Alex and Stephanie

well, now i remember why we fell so far behind last year with our blogging – life just gets busier and busier as the school year ramps up. but c’mon people – don’t let us be so lazy!

this fall, three very different trips consumed a good portion of our time. read on if you are curious about how they went:

trip one: to Washington state and Oregon for alex’s cousin’s wedding

in mid-september we were excited to travel back to the States to celebrate Cindy and Trayson’s wedding, and for alex to show me his old stomping grounds in Seattle. while the trip was fast, i loved every minute. in Seattle we spent a day biking up and down hills, drinking cup after cup of delicious coffee, eating as much seafood as possible, and checking out a few of the museums in town. we also went to the famous Pike Place Market, and the photos here are especially for my sister in our favorite where’s waldo theme – can you find alex or i in either shot (click pics to enlarge)?

Where's Alex?

Where's Stephanie?

Alex and his mom play with the mu dog outside the Chinese garden in Portland

then we took the Amtrak train all the way down Puget Sound to Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington, where we loved meeting up with alex’s parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins for more great food and lots of catching up, plus enjoying the wedding of two really great people! we explored a little in Portland, had beer at one of my favorite breweries (Deschutes Black Butte = delicious porter), had more delicious seafood on the banks of the Columbia River with the whole Brown family, and loved the day of wedding festivities a great lodge in Vancouver.

back in mexico, i only had a couple weeks to recover before i was off on another adventure, this time an outward bound camping trip in the mountains of nearby Estado de Mexico with the entire freshman class. it was no luxury trip this time. we slept on concrete, in tents, and in rustic cabins. we had running water and indoor plumbing for only one of the three nights, and we all carried our gear from site to site in standard camping backpacks. even for a Colorado girl, sleeping in the cold and rain, toe to toe with kids i teach was a bit outside my comfort zone, and you can imagine that my very wealthy students who are accustomed to luxury resorts and having their shopping bags carried for them were not naturally inclined to love ‘roughing it’ for even a few days. but, to give them credit, they made it through and maybe learned that life without iPods, blackberries, chauffeurs, or home-delivery sushi is possible, even enjoyable.

i have no pictures to share from that trip – a good thing.

One of the hotel pools, with the beach and the bay of Tangolunda beyond

finally, our third trip of the past 6 weeks was to the tiny beach town of Huatulco, in nearly the southernmost bit of mexico. this was purely a self-indulgent vacation, meant to help me recoup from 96 solid hours with 15 teenagers in the woods, and a chance for alex and i to explore one tiny bit more of this beautiful country. we spent two short but delightful days at a resort on a gorgeous, sheltered bay with some of the clearest water i have seen in the pacific. it was completely delightful, and if anyone is interested in a very pristine and relaxing mexican beach destination but don’t want the crowds or sprawl of a cancun, puerto vallarta or los cabos, this is definitely a place worth checking out.

Aqui está Alex!

last weekend we were out of town, celebrating a friend’s 30th birthday at a house in a small town southwest of ciudad de México called Malinalco.

Malinalco, although quite tiny, is well known both for its beauty and for its unique cliff-side pyramid and large Catholic convent.

Pyramid of the Jaguar - Malinalco

we visited the pyramid last year – and it is another fascinating one to see. unlike most pyramids built in valleys or on mountaintops, this one is built into the side of a mountain, so that they really only carved out two sides of the main building. it is also one of the last to be built, probably started after the Spanish had arrived on the continent. because of the conquest, it was never completely finished, but it also is not quite so old and therefore is better preserved than some other sites. beyond the archaeology, the hike up to the pyramid was beautiful – it is nice to climb around in mountains – I miss Colorado!

the local convent is also interesting to visit, as the walls are covered not with the traditional Spanish gilt you see in most Catholic churches but instead with traditionally stylized painting; it is a combination of moorish geometric design with depictions of the plants and flowers of the region, all in typical mesoamerican colors and style, and it is quite pretty. i liked the artwork particularly because it reminds me of Tomie dePaola, one of my father’s favorite children’s illustrators, and i wonder if he was at all inspired by this style.

but last weekend was not about sight-seeing; it was about relaxing with friends and celebrating together. for two nights we rented out a large hacienda-style house complete with waitstaff, a pool, a koi pond, and a paddle-ball court (like tennis, but smaller court and different rackets). the house was beautiful, and the group of people we were with was a ton of fun. it was a great way to kick off the new school year! getaways like this are what make living in mexico so much fun, and a reminder of how lucky we are to be here.

view from patio to pool and ball court

other than studying for a week in oaxaca, our primary mexican summer adventure was moving from our first place in colonia san miguel chapultepec to our new apartment in la condesa.

it was, as moving always is, an adventure. we splurged and hired mudanzas to come in, carry all our furniture down two flights of stairs, drive it the mile to our new neighborhood and then carry everything back up three very narrow and twisty stairs. the moment i knew we had chosen wisely by hiring someone to do the job was as i watched them hoist our mattress up and over the top of the roof, using a very long, very old rope and some blankets and pushing power lines out of the way as the bed went past. so very very thankful for those lovely movers.

as you can see from the pictures, the place has a similar setup to our other apartment – albeit with a very different layout. we still have one large room that acts both as living and dining room, a small kitchen, two bedrooms, and now only one bathroom.

so why move – if it is only a short distance away and neither a larger nor cheaper place? two reasons: one, we now live in the heart of one of the nicest and most entertaining areas in mexico city. condesa feels a bit like parts of europe, with tree-lined walking paths down the center of larger streets, a mishmash of new architecture and art deco stone and stucco houses, weekly street markets, and large parks in several corners of the neighborhood. we can ride bikes safely and easily here, using the fabulous rental bikes from ecobici that allow us to get wherever we want without having to own our own bikes. in addition, within a three block radius of our place are perhaps forty restaurants and cafes… and they are just a tiny sample of this area, nicknamed “la fond-esa” because there are so many fondas or tiny restaurants of all varieties throughout the area. in our former neighborhood, we had five restaurants, period. we are loving the many options that have opened up to us now.

second: nearly all of our friends live in or very near this neighborhood. in fact, our new place is in a building with only three apartments in it. we live on the top floor; our canadian friends live directly below us, and our landlord (a wonderful woman fluent in English, Spanish, and several other languages) lives on the first floor. i am especially excited about that fact for alex – he was too often alone and isolated all day at the other apartment, where now if he ever needs or wants a break of conversation or a quick lunch, he can easily just run downstairs. for me a bonus is that now i ride to work with four other coworkers – both a time and money saver, and a nice way to start my morning. plus any social events that go on tend to take place somewhere nearby, so we are much more likely to join in than when coming here meant a thirty minute walk home sometimes in the very late hours of the night.

double bonus: random events also tend to pass this way. this morning, for nearly two hours, thousands of people ran past our apartment, participating in mexico city’s annual marathon. some mariachis were playing on the street, and occassional well-wishers kept coming out with signs and cheers in support of the runners. it was a nice start to the sunday – especially to watch from the comfort of our window.

look carefully and you can see me in the window on the third floor of our building

all things considered, we are much happier here. last year was good, but i think this one will be even better. and (hint, hint) for anyone interested in a visit, i am making constant lists of the fabulous places in our new neighborhood that i would love to share.