Southern Mexico
(May, 2005)
Click on the photos to see full sized views of them.
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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. |
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At times the
cockpit gets cluttered during a passage. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The atrium of our hotel
in Oaxaca. |
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A view of the grounds of
the church/monastary that holds a museum. |
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Dan examining some of the
contents of the church's library, some volumes of which dated back to
the 1500's. |
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Another view of the
architectural splendor of the church complex. |
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This view shows the main
entrance of the church, still in use today. On the day
we visited a funeral mass was taking place. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Another overview of Monte
Alban. This one shows the leveling of the mountain even better
than the last. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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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). |