Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Mazatlán, deer place/Los Mochis, a turtley place




THESE ARE BOTH MAZATLÁN. PRETTY SWEET, HUH? WE COULD ALL DEFINITELY COME BACK HERE. ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE INTO BUYING T-SHIRTS WITH SWORDFISH ON THEM. OR EATING BAKED POTATOES AND DIGGING IN THE SAND.

So we finally did the train thing! We road the famous Copper Canyon train this morning! Not for quite as long as we were planning though because an hour into the trip they made the announcement that progress was stopping there and then! No more! And to make it clear the train went backwards all the way back to Los Mochis effectively eraesing all the events of that morning. It was like in the twilight zone. All the people around me started walking backwards into the snack bar car and into their seats, Joel started talking backwards. When we got there we went backwards to the bus and un-ate our pancakes on it. Freaky.
Anyway there was a big ol' landslide across the tracks somewhere so now everybody's just got to take it easy and wait.
So it's funny being here because so many people stare so hard. I feel like I just walked into Black Rock and the locals are about to walk up to me and be like, "Whatreyew doin' here, stranger?"
So anyway hopefully the train will be on it's merry way tomorrow and we can all see canyons and waterfalls and trees and rocks and go home happy. I may have to drag Joel off though if he passes out from heat exhaustion. They literally keep the cabins so warm that my glasses fog up everytime I went back in from standing between cars. Which is the place to be, I tell you. Even just going through flat farmland was cool because you get to lean right out the train and just walk around. It was beauty. So I really hope that it gets fixed and we can go.

THIS IS ALSO MAZATLÁN. THAT'S THE HOUSE THAT I WOULD BUY FOR MOM AND DAD AND THEN ME AND JOEL ON MY BIRTHDAY. I INCLUDE THAT ONE NOT SO MUCH TO ADMIRE MY JUTTING HOLMLUND CHIN AND COMBOVER BUT TO POINT OUT THE GREAT PROGRESS BEING MADE BY JOEL'S CURLY SIDEBURN OVER HIS FACE.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Ahhh....Mazatlán.

Doesn't that sound like a great ad byline? I'm going to contact the beauraue of tourism here in Mexico, they can put it on all their posters and commercials and stuff. They can get the deep voiced guy who does all the spanish movie previews.
Man, I have some really good pictures that I want to put up, but I left the cord in the hotel room. So I'll have to put them up later. You'll all just have to wait. But we are in Mazatlán and I actually quite like it. There are herring skies everyday, it's hot but not too humid and there's a sea wind. One could swim if one ignored the trash on the lower parts of the beach. And also if one ignored the scary blue jellyfish washed up all over! Which apparently people do because I see quite a few swimmers.
Today is my birthday and Joel has been treating me real nice. I got juice and carrot bread for breakfast and then we went down to the rocky beach and watched the big spotty green crabs and enjoyed the wind. Now I am 23! That seems very old. I actually thought I was going to be 22 but then I remembered that beck cumple 21 this year! Also crazy!
So now we are going to go build a big sand castle because that's what I want to do on my birthday. And look for shells.
Next time I will have some pictures for sure.

Friday, December 7, 2007

"Vendamos" aqui "mofles" desde solo "$480"!

We "sell" "mufflers" here for only "$48"!
Well, it was some price like that. But a true sign that I saw coming into Guadalajara.
Guadalajara is not "nice". By which I mean I don't really like it at all.
The people are unfriendly and unhelpful, it's the dirtiest, smoggiest city I've ever been too and all the buildings are short and square.
I'm actually not sure what's so bad about it, it's just lots of little things. And there's nothing special here.
Guadalajara is not special.
HOWEVER. I do like the name of our hotel, which is HOTEL MEXICO 70 and I do like the nopal cactus that they make here. It's super good. Actually, all the breakfast food here is good. Guadalajara is the breakfast capital! The tortillas are good too. I also liked the park we visited today where the teens were lined up to get their quincieñera fotos taken. I have never seen so many fancy dresses all bunched together like that. Although they can't get too close together because the skirts all take up about a three yard radius. So that was fun to see.
Also they had an aviary so I got to go in and draw the fancy ducks and the big black swan and the parrots and things like that. Actually, I left and then came back in the exit and ended up face to face with the caretaker who told me that the aviary was closed. And maybe if I had come in the entrance I would have known that because it was locked. That was embarassing but then we were talking and he acutally let me stay in there all by myself while he went to go feed some other birds because I, unlike all the school children, who apparently run through, am quiet. And calm. and that's what the birds like. So anyway I got to stay and the huge swan snuck up behind me and made it's cute tiny honking noises while it watched me. It seemed a little lonely. But also happy.

Anyway. Tomorrow on to Mazatlan where we will hopefully visit an island. Or maybe fit in some last boogie boarding because the trip is ALMOST OVER. THIS IS IT!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

#3

(This is Guanajuato, where we are now. It is really lovely. And windy. It reminds me of a mix of Súria and Lisboa.)

Okay, number three is in regard to mom's question of why we went to Acapulco and what it is like to be traveling again instead of staying in one place.

We went to Acapulco because from Puerto Escondido it is an 18 hour bus ride to Mexico City. From Acapulco it is only a 6 hour bus ride.

Traveling again instead of staying in one place has it's ups and downs. I prefer to stay in one place because you can acutally get comfortable and stop spending all your time finding food and shelter and unpacking and packing your bag. No wonder nomads never had time for culture or civilization.*
But then again I like traveling because then things are always new and exciting and different and I don't get as grouchy. Plus you get to make more comparisons, which means you get to make more judgements and make up stereotypes!
In conclusion, doing both is important.

In reference to the book I've been reading, Trickster Makes This World, I have been thinking about the role of travel as dirtwork. That is, how traveling, or any experience at all really, effects a person's ideas of proper|improper. Any exposure to new ideas definitely can undermine or reinforce old cultural ideas. For example, staying in the hotel we're staying in reinforces my cultural belief that sinks and drains should be cleaned. However, eating in markets makes me question how expensive and complicated restaurants and food are in the US. It also makes me SO JEALOUS that we don't have any good buses in the US.


This is the theater we got to go see a free play in yesterday. I think we were the only people over 11 who were not chaperones. It was fun. Although the girls almost broke the door down when I was in the bathroom afterwards. I think they thought it was a friend because they were banging and like, "who's in there?" and i was like "Hey! Who do you think?" in a growly voice and then they thought I was a man.


*Which reminds me of a funny point. One day in Oaxaca my exchange buddy, Luis, brought in this book from the 60s that was called Questions Children Ask. We read about the sun and gravity and then we read about tattoos. Did you know that many tribes give themselves tattoos because to them it is beautiful? But did you know that there are also civilized people who have tattoos? And that is a direct quote.

#2

Which brings me to point #2, well first point #2a which is: Why Doesn't Latin America understand the " ?
I have to ask, is it grammatically proper to use "" if you are saying:
POR FAVOR "NO" TOCAR.
(please "don't" touch?)

or if the name of your restaurant is:
HOTEL "GRANADITAS"
(Hotel "pomegranite")

or:
BAR "RICAS TORTAS"
("Good sandwiches" bar)

?
?
?

I think maybe they are confusing "" with an underline.

Real point #2 is "why do I have this look on my face?"

#1

Alright. I'm going to address several different subjects on this post.
#1 I just read the email that Gramma Shareen sent out about earthquakes and it reminded me that in the airport on the way here we met the world's greatest saver-dog. Yes indeed! She was a little big eared thing, name Vicki if memory serves, and her trainer was taking her to California for something. But anyway she's one of those sniffer dogs who find people in crashes.
He was telling me she has worked all over the country and the world. She sniffed people out in the Oklahoma City bombing and in the 9-11 attacks and in earthquakes and a whole bunch of stuff. It was cool. Because she was so tiny and just chewing on this frisbee and bringing it over to me to pull on.
Anyway apparently you can teach any dog to sniff people out. You start by hiding in a sleeping bag and having your dog find you and try to dig you out. And then later they actually bury people (shallowly) and things like that. He said that you have to be careful though because the dogs get depressed if they find too many dead people. At the Twin Towers they would have agents and other live people hide in the rubble for every once in a while for the dogs to find so they wouldn't get too sad.
Anyway, so that was Vicki the famous life saving dog.
And these are some of the women of the revolution. The sign says so. "Mujeres de la Revolución". Six of them anyway. Who have apparently trapped six of the "Hombres de la Revolución" in a train car. Those were strange times...but colorful.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Exam...


Okay Tom, so what's this train? I expect you to be able to tell me it's whole history.

La muchadumbre es impresionante

So this was the demonstration we ran into yesterday. It's not totally visible in this picture but all these men were hopping and dancing and playing drums. They weren't indecent though because a big picture of the ex-governor of Veracruz was universally used as a loincloth.
Loafers with tall white socks, however, were the fashion coup of the day. Anyway, they were protesting the fact that he stole land and jailed people without cause while he was governor. Suerte! I told them. But it was generating a lot of interest and attention so good idea.
The other pictures are were we eat breakfast here. The first one is where we get tacos which are very delicious and actually the first ones we've had so far on the trip. They cost forty cents each and are full of Nopal cactus paddles and onion and pico de gallo and breakfast potatoes.
The second is where we go for juice. A liter of juice (my favorite is orange-papaya-strawberry-oatmeal) is a dollar eighty. And also tasty.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Fast Forward Traveling


Okay, are we all ready? Now that I'm at a place where pictures will actually load I will give you all quick tour through what we have been doing. This was beautiful hot sticky salty and kind of weird that we were there. I mean, look at the place. It was just this big tropical beach right by a jungle and tiki houses with thatched rooves all up the cliff. And all we did was swim and drink lemonade.
This is where we would drink lemonade. Oh, and eat guacamole. So anyway, that was crazy and definitely enjoyable (except the lack of cheap dinner options). We also spent a lot of time fixing mosquito netting. And sitting in front of fans.
Then we went to Puerto Escondidio which looked a lot more like this:

This was our pool. We stayed in a nice hotel. Well, once the girl there walked me to an atm so I could take out money because they wouldn't take the five hundred I had because it was missing a tiny piece of it's corner we stayed there. It was ridiculous. But then I liked her. We talked about the surf championship that had just ended and how someone from Hawaii won.
It was much more crowded, had huge blow up Corona bottles everywhere and music and families and tourists. My favorite part was all the families, well, the ladies and kids, who would just sit, legs out in front of them, in the surf. It's not a good beach for swimming so it makes sense but I just liked it. It was like they weren't even in the water at all.

THIS is the bird that we saw in both those places. I was proud because I actually guessed what it was without knowing anything about it. It's a frigate bird! Cool huh? They are HUGE and look like real big pterydactyls flying around with forked swallow tails. Except I never saw their necks blown up like this. I mostly saw females fishing which had white necks. Anyway.
Then we went to Acapulco which I know sounds all glam and fab and such but really was not that impressive. It seemed pretty run down to me. The zocalo, which is norally the heart of a town, looked like a circus sideshow with neon and christmas lights strung up everywhere and the beach was covered with fish bones and bottle caps and the water was full of plastic bags.
The definitely cool parts were this sign: Which basically says a lot about what I thought about Acapulco. Maybe used to be cool, but now run down and enveloped in WalMarts and BaskingRobbins. Also I loved our hotel. I was the greatest! The whole thing looked like my grandparent's house in Spain.
This was our key. Oh, there was also some great food.
And here was the decor. Anyway, then we left on the super fanciest bus in the world and came all the way back HERE, to Mexico City and are staying in a haunted hotel.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

The Italian Job

Is to come here to the coast and open restaurants. Apparently. We got lucky and had a good meal on Thanksgiving in an Italian restaurant in San Agustinillo, it was cheesy and olivey and the guy really was italian. Apparently they are all attracted {to this area, Joel wishes me to add)(Italians, that is) because somebody made an Italian movie called Puerto Escondido that is set here! In Puerto Escondido! Oh, apparently we actually ate there the day after thanksgiving, according to Joel. Or the day before. He can't decide and really I can't spend my whole blog just trying to meet his constantly changing desires.
anyway
I was sad not to be at home on Thanksgiving. I mean, in a way. I was also happy to be at the beach because I got to boogie board and swim and see what I believe might have been frigate birds, but I also wanted to be home eating lots of food and being warm inside while it's cold outside and visiting. Next year I suppose. But lots of love to everybody.
Anyway now we are in the abovementioned Puerto Escondido and we have CABLE again FINALLY so I can watch the Simpsons. And also a pool and a ceiling fan so finally this vacation is starting to shape up. Although I also got burned for the first time today which is so typically vacation and which I had managed to avoid thus far. CONSTANT VIGILANCE as Moody would say is what is called for when dealing with the sun. I forgot.
Alright, much love to all as I said and more updates either from Acapulco or Coyoacàn in Mexico City (aka Mexico aka el D.F. aka Ciudad de Mexico).

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Fishy Sea Air

Here we are in San Agustinillo. It is hot. And muggy. And pretty wonderful. It's hard to believe that we are here. As Joel mentioned yesterday it is like a completely different trip. It's incredibly green and all the houses have rooves made of palm leaves and the beach is beautiful. Some of the new cabañas being built are really cool looking and this place is obviously going to grow in the future. For right now it's pretty small and quiet though. Especially this time of year.

So spend the mornings sitting on the balcony and watching all the early swimmers trying to convince their girlfriends-wives to come and swim with them and the boats going in and out on turtle tours and for fishing.

There are also dogs everywhere here. Normal looking dogs with owners and everything! And tons of french people. But not the nice french tourists, the stuck up french ex-pats who will teach you to surf or sell you expensive juice but not be happy about it.
Possibly this is just my perspective.

Anyway! Now I must go and rent a boogie board and log my time in the surf. I would have put up a picture of Joel and I fixing our mosquito net which is a startling bright pink color but the connection is too slow here for pictures to ever finish, so that will have to wait.

until then!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

"¡Vamos a la Playa...!" or "Cooking the Books"

and I can't wait. So here's another funny thing. One of the guys I was talking to last night told me, well I told him that we were flying out of El Paso (Or ElPasoJuarez or JuarezElPaso as he calls it, because really the city is one and then same) and he was talking about how much he likes it. He says it's the last old west town in the world and it's full of cowboys and cholos and drunks. He got excited about it. I told him I was glad to hear it because everybody else thinks it's ugly. He was like "That's because it's full of chicanos! That's racism plain and simple," and then he told me about one time when he was in this gas station and this girl from Holland came in, knew barely any English, and they were talking about El Paso somehow and she was like, "Isn't that the....armpit? Of Texas?" He told her "You've been talking to too many white people!" and also that "White people don't like Mexicans." Which I guess is true to a large extent. But I do.
Anyway, the above picture is taken in Chocolate Mayordomo where I like to go and get frothy foamy chocolate drinks. I took it and include it here because I like the girls in the corner doing the bookkeeping. I have seen this in several restaurants now and it amuses me.

Qué Divertido! or Watch out! Action!



So the night before that I was out with my exchange partner, Luis, and we went walking by ol' Santo Domingo and saw a group of Mariachis who he suggested we follow. We did so, following them straight to the Guadalajara en Oaxaca sister city exibition. So we watched the dancing and then the Mariachi group got up and hooboy they were good. Knocked the ol' socks off. Anyway, so I drew them a little bit and chatted with Luis about his favorite actors (Nicolas Cage, Stephen Segal, somebody else and Mel Gibson. He wishes he were more like Mel Gibson. He especially likes the Arma Mortal movies {read lethal weapon}. I felt bad having to break it to him that Mel Gibson is a religious maniac with fourteen kids. Luis was sorry about that religion, but not the kids. He was impressed that they were all with the same wife though. He said if he were rich like Mel Gibson he would have ten boys). Anyway, so afterwards I was admiring the tissue paper banners draped around and he said he wished he could get some for me and then we said goodbye. He is a super nice guy and it's too bad we're not going to meet anymore. But just as he was leaving all the Mariachis came by! And he was like "Where is your camera? I could have taken your picture with them!" and then he was like (because he knew Joel had the camera) "When you get home you have to hit Joel like this! {slaps rolled newspaper against his palm} And when he says, "Ow, why?" you have to say "Cállate!" and hit him some more." He is really set on me taking pictures of everything.
Anyway he left and I went over and talked to all the Mariachis for awhile in front of the roasted corn stand. It was great! I showed them my drawings and got some guys email and learned all their names.
Then after that I went back and was looking at the flags and some guy came up and asked if I wanted them and I said, "You bet your sweet bippy I do," and he said, "Okay then," and then he helped me take them down and asked my name and gave me a card for his restaurant in Guadalajara that says "Kira %100 discount". So what about that, huh?

Qué Suerte!


Man, I have been having such great luck these past few days! Luck like you wouldn't believe! So anyway last night I was wandering around with Joel who needed to go home because he was exhausted but I felt like staying out for awhile because it was Noche de Luces and I wanted to see little kids doing karate and gymnastics and stuff like that but then I decided, well, maybe I'll just hang out at the book fair long enough to see a speaker and happened to sit next to the guy who was leading the talk the night before and we started talking because we were both drawing and taking notes. Then he went up and led the next speakers in the questioning and the answering and it was really fun and amusing because it was the second to last night to everybody was relaxed and the authors from previous nights were in the audience and were asking amusing questions and all. And then afterwards I was talking to several people waiting around for this Martín guy to get his email and stuff and I talked to a lady with one of those peruvian hairless dogs in a dog carrier and then to a guy about a book he had which he proceeded to give me (because he could just get another one from the organizers because he was a participant) and Anyway the short and short of it was that Martín invited me to go get dinner with all the above mentioned peole. And more! And so we went to this nice fancy restaurant and I just got to chill with all these authors and sculptors and talk about books and publishing and our trip and ikea and where they all lived. It was really fun. Afterwards some of us went to a mezcal tasting party and Agustín and I talked about eyebrows. All in all I was stupified by how coincidentally cool it was. And also just how friendly the people here are if you are alone. Geez! Because, well, wait, I'll start another entry above. This is too long.

This is just a touristy picture of people in traje tradicional. They are getting ready to dance for somebody's wedding. This happens a lot and is accompanied by the dancing of big people puppets and loud pointless fireworks. I say pointless because the are just loud and obnouxious with no redeeming artsy value.

Un Desmadre

SPEAKING of icky things we saw this at the Museum of Arte Moderno. It is not what you think it is. That is, if you think it is a dolphin. It is her older cousin, forebear perhaps, Ichthyosaur. And it is surrounded by debris from the age of Discovery.

The Most Chido Sign


This is the most chido sign I have ever come across and if I thought for a minute that I could get it back with me I would have bought it then and there. As I couldn't I'm determined to make one someday. Somebody cut all the colored foil to put behind glass and then hand painted the sign on the glass. Impressive! It's like going to the circus without ever having to get up from your table or stop sucking on your popcicle. The circus is in town, by the way. They drive through the streets in a truck with a cage on the back playing this god-awful recording that goes "DOODOO DOO DOODOOT! DOODOO DOO DOODOOT! VEINTE VEINTE VEINTE! HOY SOLO A VIENTE PESOS NIÑOS Y VIENTE PESOS ADULTOS!" and in the cage there are either three leopards looking dead or two monkeys looking pissed or things like that and they drive super slow and everyone gets mad and honks at them and all the peds gather around and look at them and touch any part of the animal that sticks out. It's icky.
Man, check out that paint job! This is in a place called San Martín Tilcajete as I recall. We went to look for alebrijes. Anyway, this house left no doubt as to the ubicación of the hoity-toitey residents. The gate might be my favorite part, especially becasue it's like a preview, or a menu, because you can hear the noises of the all the animals featured going on behind the gate. And more!
All the places we've gone to outside of City of Oaxaca have been quite a bit more rural. The typical house seems to be the family compound behind a gate with a few buildings around a central plaza that has cows, burros, lots of turkeys and turkey babies, maybe some chickens and maybe a dog. And probably something burning. It's pretty cool.
You can also see one of the neighbors and a bit of the countryside. It's really pretty except for the HUGE SPIDERS draped over anything horizontal. I tried to take a picture but it didn't express their menace. They are as big as my hand and all crowded together in their webs over everything.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

AMIBA

I just thought, since I am here at the internet pero sans camera cord and, thus, unable to put up pictures and worthwhile blog posts, that I would link to this super cool website.
http://mediorural.xunta.es/externos/intergal/publica/ga/bovino.htm
I met a girl in Madrid who works for them, she is a veterinarian from Portugal and she goes around and makes sure that people who have these special breeds specific to Portugal know how to take care of them. I thought it was great. So here you can see all the special cows and chickens of Portugal.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Other Stuff



I forgot to say what I drew for everybody. For Gramma Ines I drew an accordion, and poker chips and cards. For Gramma Nana I drew some jewlery and a piece of fur and I wanted to draw Starwars because I remember watching it for the first time there but I couldn´t think of how, so I did her steps instead because I liked her steps. For Pop I drew music because he would sing the papering the parlour song and a book because he gave me that book of dragon paper airplanes that I never made because I liked them too much. For Grampa Pete I also drew a book and an icecream sundae and a baseball and a basketball. I realized that it is a great shame that he never got to live next door to William and Maddie like Gramma because they are really the grandchildren he was waiting for, but that's okay I told him about it. Then for Gramma Audrey I drew roses and Tessa and a donkey. And an airplane. And then for Uncle Terry I drew tools, because I think he liked that kind of thing. Anyway. So here is me and Joel. I am eating a Paleta, which I like a lot and he is making juice. Which he likes a lot. It was very exciting when our landlady asked us if we wanted one. She said it real caush', like, "You guys probably wouldn´t want a blender, would you?" and I think Joel fainted. Anyway, for Caddy I drew her laying on her back, and her cheeseball and a car wheel and mom's butt.

Noche de Muertos

Here is an altar that they made in the old Palacio for Frida. Apparently this year is her 100 anniversary? Birthday? Deathday? Anyway, it is pretty impressive. A little bigger than our humble altar. Or that of our landlady, which we got to go see. We barely ever see her so when she was out watering the other day I stuck my head over the edge and said hey, and how is it and did she make an alter? And she said yes and I asked if we could give her a candle to put on it? And she said sure. And she came up and we showed off ours, because we are very proud of it, and then we went down and saw hers which had the proper three levels and everything, but no walnuts so we said, oh, we have extra of those, do you want some? And she said, Okay, we'll do an exchange and she gave us a bread baby and I went up to get the walnuts and gave her those and then she gave us a sugar skull and then I was afraid to give her anything else because we were going to end up just putting our altar downstairs and hers upstairs.
But it was very nice. I really like her. And it was a good thing Flor, the lady from the school we are going to, told us that you could do that and it was a nice gesture to offer people things. Later than night when we went to Señora Claudia's house she was explaining stuff about her altar to us and I told Flor about it and she said that traditionally people buy enough stuff for their own altars and then have a pile of other stuff that they bring over to relatives houses when they visit. So everybody ends up exchanging gifts.
We also ate tons of sweet things that she had made, like miquatole which looks like white cheese but is really tastes like compressed cream of wheat, hot chocolate with eggyolk bread (chocolate caliente y pan de yema), calabaza en dulce which is pumpkin cooked in a sugar reduction sauce and ends up black and tastes like molasses, arroz con leche (rice pudding) and finally tehocotes which are little apples done up like the pumpkin. And we saw the borlas (red flowers) and sempasuches (marigolds) and all that. It was great. And here is our own little altar. I put Gramma Ines and Gramma Nana and Pop and Gramma Audrey and Grampa Pete and Caddy and Uncle Terry.
After the food we went to the general cemetary (panteón) with Flor and some other students to see her parents. That is where we saw the creepy big grave (pictured above) in the center of the cemetary and the coolest grave I've ever seen, which is the big hand reaching out of the ground. There were some really tasteless ones as well. Then we followed around a couple of street parties where people were dressed in very scary masks and had hired bands and went around dancing and asking for food or mezcal from the houses. It was great.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Muertos

This whole week is Muertos, really. Yesterday we went with Flor (the lady who runs the school we are going to start going to. Oh yeah, today is our first day.) to the huge market so she could buy stuff for her alter and we could mill around and ooh and ahh. Building the altar was fascinante. We put walnuts and roasted peanuts and apples and nìsperas and tiny apples and marigolds and big red borla flowers and beer and mezcal and skeleton figures. Candles, incense, cut tissue paper banners hung all over. Also fotos of her parents and their names. Names are important. And so is a glass of water and salt. For purification. And the incense so the dead know where to go.
Anyway, the picture is of one of the street paintings. It's made out of flowers and rice and beans.
We got flowers and stared making our own altar as well. I'll post a picture when we finish.This is Joel on our way back from the Mercado de Abastos getting stuff.

Money Trap



So here is our new apartment! Isn´t it cute? If you want to see the other pictures you have to go to Joel's blog. We split them up. Like a baby in a divorce settlement.
Anyway.
I really like it. It is super nice on top of a lady's house with a big bouganvilla and tons of succulents in pots and lots of hummingbirds (colibrís) and puffy birds and sunshine. Very relaxed and open non-cavelike, compared to our other house. With white walls! Straight white walls. So anyway, anyone who feels like coming down to visit us is more than welcome. This is a cool town and I think it would be a great place for us all to come for vacation. Much better than Mexico City.
Mom, you could fly down here and write!

Helicopter,

Helicopter let your long rope dow-how-ow-ow-own.
Check out this sweet Volvo! It is in the Carrera Panamericana which is a race that is going on right now and Joel has written about. It was very exciting to see them all start off! It was just like the great race! I was looking around everywhere for Tony Curtis, but maybe he got there late. He probably had an engagement at the Emerald Queen Casino. But anyway I teared up a little bit to see them all racing around the corner and waving to everyone. Actually, now that I think about it it was more like It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World because taxis and cop cars and fire trucks and buses kept getting caught up in the spirit of things and driving fast down the street too.
But before they even started there was lots of drama. All the cars were set up in the Zocalo, it was pretty typical car show angled parking and oglers and all that. One couple was talking about how long it took to decide the starting order the day before and how they had changed it all at the last minute that morning. (Or maybe they hadn´t? We weren´t clear)
Oh, and then the next guy we walked by was talking about how his engine blew up! "And what did they say?" "Oh! Our engines don't do that!" "Typical!" He was pissed. He was up half the night taking it out and he had spent fifty gazillion dollars to get down there and now look. He has to wait around for a new one. Anyway.
I should go look and see who is in the lead now. There were lots of other cool old Volvos too, but if they have the same pickup that Inga has I'm not sure they stand a chance.

Anyway, so after that we went to Arrazola (which took some doing to get there) and looked at Alebrijes, those famous Oaxacan wood carvings of animals painted bright colors. Everbody there makes them. And they are beautiful. But after about forty minutes I felt like I would puke if I saw another one. Luckily we got some icecream and caught the next collective out of town and now I am enamored of the ones I got once again.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Xocolatl.


So this is the girl who made our hot chocolate this morning. She was super nice. She knows how to make the chocolate, but her boss won't let her. She just has to mix it into hot chocolate. So we were there drinking when the brass band marched in and started playing. It was magical. And loud.

Es que...no puedo resistir!



People just do such cool artwork on the street.
So anyway, speaking of that, there is a center here where maybe I can do some artwork of my own. Maybe some ceramics. I'm looking into it. Also we went to look at an apartment today. It is pretty typical. Of us. And in a roof garden. But cheap. But there are tons for rent so maybe we will find something else. And we are pretty set on taking some spanish classes here. The lady was just so nice and cool and totally sold us on it, but without even trying.
So the mole negro is pretty much delicious and I will try to learn how to make it. Joel doesn´t like the chocolate stuff here very much because he's kind of a snob about it, but I am so psyched to be in a place where everybody has huge mugs of hot chocolate all the time. More on that above.