avenue Sosa to find it, they didn’t repair cameras after all. 

So I just enjoyed a day in lovely Coyoacan.  It was strange to be back on streets that I knew so well, walking slowly and a bit light-headedly from the altitude.  I sat down at my favorite coffeehouse, Café Negro, to catch up on email, and ordered my usual latté and cinnamon roll; for lunch I had the good tuna panini sandwich at Café del Barrio with their wall of dozens of toy action figures; I strolled up to the local supermarket and bought fresh fruit to make a fruit salad back at the hostel kitchen where I knew where all the bowls and plates were.  I spoke to an Australian traveller at the hostel who had just come in, and was able to recommend good places in the city to see Frida Khalo works.

It was hard to believe I wouldn’t be staying a week or more.  But after one day I was saying goodbye to the staff and getting them to open their garage door for me.  I was back on the road. 

And it would be a road day like none other.  But that’s a subject for another post.