Descanso

Rest. Eleven days working at the ranch, my body didn't just hurt when I got off work, it hurt when I got out of bed :) I was very excited when Nora invited me to go along to a nursery expo in Cuautla, Morelos. The expo wasn't fantastic in comparison to say, the FarWest Show, but you'll see it was still a lot of fun to see all of the new tropical plants. Then we walked through the nursery, CONAPLOR that was hosting the expo. 10 acres of greenhouses, all retail, it was beautiful. The nursery inventory is from over 100 producers in Morelos or Guerrero. The best part--the plants are CHEAP! You can buy a pineapple tree for 25 pesos (pesos:dollar, 11:1)! and it comes WITH A PINEAPPLE! Luis and I counted the years of one of the palm trees: nearly 30 years old: 750 pesos. Impressively cheap. Plants in gallons that were 6 pesos to a dollar.

At the show, one of the nuserymen we met invited us to his nursery and house; the house was beautiful. He designed the gardens. Divino! was how Claudia, an architect friend of Nora and Luis described the place. Nature has a way of working on you: just walking through the sod paths between the nursery stock I felt settled, still, content.

Then we headed off in the monstro (the audi) to Tepotzlan. I have been dying to go visit Tepotzlan, so when Nora and Luis said we were going to meet Lorena and her boyfriend there, I was ecstatic :) I was afraid that it wouldn't live up to everything everyone had told me, but it did and more. We had an beautiful dinner at a restaurant that was open out towards the cragged mountains that surround this mystic pueblo (Tepotzlan is one of the 13 pueblos misticos in Mexico). Mariachis played in with the mountains framing them. The mountains were by far the most tremendous part of dinner. I got to sit facing them and they provided an ever changing sight. The clouds floated in and up. At one point there wasn't a crag to be seen: the mountains were completely veiled by mist. Not too many minutes passed and slowly the green covered mountains appeared again. It was a vista in motion. Think Lord of the Rings. A woman in a draping red shirt with an incredible voice joined the mariachis several times through out the evening to sing to her friends at their dinner table; we all enjoyed her. The walls of the restaurant were close to the same shade of gold as my room, and there was one particular painted wall that I'd love to duplicate :)

My dinner:
lemonada
Sopes with beans, goat cheese, lettuce, guacamole
tostadas with guacamole, champolines, and green salsa
Thick, toasted tortilla wedges with a dry sour cream
Cold avocado soup
A tower of nopales (cactus) layered with goat cheese and huitlacoche (corn smut) and bathed in a sweet mole salsa
Creme brulee and cafe

I took a walk after my cafe. The streets are full of street/market vendors and entering the stores along the sidewalks on all sides of the church/zocalo are little boutiques of artisania. Definitely a place I'd love to explore. Then there is the mountain to climb where a pyramid sits (today, it was hidden by the clouds). I did however get a good view (Nora pointed it out to me) of the Enano of Tepotz formed by the the mountain range profile. Nora translated enano to elf, but it really is closer to midget: there's politically correct Mexico for you.

Monica's Cumple

I spent a Saturday afternoon and evening with Monica's family, friends, and cousins. I discovered that they really are all cousins...and brother-in-laws, but that's another mexicanismo.

A few notes:
Monica's adorable nephew who LOVED to make faces
Her uncle's birthday party: 50 people in the yard, a band, and a HUGE bull tethered a few yards away
Bean Tamales (YUMMY!...Karla's mom ate 6 :)
Grandpa's bulls
Yellow wall
Picking oranges

Chamba

Work. Finally I'm uploading pictures from this month at the ranch.

I really feel like I've done a little bit of everything (and alot! of other things ;)

Upstairs in the office:
Counting bags
Counting labels
Folding labels
Counting codes to go on labels
Putting codes on labels
Counting and organizing all the materials for each order

Downstairs in selection and packing:
Selecting/cleaning/weighing/packaging herbs
Packing the bags of herbs into boxs
Labeling the boxes
Sorting and taping the boxes together by each store's order. (Think Walmart: Oaxaca City, Mexico 1, Mexico 2, Mexico 3, Cuernavaca, Acapulco...etc.)

In the field:
Harvesting
Weeding
Seeding
Propagation
Transplanting

Hanging out with Baldemar and Alejandro while they:
Identify and record the pests and disease we find in each field
Checking on the tractor, aka mules ;)
Mix-up chemicals and supervise fumigators
Check-up on the fertilization via the irrigation system
Send flats of herbs to contractors
...Explain everything to me and answer my questions.

I'm loving my time here. And now, el rancho...

Cocos y mangos

Imagine orderly-spaced palm trees with mangos alternately-placed beneath; las palmas stretch up to the blue cielo and the mangos reach a quarter of the way up their trunks.

This weekend's experience took me to the tropics of la costa de Guerrero: Tecpan de Galeana. I spent three days with Heather and Jesus, their son Geovani, nephew Francisco, and mother Fredelina. Here are a few pictures of our time: highlighting a day absolutely alone on the beautiful beautiful beaches of playa ojo de agua, playa vicente guerrero, y la lagoon.

A day later at the ranch I'm called the rojo camaron: red shrimp. I'm just missing my chimpanzees (Laykin, Jonicka, y Kiana) who picked off my peeling skin last year. Yes, gross.

Los torros

Alma y Carla (tambien, los hijos de Alma: Jorge y Eric y primas Lorena y Maria) me llevaron a los torros: montadores quien montaron con ambos manos arriba, un payaso que me recordaron de Cantinflas, una banda que toco canciones rancheros, torros quien se pararon para permitir los montadores a dejar...los torros mexicanos.

Alma y Carla (along with Alma's two sons: Jorge and Eric, and cousins Lorena y Maria) took me out to bull riding: cowboys who rode with both hands in the air, clowns that reminded me of Cantinflas, a band playing ranchero songs, bulls who stopped to let the cowboys off...Mexican bulls.

Note: I couldn't get my camera settings right this night, so the pictures that are in focus are that way because the bulls really are standing still.

Weekends in Mexico

Weekend 1: see earlier blog entry with my and Heidi's pretty blue eyes ;)

Weekend 2: I arrived from Oaxaca early in the morning Saturday with the purpose of meeting up with Thomas and Teresa in the Zocalo for the small Guelaguetza that was to be held there (one of Oktavio's friends was supposed to sing!) But, the Guelaguetza was canceled and I never found T&T so instead I had a nice day solita: a walk through the park, cheap great breakfast (this amazing fusion tea) and finally the Frida Kahlo exhibit. I wish I could say I loved it. However, being toward the end of the exhibit, and a saturday: I spend hours (no exaggeration) in lines. To enter the building first --for my ticket, then exiting the building to wait in another line to...enter the building again--for the exhibit. Oh wait, for the first floor; for the bathroom, for the second floor, for the bathroom. The sala/room with the paintings: a line that streamed all the way around--a line for every painting. And I'm glad I went. It was a very nice exhibit. A nice day.

I arrived at the Aceve's house in time for Pepe's birthday party: a fun tres leches foto sequence to follow! The next morning Richard Wolf brought along a couple from New Zealand. Richard asked me to translate his sunday morning testimony for them--I was scared to death, my translation was literal --but they got it all :) A kind of benchmark, really. Hey, I do understand absolutely everything--sometimes.

That afternoon Richard dropped me off at the bus terminal and I had about a two and a half hour wait for a bus direct to Chiconcuac. This is the place of my impossible second encounter with the same Columbian, Diego...as if running into the same person twice in Mexico isn't impossible enough, Diego was arriving from Oaxaca just as I had the day before. This is a bus terminal were there are literally buses leaving every minute. Apparently: Impossible is nothing. (work cited: yes, i totally stole that phrase.)

Weekend 3: Patty arranged to met me at the same bus terminal. When we found each other, we both expressed our previous thought (in my case thoughts) that we might not actually find each other amongst the crazy crowd. Does that help to explain how unbelievable it was to run into Diego? Tacos, dropping my bag off at Patty's apartment, and then Patty took me to one of her favorite spots in Mexico: la plaza de Coyoacan, where there is a bazaar, that more than anything should be described as "hypie". Yes, this is one of those words in Mexico that is English with a Spanish pronunciation. It was fun to spend the evening with Patty. I saw some really neat art pieces that subsequently found their way onto my buy-in-the-future list, and listened to several different music artist street performers. And yes, you'll see in the fotos that the night ended in churros y chocolate.

Sunday we spend driving. Wait, Patty and I started out in a Taxi, then the metro, then Randy met us- to begin the long day of driving. 8 in the morning until 10 o'clock by the time I arrived back home in Chiconcuac. Sunday morning meeting, tacos, a siesta at Patty's, a quick stop at Chedraui's (where along with a tres leche pick-up...I found agrinafta herbs), gospel meeting, and a huge potluck (huge describing the amount of food more than the number of people :). Another weekend in Mexico.

Buenavista Birthday

My third trip to Buenavista: each time for a cumpleanos celebration. This weekend it was Dona Nieve's birthday and we ate, yet again, Pozole (and yes...I enjoyed it!). It was around the time of this trip I realized I was so lucky last summer; of the many pueblos I could have lived in, I lived in Buenavista. The hills surrounding it, the streets tucked in and around the base of the hills, and the people. This particular trip my walk up to the house included about an hour chat with Lola at the new restaurant where she works (before her boss returned) and nearly another hour chat with Marcos in front of the paleteria (okay, Mark, but I've taken to Sandra's translation). The following day I met an entire new family when I went with Mode who cooked the family tacos made with all the inner-systems: liver, heart, intestine...and two organs I'm not sure how they translated to english, perhaps for the better. Believe it: the tacos were great. I also played the jumping-in-sequences-over-the-rubber-band-stretched-between-two-nina's-legs with four cousins. Fun, but eventually liver became perferable to the yelling of the cousins over cheating and rules and levels. On my way down (this family lived up up up the side of the mountain) I surmised the woman cutting up the coconuts was Mode's sister, stopped to introduce myself, and we had a nice conversation before the kids with me tired of waiting. Off to the paper store to buy a bag for the present, and then to Dona Nieve's kitchen. The entire extended family from Tequesquitengo had already arrived (who we visited last year for Dona Nieve's sister's birthday). This year's celebration had a sweet little twist at the end. Sona hired a man to provide live music: esta son las mananitas...