Naked ladies, an egg cure, and other Mexican curiosities

It's been a busy couple of days down here for us in Mexico. As Mike is getting ready to depart (boo!), getting our tourist to-do list complete has become all the more urgent. Our progress had been slowed a bit by a terrible stomach bug (parasite, bacteria, who knows) that attacked Mike pretty ferociously on Thursday night. He was laid up all day Friday and Saturday. Saturday afternoon, we decided it was time to call in the big guns...the egg cure. We had learned from our friends Ben and Nohemi that many locals (including Nohemi when Emilia is sick) will rub an egg on the patient. The egg is supposed to absorb all of the bad energy and help to cure the illness. We gave it a shot and well we aren't sure if it was the egg or not, but Sunday Mike was feeling like a champ.

To take advantage of Mike's wellness, we set out on one of the most jammed packed days in Mexican tourism history....

7 - 8:15 am - Palm Sunday mass at Santo Domingo church.

8:15 - 8:30 am - Joined Palm Sunday procession. We walked w/ the procession only a few blocks until hunger took over and we ducked into a restaurant.

8:30 - 9:15am - Breakfast at Restaurant Mayordomo.

9:15am - 9:45 am - Drive to Atzompla. The trip wasvery interesting near the Centro de Abastos when in the midst of the crazy bus/taxi traffic we saw a completely naked ~45 year old Mexican woman crossing the street. Very odd, but apparently after talking to Ben and his sister-in-law Edith last night we learned there are quite a few "mentalists" (that's what Ben calls crazy people) that wander around Oaxaca naked. Edith also informed us that the state gov'ts of Chiapas and Puebla drop off their mentalists on the streets of Oaxaca so they don't have to deal with them. Sounds like another crazy Mexican conspiracy theory to me...

9:45 - 10:10am - Browse the Mercado de Artesanias in Atzompla. We went to this town to buy pottery and left empty-handed. The green pottery there is beautiful and very inexpensive, but after the wedding windfall that we enjoyed in fall 2007, we really couldn't find anything we needed. Don't let this stop you from going, because the pottery is beautiful and I'm pretty sure that almost anyone else in the world would have bought something there!

10:10am - 1:00pm - Drive to and visit of Monte Alban. While Monte Alban doesn't get the fame of say Tikal, Chichen Itza, or Machu Picchu... these are beautiful ruins. This was my 3rd time visiting them, but I still saw a few things I hadn't seen before thanks to Mike's desire to see every square inch of the site and a really nice runner we met somewhere near tomb 104. This man who incidentally is a marathon runner from Xoxocotlan showed us one Priest's tomb that I had missed on my previous two visits. This guy runs up to Monte Alban everyday (11 km each way) and it is definitely uphill in a major way to stay in shape for races. Anyway, thanks mystery runner man for showing us the tomb! Our pictures don't really do the site justice, but we try. Side note to anyone who is planning on visiting...in my opinion this is one of the sunniest/hottest places in Oaxaca. Hats, sunblock, and water are a must!

1:00 - 2:30 pm - Drive to Arrazola to buy some alebrijes. We had a bit more shopping success in Arrazola. This town is famous for the painted wooden creatures they sell. These are kind of trippy, acid-flash back kinds of creatures painted in wild colors. For example, it wouldn't be unusual to see a pink/purple/green giraffe with wings and fangs. We picked up a very cool lizard for us, I got a small hummingbird, and our lucky sis Tami scored something sweet for her bday. (Sorry Tami you'll have to wait to find out what it is).

2:30 - 6:15pm - Drive to the mall/supermarket. We are still on our endless search for Ricotta cheese to make lasagna, but came up short yet again at the big supermarket at the mall. What gives? Looks like we'll just have to go with the bechamel sauce, sigh. Popped in a few stores at the mall but bought nothing. Went and saw Vantage Point (it's a rental, don't waste your dinero) and finally headed home to rest. Or so we thought.

6:15-6:45pm - Short rest, shower and change to head downtown to meet Ben for some drinks.

6:45 - 10:00pm - Met up with Ben at one of our favorite watering holes for a few drinks. This is the first time I have ever been in a bar with a guy that was carrying around diapers to bring home for his 4 month old. Please note, that the photo provided, is slightly staged. Yes there were beers, cigarettes, peanuts, and diapers around Ben but we did pose him for this shot.

We finally got home around 10:30 and collapsed. We definitely felt like we accomplished a lot but there's still a lot to be done before we head back north of the border.

Before and After

Thanks to everyone who expressed their concern about Mike's hair growth.

Thanks largely to corporate America and the fact that Mike got a job with a company based in the middle of nowhere Illinois, as of last night the mullet and stache are gone.

While I'm thankful for many things in my life, at the moment I'm most thankful that this scruffy phase of Mike's life is over. Let's hope there is no relapse.

Our First Quinceanera

Okay it wasn't our quinceanera, but it was the first one that either one of us has ever been to. Alexandra the daughter of Rafael Ramos, who works on my project, celebrated her 15th bday in style and we were lucky enough to pick up an invitation.

To be honest I'm a bit disappointed in the pictures because they don't do the celebration justice. First of all she looked GORGEOUS. Second of all there were many funny events that went unrecorded. Por ejemplo...Mike awkwardly dancing with the bday girl, the baile del valle where they chuck candy around at everyone and knocked my drink over, the panuelo dance where I waltzed around shaking a hanky like I knew what I was doing, etc.

I can't remember all of the different parts of the celebration but there was definitely a mass, a waltz, presentation of flowers, some doll presentation thing, a waltz familiar where poor Alexandra had to dance with every male family member in attendance, cake, lots of little Coronas, plenty of mescal to go around, and delicious mole (again mol-ay the sauce not the rodent).

It was a wonderful event and we are so happy that we were able to attend. Not the typical cultural experience that every tourist gets in Oaxaca, but it was definitely a truly Mexican celebration and we had a blast.

A Taste of Chiapas by Meri

What feels like a million years ago (actually in the beginning of February) I headed out to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas for a work trip to follow up on work in the tourism and coffee sectors there. Side note...flying anywhere in Southern Mexico is kind of a pain in the butt. There are very few if any direct flights between cities. It is like the whole of Southern Mexico has been forgotten, sigh.

Anyway, for those of you travel buffs...GO TO CHIAPAS. The city of San Cristobal de las Casas is amazing in its self and then you throw in archeological ruins, amazing birding, rafting, indigenous culture out the wazooo, and some real Zapatistas...what more could anyone want? Well since you asked, I want to go back on a pure vacation so I can actually see a few non-work related things. If anyone goes, please book your tours with SendaSur...this is a group of indigenous communities and tour operators that we helped to organize under our project and they are always looking for more sales...check them out at http://www.sendasur.com/.

All complaining aside, this trip was great. After many headaches for our main coffee tech, Ramon, and a few for me as well, we were finally inaugurating after about 2 years of work a coffee wet mill in Yetzucum and a coffee cupping lab in Yoshib. We also toured around a bit with some USAID folks to show them the coffee collection centers we financed. Yes it was a show for the client, but it was a damn good show!!!! There was dancing, there was a homebrew firewater made from sugar cane, there was meat, what more could you want from your tax payer dollars. (side bar, no alcohol was purchased with government money, that´s a big time no-no).

Sorry for the very delayed post but now that I've found facebook, I've been a bit distracted. I know, lame-o spending all of her time on the internet. Trust me, when you live abroad small distractions like Superpoke and goodreads are sanity-savers. You can find both me and Mike on facebook, if you are into that sort of thing.

Other updates:

1. Mike got a job!!! Yippee.

2. Norm and Aud bought tickets and are coming to visit April 2 -9.

3. We bought our tickets to go to Brandon and Elizabeth's wedding in Guatemala in May, woo hoo!

4. Our friend Ben is interviewing for a job at the University of London and our fingers are crossed so we have someone in London to visit.

5. We joined a gym this week and are trying to lose about 50 comfort pounds that have accumulated between the two of us. My legs are still sore from Monday's workout with Gabriel. I never knew that your hamstrings could be that tight without snapping.