Alex and Stephanie

not much new to report about the day-to-day stuff here, but we have finally made it out of the small corner of Mexico City where we live, work, eat, sleep, and play.

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!”

it appears that my main concerns here in mexico, thus far, are pretty much limited to a place to sit and what food i eat. but what can i say. i am american. sitting and eating is one of the things we do best.

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.

There is a huge conglomeration of furniture makers and dealers in the df. I think it was called “La Crea.” It must have had 40 individual stores. We had to ride the metrobus (which is like a subway but above ground and the buses have special lanes on the major avenues) for a dozen stops, which was packed on a Saturday. The market is neat, a lot of the sellers make the furniture, and you can get them to make custom things. About half of the shops smell of wood finish and sawdust, and inside someone is finishing a chair or something while his wife tries to sell you some nice furniture. The other half sell factory-made stuff, which is kind of disappointing, because the hand-made stuff is better – solid wood, no veneers, etc. There were also some children who were told to sand some wood when potential buyers were looking. The child-labor-pity/cute-card is played a lot here. There is a good sandwich/burger/cafe in here, too, so you can spend all day – and you might if you get lost among the crazy walkways.

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.)