Zoë Bowyer

I guess that mention should be made of my attempts to learn and speak Spanish for my trip to Mexico. Last year I vowed to learn some Spanish, we collected free cds and books from newspapers. One was a one month course which I kept putting off and putting off again. Another was a set of seven discs but I got fed up listening to them after disc 1. My last resort was the Spanish Connection podcasts. These were useful, but I only practiced for half an hour a week, whilst on the exercise bike. So, as a result, my Spanish is very basic. The real problem came when people spoke to me. All of what I heard was gobbledegook and, if I did understand even a word or two, I would be struck dumb. Firstly I would have to try to translate what I wanted to say from English, then I would realise that I couldn’t translate anything at all. Then I would be overcome with panic. I might be able to figure out a word or two to say, but it would be too late, my confidence would be knocked and I would be doubting whether what I had planned to say would be correct. Hence silence or ‘No entiendo’. Another problem was knocking into people in the street and not being able to apologise. I knew a few words ‘discupla’ and ‘perdon’ but my nerves would convince me that they were the wrong words to use.

This is why choosing to go hiking with Tierraventura was a very good idea as we had English speaking guides. They were great, full of information and lovely people, running a very good service.

So, on with the story. After our hiking trips and with D under instruction to stay clear of dairy products (as recommended by the doctor who was on our hiking trip) we travelled back to Oaxaca, to Las Mariposas. D was too poorly to eat so I popped out to the corner shop for beer, biscuits, crisps and sweets for myself. I managed to get confused over my numbers and tried to give the man in the shop 10 extra pesos, fortunately, he put me right.

The following day was a Saturday. We had thought about taking a cookery class but D’s sore belly put paid to that idea - no point him cooking and not enjoying the eating part. So, we went out, looked in a few shops, booked our seat in the minivan to the cost, then came back to our hotel, where we borrowed a laptop and listened to Ireland thrash England in rugby. A very pleasant afternoon. My nerves are never very good when watching Ireland play rugby, but I find that knitting keeps me calmer and this was no exception. I started my fourth pair of Jaywalkers whilst in Mexico.

The next day we took a minivan to Potchutla. The journey takes about 6 and a half hours and is through the twisty mountain roads. I heard that it was the kind of journey that could result in lots of boking, so I took a travel sickness pill and hoped that I would get to enjoy the ride. We made it to Pochutla in 5 and a half hours, our driver drove very fast and I didn’t get to see much scenery as it was all flying by too quickly and was making me feel dizzy. I felt quite green. D said that there were plenty of hairy moments when the driver drove very close to the edge of the road and the view downwards was not a pretty one. I was never so glad to get out of a vehicle.

From Potchutla we got a taxi to our hotel at La Boquilla beach. The beach is at the end of a very rough road so it doesn’t get too busy. There were only a few other people staying there and the beach had dogs. One belonged to the manager, one looked like it belonged to someone and the other two just looked lucky to have found such a nice place to hang out. They would relax on the sand, then run up and down the beach playing. The hotel was very nice. We had our own cabana, we lay on the beach, we swam, we ate tasty seafood, we read, listened to music, snorkelled, travelled to Puerto Angel for a day trip and we could easily have stayed longer. But D was booked to go diving so we travelled to Huatulco. We ate some very nice food in Huatulco, we swam in the hotel pool, I read while D dived but by the end of our stay I was eager to leave.

Our leaving should have been trouble free except that I got a phonecall at the hotel advising me that our flight from Huatulco to Oaxaca had been cancelled as the plane was broken. D was out diving so I asked her to call back later, but she didn’t. D and me then went to the Aerotucan office in Huatulco to get something sorted. We left the hotel in such a panic that we forgot that we might need a Spanish dictionary and, of course, the man at Aerotucan didn’t speak English. With the help of international idiots sign language we managed to find out that we would have to travel by bus to Puerto Escondido to catch another plane, and that Jesus (aerotucan man) would pick us up at our hotel, drive us to the bus station, pay for our tickets, put us on the bus and give us money for a taxi ride to the airport. As we left he used international idiots sign language to inform us that taking the plane would have been very bad, he made a plummeting plane hand signal.