Looking Back on the Summer of 2008

Kelly and I have definitely had a great summer. The best way to spend the summer in Midland /Odessa is to not be in Midland /Odessa.

We led by example:

May:
B-CS - Al's Graduation
Tulsa, OK - SPE - IOR



June:
San Antonio - just bored, wanted to get out of town
Dallas/East Texas to see Grandparents
B-CS - to see grandparents

July:
Cloudcroft/Ruidosos/White Sands - Johnny's cabin
Vermont - Kelly's cousin Ricky's wedding

Marathon/Fort Davis - with Clint & Robin in which I ruined a perfectly good pair of flip flops

Huatulco, MX

August:
Recovering from all of the travelling
Abilene - Kelly's CPA Exam
KIOGA - Kansas

Its been a very busy but fun summer. I've put quite a few miles on my new Passatt but that's what I have it for. I am still very happy with our buying decision. Its a great car - fuel efficient, very powerful/fast, good tight feel, looks sharp, and is loaded with cool features.


My new job could not be going any better and Kelly has been working extremely hard studying for the CPA exam. She took the financial portion of it last Saturday and said it was very difficult. Quitting Lufkin has turned out to be one of the best things I've done in the last year and a half. Since I left, my former co-worker was fired, another salesman quit, and most recently the manager for West Texas quit. He was a good friend and tried to get me to come work for him (in another division of the company). Apparently he is now planning a start up company. I suspect his new venture may even compete with Lufkin and will probably take them off of their pedestal. What is the saying, 'Pride comes before a fall.' ?? Being arrogant, complacent, closed minded, and assuming that the status quo will continue, in a global business environment sets you up to be obliterated by existing or new competition. I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

This summer Kelly & I have both been working out fairly regularly and trying to eat healthier. The West Texas diet is anything but healthy and I get in a tough spot when I take customers to lunch (steak, hamburgers, Mexican food, Italian). It is almost impossible to get a good caesar salad in Midland Odessa or a decently fresh, cold, crispy, not wilted greens - salad in any restaurant around. But, eating half portions of everything I order in a restaurant and taking half home has been a good compromise.

I've taken up a new interest this summer - watching boxing. I've been really impressed with the ex-Cuban olympic gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa. He is incredibly quick and strong. Very exciting to watch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriorkis_Gamboa

I've also taken a renewed interest in whiskey. My new bosses really like scotch although they rarely drink single malts. In the past, I've been a bit of a scotch snob, drinking nothing but single malts (glenlivet/glenfiddich would be the lowest I'll go). Generally, I'll only have a scotch on a special occasion or if I'm out for dinner with my bosses. Two weeks after starting the new job, all of us went to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the SPE - Improved Oil Recovery conference. My bosses made it a point to brag to everyone they saw that their new hire likes scotch. They really got a kick out of it. I guess they have not met many young people with a taste for scotch. Another whiskey I've taken a liking to is rye whiskey. By a friend's recommendation I bought a bottle of Sazerac Rye.

It has a really nice flavor -- a good change from your typical bourbon - Jack Daniels or Maker's Mark. A less expensive whiskey also made by Sazerac is Buffalo Trace.
I first had Buffalo Trace at a restaurant in Breckenridge, CO on our ski trip in January with Kelly's family. Kelly thinks that Buffalo Trace has a sort of cantaloupe like after taste.

I've been working on a few really good books - A History of the World in Six Glasses,

Salt, Wild at Heart, Wildcatters, The Intellectual Devotional, and 3X Carlin: An Orgy of George. I'm also struggling to keep up with the Economist.

I finished the History of the World in Six Glasses Monday night. In the epilogue there was a section about water. The book mentioned various studies that have concluded that bottled water has higher levels of bacteria than tap water, that bottled water often IS tap water, and the irony that the 85% of diseases in the third world are somehow linked to or associated with a lack of a quality tap water source. The ironic part is that in the rich world, water is abundant; we can have tap water, bottled water, seltzer water, mineral water, well water, and that ounce per ounce, bottled water is often more expensive than gasoline (that statistic is probably outdated). Imagine that, hydrocarbons are found, a wells is drilled, the oil is pumped out of the ground, sold at market price to a distributor, transported from the source to a refinery, refined and processed, and is sold cheaper than bottled water. This is almost incomprehensible. Anyway, enough of me on my soapbox. This is really a gem of a book.

Unfortunately, I've not played much golf this summer. Once we move back East I think I'll get a few golf lessons and then start up again. I still really enjoy golf but I am thinking that taking a break, then starting back the right way might be the best way to go.

Kelly and I rented two movies yesterday. Sweeny Todd & Vantage Point.

We really enjoyed Sweeny Todd although it was very dark and somewhat brutal/disgusting. It was very well done, especially stylistically and was very entertaining. On the other hand, in my book, Vantage Point was lame, a pitiful attempt at making even a mediocre movie. Very simple characters, a totally unbelievable plot full of coincidences, a lack of elaboration about the plot (about the terrorist group, their intent, how all of the characters were connected), and a typical BS, cheesy ending. The funny part is that the movie supposedly takes place in Madrid Spain in the Plaza Mayor. On four or five occasions during the movie, I told Kelly - 'that's a church in Cuernavaca, Mexico, near where I lived in the summer of 2004!' 'That's the zocalo in Cuernava!' See below:

She was rightfully skeptical. After finishing the movie I did some internet research and it turns out the entire movie was filmed in Mexico City and Cuernavaca, Mexico! It was quite a surprise. There were quite a few shots in the zocalo or plaza and a few near one of the cathedrals. I spent many afternoons in the zocalo reading and sipping on a Victoria. Madrid vs. Cuernavaca? The Spaniards would be greatly insulted. I guess the movie was done on a budget.
We also saw Batman last week. It was very intense, well done, and very enjoyable.

Huatulco 2008 Trip Summary

Arriving to Bahias de Huatulco International Airport we found green lush mountains covered in beautiful jungle that drops off into the Pacific Ocean. As we made our approach we looped around over the sea and caught a glimpse of the beaches and the incredible blue ocean with water hitting the rocks.



We landed to an open air airport; a bit humid but fairly comfortable. We had to take an expensive Chevy suburban taxi to our hotel; upon arrival our room was not ready so we left our bags with the bellboys and went down to the beach. The hotel was beautiful with lush green vegetation everywhere and it drops off into Tangolunda bay. We sat down at the bar that overlooks the beach and probably had the most expensive cocktails in Mexico. At first I thought it might be gringo pricing but it turned out just to be resort pricing. Two tequila cocktails that would cost $7 each in the states cost $14 each at our hotel. Wow.

After having a cocktail, exploring the hotel grounds, and being harassed by the junk vendors and tour guide boat owners, our room was ready. The room, although a bit outdated, was top notch and overlooked the hotel swimming pool and the beach. The bathroom was particularly nice being furnished with marble. We often saw iguanas around our hotel. The view from our hotel room window:

Next, we decided to go explore the area and find somewhere for dinner. A placed called ‘El Grillo Marinero’ was at the top of my list because the restaurant had been featured on a show on the travel channel, ‘Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.’ The show had featured an overweight Mexican man in a speedo putting on snorkeling gear and diving to catch squid (pulpo) for his restaurant. Clearly, this was a testament to the freshness of the seafood. We had the taxi show us around La Crucecita (a small town near the resorts that was originally built to house all of the workers) a bit and then arrived at El Grillo Marinero. The taxi driver had the restaurant manager come out and accompany us in the door and seat us. The manager then brought out three different types of salsas, tostadas, and our beers. As we soon came to expect at almost every meal of our trip, we were the only gringos in the restaurant and the native Mexicans often stared at us. I decided to order ‘Pulpo a la Mexicana’ (diced squid in a tomato sauce with chile peppers) and Kelly ordered ‘Pulpo al mojo de Ajo’ (squid cooked in butter and garlic). The manager then suggested we split an order of ‘Caldo de Mariscos’ (seafood soup) and I took him up on it.
When the soup arrived, we were in for a surprise. Kelly’s bowl of soup came with a whole, cooked red snapper on top (bones, eyes and all). She wasn’t exactly enamored with her new fishy friend, so we traded bowls. I picked at the red snapper and ate some squid out of it while Kelly dabbled with beheading and de-veining the whole shrimp she found in her soup. Over all the soup was good but nothing extraordinary.

Once the main courses arrived we were too stuffed to eat much. Both of our orders of squid were good but different than we were used to. Nothing like we ate in Spain. My squid was very fatty and had some kind of skin on it, maybe even had a bit of hair on it. The texture left me feeling a bit woozy. To make the manager think we enjoyed the food, we had it boxed up and shortly after leaving, threw it in a dumpster.

Next we explored the zocalo (plaza) in La Crucecita and went to a place we read about online called ‘Café Dublin.’ I wanted to try the regional specialty of Oaxaca, a liquor called Mezcal. It is made in a way similar to tequila but somehow ends up with a smokier aged flavor and is served with a worm in the bottom of the bottle. I believe that the heart of the agave plant is left to rot a bit before smoking it and this is where the worms come from. I ordered a medium priced mezcal that apparently wasn’t available and the bar tender recommend I try some of his own that he had infused with a fruit called ‘Nanchas’.

The mescal was poured out of a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey which was a bit odd. On my previous trip to Mexico I tried nanchas and hated them. But, surprisingly, the mescal, probably his own little moonshine, infused with nanchas, was decent and mildly tolerable. The bar tender spoke some English and seemed to enjoy visiting with us. He had recently returned from three years in Montreal and was fluent in French, English, and Spanish. He suggested that we hire our own boat and take a tour of all of the Bahias de Huatulco (bays of Huatulco). He made us realize that the hotel tour guides were charging about double the standard daily rates.

Next, we returned to the hotel and spent a bit of time on our beach, then had a nice swim while the sun set. There are a few things the state of Oaxaca is famous for: cooking and eating insects (mainly chile-d grasshoppers), mezcal, mole negro, chocolate (supposedly this is where chocolate originated, I think), and cheeses. It is the state in Mexico with the highest percentage of native American population with literally hundreds of native dialects spoken in the state. For this reason, Oaxaca is held dearly in the hearts of most Mexican citizens.

The next morning we got up and went to a small beach called ‘El Arrocito.’ We arrived around 9-10AM and luckily beat the crowd. This was a quaint, hospitable beach and was very good for swimming. We had a small table under a shade tree that backed right up to the beach.

If you were careless, the water might slip your flip flops off of you and take them to the sea. Next, we decided to go find a lunch spot near the marina so that we could speak with someone about hiring a boat for the next day.

We had snacks on another public beach (Playa Santa Cruz) consisting of guacamole, black beans, and queso oaxaqueno (like mozzarella) and tostadas. The waiter tried to guilt us into ordering a seafood entrée but we refused since we had already eaten plenty. Although surprising, eating seafood on the beach in Mexico was mostly more expensive than eating in a seafood restaurant in the US. It was common to see $15-30 entrees to eat seafood out of someone’s tent, no running water, no electricity, no bathroom – just a card table with plastic chairs.

Next we went to the marina and hired a boat for Tuesday to take us to the many beaches that are not accessible by road.

After returning to the hotel and resting a bit, we returned to La Crucecita for dinner. We chose ‘El Giardinero de Papa,’ which turned out to be a very good Italian restaurant. As an appetizer we split a seafood risotto which was excellent, and as entrees Kelly had lasagna and I had a Seabass Picatta. For dessert, we split a pear soaked and cooked in red wine, which was quite a treat.

Monday morning we bought some groceries for our day long boat trip and headed to the marina. Upon arrival Luis, our captain, greeted us and helped us load our belongings onto his boat. The boat had a small fiberglass body with a sunshade, and was driven by two motors.

It was very comfortable and the perfect size for a day along the coast. Leaving the marina, we took a brief tour of all of the beaches West of Santa Cruz on our way to Playa San Agustin (La Entrega, Yerbabuena, El Organo, La India, Playa de Amor, Cacaluta, Chachacual, Jicaral, Maguey, Riscalillo, San Agustin).

Playa San Agustin is about 10 miles down the coast from the Marina. During our brief tour we saw quite a few huge sea tortoises. Since it was mating season, we were able to snap pictures of them as they are slow to react to passing boats. In the morning, with the high tide, seeing the water splash against the various rock formations was really beautiful. At San Agustin we took a brief swim and got a table at a beach side café. We had some good fish & shrimp tacos with limeade and then got back in the boat. All of my money and credit cards got wet during my pre-lunch swim.

After this we spent the day at various beaches; mainly the five or so that are only accessible by boat and are in pristine condition.

The Huatulco area is part of a Mexican National Park and is known worldwide to have some of the best conserved beaches in the world.

We saw many crabs, snails (escargot), and sea turtles.

The final scene of the relatively well known movie,‘Y Tu Mama, Tambien’ was filmed on playa cacaluta and was one of our favorites (pictures). We spent most of the day swimming, walking, and exploring the many amazingly beautiful beaches. The only negative consequence of this day was a ridiculously awful sunburn, even though we each used almost an entire bottle of SPF 50 sunscreen.

I suppose the salt water just kept washing it away. Our boat tour of the beaches turned out to be the definitive highlight of our trip. That night, after resting a bit in the hotel, we went out for dininer at ‘Bar La Crema,’ a hippie surfer themed pizzeria and cocktail lounge.

Pizza was very comforting after all of the strange seafood we had previously consumed. Here I bought my first souvenir of the trip, a hacky sack.

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling fairly lousy because of my sun burn. We had a great breakfast at another hotel in the zocalo called Terra Cotta.

I tried chicken enchiladas in mole negro (Oaxaca is famous for its black mole; not the rodent, but an extremely rich pasty sauce made up of 50 to 100 different herbs, chiles, and spices and a hintof bitter chocolate). The mole I had at Terra Cotta was MUCH richer than any I had tried in the states or in Cuernavaca and was almost too much for me to handle. It was spicy, bitter, sweet, and rich, all at the same time. Kelly had Enfrijoladas with queso manchego. These consisted of manchego cheese enchiladas covered in a red tomato sauce with black beans. We really enjoyed this meal. We spent most of the rest of the day relaxing and recuperating in the hotel room watching movies. Once I had recovered a bit from my sunburn, we spent more time in La Crucecita shopping and wandering around. We went to a mezcal specialty shop where you can buy various flavored mezcals, medicinal mezcals, Oaxacan chocolates, and even the chili flavored grasshoppers that the state of Oaxaca is known for. I bought a bag of grasshoppers to bring home but never tried one whole. I had some ground up chile grasshopper salt on the rim of a cocktail called a ‘Donaji’ – mezcal, orange juice, lime juice, with grasshopper salt. The grasshopper salt really didn’t have much flavor.

For the fun of it, I bought a ‘medicinal’ mezcal. Apparently, this mescal is a traditional Zapotec Indian medicine. The mezcal is poured over some strong herb called ‘ruda’, garlic is added, and then a live scorpion is added and the bottle is sealed. Just before dying, the scorpion emits his venom (which is supposed to give the mezcal its medicinal power). It makes a good souvenir and should sit on my bookshelf for many years even if I have doubts to its healing properties. It is supposed to be rubbed onto skin for arthritis and other muscle pains. Evidently, it is not for drinking.

Tuesday night Kelly and I wandered around the miniature shopping mall, took pictures of the zocalo, went to a scenic overlook.......

and ended up dining at Onix Restaurant, overlooking the zocalo.

We had an excellent meal – to start with, Mango and Strawberry smoothies (with rum – also called daiquiris), fried calamares, squid brochettes (compliments of the house), and both had a decent filet of beef (hoping for comfort food). We really enjoyed our meal at Onix – the atmosphere was great, the drinks were perfect, and we had the restaurant all to ourselves.

We never adjusted to the native eating schedule during our trip – breakfast at 9 AM, lunch at 2-3PM, and dinner at 9-10 PM. So, we often dined in empty restaurants, making obvious our gringo heritage. In this way, we got very good service everywhere we went. Our view at breakfast before leaving for Texas:

Overall:

The positives:

Touring the desolate beaches

The slow, laid back pace of Mexico

Security – felt safe the entire trip, taxis and even junk vendors were highly regulated by the gov’t and even carried ID badges certifying that they were licensed vendors

Hotel- the room was great, with our own private secluded beach, and pool overlooking the sea

Kelly’s ability to ignore anyone harassing us (junk vendors) by claiming ignorance – they almost never tried to speak English to us

Favorite foods – chocolate, good seafood and mole

The negatives:

Sunburn

Being charged $2 per local phone call from the hotel

The bellboys’ refusal to get us a small taxi (always tried to make us take a suburban or a van that cost 2-3Xs as much as a small taxi); we had to walk about ¼ mile to get a regular taxi

Some drunk idiot in Houston harassing Kelly & I as we ate dinner at Chili’s in the airport

OVERALL an excellent trip.