phoenix.

I take bites from forbidden things. And tell myself its just this once.
I hide in doorways and try to catch fleeting things by their feathered tail-ends before they burst into flame before my very eyes.
But the truth is I'm living happily in the eye of the storm, walking on feet two inches above the ground.

the fruits of travel.

A garden blooms ahead of me.
I pick fruits as I walk along, holding them by my sides. But one can only hold so much, at some point surely they must fall from me.
I hold tightly to that which sustains me, all that I have scraped from the bottom of the barrel.

magic mountains

 San Jose del Pacifico, an escape from the city for a time...
A magic little place in the mountains where the front yard of our cabaña was the open valley, to step out the door was to almost tip oneself into the abyss.

lent./ la tormenta

Hymns rise from a procession of shuffling feet that pause at stations of Jesus to pray. Prophetic birds circle about my head as I step back into the shadows so as not to impose or be seen to observe. This is not my rite.
Clouds sit low and fat, waiting to release their swollen load. A great tongue rolls out from the alter of the sky to lick clean the wounds of the earth.

Oaxaca City, first glimpses, and a sensual ravishment.

Simply, Oaxaca City is incredible.

After seven, every night, people pour out of their houses and into the streets, the plazas and the parks, usually for no other reason than to just be outdoors. There is always something happening, whether it be a festival, a political demonstration, dancing in the Zócalo or five Mariachi bands competing for noise space in the plazas. Art, music, salsa and Mezcal practically pour out of the bars, galleries and whatever else. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Ridiculous.

Also, Oaxaca is famed for its food. For good reason. Example; Mole Negro, savoury cacao sauce. Yes. Hell yes. Yum. And chipolenas - basically grasshoppers of varying sizes, cooked crisp and covered in salt, lime and garlic. Made myself sick on them my second day here. Ate a whole bag. Totally worth it.

Better still, I´m learning to cook this food. I will be a Oaxaqueña cooking queen.

-- I want to mention that I'm living with two nuns from New York, they're staying in the same host house as me and studying Spanish at the same place. Now I haven't had much experience of hangin' with nuns, but these are two very cool ladies. No habits and no talk of religion at all so far, just food and people and life. They're just so excited about everything that México is, and about life in general, its fabulous to be around. One of them has a very "New Yoik" accent, which is hilariously apparent in her Spanish accent. "Pienso qué si" becomes, "peyensoe kay siii". These women work with Mexican migrant workers in NY State, and want to be able to communicate better with them.
Its fascinating to find other travellers' reasons for being in México and for studying Spanish, they are so many and varied, and make me realise that my reasons for being here are not clear in my mind. They're abstract, but becoming more apparent every day. All I know is that it feels right to be here.

Anywho, here's some peekies.

watch and learn. Oaxaca

I´m stringing words into sentences like beads onto thread. Hovering somewhere between a world of new words, and world of simmering colours and skuttling lines, I am seduced into a dance I don´t know the steps to.
Pulling pictures in my head into a collage, putting them in small frames so they´re easier to behold.

Monte Albán

Monte Albán: An ancient Zapotec City situated on the highest mountain in the region, looking over Oaxaca.

Umm.. this is me looking at Monté Albán. Yep.