Yo soy como el chile verde, picante pero sabroso

Ahhh, now thast Christmas is is over we have some time to relax and get on the computer. We were actually supposed to leave San Cristobal today (new years eve) but it will work out easier if we leave on the second. Christmas dinner was an absolute smash!! We had 10 different countries represented, a ton of great food, and more importantly, great music. From Ethiopian throat singing, to Italian folksongs, everyone was just jammin and passing around instruments all night. It was a blast and after that we went to a christmas night show.. MUFAYA!!
The last few days have been spent cruising around town and neighboring ones, visiting a museumj or two. A couple of days ago, we went to Chamula and Zinacantan, to indeginous pueblos not far from San Cris. Chamulans are famous for their agressive, and defensive attitude, basically if you take pictures of someone they will knock the camera out of your hands... needless to say I got a few shots in....
But only 8km away is this peaceful, beautiful village called Zinacantan where they grow flowers and make these really beautiful shauls. The shauls are of a really thick mateial, but they are decorated with deep purple, green, sometimes blue and read patters of intricate flowers, birds, and things that are very sparkly. It is what everyone wears there and they are so beautiful, wrapped head to toe in an out fit of these colors, babies, men,m women and all. So as we were getting ready to leave Zinacantan these two women, dressed in this beautiful traditional garb, asked us if we wanted to see how the fabric was made, explaining we can take pictures, all free!! So we folllow her to her house and she wraps this huge weaving fabric set up and pulls a wooden stick around her back and really starts going at it on the fabric... muchos musculos! So after describing the practice and telling us that it takes a month to do one shaul, and she had been doing it since she was 12, I was astonished that these cost only 300 pesos!!! The women brought out homnemade tortillass with chese and salsa for us and told us that if we came back on another day, she would show us how to make tortillas... The people from Zinacantan are far more tranquilklo than the Chamulans, just like we heard (even though they are so close).

Yesterday we visited this Cañon de Sumidero, a boat trip through this beautiful gully of a river. We saw a couple of crocodiles and monkeys, and some beautiful scenery....
Ridibng bikes a little bit here in San Cris. and loving it, cant wait to be in Belize andf be cruzing around the islands!!!!
Prospero año nuevo a todos!!!

Merry Xmas from SanCRistobal!!

So it has been a while since the last post, let me see if i can kinda paraphrase the last couple of weeks...... Zipolite was a blast, meeting really good people, eating for cheese pizzas with roquefort, and laying in the hamac until you fall asleep. We visited a tiny secluded beach around the corner called Play del Amor, Sonya got stung buy a sting ray (extremely painful) and i think i might have a broken toe, additionally, we met a guy from the UK thats legal name is Crazy Horse Invincible. Thats not all, but mainly just a vacation from our vacation.
On the 20th, we took a night bus 12 hours to San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, the home of the Zapatistas. We are staying with our friend Tom who we met in Patzcuaro, and meeting many of his friends who live here, from frenchies, italians, germans, all over the world, and everybody is really good people, and its an even more beautiful and international town. On Christmas we are goona have a traditional Christmas dinner, and I think we are gonna make sweet potato pie or some desert. But everymorning here is great, we wake up, put on a pot of coffee, and retreat to the garden with sophie, the other roomate, tom, and us sitting amongst gorgeous virmilliads and orchids, with orange tree that has fresh oranges right now, and an apple tree that draws hundreds of parrots when they are ripe.
Other than that, the future is looking good, and tonight we may go to a reggae show with a band that everyone knows and hangs out with called MUFAYA (more fire, but since they are french they just say the sounds like jamaicans.. hillarious, super intense sound system reggae). I know it doesnt seem like much has been going on, but we keep bust, and if the market isnt closed by now, we are gonna get some stuff.
Hope many of you are enjoying a white christmas.

Breakast tastes better barefoot.

So a couploe of days ago we arrived back on the Pacific side in Salinas cruz, on the Oaxacan coast. Although its on the other side of mexico, it is a south coast, as is where we are in Zipolite. After staying the night in Salinas Cruz, and celebrating sam´s birthday by watching two of Mexicos biggest soccer rivals go at it, we woke up early, once again ang headed west up the coast.

We first arrived in a pretty small town named Pochutla, where we then got on another camioneta (a small truck with benches in the back used for transportantion.. often called a collectivo) heading for the tiny little one road beachtown of Zipolite. It is about ten minute from Puerto Angel, and offers considerably warm water with options of snorkeling, whale watching, and alot more. It is mexico´s only sanctioned nude beach and was founded by hippies in the sixties looking for a place to watch the perfect Solar Eclipse. Right now we are staying in a room, yeas a real room with mosquito net, a fan, no bathroom, for the same price that it was to camp on Lake Catemaco. Zipolite is by far the cheapest place we have been so far in Mexico!! Fruits and veggies are cheap, but why cooik for ourselves when you can go and get a plate of THE BEST BBQed CHICKEN you will ever eat, with sides of delicious mexi-rice, mac salad and more tortillas than you will ever use for only 2 dollars!!! . SO DELICIOUS!!!!!! So Ive been eating chicken the last few nights, except for tonight when we had some delicious italian food.. focacia, keish, the works.
Being on the beach, and the beach leading all the way up to the one road this town has, I rarely wear shoes anymore, not even to breakfast. And if we go out, or even if we dont, we will always eat with our toes digging into the sand.. in fact i am barefoot right now as I write. It is an extremely liberating and relaxing feeling to not give a care about anything, fall asleep in a hamac in the middle of the day, and swim more than a handfull of seperate times in a day.

Just yesterday we discovered many of the different, even smaller beaches by boat on a tour where we saw a couple of humpback whales, manta- rays diving out of the water, and snorkeled for about an hour. Im really browning up nicely, being on the water especially and sonya is browner than i think i have ever seen her. Jealous yet??? We decided we probably wont leavce here for a while... it is VERY easy to get comfortable.
Until nextime.

East to West

So I guess it was Thanksgiving on Thursday, and incidentally we had a very good dinner with compàny that generally doesnt celebrate.... On Wednesday we went to the cigar factory in SanAndres de Tuxtla, a bigger city in the Municipo de Catemaco. A very beautiful artisan practice of rolling, aging, and smoking cigars out of locally grown cigars from PURO TOBACO. We got the full tour, and needless to say, took many pictures, and took home a couple of stogies. Not as good as cubans, but these cigars were literally 15km away from where they grew, making the ¨petroleum drenched¨ cigars of cuba seem a little bit bourgeois with its far import. Im getting to thanksgiving....
So on thanksgiving day, Sonya and I went to Montepio, a coast town about an hour away (or it should be an hour if your driver doesnt cut off his engine in every single po dunk town (and there were many) to chat it up with everyone) from the lake, and super small, with a population of about 800!! We swam in the gulfo for the first time even putting a toe in the Atlanics waters!!!! It was so warm and a pleasant cahnge from the pacific where you are generally cutting diamonds with your frozen nipples. (you know the feeling) So after leaving for the bus (or pickuptruck with a bench in the back) at 4.30, it didnt arrive until 5 and took until 7 to get back to camp at the lake. !!Que lastima!!

However, the morning before our RVing neighbors, a couple from England and Germany, invited us for dinner that evening. So we felt really guilty getting back so late, but they graciously waited on dinner for us, which was no thanksgiving but simple and DELICIOUS, and very filling. I guess the most thanksgiving part of it was the closest thing to family we could find (oolie, the german is from Germany, about 100km away from where Sonyas german roots originate) and the ´sipping´ on cigars that we enjoyed with our desert cheeses. That pleasant experience aside, we may be asked by them to take their RV, dog included (and bikes and a car) from mexico city to arizona for them, when they are ready to leave Mexico.... it is a far fetched idea for us and might not work out with our plans... but yeah.
So now we are in an inland Veracruz town of Acayucan, which is realatively big compared to the pueblos we have been bouncing around. Only here for a couple of days in a hotel... how fancy!!! our firsat hotel, at a rate of 22 dollars a night (kind of expensive) but it has more bugs in it that when we camp in our tent!!! Im scratching as I type!! Tomorrow we will head for Salina Cruz, on the coast of Oaxaca, then the next day we´ll be bouncing over to the young, hippie beach of ZIPOLITE, where we will continue to camp...WOOO!!!!! and explore the region around (Puerto Angel). We are really excited to travel and keep oursleves in one place for a little longer (like we did in Michoacan) aqnd especially excited to go to Chiapas where we will be celebrating Christmas with our friend Tom and then hitting up BELIZE!!!!!!! here we come and there we go.. its happening so fast, already two months in, our friends and family really miss us..

I´ll end on a sad yet hilarious note..... I was recently reading all my backlogged texts, and coming upon one that was sent when we were in the airport to come to Morelia and, as our friends, Tyler and Jen were waving goodbye, Jen started balling, drawing tears from Tyler as well, and some from us.. but the funny part was when I recieved the text saying... ¨jen cried so hard she PUKED... now thats true love!!¨

Chilaquilles

Since the last time Ive been on here, we have done quite a bit. We had another host in DF, sergio, who was very fun, super inviting.. he let us sleep in his bed and we had a blast going out with him... one time to the city´s oldest saloon. We saw a couple more sets of ruins in the city, one of which was at the plaza of tres culturas, where in 1968 on october 2nd, many student were protesting and fired upon by mexican military... the next day bodies were taken away in garbaege trucks.. needless to say there are signs everywhere that say no olvide... or never forget.
After being completely exhausted of Mexico City, we headed straight for Xalapa, the capitol of Veracruz. A very small town vibe for a city, with a ton of cafes (with delicious locally grown coffee from Coatepec). Xalapas weather has a tough time figuring out what its going to do.. its microclimate will pour down rain and show sunshine or fog in the same day. It was a blessing to have rain, which i dont think ive seen since our last trip to Washington. We ate great food while we were there, hosted by some couchsurfers with great travel spirits themselves.
On a day trip, we took it upon ourselves to see a couple of town... first Xico, then Coatepec, both very rich in coffee and lots of jungle-forest. In Xico there are the Cascaras de Texolo (or waterfalls) which are gargantuan!! There was a very high up restaurant which we hiked to, where they had suprisingly low prices. (Maybe you pay with the long hike) They had super great service, always calling me ´´caballero´´ (like a cowboy) and there food was delicious. Sonya´s fried cheese was grilled in a savory leaf that we saw our waiter pick. In Coatemaco we got coffee, which isnt gone yet, surprisingly, and walked around the little plaza and quaint town.

From Xalapa, we traveled to Veracruz, a port city, on the gulf of Mexico. A drastic weather change with warm winds, and humid nights, we are absolutely loving this region. The second we arrived at our couchsurfing hosts house, we went out to her friends birthday party at a karaoke bar. We were pretty exhausted so we didnt enjoy so much, i gave a couple of tries, one with Hotel California, but after all its karaoke, and with most songs in spanish, we were pretty bored.
The next day we toured a little bit of Veracruz, going to the forts they built to protect themselves from attack on pirates a couple centuries ago. We also drank coffee in a 200 year old cafe with overpriced Americanos.
So on monday (yesterday) we took off for Catemaco, where the lake is, and where we are now. It is a very clean lake (unlike Patzcuaro) and a small little town. We are camping behind a restauraunt right now until Friday. Today we went out on a boat tour where we saw a family of monkeys which we got within just a couple of feet from. We saw many islands on the lake and went tothis reserve called Nanciyaga, where theyu have a pretty good business going with Temescals, cabañas, and shamns, where you can tour or stay for a night. Sonya and I got these mineral mud masks, good for the skin... I havent showered in a week so it really cleansed me... and we saw some monkeys out there as well. On Friday we will go to a town for a night that has a bus to Tehuantepec, on the opposite coast. We will cross the country at its skinniest point to go check out the West coast of Oaxaca for a while, and then make our way back through Chiapas to the Yucatan at the Belizian border until we cross into Belize.
On a non travel note, we have been eating delicious Mexican food, from Cheese stuffed empanadas, toTacos in Veracruz, and especially Chilaquiles, whenever we can find them. Chilaquiles are usually best super spicy, and weve found that the cheaper they are, usually the better. In Morelia, there were these 20 peso ones that had chunks of chile and came with rice AND beans, and an egg if you wanted it. The worst have been triple that price, not spicy at all, and no beans or anything.... we had to ask for cheese!!! Generally, though, they come out delicious and they serve them almost everywhere (sometimes at all times of the day). Until we find better Chilaquiles, which Im sure some will compare, Morelia's still hold the title of best Chilaquiles (at that one location). I hope your hungry now.

Dont feel like writing this right now.

So Im not gonna right much, im gonna try and keep it brief... im not in the mood.
In DF since last wednesday. Monstropolis of a city... it takes two hours to get from where we were first staying all the way to the north of the city... and thats no traffic on the subway.
Javier´s house was at the southern most part of the map of DF, putting us a bit far from everything. We didnt go out at night usually for safety but mainly because we had so much going on in the day.
From Frida Kahlos house to Chapultepec park, we exhausted our days. look at sonya´s blog for more detailed information... www.safosonya.blogspot.com she also has some of those fancy digital imaging pictures that are so popular right now.
Javier and his roomates were very nice and accomadating when they were around so on sunday night (when we knew everyone would be around) we cooked them a delicious spaghetti dinner with the sauce made from all fresh MEXICAN ingredients. It was an absolute hit... they couldnt eat enough.

So yesterday we arrived in the condesa neighborhood, to a new couchsurfers house. It is a very art deco, chic, and yuppified place. And in MExico city, it is very unlike morelia or smaller towns where if you get on the bus you say buenos dias, or if you catch eye contact u say que tal or hola. Mexico CITY has that real City feel, where no strangers interact and we feel really disconnected.
However, yesterday in this really gorgeous España Park, we sat next to this older gentleman who just wanted to chat. We must have killed two hours talking about ways to defend yourself with Karate or Tae Kwan Doe, (he was a teacher of these arts) places we should visit, life in general, including RIDING BIKES which I cant wait to get to Chiapas to do.

Our current host sucks, he made us stay out until 10 o clock last night, which wasnt bad, we enjoyed ourselves (in our safe neighborhood) but were dead tired and fell asleep the second that we got home.
thanks
bye

squatting in patzcuaro

so thankfully we are still in Patzcuaro and its day of the dead!!!! everything is going nuts here and the streets are packed!!! We were at our couchsurfing friends house for five days, and he is actually a really cool guy from Kansas, and where he lives on the hill, they have a great little community of neighbors. His girlfriend is an archeologist, same as their other friend and neighbor. David, the other archeo. moved to Paris, so we have been squatting his house until last night >(the end of the month) we were gonna stay longer but the pinche puta landlady came by and was asking us for money, saying that David didnt pay (but he did... landlady is just a crazy drunk diva). So now we are in jeremys girlfriends house for the rest of the weekend. .
We were gonna camp but the campsite is run by this mean lady who claims to have a kitchen to cook in but there is no gas. and it is a rip off (14$ for one night... thats more expensive than angel island!!!!) and a free place to stay is sweet!!! En mexico, when they say mi casa es su casa, it is NO JOKE!!!! they want to cook for you, do your laundry, anything!!!! >I think Americans really have alot to learn from mexican culture.
A couple of days ago we went to the archeological site in tzintzuntzan where Gama (jeremys g.f.) is working on a site.. she got us in for free, earlier than anybody else, and she gave us a VIP tour, showing us what they were uncovering at the moment, and what they had recently excavated. She is an absolute workaholic who loves her job and she is the jefe of her entire site, so she is always calling the shots. Muy chido!
A few days before this we visited this town where they make copper called Santa Clara del Cobre... its thought that the P'urhépecha people (who are the only indegenous meso americans to have metal work) encountered groupas from peru or posibly china that tought them this trade. We got to see a copper factory where they were pounding copper and we even got to take a whack at it (literally).
All the indegenous P'urhépecha people are so beautiful and many of them speak spanish as their second language.... that being said their language has no ties to any other meso american languages like mayan.. it is unique and they were also the only group to be able to fend off the savage Aztecs.
Tonight we are going to Janitzio, an island in the lake, as well as the other islands for the celebration. All the islands on the lake areP'urhépecha villages with authentic traditions.
They also play this sport which is ancient and played on special occasions still. It is kind of like street hockey with a twist... they set the ball ON FIRE!!!!!! check it out its called pelota P'urhépecha. Super freakin sweet!!!!
ithink thats all i got to say this time... we will be in DF on wednesday hopefully!!

i want more comments!!!

Lathered in dirt

So Im back ina city.. more say it a town than anything, Patzcuaro, right on the lake, a place with decent history of artists including diego rivera and many surrealists in the recent century. That being said, where the hell I've been is about 10km into the hills, away from the lake, above a little pueblito named Erongaricuaro (sound it out.. its six syllables). There, we started out on a camping Couchsurfing event on this guys property where he and his volunteers devote alot of their time to permaculture and natural building like adobe and cob wood. In addition to the two nights of free camping, we decide to stay, pay for camping and we ended up being there for 8 more days. It is really gorgeous, with a view of the lake, a ton of birds, trees and tons of fresh air away from the pollution of the city.
There were many people who live in Michoucan who were couchsurfers/ hosts and we met many great contacts, many of which we will see on our next trip to Morelia.
The best part about being at this guy Brians ranch was that he was completely off the grid, no water, electricity... only from the rain water he collected and the solar panels and water heater. The word of the week was SUSTAINABILTY. To shower, you would first sweat all the dirt away in a very hot, wood fire SAUNA!!! not only cleansing, but a very stressless activity. Everything in a very simplistic way of living, and a campfire always burning, its crazy we didn't stay longer.
We're Couchsurfing buy the lake, trying to stretch out our time here until Dia de los muertos because it is here where the festival is very original and old fashioned- the best in all of Mexico!! After our current house we will then take on a campsite close to the lake or if we can find a cheap enough room in a hostal (thats not booked). If we can last that long, or even if we cant, we will be staying with friends in Morelia for a couple of nights and then its on to D.F.!!! The biggest city in the world, how exciting. I've heard many great and many wretch-ed things about mexico city but i want to see the art, and the culture in a city that carries a rich collective of diverse culture.
Anyhow, it feels great to be showered and we finally got some clean clothes, however the dirt still keeps on appearing everywhere. Until nextime everybody!!!


oh and check out Couchsurfing.com if you already havent

couchsurfing... !!!!que chido¡¡¡

So ever since sonya and I left our place at the hostal, we met up with an online couchsurfing.com friend to stay at his casa. (which we plan to do through as much of our trip as we can) His name is Salvador, aka Chava, and we have our own private room on top of the house above everything else. A gorgeous open air stairway leads to seperate rooms where his brothers and mothers live and right above us is where his five schnausers live. Chava and his family have been more than accomadating, including us in large family meals, going to the movies with us and last night we went to a pretty young, hip joint where there was live music. We have to sneak around to help out with chores because they will barely let us lift a finger when they are around.

Since weve been here, the morelia internacional film festival has begun and the other night we caught a pretty good independent mexican film. Dolor, Amor, y vice versa... check it out.

We got introduced to many of Chavas friend, including some rastas who are playing a show with Max Romeo in D.F. on dia de los muertos!!! Mao, one of the guys, works at Morelias nicest tattoo shop, whree i got some amber plugs with skulls on them. Some of the nicest people I have come acrross while weve been here.

Mañana were heading off to a town on Lake Patzcuaro to camp with other couchsurfers from around the region. Itll be good to meet other péople involved in the online community and when we return to morelia we will have a new host to stay with. After that it is probably off to patzcuaro to camp or couchsurf in the city. Everything is all up in the air and playing it by ear is working out well.

Oh and one more thing... the food is MUY SABROSA!!!!!!! y muy barato. we went to the market, got veggies, juice, milk, tortillas, beans, and other small snacks for less than 7 dollars!!!!!

Until nexttime
CIAO

first few days in morelia

So here we are in mexico, morelia to be exact, me and my love sonya. The first couple of days have been a relaxing acclamation to morelias elevation in the mountains. It being sonya´s second time in morelia, and my first, she has been able to show me around as she knows the town, however we have both discovered very new things. The mexico that I know (where my grandparents live) is a beach town, and the people are much poorer. Here it is like a big city (the 4th largest in mexico), however, it is a colonial city with good communal vibes. >Shopping at the market has been an absolutely pleasant suprise, buying 3 avocados, ingredients for salsa, and beans, only cost us 4 american dollars!!!! There is much more commerce and infastructure than any where else... there is alot of traffic and many businesses but the aqueducts and colonial architechture give off a spanish vibe. We are staying in a hostal right now but tonight is our last night and next we plan on staying with a friend we met online through COUCHSURFINg. COM. It is a great online community in which we have participated and enjoyed very much... pretty much it equals FREE rentt!!!!! we plan to exercise the couchsurfing website in morelia, until we decide to move on to patzcuaro (right by the lake and mountain) where we will cAMP, HOSTAL, OR COUCHSURF...... whatever we can mange!!!! not alot more is happening here except for meeting locals here and there, traveling through the plazas and selling sonyas handmade earings on the street... wish us luck in our undefined future!!!!!! Gracias