We’re in Barra Baby!

Yesterday, bright and early, we left high, dry Guanajuato and rode busses for about 11 hours and are now in low, moist Barra de Navidad. Barra is a little town on the Pacific coast, full of gringos, unfortunately, but the ocean and the thick air help me tolerate anything. It is overcast today too so that makes it all the better. We plan to bus and then walk to a good swimming beach, where we will snorkle and lounge for the day.

The busride was lovely. Mexico is so so danged beautiful. We road through high mountains, industrial valleys, agricultural valleys, cities and more mountains. We had to go through Guadalajara which took us at least on hour to get out of. I was reminded of how happy I am that we live in a town where walking is the main form of transportation.

Tequila fields as seen from the bus window. Jalisco is big agave country.

The mountain roads between Guadalajara and this caostal region are narrow, steep and windy. As we reached the peak, we could feel the ocean pulling us down. A highlight for me was watching lush green trees and undergrowth fly past outside my window. It was also a good distraction from the poor gringa lady across the aisle, getting sick into a plastic bag.

We were happy to arrive and had dinner at a sidewalk cafe.

A pool hall down the street.

It is time to canoiter for the day – more later.

Our last walk together

My walking partner, fellow blogger and friend, Lise has flown home with her family. I’m so sad, I will miss our walks and our connection.

We took our last walk together yesterday – Dad and Laurie came too. We headed back to the Presa Mata, but this time came at it from the other direction.

We took a bus to a tiny town in the countryside called Santa Rosa, and walked from there.

This is from the bus, looking down onto Valenciana and Guanajuato in the distance.

I didn’t take any pix in Santa Rosa, but we walked out past the school and some farms and there was some great fence action.  Those are car hoods.

Lots and lots of car hoods.

We passed the tiny town of San Nicolas on a tiny dirt road.

After walking for ever and ever we finally made it to the water. There’s our little beach in the distance. Once we got there the wind was blowing so hard that we weren’t hot, so none of us got into the water. We had bought some amazing tamales at Mercado Hidalgo though and who really needs swimming when you have tamales?

We went back down to town the usual way and got so hot, we regretted that we hadn’t gotten chilled to the bone in the presa. Lise and I took a cab the last leg of the way – to retrieve our children from the wonderful friends who had picked them up from school.

I’m sure going to miss her.

Tunnels

One of the things that makes this town so lovely and relatively car-free is that the traffic is routed through tunnels that go under the town and through the hills. There is a new one being built – which explains the huge explosions we have been hearing since we came here. Lise has blogged about it which is great – so I don’t have to.

This picture was taken yesterday, hers were taken last week sometime.

19 hours in Salamanca

Some of you may know that part of my goal of being in Mexico is to learn about the school systems here and the lives of teachers and students involved in those systems. Making contacts has proved to be a bit of a challenge but things are finally taking off and I have done a number of interviews with parents, teachers and students.

A fellow I worked with in Portland got me in touch with his cousin who is a first year English teacher at the University of Guanajuato. She has been a wonderful help, introducing me to professors, taking me to libraries, and this weekend she took me home to Salamanca to meet her parents who are both public school teachers in rural schools around Salamanca. Not only was it great to make the contacts for my project, it was wonderful to get to spend some time with a truly lovely family.

This picture is taken from the bus. You can’t see it well from the haze, but in the distance there are a mix of refinery and church towers, mostly refinery.

Salamanca is a smallish, very industrial city in the valley just south of Guanajuato City in the state of Guanajuato. Salamanca started as a small agricultural community in the 1600s and stayed small until a refinery, now PEMEX, moved there in the 1950s. Since then the city grew rapidly without a plan and with very little focus on quality of life. PEMEX and a thermal electric plant are the main industries and employers there now. Jessica told me that respiratory problems are very common and also asked me to let her know if I got dizzy or nauseated as many first time visitors do. I didn’t, but my eyes did sting. I heard that birds have been known to fall dead from the sky – the pollution gets so bad.

On the outskirts of town there are acres and acres of these huge complexes of tiny apartment houses.

Jessica’s family lives in one of the older neighborhoods, which she says is also known as a poor and dangerous neighborhood. She has lived there her whole life and has never had a problem with crime. This is right outside her door.

And a main street, a few blocks away.

Inside their garden – it is so sweet and cozy.

We went to the market, early Sunday morning. So early that it was just opening up.

When we got home everyone gathered in the kitchen for their traditional Sunday of cooking a big breakfast, and then cooking for the week. (Two sisters aren’t shown.) I got to slice nopales just like the ladies in the market do – and learned the word for slimy, boboso. I also learned that for better flavor you should make salsa with a mortar and pestal – with the tomatoes on the stovetop there are chilies roasting. They are all for the salsa.

After breakfast I finished my interviews. They are both very enthusiastic, creative teachers who have huge hearts and love for their student and both have been teaching for over 25 years! I am planning to go back soon and spend a day with one of them in school.

It was also excellent to get to speak so much Spanish, with a mix of English and support from Jessica.

A Sunday adventure

Yesterday we had an adventure that evolved throughout the day. We planned to jump on the first bus we saw and ride it to the end of the line, where ever it went. We were hoping that my dad could go. He has been sick with a fluish/coldish thing, (what is it with these male King genes, that come to Mexico and get sick and lie around for days?) but he was feeling too funky, even to ride a bus around. Good thing too, because what started as a bus ride turned into a stroll then into a hike, with a couple of scrambles and then an adventure ending with an unexpectedly long and rollercoasterish bus ride after all.

So Matthew, Mikko, Laurie and I set out from D and L’s house, walking through their neighborhood, Cerro de Cuarto, then along the panoramica, looking for a bus to come along. The panoramica is a big road that circumnavigates the main part of the city of Guanajuato around the edge of the basin. From the inside of the city it looks like a big circle around town, but in fact it is a super windy road that goes back into the canyons created by all the hills that create this basin. (does that make sense?)

As we walked along we found ourselves above a canyon with ruins and a tunnel entrance at the bottom – we could see a trail winding down, so decided to bag the bus trip.

This is not the greatest picture, but you can just see the tunnel entrance up and left of center. We are standing on the panoramica and it is also the windy road you can see at the top of the picture.

These were other ruins we had to walk past to get to the trail down. It is all very windy.

We hiked through the little forest of cactus and scrubby trees and got to the ruins down below. There was this convenient little entrance, which just involved a bit of a scramble once inside.

We found a different tunnel entrance and stepped inside. It was strange, still, warm stuffy air that made us not go any farther. Then we found our way, with a bit more scrambling, to the tunnel we had seen from the road.

It was the complete opposite of the last tunnel. There was a clear stream running out of it and actual tadpoles and water bugs living in the water. The air was crisp and refreshing in this tunnel. We sat for a spell and enjoyed the cool air and the tinkling sound of the stream.

This is looking out of the tunnel to the panoramica, about where I took the first picture.

To leave the ruins we had to go through another tunnel which was clearly a stream bed as well.

This is from the outside of the ruins.

We walked along this riverbed back into town.

Past an old pump house or something

And then past a super fancy develpoment with manicured lawns, well fed dogs, and well protected grounds.

and back into the city.

We got to a road and thought the adventure was over and that we would just be on city streets again, until we saw this bridge.

We found ourselves back in a riverbed, a very residential riverbed, as we continued to head toward town.

From here we bought some tortas and fruit and got on a bus that said Cerro de Cuarto, thinking it would just pop up the hill to D and L’s neighborhood. It did, after over an hour of driving along winding roads through residential neighborhoods on the other side of town, returning to the center, going across town through a series of tunnels, and finally along the panoramica back to Cerro de Cuarto.

Dad was happy to see us, and hear about the adventure, over tortas, then we played cards, watched the weather and Mikko Matthew and I rushed home in time to catch the downpour in the comfort of our own home.

It’s Raining!!

There is thunder and lightning and wind and RAIN!!!

I am a very happy lady.

We watched a storm come our way this evening and it veered off into a different direction, we were kind of sad.

But now I am lying on the couch, watching the sky light up every few minutes, with thunder close behind. I have the balcony door open and feel the wind as I listen to the quiet patter of the rain.  Mikko got to stand in it a bit before he went to bed.

Did I mention that I am happy?

Alacrán

We have just seen our fifth scorpian in as many months.

The first two were in the first month on the main room’s floor. The third was on the bathroom wall about a month later. The fourth fell out of my skirt as I took it out of the closet about a month ago, and last night’s was on the bathroom wall again. I finally had the opportunity and lack of freakedoutedness to take a picture.

There is just no rhyme or reason as to why or where or when they appear. After each appearance we are very careful to shake out our shoes and clothes before we put them on, but after a while of not seeing them, we relax… until the next time.

I have heard that the dark ones are not THAT poisonous. It’s the smaller lighter ones to be really afraid of. Very reassuring.

My teeny tiny little brother, Shane, has made an amazing movie with his cute little friend, Arne

And I am SO PROUD  of them!!

It is called: Girls Rock! the Movie Watch the trailer!

This is an interview with the two little guys.

That’s actually Arne, Shane comes in later.

And you must go see it on March 7th.

Walls and Fences

One of the things that I love about walking around is seeing all the different ways people construct walls and fences. There is an abundance a creativity, aesthetic choices, and reuse.

The first three pix are of our neighbors’ fence, right outside our front door.

Now I can hear some of you saying, “But Linea, I can’t see the fence because of all that garbage piled up in front of it.” But in fact – all that garbage IS the fence!! Isn’t that brilliant?

Over the last few weeks, I have been taking snapshots of the groovy fences and walls that I come across in my wanderings – the next two are actually shots that Matthew got walking out to Presa Mata.

I just love this use of bedsprings – they are so pretty.

Back to Presa Mata

Well, it has been so long since I have blogged. I just have not felt particularly inspired and maybe a little busy and distracted by the whole living my life thing – but I am feeling the urge again – so here I go.

My second set of parents, known as Dad and Laurie, have arrived. They are staying across the basin from us in another sweet little house that our landlady rents out. They are big Mexicophiles and lived in Michaocan for about a year – about ten years ago. They speak Spanish quite well and are super interested in people so it will be fun to have them here. I have hopes of them getting me out of any ruts I may have fallen into.

The other day we walked out to Presa Mata together. It is about 4 miles there so 8 miles round trip. Mikko did incredibly well with only a few pleas for a taxi, which were fruitless since no taxis happen to be out there.

The night before, we made a great dinner. D and L had been traveling for a bit and were craving fresh greens so we made a big salad and I made albóndigas al chipotle, chipotle meatballs, which I had learned to make in my cooking class – oh so good.

We decided to go out to Presa Mata, because it is a beautiful walk, but also because it has been so stinken’ hot and dry here. I know many of you in the Pacific NW and other cold and rainy places would love what is going on here, but I have to say – on one level I am a little bit miserable. It has been in the high 70s/80s here for weeks on end. And NO RAIN and very few clouds. I am going a little crazy. My skin is so dry at this point that someone could get allergic to me, because of my dander.

So anyhoo – we needed to have some cold water action. Click here to see more pix on the road from our last walk there.

The whole lake is being held by this wall.

This was our spot. A few other families were up there picnicking and boating. They thought we were crazy to swim.

Matthew and I both dove in – man it was … good.

But super cold and not the kind of water you lollygag in. The best part was the initial dive in and then standing in the sun and letting the sun tingle your skin dry. Here I am with my super scarred chest and gasping breath. Mathew is a total stud in the cold water arena.

The wind was blowing pretty hard so Mikko never quite made it in, but isn’t this a great picture?

The way back had some scenic moments as well.