Bug Bites Force Hasty Exit From Oaxaca

Usually my on-the-road hotel picks are fine, and I'm fairly well-practiced at finding good accomodations for an excellent value price.

But my second hotel pick in Oaxaca turned out to be a real bite in the neck when I woke one morning with a baseball size swelling on the left side of my face (the violin side).

With another similar bite behind my right ear, I found I wasn't in the mood for much sightseeing.

All I know about the mysterious insect bites is that they were extremely itchy but not mosquito related.  The only insect I could identify in my room was a very small beetle type bug.

With the left side of my face seriously deformed, I found I really wasn't in the mood for any  tourist activities at all, so I beat a hasty exit from Oaxaca on Saturday morning, buying a bus ticket to Mexico City for the seven hour trip back to the capital.

My reasoning was thus:  since I'd already done considerable room shopping in Oaxaca, and having found rooms in general to be a bit overpriced, I decided against searching for yet another dubious 400 peso ($32) room.

Oaxaca from Lonely Planet

I left beautiful San Cristobal on Tuesday and pulled an all night bus to Oaxaca town in the neighboring state of the same name.

With Mexico City now only five hours away by bus, I am near the completion of the loop I started a couple weeks ago when I made my way to Palenque via Veracruz and Villahermosa.

My first impressions here are that while Oaxaca is a nice town, by comparison to San Cristobal it's a bit expensive for lodging.  I'm paying 400 pesos here for something I could get in San Cristobal for less than 200.

And while San Cristobal had dozens of low cost laundry services available, here I've been unable to find any service but dry cleaning!  A minor annoyance perhaps, but clean clothes would be nice. . .

Check out the Lonely Planet's take below:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/oaxaca-state/oaxaca