On the Road

The last 3 weeks have been almost non stop travel. After leaving Guadalajara, we headed straight for the coast of Michaocan. After a few days of hitching and hiking, we land ourselves in La Ticla with the intention of finding contacts for Xayakalan.

La Ticla is one of the larger villages on the coast of Michaocan with a population pushing 200. I immediately get good vibes. Moises, an old man who gives us a ride the 3 miles from the highway into town takes us into his house and lets us try all of the fruit from his numerous fruit trees. Mangos, coconut, tamarind, plums, it was amazing! Moises whole family shares the house where he lives. They tell us to look for Trino for permission to enter Xayakalan.

We wander around the village. There are so many fruit trees everywhere and everyone is friendly and tries to help us find Trino. Evenutally, around sunset, we arrive at his home. Trino is one of the village eldes of Xayakalan. He is also part of a council of elders that represents the Ostula people of the surrounding area. He is excited about the radio project, and invites us to go to the village with him the next day. His son, Freddie, invites us to camp at his cabanas for free.

The next day, we finally make it to Xayakalan. It is surprisingly laid back, considering it's history of conflict. There are 20 houses and about 40 people. The houses are simple 8'X16' mud and brick structures with one light bulb each and a wood burning stove outside. The land is covered by orchards of papaya, coconut palms, tamarind, and mangos, which lead into a pristine stretch of white sand beach. After lunch and a siesta, Trino calls a town assembly to discuss the radio project.

The town assembly is held under a large palapa. Nearly all 40 members of the town attend: men, women, old, young, all to have a voice in the decision. After about an hour of working out logistics and talking abut the risks of having a radio station, a consensus is reached: the town unanimously agrees that they want it!

To celebrate, Pedro, one of the locals, takes us down to the beach to go fishing for dinner. Josh, Trino, Pedro's wife, their child, and I stroll down the beach at sunset as Pedro casts his net into the shallow waters. The full moon rises behind the mountains. It has been a truly magical day.

The next few days we relaxed in Xayakalan and got to know the people there. Josh was pretty ill and slept through a lot of it. After meeting with Xayakalan´s lawyer to discuss the final details, we head back for La Ticla and start on our next mission: heading to Oaxaca to find an antannae.

Actually, we didn't start it right away. Not before hiking more of the beautiful Michoacan Coast, spotting giant sea turtles laying their eggs at night, crashing a Mexican wedding, enjoying some spectacular beaches, and hiking to the pools of a deserted hot spring. Somewhere along there our cameras got stolen, and I lost the pictures from my favorite part of this trip which I'm pretty devastaed about. Now, after 4 long hot slow days of hitching, we are finally in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca!