Now I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man

Well the last few days have been... eventful to say the least. No less than an hour after my last post in Juchitan I met up with everyone at the bus station and we decided to get a few drinks to beat the still brutal heat. We walked for a block only to realize our first choice was closed, and quickly headed across the street to another one. We didn't think much of the place at first just a small dive bar with maybe 10-15 people. We eagerly scooped up a table with a fan above it and ordered a round. Now I didn't mention it in the last post but Juchitan is famous or rather infamous for the large number of transvestites in the city. Sergio told us this before we arrived to prepare us but I don't think we had seen more than one or two the whole time we were there. I say this because after a few minutes it became clear that the bar had hired several of them to be drink runners(I don't know whether waiter or waitress is appropriate so that should be gender neutral enough). We laughed a little bit about it but didn't think a whole lot about it and focused on cooling down. Shortly after this, our ears were plagued by the awful songwriting and musicianship of the band Limp Bizkit. The lyrics were so bad on one of the songs I won't even bother to try and reproduce them here. Anyways we agreed that we could use some music that didn't give us a headache so I strolled on over to the jukebox to right the situation. After looking over the songs for a second, I felt a tap on my shoulder. The guy at the bar next to me introduced himself and asked me if I knew English and how to say something in it. Before I could respond the guy next to him introduced himself. I didn't think much of it then and tried to respond to both of them. However when a third guy came over I started connecting the dots... the picture of a scantily clad woman dressed as a devil, their being only one bathroom in the place and the aforementioned transvetites. Yup we were in a gay bar and I was getting swarmed. I looked over to our table with a look that said "A little help here guys". Mercifully they were witnessing the whole scenario and Hannah came over and drew them off and we got some music on and returned to our tables. The other guys thought it was pretty hilarious and Nathan even got a picture of the whole spectacle on his cell. We got out of there a bit later and got on our 1130 bus to Pachutla for what we thought would be a relaxing end to our field trip.

We arrived in Pachutla, at 430 in the morning and took a taxi to a beach Sergio recommended(he calls it his favorite beach in the Pacific) called Mazunte, and that got us there at 5 in the am. Naturally there were no rooms to be had at any inns at this hour so we walked around the small town on the beach, while talking and eventually napping for a bit there. I must have been out, because apparently it took a few kicks from Nathan to wake me up. It was about 7 and the first places started opening so we picked out a cheap one close to the beach. It definitely wasn't the nicest of places but it had mosquito netting and wasn't as hot at the time as it became later that evening. Mostly we just needed a place for our stuff so it definitely fulfilled that requirement.

Anyways after a 2 hour nap and making liberal use of my sunscreen, I was ready to go. Alejandro and I picked up a little bit of food first(some really good crepes with fruit and honey) and listened to one of the many tour guides give us a pitch about seeing turtles and dolphins and going to a nude beach(we declined). Then we joined Will and Nathan on the beach as I relaxed for a bit, enjoying the beautiful scenery now in full view with the sun on the rise. There were some really nice rock formations in the area as well as a forest on top of the cliffs to the right side of the beach. After a little bit of that I was ready to hit the water, and had a good time bodysurfing and swimming and just taking everything in. We took breaks periodically and tried going to hike the cliffs, but were blocked by high tides over some rocks we needed to cross. After that we spent a little more time in the ocean before hitting a little cantina close to the beach. Will left midway thru his drink and said he had to use the bathroom. He didn't return so we were wondering what was up but when we ran into him later he said he was alright. We then went to grab some tortas for lunch and I chowed down after an awesome morning. Again Will left halfway through saying he wasn't feeling well so we were started to get a little concerned about it. We went back to the room after and asked if he wanted anything or was feeling alright, and he said he was good he just needed a nap. We went back to our routine of bodysurfing, swimming, exploring, talking with people, and relaxing on the beach or at a cantina.

At around 8 or so we got back to find Will in pretty bad shape. He had just gotten done throwing up in the bathroom, and said the nap had made things even worse. He couldn't keep water down and the heat was getting to him. We kept him comfortable and decided the first thing we should do was get some pepto bismol and a cool cloth for him to cool down. We ran over to a guy nearby and asked where we could find a pharmacy and he pointed us to the only one in the village. We got back and he drank some of it and we did our best to keep him comfortable(or as comfortable as you can be in 100 degree heat when you can't drink water). After 30 minutes he had to take another trip to the bathroom and it was clear pepto bismol wasn't gonna do it. We explored the idea of a clinic or hospital but decided against it then after finding out the closest one was in Pachutla and most of the cabs had left. After that we ran back to the little pharmacy and grabbed some Pemalite to try and hydrate him. He still wasn't doing too well and we asked if wanted to go to the hospital. He said the thing he really could use was just a hotel with AC. We asked around and discovered there was one lone hotel called "Pan de Miel" in the village with AC. Nathan and I decided to go look for it while Alejandro kept an eye on Will.

So it started off simply enough, we found a cab driver and asked if he could take us there, he said we didn't need to as it was just a 5 minute walk or so in the other direction. Great we said and set off. We went for a little bit and after about that amount of time we asked again and they told us to keep going for a bit more and it'd be on the right. After about 50 more yards there were no more lights guiding us, so I pulled out my cell for a little light. It was crazy dark and we kept seeing shadows all the way so we weren't sure if we were alone on the road or otherwise. All of a sudden we started hearing a sound from behind. At first it sounded like a man chanting. It got louder. We suddenly realized he was talking to us. He sounded angry and started saying things like "you shouldn't be here" and that we weren't welcome and that the Zapatistas would be dealing with us; he punctuated these thoughts with creepy laughs every few seconds. We started walking faster and even though the small rational part of our brains was whispering "he's probably harmless", the sleep deprived, crisis mode, running on andrenaline, parts of our brains were saying "Get the hell out". Thankfully we soon ran into a truck and asked for directions to Pan de Miel . They said we had passed it but it was close and offered us a ride. As we climbed into the back we caught sight of our tormenter and he said the words "Nos Vemos" or in english "We'll see each other".

They dropped us at the "entrance" of the hotel which was a gate that was still about 200 yards and 3 turns away from the actual hotel and was also poorly lit which was not something we needed then. We found the place only to discover the office was closed and they didn't have any rooms to rent. After a disheartening walk back, we arrived at the hostel only to find no sign of Will or Alejandro. We hurriedly searched for the owner to see if we could figure out what happened and after a bit she said they had gone in a taxi to the hospital. Now we were really worried. Between everything that had already happened, and our wondering what could have caused them to abruptly head off like that. We grabbed a few things to drink and snack on at a convenience store(it was now 11 and we'd had nothing to eat) and waited 20 minutes for a taxi but had to settle for a collectivo. They drove really fast on the way to the hospital which was not what we needed after such a harrowing night but we got there okay. We waited for a bit inside and asked the guy at the front desk if he knew where he was and he went to ask somebody before Alejandro got out attention. Relieved, he proceeded to tell us that the reason they left wasn't because he got any worse but because the people at the hostel started to notice he wasn't okay and told them that it would be really tough to get a taxi and that they could take him now. In the meantime they were checking him out and gave him and IV to get some fluids back in him. While waiting we started talking to the guy at the front desk, named Uriel, who was eager to practice his english with us and we started talking about his trips to Canada and other parts of Mexico. He was really funny and joined in when we started badmouthing Juchitan(we found out later that Hannah got sick from it's food too so 3 our of the 5 of us got sick from that city). After an hour or so Alejandro said Will was doing better and that he'd probably be able to leave in a little bit. He came out looking greatly improved about 30 minutes later and said that he'd gotten a bad case of diarrhea courtesy of Juchitan. We helped him fill out some paperwork and get his meds(total cost of the trip only 99 pesos). It was around 130 then so he decided it'd be best if we stayed in Pachutla for the night instead of spending another 150 pesos to go back Mazunte and sleep in a hot hostel for the night. We got a nice place called Hotel San Pedro and slept well for the first time in a while.

The next morning Will wasn't quite up to beach activites so Nathan Alejandro and I decided to have just a quick day at the beach before collecting all our stuff and heading back to Oaxaca. We mostly just ate and hung out on the beach before heading back. Needless to say we were pretty eager to put this trip behind us. We got back to Pachutla, headed over to the bus station and proceeded to have an 11 hour bus ride back home. It was made all the weirder by a creepy guy who wouldn't get up from our seats, wasn't wearing a shirt at times, and started talking to himself during the trip when we went by a military checkpoint. Thankfully the trip wasn't too bad and we got home alright around 130am.

Some final thoughts on the trip.
1. As much as I hate to admit it, all the time I spent in Boy Scouts did help me. When Will was doing bad, I remembered a lot of what I had to do back then for first aid, and just dealing with sick people and I really think that I with the help of the other two guys handled a bad situation really well.

2. I would probably like to go back to Mazunte some day, as it is very beautiful, but you'll need to tie me up and drag me to get me to go back to Juchitan

3. The whole time when everything was going down in Mazunte we felt like we were in a bad movie that couldn't make up it's mind what genre it wanted to be: comedy, drama, horror, etc

4. It made me realize how much I really enjoy the comforts of Oaxaca city and have really grown to love the place. I'm definitely going to be sad to leave this place in a few weeks

That's all I've got for now, hopefully the rest of the trip is less dramatic. Adios