Welcome to the Jungle

So this tuesday we started our field trip for the week which has us going all over the Isthmus of Oaxaca, southeast of the city. We had a 4 hour bus ride at 9:30 that morning to Jalapa de Marques. The ride was a lot smoother than the trip to Sierra Norte and we got the privelege of seeing the awful Mummy 3 in Spanish as our entertainment for the ride. Needless to say I made liberal use of my ipod during the ride. One thing that´s different about the trip is that Oliver isn´t leading it(he is ironically stationed in Canada), instead we get the company of Sergio and his girlfriend Erin who are excellent guides and have tons of traveling stories, a combined encyclopedic knowledge of South Park, and excellent taste in cuisine to keep us entertained and well fed.

But as I was saying, we arrived in Jalapa having no idea what to expect. I hate to steal from my cousin, but his description of Wasilla Alaska(a shithole surrounded by such loveliness) applies perfectly to Jalapa(albeit with completely different climates). Jalapa used to be in an entirely different location in the area, but the citizens signed (or were forced to sign depending on who you ask) away their land rights so the government could build a dam to help with irrigation in other parts of the state. They had to build the land they were on from the ground up as it was literally a wasteland. Over the course of about 50 years they have been able to introduce new trees and other plants and animals to make the terrain hospitable, but the climate has been pretty fierce(hot and humid). Our first stop was to an underground radio station where they provide a counter narrative to many official government stories as well as a place for local citizens to have their announcements read(for example if someone gets sick and can´t afford to pay their hospital bills). It was a cool place but I´m starting to get a little tired of hearing one viewpoint(government bad, indigenous people good, development bad, Zapatistas good). We finished around 630 and had a few drinks to cool off before dinner. The house we were staying at, like most in the region, is made of cement rather than adobe. This might be fine in the US where everyone has AC but here it makes things pretty close to unbearable. Thankfully we had hammocks outside to keep us a bit cooler. I drew the short straw though and had to have one of the beds inside. Before bed we walked around a bit and made friends with some of the kids operating the motorized rickshaws in this tiny town. They were pretty cool and had a surprisingly good knowledge of American music(they knew Arctic Monkeys!) and got a few cigarettes for some of the other guys. We went back to sleep after a bit and I had one of the worst nights ever unfortunately. In addition to the heat, I didn´t really have a pillow to work with and finally after a few hours I got to sleep. Unfortunately, their are roosters that crow constantly from 5 to 7 in the morning so that made it difficult as well. Anyways, enough complaning.

Day 2 in Jalapa was just as hot although we took a lot of water to keep cool and we started to adjust so it wasn´t as bad. We listened or attempted to listen to a few guys from the municpal government talk about the history of the town and an archaelogical site they wanted to take us to(Sergio and Erin had fallen into that trap previously so we dodged a bullet). After that we had lunch and got ready to go out on the river. This is where Jalapa turned around for me. We got to go out on this guy´s motor boat and see the whole area as well as some ruins. We even saw a church from the old village, now underwater(when the water comes down in the dry season you can go down inside it though). He also showed us some of the Tres Picas ruins and he even found a relic which he gave to us. After all that we also got to go swimming in the river although a few of us got bit by fish at the bottom. Overall this made things a lot better and made me remember how much I love being out on the water.

The next morning we made for the city of Juchitan(pronounced hoochy-tan, come on I can´t be the only one that finds that funny) although a taxi strike forced us to go on foot for part of the way. Juchitan is not nearly as nice as Oaxaca city as it is much hotter, more cramped, and just doesn´t have the welcoming atmosphere of Oaxaca. That aside our stay here has been very pleasant. We got to see an ecological site where 10 years ago some local citizens had taken up shelter near this extremely polluted river in town, and since then have helped clean up the river, improve the sewage system, create programs for kids in the neighborhood, work on repopulating iguanas and turtles in the area(they are both popular in Isthmus cuisine), and create an excellent recycling facility. It was really cool to see how far it had come in such a short amount of time and even the government had gotten behind their effort after some initial resistance. We had garnachas for dinner after that and hung out in the Zocalo for a bit. While walking around the center, we all commented on the abundance of bird poop everywhere, then right on cue I got hit with the aforementioned excrement. I whiped it off and consoled myself with the knowledge that in Italian superstition, being pooped on by a bird means good luck and that Sergio also got hit with it a minute later. We then retired to our hotel, which was again really hot but bearable.

Finally, this morning we got up early to go have breakfast(hot cakes, fruit, and coffee for me) and then head over to another underground radio station. Our guide Carlos explained to us all the history of of uprisings in Juchitan and how they provided similar services to the station in Jalapa although it seemed they had a bit more experience with the operation. Again the station was a little much for me as it was littered with pictures of Che Guevara and Subcommandante Marcos, but the people were nice enough. Afer that Carlos and a few other guys loaded us into their truck to go check out some hot springs and the wind project they were working on here in the Isthmus. Our first stop was in the La Venta region which is the windiest region in the entire world. Literally about 5 seconds after we got into it, I came about an inch away from losing my Texas Rangers hat for all eternity but it mercifully fell back into the truck. The wind project presents a very interesting dilemma. On the one hand, this is a gold mine for wind power and it has the potential to provide Oaxaca with enough power so that it could be a net exporter of energy and run almost everything renewably. On the other the companies involved have fallen back on the ancient tactics of explotation of the indigenous population. They have been signing contracts for 150 pesos a year and a tiny share of the profits, and give the corporations ¨renting rights¨ for 30 or 60 years and then transfers the title to the company upon the owners death. The people have had some success in their work with NGOs to overrturn some of the contracts(some of which were handwritten or had huge legal problems) but some of them have gone ahead and signed again, so it´s hard to say whether they understand the consequences of the documents. Anyways its an issue thats caught my attention and I may end up writing my research paper on it, if I can stand being in Juchitan for 5 days. After that we visited a hot spring nearby and got to do some swimming.
Overall it´s been an excellent trip so far. The official field trip is over but as we´re nearby we´ve decided to continue on to Pochutla and live it up on the beaches for a day or two before the Guelaguetza. I´m currently killing time before we have to go to the bus station as our bus leaves at 1130 and arrives around 530 or 6. Thats all I´ve got on this installment. Hasta Luego.