oaxaca - mexico city - medellin

the show at cafe central was a little disappointing to be honest - and i should have known it would be really. i had to play from the stage so had no idea how the piece sounded in the room - low frequencies caused the whole stage to shake so i actually thought i was playing louder than i probably was - lesson learned once again. and half the audience where attentive while the other half chatted away, which i kind of expected but always distracts me... anyway, yadira and the rest of the staff at cafe central were great - really friendly and always ready to get me yet another complementary drink (after performing of course!) and i did get a little bit of cash for my troubles.
after going for more excellent street food with john jairo, gabriela (my hosts), federico and alejandra i headed back to the cafe alone to grab a couple more drinks, made friends with a norwegian guy and two young ladies from tijuana/san diego and we stayed out drinking until 6am! then i got lost trying to find my way back to jj and gabi's place! suddenly, a little drunk and more than a little worried, my spanish actually came back to me and i was able to ask a passer by for help in getting back to the zocalo, where i could navigate from - it turned out i had walked in completely the opposite direction!!
so after getting back around 7am and grabbing 3 hours sleep, my hosts took me for breakfast and then to monte alban, which although is a tourist attraction, is a great way to spend 3 hours walking around!
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/mexico/oaxaca-monte-alban.htm

another day of hanging out in oaxaca and then i headed back to mexico city by bus - the ride is one of the most beautiful i have done. half the 6 hour journey takes you up over the mountain range north of oaxaca.
so after more exploring of mexico city and meeting with marco morales at muac once more for lunch and to collect some cd's and dvd's of mine that my parents sent me and took 5 weeks to arrive, i meet up with dario bernal-villegas, an improvising drummer based in mexico city, for mezcal, beer and food - an honour to meet you dario!

i got to medellin, colombia yesterday after having to get up @ 4am. then amazingly had just enough mexican pesos to pay for the two nights at the hotel i was in and the taxi to the airport! dead jammy.
the flight took me to san jose in costa rica - that country looks amazing from the air - i may have to go an explore if/when my spanish improves...
then breezed baggage collection and immigration, to then sit in arrivals for over an hour waiting for someone to come get me...

ah well, at least i'm here now. internet access will be severely limited as we all (6 of us at the last count) are sharing a mobile internet dongle - the type you plug into your computer using a usb port.
the other artists seem ok - i have made good friends with a spanish painter whose english is only marginally better than my spanish! i think we'll be teaching each other for the month i'm here!

it turns out i'm the old guy here - everyone else is late 20's to early 30's but they're ok... another sound artist and his wife from uk (luke and elizabeth), an artist called bjork from iceland (not THE bjork...), a guy from the states doing ceramics called chris, a french video artist - oralee (probably spelt that wrong!) - who was actually born and adopted in colombia by french parents and the guy who is co-ordinating the residency, andres. hmm, i thought there were more - maybe i'm forgetting someone...

anyway, the house is incredible - there is a link on my facebook page but it doesn't do the place justice! i'm sitting on the verenda, looking out over trees and fields and i can see medellin in the distance - it's around a 30 minute bus ride into town - i went with alejandro, the spanish artist, yesterday to help him shop for the evening meal - that was an experience!! the driver doesn't take into consideration the standing passengers when negotiating a winding mountain road, believe me!

so today i will be recording, and seeing the space we will be presenting work in on the 10th... updates when i can! :-)