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.

Beware of the Beard

Last weekend we took a day trip to "Hierve el Agua" which is about an hour and a half outside of Oaxaca.

Hierve el Agua is a natural warm spring which contains air trying to escape, hence the name "Hierve el Agua"which means “the water boils”. The water is also full of minerals, so as it runs off of the edge of the nearby cliff, calcium carbonate and magnesium in the water create a petrified waterfall, and the sulphur ads nice yellow accents in places. There are only two such sites in the world, the other one is in Turkey.

It has several pools which you can swim in which I found quite refreshing under the hot sun. Tootsie of course couldn't be left out of any opportunity to go swimming, no matter how illegal it was.

There are also a few miles of hiking trails around the waterfalls to get better vantage points. Tootsie followed us all day off-leash which has been a great development over the last few years. The only draw back is that sometimes she gets a little too far ahead and can get into trouble. This time she managed to find some scat to roll in which was completely unpleasant to wash of and endure in the long car ride home. Despite that, Tootsie is a great hiking companion. Unfortunately we've begun to notice more and more the day after long hikes, she will limp around favoring a paw or joint. It's so sad to see her getting old ...

As Meri can attest, hiking in the dry desert heat was more than a bit challenging.

I also wanted to throw in some random pictures of past weekends that didn't merit their own post.

This is Me and Jason (Meri's colleague from Chemonics) wathing the superbowl at a bar in Oaxaca. Meri and John were there too. I can't believe I rooted for the Giants but I did.

Me, providing for our family; carrying our water source (50lbs) over many miles back to our house from the store. Correction from Meri...definitely not 50 lbs and the walk is maybe a mile at best.

Ben, Noemi, Amelia (hiding), Meri, and Me at the organic farmers market, El Pochote, in Oaxaca enjoying some breakfast.

And the coupe de grace my ever growing man beard. The grouping of the right and left lobes on my musache is all natural (no trimming) and the anchor-shaped beard has been maticulously crafted. Remember this is only a month and a half of growing which is no small feat. I've dedicated the growing of my beard to a speacial cause, for David Carouso of Miami CSI to start talking normal. Why does he always growl? And why does my wife make me watch it all the time? And why does Mexican cable air that show out of all of the other U.S. sitcoms?

Beach is Good

Two weekends ago I finally convinced Meri to take a half day and leave for the Pacific ocean. After much debate we decided to take our car as opposed to a public bus. Either way we were staring down a 6-8 hour trip. Although it's ony 120 miles the roads go up and over the mountains and are rife with speed bumps. We ended up leaving at noon on Friday and got to Hualtulco at 7:30pm. We made pretty good time despite the fact that Meri had to stop the car 5 different times so I could throw up and work my way through a ridiculous hangover c/o Ben.

On Friday night we stayed in a beach town near Hualtulco called Santa Cruz. It's just past several large resorts tucked away to the west of Hualtulco. We stayed in a fairly large hotel with nice amenities about 150 meters from the beach. When we got there we were both starving so we decided to walk around to get our bearings and check out the town. We we more than a little dissapointed that there were hardly any restaurants and all but one were closed. We ended up getting some tacos from a small hole-in-the-wall taqueria which also provided tour services. While we were waiting for our food the tour guy who was already at the restaurant sluggin beers down with his buddy came over to our table, sat down and showed us pictures of his tours. I understood about half of what he was saying but I was secretly thankful that I didn't really understand everything and Meri had to take the brunt of his pitch. We did, however get one useful piece of information from him - the name of a beautiful local beach that was great for snorkeling.

After dinner we walked to the beach in Santa Cruz and discovered it was extremely small. We also found two open restaraunts which catered to gringo tourists like ourselves. After looking at the cartas and seeing the lack of selection and high prices I think both of us were happy that we got good cheap food at a Mexican place. We both agreed that the beach had little to offer and the town had even less - so we decided to get up early the next morning and drive to the snorekling beach called Playa San Augustin. We arrived after about a 45 minute drive (30 minutes down a dirt road). It was worth the trip - the beach was beautiful. We could actually see the coral and fish just walking along the shore. I rented snorkeling gear for the day ($4) and went out to check the coral out which was good, although not as nice as some other great snorkeling places I've been (Belize & the Red Sea) but it was still nice.

Unfortunately I forgot to put on sun screen and got scorched. We decided to leave around 2:00pm and continue on to the next beach on our tour. It was a small beach next between two more famous beaches (Mazunte and Zipolite)called San Augustinillo. We were planning to be such big fans of one particular Saint on this trip, but that's just the way it worked out. It took us about 2 hours to get there but it was well worth the drive. It was by far the best beach yet with a long stretch of beach, big waves, and a great little town that had several restaurants and shops. We aso got a cute little cabana right on the beach. After we got settled we went out for dinner at a gringo owned restaraunt where I got shrimp fra diavlo and got it all over myself. Meri had a tlayuda, which is basically just a giant tortilla filled with beans, cheese, etc folded in half and grilled. After dinner we were both a little tired so we decided to go to bed. The mosquitoe netting was a challenge to navigate into the bed but I'm glad we had it becuase our cabana was infested with them as we fought them off brushing our teeth and putting on our PJs.

The next morning we got up early, headed to the beach for a few hours. We walked down the beach and explored some rock formations just off the shore. We found a lot of crabs and saw a few small fish in the tidepools. The large waves crashing through the rocks were beautiful and I didn't want to leave. Meri and I went in the water a few times to cool down but I couldn't take too much more of the sun.

Both of us didn't want to leave but we knew we had a long trip ahead of us. We decided to leave around 11:00am and took a different road back to Oaxaca. Fortunately the roads were empty and I found a quick driving car to follow all the way back. The trip back ended up only being five and a half hours! We got home around 5pm and had some time to decompress before the upcoming work week.

All in all it was a great weekend getway and I can't wait to get back to the beaches for an even longer period of time. Next on my list is Puerto Escondito. Sorry that there are no people pictures, but we forgot our camera (boo!). All of these pictures have been plucked carefully from the internet to add a little flair to the posting.

Chapulines and Scorpions - c/o Mike

I've mastered the basics of Spanish (and have a certificate to prove it!) so I've decided to go out on my own to learn the language from the people. With my newly aquired language skills I will adeptly be able to avoid sheep brain tacos as well as order food and beverage for myself when I go out with my wife. As an added incentive to improve my Spanish, I have thrown the gauntlet for a Spanish grudge match with a friend back Stateside, yes Annie that's you! This unsettled dual began a few years ago in Costa Rica and has conitued to this day. I fully plan to humilate her next time we meet not holding back just because she has a baby. This "Span-off" similar to the Zoolander "walk-off" will be a no holds barred test of "Espanol".

In spite of my failure to recognize the word for brains my first week in country, I haven't had too many gastronomic mishaps. In fact I've purposly tried everything on a menu which I might find revolting such as Chapulines (grasshoppers) and raw pig fat. On the subject of strange food, I've even gotten into the habit of eating sheep barbacoa for breakfast which is quite tasty, especially with the extra fat. I usually enjoy it when I accompany my neighbor into the field as his "academic assistant". While he does research in the various Catholic archives scattered in small villages throughout the countryside, I enjoy wandering around town having staring contests with the "gente del pueblo" and try to keep the local store owners from price gouging me for a coke.

Here are a few pictures from my field reserach: St. Christopher, a church, the sanctuary, and a page from an archive.




















Back in Oaxaca, I've managed to locate a great open market which sells great cheap eats, clothes, music, movies, and other knick-knacks. It's every Friday and is close to the school I was attending. Meri usually meets me down there for lunch.

Last Friday, as I was waiting for Meri to join me for lunch I was sipping on a fruit juice (jamaica) sitting on a tiny wall surrounding a monument of a local Mexican hero. As I sat there contemplating how I was going to order the tacos this time, not my wife, I felt a light tickle on my neck. I thought it was either a fly or maybe the wind blowing through my mullet. As an involuntary reflex I lifted my left hand and flicked the side of my neck. To my suprise a freaking scorpion flew through the air and landed a few feet from where I was sitting. I screamed and looked in utter desparation to the two young Mexican women nearby. Not that I knew what to say to them but still, I almost died. They looked at me akwardly and continued their conversation. I began to sweat, then shake, then I schizophrenically started checking my body for other scorpions. I threw my bag on the ground and tore it open waiting to squash any of his friends. After dramatically relaying the story to my wife she quickly began talking about work as if nothing happened. After a nice long lunch I went home and did about 2 hours of research on scorpions. I've decided that it was most likely S. mesaensis (Stahnke, 1957) of the Vaejovidae family. This is directly from the website as well as the picture, "Many species of this family can deliver very painful stings, but they are not belived to be dangerous to healthy humans." http://www.ub.ntnu.no/scorpion-files/index.php.