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!

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

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.

After a wonderful visit back in Colorado, Alex and I kept busy during our summer weeks here in Mexico, finally taking real steps to improve our Spanish. At the beginning of August we took an overnight bus to Oaxaca City in the state of Oaxaca (pronounced wah-ha-ka) – a six to eight hour ride south-east of Mexico City. We had visited Oaxaca before, last February, but this time we were enrolled in the Instituto Cultural Oaxaca where we would spend a week living with a local family and taking daily Spanish language courses.

It was a fabulous week. Oaxaca City is beautiful – full of native and colonial culture, with cobblestone streets lined with great restaurants, cafes, art galleries and bustling markets. Oaxacan food is famous in Mexico for its varieties and incorporation of traditional ingredients like chocolate with cinnamon, tamales wrapped in giant banana leaves,  or salty, crunchy chapulines (grasshoppers).   There were also several festivals taking place while we there. One was called the guelaguetza and is a centuries-old celebration of traditional dance and dress from the many ethnic groups who have lived in the area for hundreds of years. Fireworks went off every night, and during the weekend there was a sound and light show at the main cathedral where images of typical Oaxacan art were projected onto the face of the building while a symphony accompanied narration of local legends. Very beautiful.

The other was a mezcal fair – mezcal is sort of tequila’s little brother, an alcohol derived from the same type of plant but prepared slightly differently. Like tequila, some mezcals are great, others might kill you, and this fair gave out samples of all kinds. Very dangerous.

We also visited several archaeological sites, including Alex’s current favorite, Monte Alban. Like the pyramids of the sun and moon near Mexico City (Teotihuacan), Monte Alban is a huge complex with numerous temples, pyramids, and even a ball court or two. What makes this place even more beautiful, however, is the fact that it is built entirely on the top of a mountain, commanding an incredible view of the surrounding valleys and mountain ranges. It is one of those places that is hard to comprehend, particularly after being told that it was constructed without the use of machines, wheels, or even metal. Crazy.

Alex exploring the tomb

Plus, we also visited two sites we had never before seen, Yagul and Mitla. The great thing about ruins in Mexico is that you are allowed to climb all over the place with very few restrictions, so that you can get up close and personal with most buildings. We were especially excited to be able to go into several tombs at the other sites, making us of course feel very much like Indiana Jones and therefore very happy.

Of course, all that sightseeing and food-eating was really just a side perk. Our main intention was to learn Spanish, speaking and listening and reading and writing as much as possible. And we did! The institute was excellent – not perfect, but very organized and well-thought out, pushing its students to immerse themselves in the language most of the day. I finally really understand the difference between ser and estar, Alex has an improved grasp on the subjunctive, and we can make our own chilequiles or quesadillas con flor de calabaza. Our homestay family was very kind and hospitable, and very insistent that we speak puro español in their house. We learned a lot, but best of all we realized that our year here truly has improved our comprehension of this language and that we are beginning to be able to communicate more than just very basic requests.

So, now on to year two, with new goals, a new apartment, and hopefully more frequent and consistent blog posts!

To celebrate the dead, ofrendas are made. The word means ‘gift,’ but an ofrenda can range from a small pile of sugar skulls and flowers to a large display of skeletons and artwork along with whatever the deceased liked to eat (or drink).

I am sure that there are private ofrendas, but they are celebrations, and are set up for others to see. Here in the city, there is a large collection of room-sized ofrendas in the Zócalo, or the old town square, which is an enormous open space in the historic center of town. They are there for several days, and I went down on Oct 31 to see the mega ofrenda. There were tens of thousands of people, many of them packing themselves in to see the various ofrendas.

The main street leading up to the Zócalo had this gate for your entrance. This gate was easily 30 feet high. Lights swirled and changed color. There was also a lightning storm happening in the background, but I didn’t catch any good ones. To the right of the main entrance is another entrance to a series of ofrendas and artwork.

Behind the main gate was the mega ofrenda. I think it was 40 or 50 feet high. It was tree-like, with the obvious skully head and it was covered in smaller Aztec designs. In teh background of both images is the large church at the far side of the plaza. The gate’s shape is inspired by these old churches with small crosses at the tops of small towers.

There was one large stage with a statue of the Aztec mother goddess, Coatlicue, one of my favorites (in yellow, below). You can see the original statue at the Anthropological museum. She has two snakes for a head, a skirt made of snakes, skulls front and back, and clawed feet, and there are loose human hearts in there somewhere, too. Behind her are rows of skulls. If the have Mother’s Day down here, I’m boarding up the windows.

On this stage, there were Aztec dancers and drummers with enormous feathered headresses.

In addition to all this was a large temporary flower bed, maybe about the size of half a football field. The line to go up onto a platform to see it from above was too long. There were a few tents that covered stages where Posada-esque dancers twirled, and a few dozen more ofrendas, put up by local organizations such as student groups or churches or even immigrants. I remember one Egyptian ofrenda that consisted mostly of chanting and was very popular.

It was very crowded, but there was a lot of work put into each ofrenda. Gracias!

Please remember, folks, this blog is fueled by comments.

Also, our kitten fell in the toilet.

That is all.

last weekend we had the opportunity to travel with some colleagues to a hacienda near Valle del Bravo. Valle del Bravo is a common retreat for chilangos who wish to escape el D.F.’s continuous noise and congestion, not to mention an opportunity to breathe fresh air and spend time boating on its beautiful lake. the hacienda we visited is in the mountains above Valle and has been the site of a successful summer camp for decades.

and to be honest, the hacienda itself was worth the two-and-a-half hour bus ride for me. it is brimming with history – it was a working hacienda built in the 1500s and many key architectural features like the aqueduct, guard towers, and numerous terraces and courtyards have been preserved – and, equally appealing, it is amazingly peaceful. our hosts treated us royally, with lavish meals, comfortable rooms, sunrise horseback rides and hot glu wine in the evening. truly a lovely indulgence.

on top of that, the site should work marvelously as an educational and fun experience for our students. beyond the obvious history of the place, the camp also includes an excursion site where students will camp out overnight far up in the mountains, all after completing a day full of ropes courses, zip lines (i’ll try to attach video of alex on the zipline – he definitely stole the show), rapelling, hiking, and bonfires. if you are ever interested, i’ll let you know how we plan to incorporate these aspects into our unit on early colonial America – it’s pretty ingenious.

yesterday, we got out of the city once again, but this time only barely out of the city. again, with a group of colleagues, alex and i visited the famous floating gardens of Xochimilco. this is an area that preserves the canals that used to criss-cross all of Mexico City (pre-Spanish conquest), and it is famous for the flowers and plants of all kinds that are grown there.

as a group, we took several of the brightly colored, flat-bottomed boats available for rent and spent an hour or so floating along the canals, eating a picnic lunch and listening to the mariachi band hired to climb aboard with us. as you float along, steered by a man with a long bamboo pole à la the gondoliers of venice, various vendors paddle up alongside. some are selling the usual trinkets, blankets, and jewelry, others sell food (like hot-roasted corn on the cob with salt and lime – yum!) and drinks, and of course, there are many more mariachi bands hoping to be asked to play for a boatload of their own. it was another fabulous glimpse of life beyond our city streets.

we finished yesterday in the plant markets of Xochimilco, where we limited ourselves to the purchase of only one beautiful orquidea. we’ll see if we can keep it looking so beautiful for long!

one funny little side note about Xochimilco – next to the flower market is a large park with lots of trails. as you enter the park, you are confronted with the unexpected site of dozens of horses. of course, they are there to be ridden at a price. the funny part to me was the variety of sizes of horses that were in evidence. tiny, dainty ponies stand next to large horses as tall as any thoroughbred, and often one man would lead a handful of horses who ranged from full-size to medium to small to miniature. its a smart tactic i’m sure – the right size for any rider, and i told alex we should move cowboy camp down here for a day. of course, then i felt bad when i told one of the horse handlers that his pony was far too small for me. i don’t think he saw the joke and instead kept coming back with increasingly larger horses saying, “más grande! más grande!”

that being said, when i return to the states i will probably become one of those annoying americans who constantly mention how such-and-such food is just simply not as good as whatever they had while traveling. at least that will surely be true when it comes to mangoes.

on saturday, i finally made it to the nearby covered market, and found myself in one of the lower rings of heaven. (okay, maybe dante only talked about the rings of hell, but he never went to mi mercado either.) i love a good food market any day, and this place is awesome. throw in the fact that i have pretty much abstained from fruits and veggies since arriving here, based on advice about avoiding montezuma and his infamous revenge, and you might assume that my feelings about this market and its mounds of fruit are slightly inflated.

but you didn’t taste the mango.

for anyone who has ever cursed at a tough, woody mango they just paid five dollars for and now have mangled into inedible pulp on their cutting board, i have one piece of advice. not all mangoes are created equal. the monster i purchased for 20 pesos was larger than most colorado cantelope, lovely shades of orange, green and red, and flush with enough sticky flesh the texture of firm butter to feed four. one of my colleagues once joked about her british friends who threw about the term orgasmic for anything they mildly enjoyed. i myself do not use the word lightly. but in this case, it is absolutely 100% appropriate. the worst bite of that mango equalled the best bite of mango i had had prior… i know, this is getting ridiculous. but i am sure that some of you have eaten fresh tropical fruit and know what i mean. our poor paltry refrigerated, planed, trained, and automobiled fruits just can’t compare.

okay. one last ode to my amazing (and now digesting) mango. i once had mango gelato that was less than awesome. a friend pointed out (unkindly) that it tasted of fish. unfortunately, she was correct. a bad mango does verge on the fishy side, and will be ruined forever if you think of that while eating it. but i can guarentee that no fish in this world could be confused with the mango i ate last night.

We had a tough time because we were looking for a queen-sized bed frame, and that is not a common size. Many of them would make it, but it would cost more – maybe a thousand pesos more. A queen sized mattress was an easy purchase, but queen sized frames are not. This is annoying. So if you are going to buy a new bed, go with matrimonial, or inidiviual – or buy the frame/headboard at the same time.

Since turistas don’t buy furniture, the Spanish is not slow and easy, it is quick and expected. It was a little intimidating, and we came away with only two lamps. I guess it is back to Viana for us.

Also, they have Costco here. It is exactly the same as in the US except that they had Gran Centenario Reposada. Yay.

UPDATE (by Stephanie):

Our second trip to the artisanal mercado (no longer certain it is called la crea. may have made that up.) was far more successful. Turns out, it’s a whole lot less stressful if you have a definite budget and a clear idea of what you want. Much like everytime I walk into SuperTarget wanting only shampoo and leaving with $50 worth of unnecessary necessaries. In round two we decided to limit our scope to only a table with four chairs and inside our budget. Found a satisfactory solution within a half an hour, then we noticed a sectional sofa in the same vendor’s area that also looked feasible for our apartment. Best part was, we didn’t quite like the finish on the wood, and when we asked the lady how long (and how much) it would take to put on a darker stain, she said it could be ready by 6pm that night, for no extra cost. Sold! We now have seating and table space for ourselves plus a guest or two. We are nearly civilized once more. Such convenient solutions were quite a lovely surprise after having to wait weeks for cable installation and washing machine delivery from large stores far closer to us.

Delivery from the artisan market was also a nice perk. Our vendor tracked down a trustworthy delivery guy (lots of movers hang out in the market, asking if you need help), then we set a time and price and all was set. Of course, he did not get to our apartment till 3 hours after the arranged time, but he did carry all of the furniture up our two flights of stairs single-handedly. Which is pretty much precisely how it works here: You can get anything delivered (really. anything.) so long as you are willing to hang out and wait for it (or pay someone to wait for you.)

For unknown reasons, Windows makes for crappy video editing, so it is a large file with terrible imagery. If we make a part 2, we’ll try my old mac, which will undoubtedly do better.

We’d like to know who has seen this and who had trouble downloading it, so please leave a comment either way.

ps for you Spanish nerds: the title of this post is tu casa, which means your house. But the posting is about our house, not your house. You see, Mexican hospitality goes so far that the phrase mi casa es su casa is taken to extremes, leading people to say things like ‘there will be a party at tu casa tonight, please come over.’