Capamento del Monte, Ixtlan de Juarez, and Huayapan

The weekend of Jan 12th we took off for the pine forests of the
Sierra Norte to a small campground called Campamento del Monte...Nature, Goulet!!! (A little shout out to our grad school friends and anyone else who loves the Best of Will Ferrell SNL DVD.)

Tootsie was left under the careful watch of Ben, Nohemi, and Emilia. From what we heard she spent most of her time in her favorite perch (see photo). Unfortunately, we have learned that dogs aren't as welcome at Mexican campgrounds as in the States. Luckily are neighbors are happy to keep her food and water bowls full and let her into the house at night. I don't think Tootsie minds us being gone because she has free reign to sleep on the couches, eat the garbage, etc.

We made it to the campground in about 45 minutes, unpacked and headed up to Ixtlan de Juarez to see...yup you guessed it, another church. This church's (Templo de Santo Tomas) claim to fame is that Benito Juarez was baptized here. Also, there is one detailed altar piece of Saint Thomas reaching out to touch the risen Jesus which was the act that according to the Gospels removed all doubt that the resurrection was real. Isn't learning fun?

We wandered around town a bit to find some beer to smuggle into the campground. What kind of campground doesn't allow beer you might ask...one run by Mexican Jehovah's Witnesses. We got totally ripped off for the beer by a tiny, old lady in the convenience store, but what can you do? Even with Mike's facial hair, it's still obvious we aren't from around these parts. Incidentally she also asked us how hard it would be to bring a person back with us to the States.

We got back to the campground ready for lunch and a good hike. Unfortunately, we completed both of the site's trails in about 50 minutes. Obviously, we were a bit disappointed in the hiking. The views were amazing so we lingered at the miradores, but we still had some daylight to enjoy. So we headed to the swings. Note: people over 30 were not meant to be on swings. Seemed a lot more nauseating and scary than we remembered it.

We hung out for a bit, and then headed over to the restaurant across the street. We skipped the rabbit barbecue for some sopa azteca (delicioso!!!), queso fundido (tambien delicioso!), and some average mole (Insert accent over that e at the end. We didn't eat mole the animal it was chicken with mol-ay sauce). Got back to the cabin, played some cards, read a bit and enjoyed the fire that Mike made with his flint starter. Only took 150 strikes, he's improving.

We passed through Huayapan on our way home after about 11 hours of sleep and checked out, yup another church. Main attraction here is a mural of the Last Supper. There were also some very graphic paintings of the deaths of some of the saints that were pretty creepy. Mike has pictures of every niche, altarpiece, and nave that we've seen so if you're interested let us know and we'll send you the photos.

After getting the grocery shopping done for the week we hung around with Tootise for a bit until we ventured up the street (50 ft) for some dinner. On the weekends a few local women set up a little stand. The shot on the right was taken shortly after Mike had unknowingly eaten a pig's brain taco. Meri swears she didn't hear the woman say "seso", but the verdict is still out.