The Travels of Tricia Jean
Southern Mexico
(May, 2005)


Click on the photos to see full sized views of them.


Underway crossing the Gulf of Tehuanapec, an area renown for sudden high winds and waves that can blow small boats a hundred or more miles off shore.  Fortunately for us, other than a couple of squalls which only lasted a few hours each, we encountered no extreme weather during the crossing.

At times the cockpit gets cluttered during a passage.

Fields of agave plant (from which mescal is made) cling to the sides of the hills.  This photo was taken out of a bus window as we traveled from the coastal town of Huatulco to the inland city of Oaxaca.

A couple of men working on a roof.  It is surprising to see ox driven carts in common use in this area, even in the 21st century.

The atrium of our hotel in Oaxaca.

A view of the grounds of the church/monastary that holds a museum.

Dan examining some of the contents of the church's library, some volumes of which dated back to the 1500's.

Another view of the architectural splendor of the church complex.

This view shows the main entrance of the church, still in use today.  On the day we visited a funeral mass was taking place.

Not far away from Oaxaca was the ancient Tepotec/Mixtec site of Monte Alban.  To create this wonder of the pre European America, they first leveled off the entire top of a mountain, then built temples and other structures on top of it.  Here is a large ball court.

This view gives a sense of how large the site was and thus how much work had to be done in order to level off the top of the mountain.

Another overview of Monte Alban.  This one shows the leveling of the mountain even better than the last.

In a nearby town, we visited the shop of this local artisan who makes fantastic animal carvings, brightly painted.  In this photo she is signing one of her pieces for us.  The lizard now lives on one of the bulkheads of Tricia Jean.

Back at Huatulco, we sometimes had to make room for some larger boats.  This cruise ship dock was right next to the area available for anchoring

Looking in the other direction, there was a grim reminder that the holding in the anchorage at Huatulco was not the best.  This was taken from the deck of Tricia Jean at anchor in Huatulco.

There were numerous coves and small bays near Huatulco where we could get away from the hustle and bustle of the town and tourists.  In this cove, every morning, four horses would appear from somewhere to play in the surf for awhile before disappearing back into the brush.

Eventually, a good weather window arrived for crossing the Gulf of Tehuanapec and we were on the move again.  This photo, taken by Frank of Windsong, was taken off of the coast of Guatemala. We had met up with them to transfer some diesel to them (they had just about run out).