And so I said...

So yes I'm back with the blog......at least temporarily. I'm packing our bags for Yurop and in going through our boxes of clothes, everything looks SO 2003, I don't know what to do with it all (besides burn it and pray for it to go away). We've only been home for a couple of weeks and we take off again; and in again I mean 1 day.
So what has happened is the following:
excavation bid turned out to be $45,000. This means we are NOT interested. Sorry folks, we are not hosting movie nights.
My car is perfectly fine. I like it. It's staying!
Miguel, the pathfinder is going.
The weather in the Bay Area is amazing. I love it. We are sleeping under covers and it feels so good. Ridge California makes one of the finest Petite Sirah's around!

coming to the end...i think

Now that we are no longer in Guadalajara, it just isn't as much fun to continue this blog. I might update it in a few weeks when we see Daniel's family, Jen, John, Vaishali, Kevin..etc. Mostly I think it's time to put the blog down.

On the home front I am busy reorganizing our stuff and on a constant mission to find my shoes. I literally only have 3 pairs at my disposal. Actually only 1 pair. Flip flops don't count right? I have about 30 sticky notes on my wall ranging from, "get bids for **excavation project" to "go to DMV. Pass test. Get license" and of course, my favorite, "find job fast."

We arrived on Monday and I'm still unpacking the boxes from the basement. I haven't even touched the boxes in the attic. I think there are 9 boxes there. I also began updating my education-technology resume. We'll see how the search works out. Daniel made a ton of progress at Papa Bear's and is ahead of schedule. He's quite happy and I for one am so happy for him. He's been working 7 days a week on this meta data dif merge process soooooo to celebrate his success, tonight we are going out with Jerrod, Lisa and James for German food. I can taste the bitburger now.....

Any who....thanks to my loyal 5 readers. Now that Mexico is behind us (SO SAD), I'm first off very very cold and second trying to sort through our 2006 life. 2006 includes getting our cars registered and getting our taxes done....

**excavation project - i have 3 contractor's lined up to provide me with bids on excavating the crawl space downstairs. This is a 15 x 35 room. The dirt needs to be removed, the posts needs to be reinforced and possibly bolted down. Then a whole lot of concrete needs to be poured to turn this crawl space into a projection room/tool/work room. If all goes well, we are going to have some movie nights and maybe some arc welding figure 8 competitions.

Again, thanks for reading my blog (5 readers). You know who you are!

USA

Daniel drove blitzkrieg style and we made it to Nogales border Friday morning at 11AM. All is all, if you drive really fast, and only stop for gas and fresh water you can make it to the border in 19 hours (that is driving 90-100 mph).

My mom has summoned us for breakfast. I'll write more later.

Less than 24 hours to go

It hasn't hit me. I've been so concerned with making sure that I have enough material on my I POD (news, pod casts, American life, pop culture, wait wait ...don't tell me and of course the onion radio news (which frankly isn't so funny but it's short and entertaining) that I haven't yet finished clearing our bedroom. That is next, after my pharmacy run.

We plan on leaving at 4AM tomorrow and hopefully arriving to Culiacan which will be about 12- 14 hours depending on the weather. It's rainy season now, so we don't know how far we'll get so I have a couple of hotel stops lined up *just in case* we do get stuck in a storm. Next day, we hopefully we make it to the Nogales border. We have to turn in our Mexican car registration and tourist visas to officially confirm we are outta here. We'll make a pit stop to see my grand father in Arizona, then hopefully day 3 make it to San Diego to stay with Andy, Jen and Jorge Atkins their dog. Next morning, we will go to my mom's in LA and finally see Chili and Woody Garcia. My mom said they miss us . Yea right. I know they don't but that was nice of her to say. After 1 day in LA we will drive home. I think we still have the house key. Must find house key today If not we'll have to bug our neighbors, or *head's up* Amy, Lisa/James, or Jerrod.

Pic 1: all we have (well we have 2 more boxes and 2 suitcases). The bright colored hanging things are Christmas balls I bought outside of Patzcuaro. They are woven with some type of palm. Really beautiful. I'm already looking forward to having a tree this year.

Pic 2: Atticus in the morning after his biscuit and bathroom wee- wee.

Pic 3: Atticus knows something is up. He looks so sad, or perhaps I'm flattering myself and he is just not a morning dog!

Tequila

On Sunday we all headed to Tequila and went on a tour at Cofradia. Cofradia is the 7th largest distributor of Tequila. I enjoyed the tour much more than the Cuervo Mundo tour we took a few months ago. It's more informal and intimate at Cofradia (as tours go) plus they didn't make us wear white hair nets to walk through the factory and distillery. The whole tour was very interesting. We had a sampling of Blanco (straight from 2nd distillation to bottle), Reposado (aged for 3-6 months), ANejo (aged for up to a year) and Extra aNejo (aged for a couple of years). After our Cofradia tour, half the group went to the local bar/restaurant in town and watched the Mexico vs US soccor game. That left Gwyn, Daniel and I to explore Culumpio, this family run blue agave destilado business. It was awesome. We parked in front of their agave field and met up with Don Jose and he explained the family business to us. While he was explaining the distillation process, their puppy got very excited and peed on my leg. Yes, this really happened and NO I did not enjoy it, but that's what puppies do right? I think. Anyway afterwards, we headed to their store front shop, had our selves some fairly large tastings of their reposado and ANejo. We purchased a bottle of destilado reposado to take home with us. It is tequila but they can not legally call it tequila because they haven't filed the paperwork and received the authority to call their very lethal and potent blue agave drink tequila. Sarita could explain it all...
In short, the history and sale of tequila is very complicated and it is absolutely BIG business in Mexico. Columpio only sells their destilado from their store front as well as distributes to Japan. They said it is too expensive to sell their drink on the national market and it is actually cheaper to export it. Cofradia said the same. Tequila is very expensive and is not widely consumed in Mexico. I think (i'll have to double check with Sarita) but I think more tequila is consumed on the US and Western European market than in Mexico. I can't wait for Sarita to publish her work. It is so interesting and really takes a close looks at identity and tequila imaging (or "mexico" to be more precise) on the global market.

Info on Cofradia:
http://www.tequilacofradia.com/inicia1.html

Must Share - lil' chimi'

Chimichurri Sauce

You can mince the ingredients by hand or use a food processor, which is faster and easier. There are many variations on this condiment, and it is served with everything from empanadas to grilled steak.

1/2 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
1 clove garlic
2 minced shallots
1 teaspoon minced basil, thyme or oregano, or mixture
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and let set for at least 2 hours before serving.

Meg and Matt in town

We have been having such a great time since Meg and Matt arrived. On day 1, we went to the historic center, saw the Orozco murals, the jewelry mart (just the girls) and then met up with Matt and Gwyn at La Fuente bar. Daniel had to work :<<< style="font-weight: bold;">TaStY beef. It was so good. After that we went home and all took a nap. It was around 7PM at that point. We were bracing ourselves for the "club" later that evening so we got out of bed and left the house at 11:30PM to some nightclub called Americas. We walked in and literally walked out. Meg really wanted to go to a club and dance AND since none of us actually go clubbing or know of clubs, we went to Americas based on a recommendation. It was very cool and modern inside but they weren't playing music we could dance to, so we went to the beer and chili bar next door, had ourselves a drink then went back home and played JENGA.

Yesterday Meg, Sarita and I went to Tlaquepaque and walked around and found platters and lots of fun stuff. No little bowls, just plates! So many beautiful plates. Tlaquepaque is great!!!

Last night we all made green chicken mole and had a feast. We ate a lot and drank a lot of great wine Meg brought in from Rosenblum winery. Today we head off to Tequila...

We leave on Thursday.......I have to finish packing everything tomorrow!

Pic 1: Meg and Matt -and photo of erotic bananas in the background
Pic 2: Orozco mural
Pic 3: vacas, vacas, vacas - there are still in town

the countdown...

The weather has been gorgeous lately, perfect I'd say. It's not hot and it sprinkles a little each day. Daniel and I are finally sleeping under the sheets.

I've been packing up more of our stuff and determining which items stay and which go. Today I'm dropping off clothes at my mom's friend's house. Tomorrow I'm dropping off another batch of things plus visiting Consuelo, our first tapatio contact. We met her and her husband in San Diego last year and they told us to contact them if we ever needed anything while in Guadalajara. Daniel and I have been over their house a couple of times for lunch. She and her husband are soon celebrating their 50 year anniversary. Wow and How? She said with a lot of patience and through god's help so she needs to go to church that day to give thanks for it all: a great husband and a great family. She said she doesn't need the party, although it sounds like it is going to be a good one. She said that she just wants to give her thanks for this life...

Meg and Matt fly in from Oakland this Thursday so we will definitely be in Tlaquepaque again, as well as Tequila. After they leave we have our little good bye outing with a few friends, then complete the final pack up and drive north. Wow. So fast, too fast.

Sayulita

Sayulita is a really cool surfer, nuvo-hippy beach town. We drove into Punta Mita, then through the jungle to Sayulita. It's a small town, with mostly unpaved roads and a total beach scene happening. You can smell the incense as you walk the beach. Lots of BARS, rasta heads, yogi's and tie dyed wearing kids, plus a whole lot of surfers. We were only there for the day but we heard that at night it's gets pretty wild in Sayulita. I can imagine. It has a young, hip, hedonistic vibe to it.
Nothing wrong with that!

La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

The great thing about having the car with us is that we were able to travel around the area and visit nearby beach towns. La Cruz is a very cute pesquero town. There isn't much going on except for the beach, lots of seafood and a great view of Puerto Vallarta in the distance. We spent an evening here (schnitzel), had a beer and checked out the beach of La Cruz - la manzanilla. Then we headed north and checked out Destiladeras, Punta de Mita, and Sayulita.

We never made it to PV. Oh well. Don't get me wrong, I really like Puerto Vallarta but now that I've seen the beach towns around it, I don't think PV is where I'll be staying in the future. Nuevo Vallarta is such a mess of a resort town, it's horrible. It's one big hotel complex and unless you are really into the predictable and manicured, stay away. It looks like an exclusive prison to me more than a vacation place. I couldn't imagine paying a cent to stay there. If you do go to PV, go to old town (I think they call it the romantic zone) which is way cuter and charming.

Pic 1: View of PV from La Cruz
Pic 2: la manzanilla
Pic 3: More la manzanilla
Pic 4: beer beach sand in la manzanilla

Lost and Found Puppies

Daniel and I woke up early and took a walk into town this morning. It's the only time you can semi-comfortably walk around town. After breakfast he went his way (work for Papa bear) and I went mine (window shopping). On his way back to our bungalow he found two puppies abandoned in the shade next to a liquor store. Someone put them in a paper bag and left them there. Daniel came here and asked Julia the owner if there was a shelter nearby. Not surprising, there isn't one nearby so Julia's daughter and Daniel brought them back here. They are so cute and so small. They can barely walk and can't be more than a few weeks old. One is black and the other one is brown. They were just given baths and now the owner is pulling fleas and getting them cleaned up for Guillermina, their maid. She is going to take them home and give one to her mother who loves dogs. So currently there are 3 dogs and 2 pups in this compound. I love it. It's a canine petting zoo.

Another day at the beach

So I didn't go to Vallarta Adventures today to meet my new dolphin friend. Instead I went to the beach and got slobbered by a puppy while i was reading. After the beach, came home and Daniel was working but took a "break" to swim in the pool with me. He continued working, I read and later we went to the beach together. Daniel knows way too many facts about sharks, which was enough to get me out of the water. The 1975 SHARK movie plus Daniel's uber knowledge of sharks sufficiently added paranoia to what was an idyllic afternoon.

This evening we drove to La Cruz, the neighboring beach town for a true german gem: 2 x 1 Schnitzel's. The special showed a pig sliding down a rainbow slide. I will never look at Schnitzel the same way. The owners have lived in this area since 1997 and recently opened their restaurant - The Black Forest. The food was great and they were very nice.

Maybe dolphins tomorrow. Not sure. We want to drive into Vallarta in the evening for dinner and visit *one* of our favorite bars in PV: La Noche. We'll see what happens!

pic 1: the beach at bucerias. EMPTY. It was great.
pic 2: schnitzel heaven.
pic 3: the pool at the bucerias bungalow.

hard day here in bucerias

NOT!!!!!!!!!

I forgot my camera cord so I can't download any photos to show you how beautiful it is here. Today I went to the beach and met a very nice family from Petaluma.
It's been the PERFECT day filled with beach swimming, lots of time in the pool and grilled cheese sandwiches . Daniel has been working on some directory tree and is looking for the perfect coding solution. Other than that, he helped me relocate a crab that was hanging out in our bathroom. Tomorrow, I think I am going to swim with dolphins. Vallarta Adventures offers all these packages and I think I'm going to go for the cheapest package. I don't know how I feel about experiencing a belly ride with the dolphin. I can picture it now: me freaking it while flipper takes me for a ride around the eco-friendly lagoon. I won't be able to suck in my stomach and pretend I don't have one because I'll be too concerned with death. And in the end, they'll try to sell me a $15 dollar photo that will look more like bloated meets fearful then "this was an awesome dolphin experience." So I think the basic, get to know a dolphin, make him your friend package sounds more like my deal. It'll be me and a bunch of 6 year olds. I will let you know how it turns out...

Vallarta Adventures if you want to swim with dolphins one day:
http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/

The casita we are staying at in Bucerias. Highly recommend if you are ever in the area. We got the bungalow for a DEAL since this is low season and we have the whole compound to ourselves:
http://www.vrbo.com/50938

We've got rain!

Thunder, lightning, rain....the whole water works.

Bucerias, Nayarit

Daniel and I drove out early this morning to Bucerias which is about 30 km from Puerto Vallarta. It's yet another beautiful place in Mexico. I am sad to leave....3 more weeks to go then we hit the road. We are already talking about how to come back for an even longer stay...

Well back to Bucerias, once we unpacked we went for a walk 2 blocks down the road to "Karen's" for fish tacos and a chicken sandwich. We walked on the beach and we hope a storm is a coming. CNN says so and so do some of the locals. So there. It must be true especially if CNN weather says so.

Please let it be true. I am looking forward to rain, even a storm, anything that will strangle the heat.

Photos to appear soon.

Also my mom really didn't like the Aztec table and was happy I didn't purchase it. She thinks it is ugly. I don't think it's ugly but tacky. Yes there is a difference.

Aztec Calendar Table

Here it is - the AZTEC table I was about to buy while in a birthday buying compulsion frenzy. I'm going to blame it on my mama who no longer plays Las Mananitas for me the morning of my "getting older" day.

So, the deal is the table is made from 14 different woods and according to Teo a very very special purchase. I wanted the table so badly I even said it was special. Vomit. The table plus 6 chairs came to $5,000 pesos which according to the currency converter is about $498 dollars. But then I was going to have to pay a shipper to take the table and chairs to Tijuana for another $200 dollars, then find a way to pick it up from there. Vomit. The table was really beautiful but I was so dizzy and couldn't hang. Too much shopping made me sick, literally. Some day, maybe I'll own an Aztec Calendar cheese board. That's the best i can hope for at this final hour....in Mexico.

P.S. Gwyn fixed it so that you can now leave comments on the blog. So tell me what do you think of the Aztec table?

Patzcuaro and Morelia....

We had a great time once again in Patzcuaro and Morelia. Patzcuaro is the perfect town. It has everything you need. Fresh air, great food, nice people, great shopping and lots of local artesian work. Plus just outside the town center is the lake and lots of natural beauty. We stayed at the Meson San Antonio and that place gets better each time we go. For budget prices, each room is decked out in every imaginable way. It's a beautiful hotel. On Sunday, Gwyn and Sarita returned to Guadalajara and Daniel, Karina and I went to Morelia.

Since we returned, Karina and I went to Tonola and I bought a few last minute gifts. Yesterday and today I've been packing and cleaning up our mess. We leave in 3 weeks and time is just flying by! Today I replaced the bathroom linoleum tile I ruined. Daniel has to help me replace the kitchen cabinet door that is falling off. My fault again. And I have to plaster pudy the nail holes from all the trinkets we've hung up since we arrived. The goal is to leave Sarita and Gwyn's house as if we were never here....(well except for the erotic banana picture in the living room).

Pic 1: Tzintzuntzan, outside of Patzcuaro where I ALMOST bought an Aztec calendar table but luckily came to my senses, or was just way too tired to deal with Teo the salesman. Don't ask. It was a long day and at the time I though the Aztec Calendar table would complete my collection of shit and trinkets. Gwyn didn't understand what the expression "shop til you drop" meant until June 2nd when he graciously lugged all my crap around. By the end of my power shopping day I thought i was going to vomit, well, I kind of did.

Pic 2: The cathedral in Morelia. It's beautiful. Lights up the whole city at night.
Pic 3: My healthy birthday celebration. See the carrots? See the olives? And the whole wheat sesame crackers? All part of the "get healthy thirty something" campaign.
Pic 4: Representing on the big day after eating lots of carrots at the Hotel San Antonio (healthy campaign people). Sarita and Gwyn gave me a bottle of Zin and colorful socks. Yea. I love crazy socks and how I love my zinfindel. Zin is hard to find in Guadalajara (most of Mexico I think) so this was a treat.
Pic 5: Just like this photo. Took it outside the lago de Patzcuaro at the market.

School is out...

So today I completed my final course at CEPE. I'm so happy it's over. Tomorrow our teacher is taking us out for breakfast so one more early day for me, than I can sleep in! Yea. Since arriving from class, we've been cleaning up and gearing up for our weekend in Patzcuaro. It was Sarita's birthday on Monday, and mine is this Saturday so we will be having a gemini celebration. This means we will be shopping in many of the Patzcuaro "artesanal" shops only to later feel guilty for spending cash on silver earrings, bowls and platters. With that said, I can't wait to get in touch with my catholic guilt. We rented a beautiful house for next to nothing in the center of town. Plus Karina is flying in from Chihuahua to join the festivities. It should be a lot of fun. I'll post photos when we return on Monday. We are going to visit Morelia on our way back. We have to go one more time. It's such a lovely city.

Pride and Prejudice

Yesterday Gwyn and I went to San Juan de Dios to purchase more DVDs. I was so happy to find a copy of Pride and Prejudice (2005). Honestly, I LOVE this movie. It's so beautifully directed. Keira K plays Elizabeth, a sassy, intellectual girl from a modest and crazed family. There are a few stories in the movie but the MAIN story is all about how Lizzie initially hates, then later falls in love with Mr. Darcy. Talk about chemistry. I love Mr. Darcy. He is so perfect. He's the super man of men in cinema. He comes with his own castle and nicely tailed jackets and shirts. What's not to love? He looks so clean and proper with his crispy starched clothes even as he walks miles in the English countryside. Not a sign of sweat or stain on the man. He's perfect. Anyway I'll stop now and keep Mr. Darcy thoughts to myself.

On the homefront - we leave in 4 weeks. . I have to get 1 more San Juan de Dios, Tlaquepaque and Tonola visit in before we leave. Must find more little bowls and serving plates. Must! I wonder what kind of plates and bowls Mr. Darcy would like? humm. I'll chew on that one.

Tomorrow I complete my final course at CEPE. Thank god this class and school in general is over. By Friday I will be free to sleep in instead of schlepping my unenthusiastic self to school.

Lucha Libre

Sunday night, after Santa Maria del Oro we quickly changed for the Lucha Libre match. It was fun and much less packed than the Tuesday night show. Best of all was watching Setor get into the game and scream encouraging words in Spanish to the wrestlers. "Andale Flash, Andale" as Flash was being plummeted to the floor by the Gypsy, a ridiculously buff wrestler.

Set was so into the fight. Unfortunately for him, he was with a bunch of folks who don't care much for the spectacle, I mean, sport. Sorry about that Set.

Next, a weird little man wearing a fluffy florescent blue monkey costume and bright red shoes came out to egg on the wrestlers. It was strange and stressful. The little monkey-man was thrown around and was hit a few times by these really big ass dudes. It was just weird and unfair on many levels. I was so happy when monkey-man went away. He was stressing me out. I just imagined one of the wrestlers stepping on him and squashing him to an even smaller size. Ah - Lucha. Ay - Mexico.

After Lucha, we took a taxi to Famosos Equipales for another Pueblo Viejo. That's Sarita (the birthday girl) and I wearing the masks Angeles purchased.

Santa Maria del Oro

Santa Maria del Oro is a crater lake located about 2 hours from Guadalajara. On our way back from Chacala we stopped here for a dip in the laguna and ate some seafood before heading home. It's very peaceful and clean with many families having picnics on the water's edge. Folks are not encouraged to swim too far out since the water runs pretty far deep. By that I mean they haven't been able to find the crater's floor. At least that's what all the locals say.....
To be safe we did stay on the water's edge, just like everyone else. None of us are Olympic style swimmer's so we took it easy and soaked our bones in the mineral rich water. There is a pretty steep drop off when you enter the lake. You only have to be about 4 feet from the edge to lose your standing pose. We didn't go out farther then that. All very pretty and all very nice!

Downtown Guadalajara

This posting is a little out of order. This was day 1.
Amy, Setor and Angeles arrived last Thursday morning and it was a non-stop ride. I think they loved it! They said they did. I know we had so much fun. I'm a little exhausted. I can only imagine how they are feeling today at work.

Here are some downtown Guadalajara photos.

The pool

We spent a lot of time in the pool.
Also really horrible.
It was really stressful and we all had anxiety attacks.
Thank god for valium - otherwise i don't know how we would have survived.
Horrible. Just awful.

Chacala

Chacala is really horrible. We hated it and do NOT recommend this quiet, empty beach town to anyone. Ever. Stay Away.