By the time we reached the bottom of the mountains we were still quite far from the town we'd planned to camp in, and it was beginning to get dark. With our gang still six strong, L and J were unsure of our chances of getting another lift, but one of our Basque friends was far less daunted. As a lorry full of 'colchones' drove past she bounded after the cab and persuaded them that if one of us sat in the front the rest of us could ride in the back of the lorry. On top of the colchones. Which, as anyone with google translate may have found out, means mattresses. It was one of the most surreal but also comfortable rides any of us had ever had.
Aftera picnic together and a night on the beach in Puerto Escondido, we parted ways with our companions and hitched out to Mazunte, a very small and quiet beach town famous for turtles. We only saw dead ones, which was quite sad, and makes you wish they spent a bit more tourist money on conservation. But the town was beautiful. We paid a restaurant to put up our tent on on their roof terrace, with a gorgeous view of the ocean.
We spent much of the next two days getting pounded by waves and leaping about like ungainly seals in the bay. J's 24th birthday (the actual one) passed under a clear starry sky with a trusty mp3 player and not even much in the way of hangovers.
On Friday we began our hitch back to Oaxaca, intending to take a couple of days to do so. Our second ride immediately declared that he owned a hotel and we should come there and eat and drink whatever we wanted. Although we were a little hesitant and careful, he turned out to just be the friendly kind of mad, buying us huge amounts of quesadillas and beans for lunch and then leaving us by the pool (which was full of screaming teenagers, only adding to how odd this afternoon was getting), his barmen with instructions to give us as whatever we wanted. He did tell us he only inherited the hotel two months ago and we are not at all sure how long he's going to stay in business.
As it was still early in the day we continued (perhaps a fraction unsteadily), and it turned out to be a day for free things as we were later presented with a coconut all of our own. We carried on into the mountains on winding roads in the backs of more pick ups, the sun going down over beautiful views.
After a night in the very pretty and friendly Santa Catarina we arrived back in our Oaxaca abode. Meanwhile Y and C had been exploring a lot of churches and watching movies at the film festival, and also picking up more smelly travelers from the streets. These ones turned out of course to be friends we made in Arizona. It's great to see them again and even though the flat is now a bit of a squash we're having a lot of fun together, including impromptu dance workshops that are probably best not delved into.
We'd saved official celebrations of J's birthday for when everyone arrived, obviously as you do in these situations yesterday Y spent much of the day building this:
which is a rabbit made of mashed potato with convincing spaghetti innards. There is a reason for this, involving vegans eating tofu shaped like animals and J recently raising the point that this is a bit weird when you think about it. Despite the rabbit being an attempt to undercut this point, one vegetarian present did get genuinely upset which seems only to confirm it ;).
Whilst this creation and C's contribution of an enormous pie cunningly fashioned into the shape of an enormous pie were being made, J and the Arizona folk retreated to a cantina, an experience which really deserves comment. The drinks are not exceptionally cheap but the idea is you get food with them, and in Mexico they really go all out. We ordered three bottles of beer and got this:
Better than dubious peanuts eh?
So with much food, beer, merriment and dancing J is now 24 twice and feeling pretty sure of it.
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