Last Newsletter, I talked about the nuts and bolts of our daily life (“la vida cuotidiana”); but clearly life is more than the sum of one's shopping list; and an examination of our social life is in order. Before I begin, I want it clearly understood that this is MY reality, and that while she probably agrees with most of what I have to say, Diana's reality is her own.

I didn't know Diana - or anyone else in Oaxaca for that matter - when I arrived in January of 1994, looking for a language school and a place to stay.

I spent my first night in the Hotel Francia, a cheap but noisy place near the Juarez market. Staying there for a night was great motivation for seeking other accommodations. I started my search by going to the office of the U.S. special consul for suggestions. While the b&b he recommended was way beyond my budget, the manager there directed me to a place half the price, and from there I prospected for a more permanent (and cheaper) place to live, ending up after about six weeks in a four-plex apartment in a complex of bungalows and apartments known as “Rancho San Felipe”.

El Rancho, as we called it, was a mix of Mexicans and gringos. The undisputed eminence gris was a woman in her ‘80s named Marie Vegte. Much to my regret, I do not have a picture of Marie to share.

[This is our traveling buddy Dan, with the latest incarnation of his "camper". We met him after he began sending us chapters of his own travel experiences, which I found so interesting I published them in the early years of the Newsletter. Shortly after we first met, at the Primavera, we began exploring Mexico and Guatemala together. Ours is a lifelong bond.]

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