Chapter 3

Dress Her in Indigo is the 11th installment in the Travis McGee series by John D. MacDonald. The link there explains much better why this is such a great series. If you don't feel like reading all that, suffice it to say, this character is so loved by someone that the slip F-18 Bahia Mar in Florida where his fictional houseboat was located was rented out in perpetuity. No one was allowed to berth there. And there was a plaque set there. Sadly, it seems this has been demolished. This page is photos of science fiction author Spider Robinson,scroll halfway down and you see him in a picture at F-18. This is fitting since it was Spider Robinson's books that got me into Travis McGee. His main character in the Time Travel series always raves about John D. Macdonald. It's hard not to get curious when one fictional character starts raving about another.

All of which outs me as a major geek.

Anyway. Dress Her in Indigo is one of his darkest books and takes place mostly in Oaxaca. It was my main source of info about Oaxaca. I was determined to visit all the major places mentioned in the book. But when I purchased another useful book, namely Lonely Planet Mexico, I saw that this was not going to be feasible without our own vehicle. We chose not to go that route, instead booking tours that took us to hsitorical sites. One of the two places I really regret not seeing is the Hotel Victoria.

This is the hotel where Meyer and Travis stayed. It's up the hill from Oaxaca proper, but its recommended that you not walk there, as the Cerro del Fortin is reputedly a haunt of bandits. We decided to avoid getting mugged.

The other place we missed is the ruins of Yagul. It's where the mystery of the book is solved and the whole climax of the book takes place there. There aren't any tours there. You can take a cab, but we ran out of time. This guy went and took great pictures that show pretty much what Travis describes in the action. Which is good since I've always had a hard time picturing what was going on.

Other than that, I think I hit the high points as described below. I think Oaxaca is more built up now then it was in 1969 when MacDonald wrote the book. Stuff he describes as rural seems more suburban now. All common habitations are cinderblock, not wood shacks.

Thus begins and ends my Travis McGee pilgrimage in Oaxaca. When there, I quickly got sucked into Lonely Planet and and the art and museums, so my posts after today will be about all that. For you fans of my blog and Travis (a.k.a. Mom) enjoy.

P.S. Mom says that Dress Her In Indigo is the best of the series. I have to agree. I love the character of Meyer and he really shines in this one. Bright Orange for the Shroud might be the other one. Unless it's Deadly Shade of Gold. Or The Empty Copper Sea. Or--ooh-- The Green Ripper. OK. I shut up now.

MPK

"So we came down into the valley of Oaxaca--pronounced wuh-Hock-ah--beginning the descent at the upper end of the valley, some twenty miles from the airfield. Green valley encircled by the old burned brown rounded hills. It is a plateau valley, five thousand feet high, in the Sierra Madre del Sur, and the Pacific is not far away." p.32

"One blue wall brought Meyer to a stop. Maybe it had been painted and patched fifty times. Layers had cracked, peeled, faded. It was all the shades of blue.
'Fix that with transparent epoxy,' he said, 'peel off a rectangle eight feet long and five feet wide, frame it in rough-cut cypress with a white stain, and take it to any decent gallery--'
'And somebody will tell you their little daughter could do better.'
'The creative act is in selecting which rectangle to frame. It is very damned beautiful, Travis' "
pg. 34-35

The Zocalo

The Zocalo. There was construction going on, but mostly it seemed to be in the direction of a run down little street where the banks and moneychangers are. Mostly repaving. There was repaving going on Calle Hidalgo, but it didn't look like anything was being "ruined". And there were tons of people there. We were there the week before 20 de Noviembre (ironically also the name of the street our hotel was on) which is a big celebration of independence. Which one, I'm not sure. But there were tons of cultural events going on, night and day.

My favorite was the night we walked out and caught the scarf dancers. I wish I'd taken a picture of this, but it seemed intrusive. There was a huge band playing great music, real toe tapping. The scarf dance is a flirty looking dance but the men and women never actually touch. The city boys watching the country girls sheepishly joined in and got a free dance lesson. It was great seeing the young townspeople gather around and be really excited about the traditional dances. That was my favorite thing about Oaxaca. Oaxacans are really proud of their culture and traditions. They're really eager to share it and talk about it.

The best part of the scarf dances was when the little kids started doing it. The boys were kind of embarrassed, but the little girls were totally into it. Watching 5 year olds work their hips like belly dancers is impressive. Later a grown guy joined the group of kids and the adults watching around them just roared with laughter when the littlest girl was partnered with the big man. It's kind of a dosey-do movement with the partners moving in for "air kisses". The adult would bend aaaalllllllllllll the way over so the little girl could air kiss around his head. You could see him trying not to giggle because the expression on the girl's face was so serious.

The costumes were really cool, especially the girls. Long print skirts and pretty embroidered overvests. Bright colored fabric braided into long-braids. The men wore cotton shirts and pants in a kind of buff color and a wide woven hat.

MPK

"So we went out of the sun heat into the cool shade of the gigantic trees of a splendid zocalo. It had its ornate circular bandstand in the middle, a criss-cross of wide walkways and a perimeter walk past gaudy riots of flowerbeds." p. 35

A close-up of the bandstand.

Marques del Valle

This deserves its own post. This is the hotel that Travis and Meyer keep coming back to in the book. It's almost its own character. In the story it is noted for its frosty Negro Modelo. I'm sad to report: to any future pilgrims in this weird quest, Marques del Valle does not serve Negro Modelo anymore. As a subsitute you can order Sol that comes light or dark. But they do freeze the mugs and it's very good after a day huffing around ruins. They also have the best bathrooms I've ever been to in a public place in Mexico. It's a very beautiful and upscale place. We ate there once--we decided to order Oaxacan food. Alex got a tlayuda and I got a mushroom empanada. Alex liked his, though it was huge. Mine was a little bland. I don't know if it's because of picky tourists who have come before, but it's really hard to find spicy food in the Centro Historico.

Also they don't do chips and salsa. For a snack roasted peanuts with chunks of roasted garlic and yummy sea salt and chilis with a slice of lime are the common offering. I ate a ton of these. They are so freaking tasty. I miss these like crazy.

The Marques Del Valle is the title Cortes gave himself. When he claimed Mexico for Spain, he liked Oaxaca (del Valle=of the valley) so much he gave it all to himself. Nice eh.

MPK

"And it was Meyer who spotted a little group on one of the diagonal paths, carrying purchases from the public market, walking towards the largest hotel that fronted on the zocalo, and old ornate stone and plaster structure with a sign proclaiming it as the Hotel Marques del Valle." -p. 35

"There was a long, narrow roofed porch across the front of it, a couple of steps up from sidewalk level. Fat cement columns supported arches that held up the overhanging bulk of the hotel. The porch was two tables wide and about thirty tables long..." p. 35

Chapter 11-

Here are my pictures of El Tule. I reference the full quote below (or in November archives) so I won't retype the whole thing again.

It's actually in a village. The book makes it sound like its off in the middle of nowhere. You go up the narrow village street that's crammed with shops and food stalls and then you pop into this plaza that dead ends the road. It's a gorgeous little park, with lots to see. I'll post more pictures later.

The guidebook says the tree type is ahuehuete, or a type of cypress. The name El Tule, is kind of a joke as el tule is water-reeds in Spanish. Oaxacans have a Python-esque sense of humor.

"It was not far from the highway, a hundred yards perhaps. It dwarfed the old church nearby."-p. 131

A close up of the trunk. Children volunteers go around the trunk with groups of visitors and recite the common images read into the trunks deformities. I think this one was "goblin heads".

This is the tree's "little brother". It's only 1000 years old.

A portion of the gardens that surround the park of the tree.

Vital stats for the tree. Dimensions are given in meters.

Some holy images from the inside of the church. I felt shy about taking pictures. As you can see, these are still active churches.

In back of altar at the El Tule church.

"We found an American student at the small museum. He was an archeology student working on the continuing excavation and restoration program at the Mitla ruins." p.132

Close up of the stone work in the Mitla ruins. You can see that the patterns are created by placing individual stones.

Sleep Paralysis and You.

Or rather, me. I don't know if any of my family or friends suffer from this. I get it off and on, for going on a couple of years now. Basically, your brain wakes up while your body stays asleep. When you sleep, your brain floods you with a chemical that keeps you immobile. This is so you don't physically act out your dreams. When you are sleeping, you don't notice this. But if your brain wakes up without your body...you do. You can't even force your eyelids open. And your brain is not exactly out of REM patterns as far as I can tell. The hallucinations are intense. The article gives a good overview of the general feeling.

I had an episode this morning. I notice I tend to get it around seasonal changes. Also, when I wake up at 4 am and compose myself for a "second sleep", I get raging sleep paralysis. Now that I know what causes it, it's not as scary. It's a little unsettling though. When I "woke" this morning I thought I heard the sound of someone turning pages very quickly sitting behind me. Usually I can shake the hallucinatory impressions, but that was a tough one. It sounded very real. Sometimes I hallucinate someone coming up the stairs towards the bedroom and that can be very scary.

Fortunately it's well documented on the internet, so I was able to find out what it was as soon as it started happening to me. I had a really frightening episode of it during an afternoon nap a few years ago. Alex was downstairs playing Neverwinter Nights, which is a Dungeons and Dragons type of game on the internet. It features a lot of supernatural beasties and there are weird sound effects that go with it. There's one sound that's like an electrical storm. I must have been hearing it upstairs during my nap...sometimes when sleeping my hearing becomes hyperacute.

Anyway. I hallucinated that I was being attacked by a giant electrical demon (with full sound effects) while being rendered powerless to defend myself. It really did feel like being possessed, so I can see why episodes like this led to some of our more colorful mythologies. When I woke up all the way (about 15-20 seconds into my "attack") I sat up and was like "WHAT THE CRAP!!!!" That was the worst one. No more afternoon naps for me, nosiree!

I'm going to post some more about Oaxaca soon. I'm almost done unpacking and out of the post vacation depression. The abrupt transition from paradise to "raining and dark night over Oakland airport while lady next to you describes scary flight she had once over Kennedy Airport and wouldn't shut up the whole time the plane was trying to land, etc..." was a letdown indeed. But I'm crocheting and stuff and watching good movies.

I got the extended version of "Fanny and Alexander" from Netflix a couple of weeks ago and sat down and watched all nearly 5 hours of it in one go. It is SO good and worth seeing. It's a great movie to watch for the holidays because the whole first scene is a wild Swedish Yule party. It's used as a device to introduce all the characters in this wild family called the Ekdahls so it goes on for a piece. I love it. Makes me glad to be alive. I'm thinking of buying it. It's like watching a masterpiece painting in film form. (I wonder what filmmakers say about paintings..."nice oil still!")

MPK