Me-hico!

On the topic of new experiences (of which I have had many in the past few weeks), I just returned from my trip to beautiful Oaxaca, Mexico. I had a tremendous time! The day we arrived there, we drank a lot of Mexican beer, and investigated this city of 100,000 people. After calling it an early night, we woke up the next morning, and got ready to head to the field. The purpose of this trip, by the way, was to collect mites for my PhD research. I'm doing a biogeography study with these mites, and making comparisons between mites associated with two beetle populations: one in the S.E. USA, and one in Mexico.

Anyways, on the second day, we headed into the field with a group of Mexican forest service technicians. The goal: find a bunch of trees infested with the southern pine beetle, take bark samples back to a lab in the Universidad de Oaxaca, and search for mites in the inner bark. We drove 3 hours on dirt roads through some of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen. In a bit of a twist, the Mexicans sat in the cab, while the gringos sat in the back of the truck (see picture above). There's something exhilarating, and at the same time terrifying, about sitting in the back of a truck, screaming down some Mexican roadways. I did think a little bit about how quickly my life would come to an end if the truck drove off the road, or had an accident and rolled over, or threw me off the truck, causing me to break every bone in my body. Whatever the case, I survived.

We drove to a little village, where we negotiated with the mayor for permission to cut down a few trees on their land. We sat in a straw building, and drank several rounds of Coronas and Mezcals (Mezcal, btw, is a close relative of Tequila). After an hour, we convinced him to show us to a nearby stand, and allow us to cut down and remove a few trees. We took care of the trees, and headed back to the mayor's place to say fairwell. He gave us another three rounds of beer, and then tried to convince me to marry his 14 year old niece. He offered me 2 cows, a house, and land (twice what he offers Americans, he told me). I'm 99% sure he was shitting me, but it makes for a great story. He then made us pay for all the beers he offered us, and sent us on our way.

The next day, we went to breakfast at a local eatery, and ate enchaladas with corn smut, Oaxaca string cheese, and pumpkin blossoms. Delicious! We then went to the University of Oaxaca to start the mite colonies. It was Cinqo de Mayo, so getting into the University was a bit of a challenge (not many people were working that day). That evening, we headed to the main square, and joined the locals in some revelry! It was nice not to see very many pasty-white gringos there (and most of the gringos showed a good deal of respect, e.g. by not wearing short shorts and bikini tops).

Of course, no trip to Mexico would be complete without Montezuma's revenge. All of that delicious Mexican food was forcibly evicted from my body. My daily caloric intake was at a negative yesterday, as was my fluid intake. The plane ride back was painful, especially since the flight from Houston to Boston was delayed 45 minutes. However, I'm happily back to eating solid foods (it's amazing what pot'll do for your appetite... also good for nausea).

Despite getting ill, I have to say:

¿México es agradable? ¡no, México es fantástico!

One thing's for sure: Mexicans have fine asses!