When in Oaxaca...

Loving my coffee on the terrace

Well, I arrived, unpacked, and settled into my new Airbnb in Oaxaca City (that's pronounced wa-HA-ka, by the way). Here's where I am:

The new place is nice!  It's a totally different experience out here in the country a bit, and that's working for me. I'm staying about 15 minutes outside the main town, which is the opposite of what I usually do, but look at this view from the terrace. I love it!

It was love at first sight

There's an open-air kitchen on the terrace, too, which is fully equipped. Could be fun to cook up there with Melody and Chris.

Communal terrace kitchen (and I also have my own kitchen in my apartment)

The neighborhood is quiet-ish. In a nutshell, it has country noises rather than city noises. There are, of course, roosters. There are also tons of stray dogs around and at least one dog, or usually five, can usually be heard barking determinedly at something – a car passing, a dog passing, a cloud passing– I don't know. I can usually tune them out, but if fireworks or something wakes me up (fireworks are a mysterious constant in Mexico) then the dogs keep me from falling back asleep. I'm going to try and get some earplugs and that should solve my problem.

View from my living room 

I'm really happy here and Roci, the homeowner, is friendly and sweet. She actually has eight apartments in this big sort of house behind her house. For now, only one other is occupied, and that's with a woman who just arrived yesterday.  I really like that Roci uses solar power (the hot water and some lights are solar powered) and that she composts. This is in many ways the perfect spot for me.

The Airbnbs that Roci rents. I'm on the second floor. She says there are a total of 8 places to rent in this building, but I can't make sense of it unless I'm living in an M.C. Escher painting. 

Melody and Chris' place is not far. It's about a 15-minute taxi ride away in a neighborhood called San Felipe del Agua. I love their little bungalow and also their neighborhood, and did I mention their sweet dog, Jet? I think I might try and move in with them. But it's seriously been fun catching up with those two. Melody and I are on the same page job-wise since we both work remotely in marketing  (she's freelance) and Chris is a fellow writer, only he's the real deal and is working on his next book.

Here they are at dinner on Saturday. I'm not sure at this moment if we've all realized that what's on the plate in front of us, next to the guacamole, is actually grasshoppers. We meant to order chips with the guac, but we couldn't remember the word, so when the waitress suggested chapulines we all assumed she meant chips and agreed enthusiastically.

An order of grasshoppers and guacamole we accidentally ordered.

All I know is that I went to el baño and when I returned, it had been discovered. We each tried them and they weren't all that bad (they seem to fry them in beef broth), but in my opinion, it's pretty hard to get past the feeling of little legs in your mouth. Here's Melody going for it. She was actually the bravest of all–  curiosity kept coaxing her back.

On that note, I'll hop off to bed. It's mid-week and work has been busy as ever so I need to put some cotton in my ears and try to get a good night's sleep.

Money spent today

30 pesos bus/taxi to WalMart
300 pesos -groceries at WalMart (I'll admit I'm happy there's one here, like in Merida!)
330 pesos = 17 USD

The tangle of cords I deal with to work remotely. It's actually more organized than it looks here, but it's still a fairly hot mess. (Giant monitor not pictured.)