Opportunities for taking pictures of classic Volkswagens in Oaxaca, and presumably all around Mexico, are everywhere. That’s why it’s so much fun. On this, my second longish visit in the city, I walked a lot and made a habit of not putting my camera away. It’s small and fits in my pocket but was usually in my hand as I walked, strap around my wrist, ready. If my mind drifted while on the hunt, there’d be one, or more than one, suddenly right beside me, or turning a corner just ahead and it would be a quick fumble to catch it, evident in some oddly framed pictures. Fortunately, the sound of a Volkswagen is unmistakeable, fair warning of an approach.
Maybe this needs a bit of explanation. In the mid-70s, an old friend of mine decided to buy a new car. What he, Lynn, had been driving was a red VW bought by Tom, Lynn’s best friend and brother-in-law, while he was stationed in Germany. After Tom, it had been owned by Mo, mother-in-law of Tom, mother of Lynn. So I became the 4th owner of ‘Petit Henri’ just a few years after his birth in 1969. Petit Henri was not my first, which was an unnamed dark green Bug I’d owned in Puerto Rico, acquired in a trade for a beautiful Alfa Romeo roadster that was beginning to be more expensive to maintain than I cared to spend on a car. But that’s another story. Petit Henri is still alive and snoozing at the moment in my garage below me as I write. At any moment he could be awoken with a new battery and sprung into action. That is the short version of my personal history with these ubiquitous machines.
My photo file tells me there are 141 pictures of Volkswagens taken during my most recent 4 week stay in Oaxaca. I noticed while going through them that they’re a pretty fair record of my perambulations around town because, as the title mentions, they’re everywhere, as good an introduction to this great city as any.
Bugs in the ‘Hood, Xochimilco
Around Town in Centro
An Out-of-Towner, from Mexico City
Two-fers
A Special Two-fer, 2 with Roof-Racks
And the Jackpot, Four !!! (4th is blue, far left)
Next week, my new neighborhood, Xochimilco.
2017’s Back to Oaxaca, all episodes.
PortMoresby’s first trip to Oaxaca, Anatomy of a Trip.
To read others of PortMoresby’s contributions, click here.
Even more than mole, I believe we now have an ironclad reason to visit Oaxaca! The first car I can remember my father owning was one of these classic bugs — a light blue one.
Love VW’s. Thought you might like this one, taken in Silverton outside of Broken Hill, New South Wales. It has been decorated with an Emu painting by Australian artist, Peter Browne.
That’s great fun, Judy. Thanks! But how does one drive it away?Update on my ‘69 which I’d had since ‘77, no one was driving it so recently my son found a home for it in Sacramento with someone whose avocation is restoring them. A good solution all around.Joanna