Around the World with K & M: Mexico Adventures 2008

The whole gang back together again!

Sometimes I sit back and think of what a blessed life we have.... Going back to Mexico was a privilege and getting to really say goodbye to our old colleagues was much needed.
Our crazy adventures began with our crazy flights - Kaohsiung to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Toronto, rested in Toronto for 2 days, then flew Toronto to Mexico City, then Mexico City to Monterrey. They lost one of two pieces of our luggage, this cardboard box that Air Canada made us use cause our suitcase was 10 lbs overweight. I had this feeling that it would get lost, and lo and behold, my gut was right. We spent many hours of our 3 day Monterrey stay calling the Mexicana airlines, and luckily, we had Gualas to do a lot of the speaking for us!

Laurie organized the whole gang on a supper outing to ... Chinese food :)! We laughed pretty hard at that, but it's cause our buddy, the Chinese owner of Red Dragon was still around. Good food, fun people, what could be better?! We' re so thankful for this group of folks cause they took their time to come out and hang with us...

Next day, we we had to go back to the ol' stomping grounds of ISR. Not our favourite place to be, but the parents of my old students had organized this party for me! It was awesome - about 2/3 of my class came all the way out of their ways to see me. Again, very much appreciated - they even remembered how much I liked Margarita's taquitos and got us a giant pot of them. I played with the kids for about 3 hours and as much as I love them, I was reminded of why I like teaching middle school much more. The parents all said they wanted me to come back to teach and that they would write letters to the principal - very flattering, but I just smiled. We heard way too many stories of corruption and the lack of integrity in the upper management to ever consider returning. Maybe when Laurie runs the school :)!

We also returned to Nueva Luna for some good and large margaritas, spent some time with Mark Woodward & Owen, received our missing cardboard box that now looked like it had been chewed by a dog) and hung out with Laurie & Gualas and their dogs. We also got to share in the joy of her new pregnancy!!! I'm so excited for them!

Me & the owner of Red Dragon

The kids spotting me and making me feel
really special!

Oh taquitos - how I love thee!

Most of my class from last year! I love them so much!!!

Lilo and his mischievous smile!

I love how Lilo is sitting!

Lilo and Laurie up to their tricks!

This apartment was in the same condition when we left in June
2007 - now at least there's a guy working in there!

The infamous lock. Laurie had to go to class and
Gualas took off to get groceries. We were given
instructions by Laurie to make sure we locked the
padlock on our way out. As we were getting ready to
leave, we realized that Laurie had shown us
literally how to lock the gate. We were imprisoned
and had to call Gualas to gain our freedom! :)

Our amazing friends, Laurie & Gualas.

Our adventure continued as we then flew from Monterrey to Mexico City (yes, again!), then Mexico City to Oaxaca City. We spent a glorious 10 days there, learning Spanish (Kris got into the highest level!), ate some very excellent food, and got to know the city really well. We found an organization that tutors kids in the zocalo area, and they raise funds partially by running a small bed & breakfast. I think it's great when an organization can support itself. I'm going to do the Oaxaca bit just using photos...

Many of our days were spent sitting out of doors like this one,
sipping coffee or smoothies, watching the happenings in the zocalo.

Signs of unrest: We arrived on June 13, just in time for the mass teacher protests
on June 14. Two years ago, there was a huge protest with a teacher
strike that lasted months. There were arrests and fires and the military were
called in. We learned a lot about the APPO and the teacher movement.
Some say they just want more pay, some say they are protesting for
better education for the children. In any case, I'm guessing that the
governor isn't exactly scrupulous.

This girl must be having her Quincienera (15th
birthday celebration)!

We stayed a while at the Bugambilias B&B - and Tigre, the
house cat, adopted us. There was many a time when he
angrily hissed when we shooed him out of our room!

I love how Mexico is exactly what you picture it to be like -
a local eatery - tacos for breakfast, of course!

I took a weaving class at the language school I was at.
It was very frustrating and not really that rewarding...
I'm going to buy them next time :)

One of the classrooms at the school - isn't it gorgeous?!

The aqueducts in the city centre.

We went to El Tule and at at Los Milanarios - and they cook
the tortillas the old-fashioned way.

My favourite Oaxacan dish - the Tlayuda!

The main church in El Tule. (I'm thinking T3C might look
pretty nice with some reds & blues....?!)

The reason we went to El Tule was because of this large tree.
Check out the people on the bottom right to understand how
big it really was!!!

The main square in El Tule - the getting there is always fun.
We ended up on some old school bus that dropped us off
on the side of the highway.

Reminders of my favourite Oaxacan dishes...

Coke - the main staple of Mexican life.

Chiles at the Benito Juarez market - the other staple of Mexican life.

Pinatas galore - kind of freaky, actually.

We attended a Guelaguetza show - a replica
of the actual Guelaguetza celebration in which all the
indigenous groups in Oaxaca gather to show off their
dances. This one was one of our favourites - the pineapple dance.

Another dance in which the men wear these massive
headpieces and jump and dance everywhere.... crazy!

Another strange thing we learned - ancient peoples in Oaxaca
believed that women were more beautiful if their heads were flattened.
This is a replica of a device used to flatten baby girls' heads!

Typical Oaxacan market

I just liked this little ol' lady :)

I think she's brave to be carrying all
those turkeys...

Second-class bus station - luckily we didn't
have to ride on Sexy Boy!

We visited Teotitlan del Valle, a village specializing
in rug weaving. Most workshops are in people's homes. This lady
was doing a demonstration for us of how they get their dyes.

This was another very cool educational experience: Their
dyes for the rugs are all natural and found from resources in the
area. We learned that their red dye comes from cochineal, a parasite
that lives on cactus! Cochineal is sold in markets for $300 US/1kg!
The orange was made by squeezing lime onto the red dye and the blue
is from indigo.

A "simple" (yeah, right!) rug in progress.
The design is from the local Zapotec tribe, with the
pattern symbolizing the life cycle.

Gorgeous dyed wool.

In the background you can see some brown paper with an
intricate Aztec (?) design for a rug weaving. Below is the
rug being woven - they said it'll take months for them to finish!

In the streets of Mitla - the local fishmonger, I presume!

The big church in Mitla - the Catholics incorporated the
Zapotec ruins into their church.

Mitla ruins.

It still amazes me that these designs were preserved from
hundreds or thousands of years ago!

See what I mean about Mexico being like what you imagine
it to be? Three men at the local tequila bar.

Typical Oaxacan scene - artists abound in this
state full of creativity.

I had a chance to take a private cooking class at this
lady's house. I learned to make coloradito, a form
of mole with tomatoes and chile anchos.

The cheese guy comes every day to drop off
cheese for the restaurant at our B&B. He was awesome!

We hiked up the stairs (over 200 of them!)
at Calle Crespo towards Cerro del Fortin to
reach this view of Oaxaca.

I love the colour in this town.

Local bread lady.

Memories from last year made me seek this stand out again.
It's the potato chip guy - he makes fresh chips and they are SO good!

I took this photo more for posterity than anything -
telephone booth outlets are everywhere - which is
just a glimpse into the income status of people
in Oaxaca - most don't have home phones and line
up, often for hours, to use phones in places like this.

We were eating at a restaurant one evening and heard fireworks
and a band. We then saw this parade of hundreds, including the pineapple
dancers. Turns out it was a university graduation party! Everyone
had a bottle of something in their hands :).

The party stopped for a few moments at Santo Domingo to
watch the pineapple dancers do their thing.

Even the band members couldn't do without some alcohol!
Their instruments doubled as handy cup holders!

For a while, we stayed in this apartment. Well, this was the
entrance to the apartment - we had to go through this restaurant
to the back! But the restaurant was owned by someone else!

The police were everywhere the week we were
in Oaxaca, likely because of the constant vandalism
and the fear that there would be more uprising. The
Zapatistas (Chiapan guerrillas) were also in town protesting.