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.

5 weeks and counting...

Only 5 weeks until we begin our drive north to pick up our cats and our house keys! I can't believe it. Before we left for Oakland a couple of weeks ago, we were both getting homesick but now that we spent time with friends..etc, I'm not ready to leave Guadalajara. I'd like a few more months here....

These days, every day is a reminder that we are headed home. Today I spoke with my mom and she asked me if we've begun packing. What? No. No, not yet. She told me she'd be packed by now...

I'm in my last class at CEPE which happens to be Mexico en el comercio internacional. So, I'm busy learning a lot of business words and how Mexico plays its part in global domination, I mean - globalization. It's all interesting and all so very depressing at the same time. Of course, the United States and its relationship with Mexico is almost a daily topic of conversation. Again, interesting and oh so very depressing. This class takes place at 8AM. The only way I'm able to get to class on time is by popping an elephant tranquilizer the night before to ensure I get to sleep at a reasonable hour, then wake to loads of caffeine so that in class I can say words like mexico en el entorno internacional. It doesn't always work, but for now this is the Garcia-8AM recipe.

The next few weeks will be very busy. I'll be finishing up my final course at CEPE; Amy, Setor and Angeles fly in from Oakland this Thursday and Friday we are off to Chacala (secluded beach area) and Santa Maria del Oro (a lagoon rich in minerals where supposedly there is no bottom, no floor, no end to how far deep the water will go. Supposedly the discovery channel produced a show on this lagoon a few years ago and they also couldn't find the bottom floor. So we'll go there and find out for ourselves. After a few beers, some chicharonnes and a game of truth or dare, I think we'll figure the mystery to the bottomless lagoon pit.

The following week, Sarita and I are celebrating our birthday's. Yea for us. Another year! We'll be heading back to Patzcuaro where inevitably little bowls and ceramic items will play their part in the festivities. Then we head to Morelia for a good bye, then back home. Guns-n-Roses is playing a show that weekend. Daniel and I will have to miss them play. But I think it's only Axl who will be swinging his fat, bad dread-do and Norwalk swap meet urban rapper wear on stage. Bucket head isn't playing with him. Welcome to the Jungle! I can hear that mess of a man, Axl Rose singin' it now.

The next week is June, my class will be complete and we plan to get 1 more beach trip in before Matt and Meg fly in. We drive off a couple days after they leave, around the 27th. It's all happening so fast. I know I'm going to miss this place. My mom is SO happy we are returning and taking Chili and Woody with us. While she says, and I think loves them, she wants her house to be gato free. Speaking of the cats, my mom paid for groomers to come over the house where both cats were given sponge baths, massages, teeth cleanings and their nail were clipped. If that doesn't make you say...what the &^%, at the end of the session, the woman placed little bows on the cats. So Chili, my poor baby is running around with a little red bow and Woody is running around with a green bow. I don't want to think about it anymore. The horror.

Pictures are just of guadalajara! The place I´ll miss the most, well the OXXO. It´s a daily thing.

The Pancho Villa Museum

As I'd mentioned in the Chihuahua post, the Pancho Villa museum was really impressive. He lived a very interesting life. He was married 25 times, had about 25 children, was considered a bandit by U.S authorities and a hero in Mexico. His name is synonymous with the Mexican Revolution. And in the city of Chihuahua there is a Pancho Villa everything, Villa tortas, Villa hamburgesas...his name is also used to brand a few tequilas (even though he did not drink alcohol but that's marketing for you).

The story according to our tour guide is that he built this house for his second wife, Maria Luz Corral. She was the only wife that held on to the marriage certificate so it could never be destroyed, hence making her his only legal wife. She is responsible for establishing the museum, and upon her death she granted the house along with the memorabilia to the government to continue the museum in his name. Now, I think that is pretty damn nice of her considering he had a STRING of women and new wives in his life....

pic 1: The house is called La Quinta Luz
pic 2: This is the car in which Pancho Villa was assassinated. The car was shot between 13 to 17 times. They showed photos of his bloody death and it was pretty sick. His intestines were hanging out on the bed and his arm was cut into pieces from the bullet wounds. It was a series of awful awful photos.
pic 3: This was the soldiers quarters behind the main house where he and Luz lived. This area also held a secret tunnel to take Pancho and crew 2 blocks from the house.
pci 4: mural recently painted by a muralist from Puebla.

Couldn't resist.....Thank TMZ.com

Jerry Falwell 1933 - 2007

Posted May 15th 2007 5:10PM by TMZ Staff

Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Viva Chihuahua!

This weekend we were in Chihuahua with Karina and Dominic (Daniel's brother). It was such a great weekend. We saw so much and really enjoyed our time with them. Chihuahua really blew us away. We saw so much and really have our hearts on returning to the state of Chihuahua in the very near future. It is the largest state in Mexico so we only saw a small fraction of what it has to offer. We went to the copper canyon, which makes the grand canyon look like its baby sister. Hard to imagine, I know! It was spectacular. We also went to a Mennonite village 1 hour south of Chihuahua city and that was oddly interesting. The people were very nice. I bought some post cards of inbred looking folks. If I have time, I'll scan the photo to share the bizarro photo. Then we went to Creel to check into our cabanas which is a mountain town only 44 km away. Karina arranged the entire trip and it was perfect. Dominic and Karina's friends Salvador and Marissa came along and we had so much fun urban camping with them. From Creel, we went to mushroom valley where all the rock formations literally looked like mushrooms or frogs. From there we went to the lake with beer, chips and dry meat (carne seca). So perfect on so many levels!

Back in Creel, we started an asada and ate MORE meat then started a fire and began telling ghost stories. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much that evening. The next day we headed to the copper canyon and we were just wowed by the beauty and grand scale of the canyon. It is a must see!

We returned to Chihuahua and this morning headed to the Pancho Villa museum which is quite interesting. We stayed about 2 hours there. There was just so much information and memorabilia. It was really impressive and one of the most enjoyable museum visits I've had in a long time!

We brought back cheese, carne seca and fresh tortillas (from Marissa). I think I'm set for food for at least a few days. I have all my favorite foods with me - life is complete!

The panama canal fruit market

Gwyn and I went to the mother of all fruit markets this afternoon - El Mercado de Abastos. All fruit passes through this huge warehouse center where later it is distributed to local markets, local restaurants and street side vendors. You name it, it was there: cilantro, mint, apples from Washington state, Japanese pears, watermelons, mango's (i bought 4 beautiful mango's for 8 pesos which is about 70 cents). It was definitely olfactory overload (in a good way). There were blocks and blocks selling mango, mint, cilantro, pears, strawberry's, all types of bananas and a bunch of other fruit which I didn't know existed. We walked around for a good hour, then decided the heat was just too much to take. It's better to be indoors blogging in front of the fan.

Oakland, CA

Daniel and I were in Oakland for most of the weekend and also in San Francisco for Eric and Caprice's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding held at the City Club San Francisco. We had a great time seeing friends, and enjoying our time with everyone. Lisa is super pregnant and ready to pop. Amy and Set looked great and are so happy. We are excited that they will be here in less than 2 weeks. Chacala baby - pictures to come soon!

Lisa and James were the perfect hosts. They even had a bottle of Cali Zin ready for us. They hosted a party on Sunday and we had a blast seeing everyone. James owns a Katrina fan and has Lisa's name plastered on his garage. So romantic.

Before we arrived in Oakland, I told Daniel that all I wanted was rain. AND YEA, it was 55 degrees and it rained a few hours later. It was perfect! We slept under covers and I was chilly for the first time in 4 months. I loved it.

I love my dirty lovely city: Oakland!