Another day in Oaxaca, Mexico, an area where the beaches, fruit, lush greenery and people are purely wonderful. We are here visiting 2 communities, La Vainilla and La Ventanilla (translated the vanilla, and the little window), which are part of a larger cooperative of eco-tourist locations. Both of these locations work to preserve mangrove swamps. Today we are supporting with La Ventanilla. And their request was that we make a movie of their location. A newly and randomly acquired busser named Shooter we picked up in Puerto Escondido led the filming. He happens to have years of filming experience and went off with Tony, and Morgan to film Perfecto, the head guide at the lagoon. As Perfecto described the goals of the community, the TEMA trio captured on film the various projects: construction of Palapas which are palm thatched huts, preservation of sea turtles, eco tours of the beaches, the lagoon and its various inhabitants and an island in the middle of the lagoon.
Along the way, the guys encountered a 20-foot crocodile that just popped up to say hi within 5 feet of the boat. To add to the croc excitement, when they went to shoot a female croc in an enclosure, they happened to stop by at the same time as a wild male croc that supposedly comes once a year to rip out the fence, mate with the female and leave. The female never leaves because she is dependent on the food provided, so the rendezvous is dependable for the crocs, and unfortunately pricy for the community. The dudes also saw 2 more crocs, a turtle perched on a log as if on cue, a massive iguana, white tailed deer, a red fox, a Coati Munei which is a cross of a raccoon and an anteater and a few donkeys. Capturing the material was a success and now its time to edit and complete the short film for La Ventanilla.
The rest of the group engaged in a variety of activities. 6 of us had taken the day off and were in the mountains of San Jose del Pacifico. Others did a thorough cleaning of Patricia. Ulises and Katie translated into English the declaration of the eco-tourism cooperative we were assisting. Wafaa and Shelly painted a massive banner for La Vainilla to be hung on the highway. In between working, Ryan, Morgan, Tony and Shooter took a moment to body surf and caught loads of waves. After catching them individually, the guys wanted to switch it up and began catching the waves close enough to lock arms as they slid down the face of 5 footers to only be thrashed like rag dolls in the white water.
Vinicio, our vegan chef, who was to leave in the next few days, had an opportunity to return to the US. In an hour he was packed and leaving in a taxi. It was shocking to have him leave so abruptly especially with only being able to say goodbye to less than half of us. Cest la vie. The rest of the evening was spent playing soccer and music as the sun melted into the sea as we waited for the mountain crew to return.
Finally our fellow bussers came walking up the dusty Mexican road after an arduous trek back to Patricia. We headed out on the road at 11pm for a night drive to Xela, Guatemala (pronounced shayla). Shortly thereafter, the miracle of technology shown bright as Treasure, a rider recently picked up who has a functioning iPhone perked up. She had received a text message from none other than Vinicio, who was in another town and wanted to be picked up and to jump back on the bus! It turned out that he had spoken with his managers at work and was allowed to stay for the rest of the trip. We knew his departure was premature!! After picking him up, we continued toward Xela. With our group complete again, we slept comfortably like sardines, rotated drivers and co-pilot teams and drove off into the warm Mexican night.
Ryan Mueller
