Friday, February 25, 2011 — A shaky awakening

A little after 7:00 this morning, we were awakened by shaking and quivering beds. All were in the courtyards in no time. I looked around Mimi's and my room and didn't really see any spot under which to take refuge. So I joined the talkative group outside. It turned out to be a 5.7 quake centered in Veracruz. Don't yet know much more about it except that there evidently was very little damage anywhere and I don't know if if was volcano based or not. Well, I guess that's an exciting way to begin the day. We Californians seemed to be somewhat less phased by it than some others, but I have nothing but respect for such events until they turn out to have after shakes or not. I'm of course hoping it was a single kind of thing.

Four of our group are leaving Oaxaca today. All Canadians. It's been so great to have this extended visit and exhibits with them this year. I'll be quite sad to see them leave. JP, Yael, Mimi and I take the 10:00 bus back to Mexico City tomorrow. We'll have a couple of days there and then JP, Yael and I will board the night bus for our trip back to Puerto Vallarta. I didn't take any photos on the way from Mexico City to Oaxaca. Somehow I was so intrigued with the scenery, I didn't want to interrupt my viewing. But of course I was continually sorry, after the fact, that I hadn't recorded this or that spectacular volcano or arroyo or trees, etc. So I'll try to hit some kind of happy middle ground between obsession and restraint on the way back.

Last night we had a festive dinner at La Biznaga (one of Yadin's favorite restaurants, I hear). It is evidently very popular with locals and visitors. It has a retractable roof to accommodate all kinds of weather. The food was some of the best since I've been here and reasonably priced. I had ceviche that was done in larger chunks than I'm used to in Mexico and it was to die for. The marinade had all kinds of strong and subtle tastes, not all of which I could identify. But it was so good! I finished with a bowl of Aztec tortilla soup which was also delicious but wouldn't have been really necessary, the ceviche was so satisfying.

Oaxaca is a great walking town. Our hotel is about eight to ten blocks from most things I'm interested in. One can usually choose a shady side of the street to navigate with comfort. I was coming through the Zocolo to meet the gang for dismounting our show in the early evening yesterday. All other times I had been going to the Textile Museum from our hotel's direction and found it with ease. But this time I approached from the opposite direction. I won't bore you with every detail (there were too many) but I actually missed the entrance three times. It drove me crazy. So I finally stopped and asked a waitress in an open restaurant. She didn't know and began asking people. I received all sorts of false leads even though a hotel attendant had marked it on one of his local maps for me. Those maps don't show every street between main ones so there's lots of room for misunderstanding. While watching the waitress, a young Japanese couple stopped to see if they could help. I thought I had convinced them that I really knew where it was and that I'd be fine. But I followed the advice (against my better judgement) the waitress had received from some unknown inner expert, and walked around the block to another street and ended up just below the Zocalo and no museum, which I'd been certain of but too desperate not to try. Then I turned around and found that the young Japanese pair had quietly followed me through that whole attempt. They didn't speak very much English so it was great fun trying to communicate. I thanked them profusely and tried to convince them that I'd be alright. About that time a young Mexican woman began taking an interest in the situation. She looked at the mark on my map and decided that it was definitely at the place marked if only we could find it. She started doing the backtrack with me and then slipped into a tienda and asked a young man what he thought. We showed him the map and he said it definitely was where the hotel man had marked his X. The he said he'd show me. So the girl and her friend accompanied me back to where I had passed it near a corner at least three times. Voila! As plain as the nose on your face. I was exhausted from all the false starts and walked into the labyrinth of the museum to our exhibit with great relief. I met Eric Chavez there and he ordered me a nice glass of cool water and then a second one. Bit by bit, I got over it, but as I recreate the whole thing, I can hardly believe it could happen.

As I was waiting for the others to arrive I met a young man who seemed to be taking great pleasure in looking at our exhibit. We talked and I answered some questions. I eventually introduced him to Eric Chavez (the education director) and they arranged to meet again today at 5:30 for him to get all his remaining questions answered. It seems he is from Vancouver BC and is planning on emailing a review of our show to a university newspaper or magazine. Really nice that the show is getting so much positive attention. And very nice that this man is from Canada because that is the last planned venue for our corn pieces. We will be caravanning up there this September.