Life in the Places of Scattering

Have I mentioned how incredibly safe I feel in Mérida? I won't say there's no crime, but I can honestly say that I've seen none-- neither pickpocketer nor robber nor crazy person threatening to hurt you. (Perhaps this last one belies my long-time residence in the Washington DC Area...)

Anyway, I'm safe in Mérida, and as it turns out, I'm safe here in Oaxaca as well. This I know because the pamphlet tells me so.

This would be the pamphlet that the police handed me as I was walking toward the Zocalo (main square). The pamphlet contains Spanish, French and English versions of the same message, with the latter two almost certainly produced by Google Translator (I checked)... a useful tool in a pinch, but utterly clumsy with full sentences, I'm sad to say.

Well, only a little sad... because the outcome is hilarious. I've included it here for your enjoyment.

Go ahead and read it out loud...

Oaxaca is a Sure State, for this reason, the Direction of the Auxiliary Bank, Industrial and Commercial Police invites to the local, national and international tourism to bear in mind the following Councils:

• Do not lose of sight your belongings (properties).
• Monitor your purse or your portfolio in the agglomerations.
• When it goes to the beach or swimming pool, take the strictly necessary thing.
• Protect your video camera or photography in the places of scattering.
• Avoid the games of random in the street. They are a fraud.
• I distrusted suspicious persons.
• Elude the easy business. They might be a swindle.
• If some vehicle uses, do not leave any object of value at sight.

If you work through the key mistranslations, it's really quite clear. A 'portfolio' is a wallet and 'agglomerations' are crowds. 'The places of scattering' are those places where you might relax, say, on a park bench or at an outdoor café.

But this last phrase is endearing. It has captured my imagination. I'm tempted to take it on as my new phrase, as in Sorry I'm late, but I got lost in the places of scattering. Or Hey, I'll meet you in the places of scattering, you know, next to the games of random, in the street.

And so it is that I'm safely scattered in the agglomerations of Oaxaca. I'm loving it here-- the mountains, the winding roads, the verticality of Oaxaca that is, I'll admit, a welcome change from flat-as-a-pancake Merida. Then there's the food-- the chocolate, the moles (come on, now, and say it in Spanish: MO-le).

Oh, and yes, the mescal-- which you can find mixed with cream in a variety of flavors, including espresso. (Who needs Starbucks when you can drink espresso-infused mescal?)

This last shot was my first shot of the day-- at 11 a.m., on a bus tour, this gal served up multiple samples of mescal.

ON A BUS. Just like that.

Needless to say, the resulting sales were swift, and by the end of the tour, she had unloaded many bottles of the stuff.

Wow... I thought I was just taking a simple tour of town, but before we knew it, it was already noon and we were knee high in the places of scattering.

Well, you get the idea.