Friday and my class has completed. My riding partner should arrive this evening and plan is to depart tomorrow headed south east.

The class was useful, both to give me a more structured concentration on the language and for feedback when I was using things correctly and incorrectly. It didn’t necessarily go further than what I learned in Spanish classes (mostly a number of years ago), but definitely feel like I caught back up. We will see how it goes now on the road.

We had two field trips this week, one to a cultural center in nearby San Agustin. This center had multiple purposes including hosting classes, displaying exhibits as well as supporting work from artists.

For example, the headline exhibit was this work. Essentially it took a brief text about changes as rural areas urbanize and then visualized it.

A more complete text above.

The idea of taking something from one medium and representing it in another was also used in a larger “felting” center they had where artists might send images and then art center workers turned this into felted work. It was interesting, though asked us not to share photographs so can’t do that here.

We got a tour of a paper factory where they showed and described the process.

Otherwise, I’ve wandered some through Oaxaca and gotten chance to visit cafes and restaurants.

These folks were working on protest signs and saw at least one or two marches while I was here.

Also music in several of the other evenings.

Wandering through Oaxaca also came across the bus from El Bicho Latino
Fellow travelers going from Patagonia to Alaska. However, have been on the road from 2005, so at a somewhat slower pace.

Looking forward to getting back on the road. The next 400km to Tapanatepec look to be challenging with a continuation of hill Oaxaca terrain, followed by a descent to sea level (i.e. hot) and through a region notorious for wind. There are a limited set of hotels so also anticipate some nights camping. From there climbing back into the hills and another 400km to Guatemala.