Expat in Mexico... the journey continues!

  Last weekend, I simply HAD to escape the city and the confines of my domicile. Do you know the feeling, fellow pandemic captives?! One can only take so much...  And so it was that I joined a small band of other female escapees and headed for the famed mountain range of Sierra Norte.  I had been hearing about the Sierra Norte mountains since my arrival in Oaxaca months ago. I was told that the hiking was great and there were cabins for rent at various facilities up there. Fortuitously, I recently met a lovely Oaxacan woman by the name of Elvira who told me about a tour group--lead by her brother-in-law--heading to those very mountains. It was pricey--2400 pesos for the two-day excursion (about $125, definitely a gringo fare!)--but since I have been teaching English online I could make it work.  Thus, in the early morn of Saturday, February 6th, I clambered into a spacious and luxurious van (at a park in Oaxaca) and joined this excursion to the mountains.  All f...

This sad, shy little fellow, "Whitey", has made his home on the hill--El Fortin-- where I frequently hike. There is a group of pooches that have claimed the grounds of the "big white tent", as I call it-- a huge, covered amphitheater at the top of a long series of stairs that hosts various events in "non-Covid" times. (All the names are ones I have given to the pooches myself. I imagine other hikers that frequent these hills may have done the same thing!)  As with India, everywhere I have been in Mexico has a profusion of dogs. The spectrum ranges from the scrawniest, most depressed and bloated street dog to the  pedigreed variety, pampered and well cared for by its proud owner. (Unfortunately,  many of these species clearly do not belong in a hot country like Mexico. I think that their owners are quite selfish and must be primarily interested in the status attributed to owning stylish breeds. Why else would they possess Huskies, Sheep Dogs, Saint Bernards...