2022 11 Oaxaca With Michael deMeng Dia Quatro

 Saturday, October 29, 2022

The routine today started even earlier as I woke at 5:15 a.m. and I could not get back to sleep. After the 7:00 a.m. breakfast call with the regulars, I was off on a walk all the way to the top of the slope above our hotel and El Auditorio Guelaguetza, the dance pavilion.

Walkabout #6

The beginning of the climb up to the El Auditorio Guelaguetza

The view from the top of the stairs to El Auditorio Guelaguetza

Years ago I walked up to the Guelaguetza and discovered that on the walkways into and out of the Guelaguetza, that run under the Pan-American Highway, are painted with great murals. The problem is that they have not been re-painted in all these years and they are showing their age.

After walking up the first walkway, I reached the actual auditorium. Then, turning around, I got this view of foggy Oaxaca. 

Walking back out of the auditorium leads to another walkway and different art. 

Class began at 10:00 AM. Today we worked on carving clay skills. Lunch was at a local hotel on the square across from our hotel.

After lunch I got this idea to go to Wal Mart to find a diamond bit drill so that I could drill through a tile I found on my morning walk. Wayne decided to join me and we decided to walk. That would have worked as the Wal Mart I remembered was on the Pan American highway but it was not where I thought it was. According to my phone, we were a 24 minute walk away for where it actually was on the Highway. I am not sure how long it actually took us to walk there but it seemed like more than 24 minutes.

Wayne and I met at this workshop and I spent most of the walk filling him on the fact that I was directionally impaired and all the adventures I have had because of that (none of which probably convinced him I knew what I was doing). The good news was that just short of Wal Mart there was an actual hardware store. Wayne managed to figure out where the tile and glass drill bits were in a glass case. It took a bit of time to get a clerk to open the case but that was only so that my non existent Spanish could be replaced with pointing. I tried to buy three different sized bits but after a computer search it was revealed that there was only two sizes in stock. The clerk then wrote out a slip which we took to the cashier and paid. Then we took that receipt to a different counter where our bits were retrieved. All of this negotiations took about 45 minutes, mostly because pretty much everything the staff tried to tell me I failed to understand. All in all it was a pretty cool adventure that did get me the bits I needed.

Then we went to Wal Mart and got all the supplies Wayne needed and some from the list the students had given us. Luckily outside the Wal Mart there was a taxi stand and we decided to cab it back to the hotel. While the driver was a sweet old man he did not know where our hotel was and Wayne and I decided to jump out of the taxi when it got stuck on the alcala going the wrong way.

Once back at the hotel I worked on my pieces including drilling the holes I needed to hang the tile I found. I also painted the background on a piece of cardboard I found on the street that is going to be the other backing on my second piece.

Tonight Mija was leading a contingent of us to a building just a few blocks from our hotel for a show called Micro Enormous Life Experience put on by Immersive Theater. This was an indigenous people’s belief exercise that must be like what a Happening used to be like. For me it was not captivating but I have to admit that I was glad I experienced it.

Then I dashed back to the hotel, grabbed my camera and made a walkabout down the alcala to the zocolo, around the square and then back up the alcala to our hotel. Man, Oaxaca is crowded this year as I think people are making for not being here during the Covid-19 years.

Walkabout #7

Sometimes there are no words.