Tzintzuntzan

My friend Eduardo back in Courtenay recommended the little town of Tzintzuntzan (what a cool name!) and its ruins, so I headed there on a day off. For the first time this trip I spent the day with someone else, which was a nice change. We got a bit turned around and off-track cuz Ben's Spanish is even worse than mine, but eventually we got a collective taxi heading in the right direction. These taxis cost the same as a "combi" between local villages, yet are much more comfortable, with less stops.

Tzintzuntzan has semi-circular temple bases, which are relatively rare, built by the Tarascan culture. The interpretive signs were in Spanish, English and the local Purepecha language, and there were men working at some restoration.

What I was most amazed at, tho, were the approximately 500-year old olive trees in the church courtyard. Wow! Massive gnarly, old grey stumps about 4-5 m in circumference, with new shoots coming out of them in a few spots. I was blown away to see such an old tree. As big around as old growth cedars, yet not very tall at all.

Next we walked around the market stalls and church of Quiroga, another small town along the shores of Patzcuaro Lake. It´s well-known for having a selection of crafts from all over the region and is named after the Catholic Bishop Quiroga, who initiated the trend of local communities around the lake specializing in specific crafts. This area of Michoacan is now famous throughout Mexico for its high quality craftsmanship, where each town has a specialty.

On our return to Patzcuaro, which we go thru to get back to Bosque Village, we saw a shepherd bringing a big flock of sheep thru the city. This is a big city of 80,000 and we were within a few minutes walk of the very centre. Wild.

Thanksgiving at Bosque Village

Marie made us an international meal for lunch on American Thanksgiving Day, since she and Brian are from the USA. We had ants-on-a-stick (celery, peanut butter and raisons) from America, sourkraut from Germany, gnochi and gazpacho from Italy, sushi, wasabi and soy sauce from Japan and agua de jamaica from Mexico.

I was shocked at how uncomfortable and out-of-their-element the Europeans were when asked to join in the gratitudes we were saying as we went one by one around the table. There certainly wasn't any regular "grace" or gratitudes said at each meal. I mean, how hard is it to think of something you're grateful for?!!

The first thing I said was that I was glad I wasn't in Canada at this time of year, and I was glad I was in a safe and peaceful place. Also that I was grateful for the healthy food and good company.

I love hot water!!

I love hot water, and I love the system at the Bosque that uses stored rainwater from an under-building cistern that gets heated with solar energy. My first hot shower here was heaven!

This is exactly how I think the world needs to be moving as far as water use. I don't want to live without hot water, so I appreciate ways of collecting and heating water that are eco-friendly and sustainable. It's not going to stop raining forever, so store rainwater and heat it with renewable energy -- perfect.

There is a gas-powered (?) pump that brings the water up from the cistern to the solar tank, altho even that could be eliminated with enough solar panels or wind towers for electricity, I suspect.

Unfortunately some aspect(s) of the system didn't work for days on end in my second week at Bosque Village. Some mornings we didn't have hot nor cold water running in the Casita, and then even the big drinking water plastic jug became empty. That was annoying. I had to go 7 days without a shower, sweating and working in the dirt. Yuck.

Finally it came around to sauna day and we got that really hot, stood up on the benches to get at more heat near the high ceiling, and then I used the pot of warmed water from the stove top to give myself a bit of a bath. The first photo above is of the beautiful green roof on top of the cob and wood sauna.

I've remembered two things about myself with this experience: I love hot running water and I love being clean.

Cob building

I had my first lesson in cob building when 4 of us volunteers headed down to the chicken-coop-to-be with Bosque-supplied tall rubber boots, wheelbarrow, shovels, pickaxe and machete. It is partially finished already, so our task was to add more hieght to the walls all around. That was quite a process! I was astounded at how much time and effort was reqd to raise the walls just 20-30cm in height, at about 20-30cm wide, over a distance of about 10m if the bldg was stretched out straight.

First we dug into the ground nearby for some fresh dirt, which is a rust colour and quite fine clay. Luckily it had hardly any rocks nor roots so it was easy to shovel after the overgrowth was cleared off with a machete and it was loosened with the pickaxe.

We dumped the dirt in the middle of the cob structure until we had about 12-15 loads. Then we shaped it into a big rectangle and created a big rectangular hole in the middle, digging right down to almost the floor of the structure. It's important at this point not to leave too much dirt at the bottom in the centre, or it just becomes hardened under our feet and doesn't mix well with the rest.

Next we added sawdust and dead pine needles -- both from the property or free from surrounding areas. Then buckets and buckets of water to fill the hole 3/4 up. We got the water from the rainwater cistern located underneath the "Casita," our volunteer building for breakfasts, with hot shower, fireplace and living room. It was hualed in the traditional way, with buckets at the bottom of rope hung on each end of a stick laid across a person's shoulders.

Now the fun part -- Silvia and David and I jumped in to the water and started stepping on the inner walls to mix in the soil, sawdust and needles. Eventually it became really thick and hard to lift our feet up out of the goo. This is definitely a physically demanding type of building!

Once Judith, who had been part of the cob building for quite a few wks already, decided that the texture was just right, we wet down the previous cob on the top of the walls, grabbed handfulls of fresh cob mixture, patted it together a few times, then threw it or smacked it on top. This ensures that it sticks well. Patting it a few times at this point is not ideal, cuz each hand slap pulls the fresh cob off the wall toward your hand, cuz of the water suction.

We figured out a system where I would stay in the middle with the mud, grabbing handfuls and throwing them to Silvia and David who then patted them onto the building. Near the bottom of the fresh cob pile we needed to add more water and mix with our feet+legs again, to get it wetter and spreadable. At the very end (5 hours later) we poked holes in the fresh cob so that it wouldn't crack when it dried.

Exploring local villages

All the Bosque Village volunteers have either Sunday-Monday or Monday-Tuesday off, which gives Brian and Marie just Monday free, altho Marie still prepares the meals, with help from a volunteer or one of a few local women who are hired to work regularly. There are also two men, Beto and Chilino, who work full-time hours all week when Brian and Marie can afford to hire them.

I spent my first day off just casually hanging out in the town of Erongaricuaro. First I walked the 2 km down to the small village of Yotatiro, which takes about 20 minutes. Then I walked a further 40 minutes downhill to "Eronga" via a trail between fields and then walking on the side of the paved road.

It's hot out in the direct sunlight compared to the dappled sunlight which gets down into the Bosque Village land thru all the branches. I sat and ate a snack in the church courtyard and spent some time on the internet, since the access isn´t very convenient for the one public computer at the Bosque.

I bumped into another volunteer, Tracy, in the internet cafe, and we walked uphill out of town together and then hitched a ride in an empty pick-up truck back to the Bosque. There's a lot of agriculture in this area, so plenty of trucks head downhill full and go back up empty. Tracy sat in the back and I rode in the cab, saving my poor bum from hard bumps.

Ever since I arrived in the Lago de Patzcuaro region I've noticed an island out in the lake with an enormous statue at the top of the big hill. On my 2nd day off I took the boat trip out to this island. It was just $3.50CAD (return) for the 25-min boat ride, complete with musicians (tho they asked for extra tips).

Lago de Patzcuaro is famous historically for a species of white fish, and for the method of catching them with butterfly-shaped nets. Nowadays the white fish is extinct or extirpated, yet they still do the fishing for the tourist boats. Two of the three fishermen caught teeny tiny little fish in their nets, which they showed off proudly. I noticed that the fishing net is an example of biomimicry (humans observing nature and mimicking the natural world in tools and technologies), since the floating vegetation on this lake has a very similar leaf shape to the nets.

Once you get to the island it's VERY touristy. This is one of the most famous places in all of Mexico nowadays to experience Day of the Dead on November 2nd, when candlelit processions cross the lake and ascend to the cemetary to party and hang out all night. The tourist stalls stick around for all the people visiting the statue the rest of the year. There's a steep stairway ascending the island, lined on both sides with stalls of fried minnows (yuck! no thanx!) and tacky souvenirs.

About half way up I noticed an empty and inviting sidewalk angling up perpendicular to this stairway, so I wandered onto it to get some air and see the view of the lake. Wow, nice! I continued on this empty, 2m-wide, paved sidewalk as it gently angled upward, spiraling to the top of the island where I arrived at the park at the base of the big statue.

This thing is BIG! I went inside and there were 52 huge murals depicting the story of the independence of Mexico from Spain. Morelos was a key figure in this movement which started 199 years ago (big bicentennial celebrations being planned for next year, especially for September 16th). There were explanations under each mural, but after the first 10 or so, my eyes were going buggy trying to read it and my brain was exhausted trying to understand the Spanish, so I gave up and just looked at the pretty paintings.

You can ascend right up into the arm of the statue of Morelos. The spiral staircase is really quite narrow so I was glad that there weren't that many other tourists on it when I was there. I got to the wrist of the statue and poked my head out. Wow, what a view!

Hack and slash pruning

On my first day of volunteer work I got to use a machete for the first time -- fun! I have a new pruning style called hack and slash. The lower you bend to get the blade slicing horizontal, the more likely you'll get clean cuts. Grasses were the most challenging. I was amazed at how the machete, if sharpened regularly, will cut thru thick woody plants as well. Actually, that would explain the pathetic "pruning" jobs I've seen in the towns -- hacked off stubs all over the place.

I used both hands and really took a big backswing in order to slice thru multiple stems of woody bushes, and then I still usually only got one stem at a time. The most efficient way to use the machete is to hold it steady in one hand and twist your wrist at the far end of each swing so that you're constantly slicing back and forth.

A small group of us worked in the same area, clearing the brush and wildflowers from a clearing that Brian wants to use for a public gathering, followed by widening several trails, inc the overgrown trail to my cabaña. Phew! That should make it easier to find at night.

After an hour and 40 minutes of hack and slash, I was tired and had blisters on both hands. I put on some bandaids and Brian showed me some of the maps he has been making with a gps and Maptracker software. Then he sent me off on my next task -- take a map and walk the trails at the perimeter of the 83-acre property in order to get to know the place. Since it is post-growing season, a lot of the wildflowers have gone to seed, producing burrs of various sizes and shapes which stick to clothes and shoes and socks as you walk by -- a good reason to do more hack and slash with the trail system in coming days and weeks.

When I got back I watched how the notes from a gps walk are incorporated into the online version of the downloaded map, and then it was time for lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day.

The international community of Bosque Village

On the weekend I arrived there were 6 of us volunteers, all women, plus Brian and his partner Marie. There was a gal from Germany, Judith, who had been teaching English for a few months in a small Mexican town, and was fluent in Spanish. She was our link between languages when we hit a roadblock. Then Nika and Tracy from USA, Justine from France and Silvia from Italy.

I don´t know how much my progress with Spanish has been stunted by hearing all these different accents speaking Spanish. We often spoke English as well. Brian and Marie are both American and have been picking up Spanish in the past few years as they´ve lived there. Everyone else spoke much better Spanish than me, yet were very patient and helpful. Conversations would bounce back and forth between Sp and Eng, with occasional French, German or Italian phrases thrown into the mix.

I noticed that I tend to stare really intently at the person talking and lean forward when I'm trying to understand another language, as if somehow my eyes could draw in the understanding. Weird.

I proudly showed off my only two German phrases to Judith, who laughed her head off and was very pleased -- "Do you have a washboard stomach? May I feel your washboard stomach?" One day I will ask Silvia to teach me those phrases in Italian. ;-)

Different people came and went while I was there. A very interesting fellow from America, David, who has recently finished university studies in intl dev, was on a journey of exploring various intentional communities and ecovillages in Latin America. He and another American couple are just opening this place in Guatemala, and I may go down for their New Year party and 3 days of workshops. http://www.projectnuevomundo.org/index.html Of course, I grilled him for info on other interesting places I could go stay at in Mexico, and have a few ideas I´m pursuing.

A few guys started arriving, from America and France and Canada, so by the end of my 2nd week there, the balance had shifted to about half and half of each gender.

Some people come for just a short visit and don´t volunteer, yet pay more for their stay, so there were almost daily arrivals in the 2nd wk, leading up to a very busy xmas period at Bosque Village. Some folks just come down for xmas holidays. I find it hard to imagine just a one or two week stay in Mexico -- there´s so much to see and do!

What´s a bosque?

Bosque is Spanish for forest. Compared to the west coast forest I´ve gotten used to, this forest is thin, with not many understory bushes -- mostly wildflowers and grasses. It´s not an old growth forest, cuz the area was clearcut about 50-60 yrs ago. The main tree that loved the dry, east-facing hillside left from that time was pine -- at least 4 different species according to botanists who have visited. In the shade of these now-mature pine trees there are at least 4 species of oak and numerous species of madroño (arbutus/manzanita). The oak seem to be growing like weeds in the shade now, yet the madroños don´t reproduce well and Brian considers it an endangered tree. He´s had trouble reproducing it from seed, tho hasn´t tried cuttings yet.

There is a very long dry season here....about 8 months from October thru May. This minimizes the "invasiveness" of various bushes and wildflowers and other plants that may be considered weeds elsewhere. It also causes the tree growth to be quite slow, I would imagine.

At this time of year most of the gardens were put to rest and not producing, altho I did see mature corn fields, lettuce going to seed, squash just flowering, herbs, cacti, succulents, cabbages and mandarin oranges. Most of the food we consume here is bought at market day in the nearest large town, Erongaricuaro.

The dreaded plague has hit this part of the world, too -- mountain pine beetle infestations. Brian has applied for and received permission to cut and sell the infested trees in order to try to curb the spread of the beetle to more of the forest. Govt forest specialists had been out to mark all the infested trees on the property, and some of my volunteering time was spent burning newly cut down pine tree boughs.

Still getting lost....

Bosque Village is a huge property of 83 acres on a mountainside in central Mexico with many, many projects on the go. Check it out at http://www.bosquevillage.com/en/index.php

I arrived for a 2-week stay as a volunteer, working 5 1/2 to 6 hours per day for 5 days per week, plus 500 pesos ($42CAD) in exchange for all-you-can-eat yummy, healthy food and a secure place to sleep and store my belongings, plus becoming part of a community for a while. I was most attracted to these features -- living off the grid, permaculture ("permanent agriculture" - melding into the existing natural flora and fauna), forming ecovillage, retreat ctr, sustainable tourism, sauna, solar electricity and hot water, birdwatching, peaceful areas for meditation, numerous gardens, rainwater catchment (over 100,000 L of cistern capacity!), massage table, reforestation for restored bird and butterfly habitat, natural building, internet access, madrone (arbutus), oak and pine trees...

Brian and I walked thru the wilder sxn of property on the way in from the nearest town (about 2km), then came to the area where you could see various cabañas and canvas tents set up quite a distance apart. I dropped my pack off at "Cosmic" Cabaña and headed down to see the main house (where we´d eat a hot prepared lunch and dinner each day) and the common building for volunteers (where we´d make our own breakfast from food supplied).

There were lots and lots of trails I noticed all over the place, and I wondered as I followed Brian around, how I would find my way back to my cabaña? It was 7-8 minutes of walking to get from my cabaña downhill to the common house, past a few other cabañas occupied by other volunteers. The forest was thick enough to block the view back to the sleeping cabañas, so you really had to know which way to head.

I wandered around a bit on my own while there was still daylight, trying to get my bearings, figure out the area and find my way back to the cabaña. I found numerous neat little clearings and a cob building in progress called Beltane but I didn´t find my cabaña. Luckily the big house is enormous and I caught a glimpse of it as I wandered a trail, headed down and asked Brian for a map. Instead he escorted me back to my cabaña. I still couldn´t really distinguish the mix of trails and roads we took from the many other trails and roads along the way. None of the routes are colour-coded or named, and there are no signs, so even once I had a map, I still often didn´t know exactly where I was on the map.

It was a couple days before I really had the route memorized, and stopped getting off-track onto other trails, then backtracking, esp at night. For the first couple of nights I asked for an escort back to my cabaña, cuz at night it is waaaaay harder to recognize the right route from the trees and flowers I had "landmarked" during daylight.

Luckily there are no dangerous wild animals and we were far from the nearest town, so I didn´t worry at night about running into trouble. I just followed the glow of the many yellow and white wildflowers blooming in the understory of the not-very-thick forest. There are also VERY few flying, biting insects, which is great. Brian has been lucky enough to see an ocelot (small wild cat) and there are squirrels, foxes and coyotes. I only saw grey squirrels and various birds during my stay.

The reason for that is probably mostly cuz it gets quite cold at night up here at 2400m. Inside my cabaña it was usually 8 or 9 C in the middle of the night, and one night that I put the thermometer outside it measured 5 C. I didn´t sleep well and got up often to pee, despite 5 layers of blanket, socks, fleece pants, multiple long-sleeved layers on top and a toque.

My body really prefers the Puerto Vallarta nights!! It took a few days to start getting a decent amount of rest, yet I never slept well. Luckily it warms up a lot in the daytime, getting over 20 C on clear days.

Travel day getting to Bosque Village -- Patzcuaro to Yotatiro and beyond

Patzcuaro was another big town - bigger than I was expecting, about 80,000 inhabitants. I wandered around looking for an Internet Cafe, so I could let the folks at Bosque Village know that I would be late. It took a while to find one. I saw a solar-powered hot water heating system for sale on the street for only $380 CAD. Then I got directions on where to wait for the combi to take me to the next smaller village on the journey, and a local gal from a shop stayed out on the street watching for me and pulled over the combi when it came about 10 minutes later.

People have really been helpful and friendly. I stick out like a sore thumb cuz there are very few other foreigners around. Even Old Vallarta had very few foreigners. People tell me that the winter of 2008-09 was really poor for tourism, and it still hasn't picked up again.

I was expecting Patzcuaro Lk to be dried up, yet there was still plenty of water...it´s just that it´s shrinking, very brown and very polluted. The combi was jam-packed after a group of local indigenous folks (Purepecha culture) got on. Luckily these combis have "Jesus handles" to hold onto around fast bends and bumps, for people standing or sitting. I felt bad that my big pack was taking up so much room, yet they were all very understanding, some having big pkgs themselves.

I asked a lady sitting beside me if she knew where I´d find the next combi to get to the next town I needed. She was very nice and asked around to all the folks on the bus, and found a mother and son who would also be taking that same combi. I followed them to the right spot and once we were on the road again, she let me know when we arrived at that town so I could get off.

At this point I´m part way up the mtnside on the west side of Patzcuaro Lake, and the town is built on the slope. As luck would have it, the combi dropped me off at the bottom-most end of town. I walked very slowly in the afternoon heat up the street, looking for the town church. I arrived and found Brian, owner of Bosque Village, waiting to walk me in.

I had misunderstood the scenario -- I thought that numerous local folks in town knew the route and if I missed the early aftn meeting time, it would be ok to just hire a local to guide me in. Apparently they haven´t established that system so loosely yet -- it has to be organized in advance. Brian was a little annoyed with how my wanderings and delay in Morelia caused them to be waiting for me for quite a while. Ooops.

Well, in my defence, there wasn´t any specific information on the Bosque Village website about travel times and bus or combi dptr times between Morelia and the next 3 towns, and people in Morelia wouldn´t have known what time the local combi arrives in the furthest village I had to get to. With all those connections to make, I didn´t know what time I would be arriving.

Soooo glad to have arrived, tho. Brian walked me in to the property, another 2km mostly uphill, on a narrow trail in a beautiful pine forest.

Travel day getting to Bosque Village -- Morelia to Patzcuaro

Well, I got off the bus in Morelia at 930am and decided that I couldn't immediately hop on another bus and keep traveling. I wasn't sure how long it would take to get to the Lago de Patzcuaro area, but I figured I had at least a couple hours I could spend in Morelia. I stored my big pack, packed my breakfast and took a taxi in to the ctr and walked around a bit. Then I settled on a park bench directly across the square from the ever-present couple madly making out. I pulled out my red cedar bowl and bamboo spoon, some granola with nuts and coco, fruit and yoghurt, and proceeded to eat a lovely breakfast under the trees in this lovely historic centre.

Morelia's central historic district is a UN World Heritage Site. Not having a guidebook with me, I didn't realize that before I arrived - I had just heard that there were lovely colonial buildings. It is absolutely gorgeous with all the pinkish rock on the various buildings. And there are streets and streets worth of this historic architecture, not just the four buildings on each side of the main plaza.

There's a huge cathedral with double towers 60m high that I barely poked my nose into, thinking I'll check it out more when I return this way in a few wks. I notice that I tend to only peak my nose into Catholic cathedrals and basilicas and what-not -- I guess I'm leary of exposing myself to too much Catholicism!

I decided to cheap out on the return to the bus depot, and take the local transport, which are Nissan or VW minivans that they call combi's. It took asking a few different people and walking a ways to find the right spot to wait for the appropriate combi. Initially I was told there was one that would take me all the way back to the bus terminal, then I was told I had to make a connection. Ok, whatever. I got help from the combi driver and the passengers for where to go for my next connection.

Man, what a big city! There are over 680,000 people here. And these combi's take a much slower route with a lot more turns than the taxi did. There were speed bumps down most of the streets, and no lights nor stop or yield signs at many intersections. It's amazing they don't have accidents. It seems to work mostly like a 4-way stop, where one car from each direction goes, tho sometimes drivers aren't polite enough to wait for others to go before them. It took almost twice as long to get back to the terminal and now I was stressing a bit about making my meeting time near Bosque Village.

The bus from Morelia to Patzcuaro was not as plush as the other intercity buses I've been on, tho I was impressed with how a fellow selling coconuts came down the aisle before we left the terminal - what service! I love drinking the coco juice and then eating the meat. They give you the coco already pealed yet still whole, with a straw in a hole, all in a plastic bag with hot spices and a half a lime for eating with the meat. Yummmm!

Intercity buses in Mexico

Wow, do they ever have nice buses here! Very plush, with foot rests and reclining seats. On one journey so far I´ve even been given a complimentary juice, ham&cheese sandwich, granola bar and face mask. Every so often I see shop keepers or street food vendors or ppl on the street wearing face masks, I guess to protect from the flu.

My first bus ride was an overnight bus 11pm-930am, taking me deep into interior Mexico. All the windows had drawn curtains, and all 8 or so of us on the bus slept or dozed the whole time. I opened my curtain to look at the stars and the passing roadside every so often when I awoke.

The big buses have a men´s and women´s washroom at the back with water for washing up. Let me tell you, it´s a lot harder to pull up your pants in one of these cramped little bus baños while going over speed bumps and cobblestone roads, than it is in an airplane baño!! Just part of the adventure!

On my first journey I was hoping I could plug my earphones in somewhere and listen to some music. I asked the bus driver about it and didn´t understand his answer until a few moments later, back on the road, when he put on music then a movie in Spanish. The sound goes thru the whole bus, loud, so whether you want to hear it or not, you´re hearing it. That´s a definite downside.

The other day I was taking a bus to Ciudad Hidalgo and the bus driver played the American movie Hidalgo, about a cowboy and horse in an Arabian desert race. Hidalgo was a key leader of the Mexican colonial independence struggle against Spain.

I´m sure learning the names of key figures in Mexican history, cuz every town has the same street names repeated: Francisco I Madero, Benito Jaurez, Hidalgo, Morelos, cardenas, Zaragoza, Zamora, Melchor Ocampo (sure not too many women immortalized and remembered in this way!)... Oh, and then there are all the key dates immortalized in street names: 20 de Noviembre, 5 de Mayo, 16 de Septiembre...

Wandering around Nuevo (new) Vallarta

I lost track of my watch back home the wk before I left, so I searched for one on the streets of Vallarta with no luck. Finally I decided I´d go down to Walmart in the new sxn of town (the ritzy, touristy, Americanized sxn). I laughed to myself as I heard Spanish children singing xmas songs on the loudspeakers in the store -- mid-November and they´re already starting with the xmas blitz! I actually really enjoy hearing Spanish xmas songs -- reminds me of a fun xmas in Guatemala 9 yrs ago.

I wanted to do some emailing/blogging, so searched out an Internet Cafe. The first place I found, in an air conditioned cafe near where the cruise ships dock, charged 55 pesos per hour. Yikes! All the internet spots in Old Vallarta charged 10 or 15 pesos per hour (12 pesos = $1 CAD). I asked the girls at the coffee counter if there was another internet place nearby. Yup. Was it cheaper? Yup. Knowing Spanish sure comes in handy to save money down here!

The new area is where the marina is, with boats you can rent for fishing or snorkelling or whale watching. This is a popular area for fishing, with lots of species, including sailfish, marlin, tuna, dorado and snapper. One of the typical foods unique (apparently) to Vallarta is skewers of marlin or prawns bbqd at beachside restaurants. I definitely enjoyed a few of those! Just 25 pesos each, plus 20 pesos for a Corona.

Dia de la Revolucion, 20 Noviembre

There were festivities in Puerto Vallarta for Revolution Day on November 20th. This yr was the 99th anniversary of the 1910 uprising against a Mexican president considered a dictator; who did not help the indigenous people nor labourers. Pancho Villa and Emilio Zapatista were key revolutionary leaders in the north and south of Mexico respectively.

The day before Nov 20th I was walking along the Malecon in the morning when a big group of people approached. This time it wasn´t cruise ship tourists, it was teachers and parents and lots and lots of little 3´ tall revolutionaries -- little cowboys with guns, and zapatistas with red head scarves and mustaches. The little girls also had bullet belts slung across their chests, or were dressed as indigenous women with babies slung on their backs. It was soooo cute! Some were riding tricycles and shouting VIVA MEXICO or holding signs saying VIVA LA REVOLUCION. I laughed and laughed as I took pictures and enjoyed their little parade.

The next morning I got to the parade route early to scope out a good spot and managed to get a great spot near the speaker/MC/politicians, in the shade of a big tree. The speaker gave a lot of info on the history of the Revolution, and I understood a fair bit, cuz the sound quality was good and he spoke slowly enough for me.

This Mexican parade was quite different than Canadian parades. There were no "silly" floats and no commercial floats. There were very few vehicles or decorated trailers. The occasional pick-up truck had Mexican blankets decorating them, and people in the back or "princesses" of some sort throwing candy from the roof.

Some parade entries were miscellaneous groups, yet most were schools and the parade finished with the navy/military. It was a 3-hour parade (thank goodness I was in the shade and able to sit down!), and I swear that two hours of it was groups of kids from every single school in Puerto Vallarta. Most were in their school uniforms, yet some were dressed as Pancho Villa´s and such. Many had marching band drums and trumpets -- ohmigawd I was so sick of those marching band drums making such a racket by the end. That´s just NOT music. It´s loud, sharp banging. Uugh.

Many groups held signs promoting the values of the revolucion: democracy, freedom, harmony, equality, liberty... The kids would often do a cheerleading show (guys and girls) and end with a people pyramid. The final parade entries were the military, with their scuba and snorkel rescue crew, rappeling off a big tower on the back of a trailer and by far the best, highest people pyramids. That´s who the kids were emulating!

Later that evening I also caught a free dance show in a local mall which was really awesome. There were some prehispanic dances and a bunch of colonial and revolution-era dances, all by young people who looked like they absolutely loved dancing and were having a blast. It was a great show that lasted about an hour.

Impressions of Puerto Vallarta

The streets remind me so much of Guatemala, with cobblestone roads and sidewalks that you really have to be paying attention to, to negotiate safely. The sidewalks are smoother to walk on than the cobbled roads, except that every couple metres there is a big hole, or a dip for someone´s driveway. And sometimes BIG drops down at the street corners. No looking around at the streetscene while walking down the sidewalk -- there´s more chance of twisting an ankle here than on a mtnside in the Canadian Rockies.

There are also stray dogs and a wide range of vehicle ages and types, just like in Guatemala. The differences, tho, are that the streets in Old Vallarta are MUCH cleaner and the dogs are better-fed than in Guatemala 9 yrs ago.

I find that as I walk down the street, or sit on a bus, memories of Guatemala will come up, particularly various phrases I learned in Spanish school. I´m remembering quite a bit of the language, now that I´m immersed.

In New Vallarta there are much smoother, newer sidewalks that I don´t have to think about when walking on them. There´s also Walmart, Office Depot and a big Sam´s store (American big box store like Costco). I saw pizza delivery guys on the main street/highway driving quads! I didn´t really like the new fancy hotel area, tho if someone wanted to take me to the restaurant on top of the big fake lighthouse with the incredible view, I´d go!

My brain has been on full alert on many levels, and the first few wks here have been EXHAUSTING! I´m paying LOTS of attention to each footstep, then I´m paying attention to the stores and signs along the streets, I`m following along on my map so that I can get my bearings and feel more comfortable, and I`m always on the lookout for cool stuff to see.

Add to all that being on full mental alert with thinking about Spanish translation, esp when speaking or listening to people. Eventually I´ll slide into thinking in Sp, yet these first weeks my brain is constantly on overdrive. I fall into bed at night exhausted, and barely stay awake thru the evening to find a place to eat.

I walk a lot when I´m traveling, so that is also tiring me out. Old Vallarta has a really nice waterfront paved walkway called the Malecon. It is about a km long and has interesting statues along it. I walk it back and forth first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

At mid-morning along the Malecon there are Indigenous men (Volodores) from the state of Veracruz (Gulf of Mex side of the country) who climb up a tall pole and then "fly" down in spirals. I read that it is 4 men and 13 spirals, making a sacred number in the Mayan counting system. They do this for the big groups of tourists who come off the cruise ships and bus into Old Vallarta. Those groups are funny -- they all have name tags, not with their own names, but with the name of their guide. Hee hee. Don´t get lost.

I´m really glad I stayed in Old Vallarta, in the Romantic Zone on the far side of the river from the central district. It´s quieter than the very centre, and very authentically Mexican, with the rough sidewalks and street food vendors on almost every street, some Internet cafe´s, some residential, some schools/colleges and lots of affordable restaurants. I had asked the info gal at the airport upon my arrival for her recommendations for good, cheap Mexican restaurants. I tried both and was totally impressed. Seafood one night, very filling soup another. If you´re ever in Old Vallarta, go to Cenaduria Celia. Wow! Really authentic food and really really fast and super cheap. It was full of locals. I had a soup called pozole, which is broth and a type of corn that´s soaked and puffed up somehow (maiz en elote). Yummy! Can´t wait to get back there in February before my flight home.

I also tried one of the street food vendors one night, recommended by the front desk gal of my hotel as being really good and not too greasy. I ordered "tortas" hoping to get something on a flat or rolled tortilla. This was my first big learning curve with the cuisine here. "Torta" turns out to be beef on a bun. A bun! HEY! I didn´t come all the way to Mexico to eat a white bun! Oh, well, I wandered down to the beach with it and sat watching the surf by the lights of the beachside restaurants lining Playa Los Muertos, the best beach, in my opinion, in the central Vallarta area of the bay.

Unfortunately I chose to sit on a lounge chair at the beach. A security guard from one of the big fancy hotels came down and asked me if I was staying at that hotel. Silly me, I said no. I got the impression from his domineering presence that even tho the lounge chairs were not being used by anyone from his hotel, (most of them were stacked up for the night) and even tho they were located on what I had already determined was public property (the intertidal zone of a beach), I was not welcome.

FINE! (it´s never fine when a woman says fine, have you noticed that?!) I stomped off in a huff, realizing 10-minutes later, sitting on the beach getting sand in my shorts, that I had forgotten my metal water bottle beside that lounge chair. I was already in a crabby mood from that interaction -- I really dislike it when people are treated differently depending on who they are, where they are staying, how they are dressed, how much they are spending, etc, etc. I wandered back to the spot and found an empty beach -- the lounge chair had been put away and my water bottle was not in sight. I found that security guard skulking in the shadows of the hotel courtyard, and asked him if he knew who put away that lounge chair and where they put my water bottle. He assured me he didn´t know. FINE!

Ah, well, I managed to let that upset go pretty quickly. After all, I do still have one water bottle left, and I´m walking around AT NIGHT, in late November, in a tank top and shorts!! It also helped to go down to the Malecon and discover the stands selling sweet crepes. That night I had a crepe with caramel, chocolate, banana and kahlua. Wow!

Night ride on the Bay of Banderas

Well, I walked down to the end of the loooong dock in Quimisto, back to the spot where we were dropped off earlier that aftn. There were a bunch of young guys on the dock fishing or hangin`out. Initially I just sat down and waited, snacking and being patient. The stress level was rising, tho, so I asked the guys if they knew Pablo, who sells silver here to the tourists. Nope.

Great. I explained my dilemma of wanting to get back to Boca that night, and they chatted among themselves and told me that they thought I´d "missed the boat." Yeah, I kinda suspected that. Ooops. Still, I waited on the dock in hope, stress level rising at the light dimmed.

Finally the guys hollared to me that there was a boat loading near shore, and I bolted down the 30 or 40m-long dock to catch it. Yes, it was going to Boca de Tomatlan, and yes, I could hop in. YAAAAH! A father and son managed the boat and anchor, and their passengers were me, a mother and daughter and their cargo.

We left with some daylight left, yet the journey is about 15-20 minutes on the water, so it was pretty black for the last 5 or 10 minutes. Pretty cool to be on the water and just barely be able to make out the white surf rolling onto shore by starlight (it was new moon time, so no moonlight). Ah, but then another panga boat could be heard approaching. These boats don´t have any safety lights (nor life jackets for that matter -- good thing they stayed close to shore), so the drivers have to trust their night vision to avoid eachother. They managed to avoid a collision.

We pulled into the long, narrow bay of Boca de Tomatlan, guided by house lights on either side of the bay. I jumped out, grateful to be back on "familiar" ground, and asked how much for the ride? Good news!- locals price again, or at least the non-inflated price.

All that worry for nothing. The adventures continue...

My new "amigo"

When I got back from the waterfall hike in the middle of the hot afternoon, Pablo was exactly where I had left him. I asked when we would be catching a boat back, and he said it could be a while. In Mexico, Pablo assured me, you need to have patience. Great -- I can hang out on a beach on a warm, sunny day. Pablo suggested I go hang out on the nicer beach a ways down from the boat arrival area, and assured me that once he got picked up in the "locals only" boat, he would get the boat driver to come in to shore where I was waiting, to save my poor legs from walking back again. Nice!

So I hung out on a beautiful beach I had all to myself until a local father and son came along to do some fishing from shore. It was really hot -- over 30 C -- so I jumped in the turquoise ocean numerous times to cool off. It has a sandy bottom here and is just gorgeous!!

When the sun went behind the mtns for the day and Pablo still hadn't arrived in the boat, I walked back 5 minutes to Quimisto. My new "amigo" was no where to be seen. Darn! How am I gonna get back? Stay tuned....

Lost Trail Lori

After my hike to the empty beach at Colomitas, I returned to the village of Boca and had a Corona beer on the beach ($1.70 -- how could I refuse?). As I was sitting there relaxing after the long, tiring walk, Pablo arrived on a panga (boat). I waved hello and he came over and asked if he could sit down and have a beer. Sure. I asked Pablo what the typical price for the panga trips was. Depends. Yeah, I noticed that as I asked a few tourists, who paid anywhere from 170 to 40 pesos for a one-way trip.

Pablo offered to meet me there the next day and get me on a "locals only" panga, at a cheaper rate, to the town of Quimisto. That´s where he goes each afternoon to attempt to sell silver to tourists who arrive from Vallarta on the bigger tourist boats. Sure, yeah, I´ll go, I said.

The next aftn we met on the beach at Boca and jumped into a panga with a few other local men, who also sell stuff to tourists on the beaches. Cool! Beautiful journey of about 20 minutes heading south on the Bay of Banderas. Just 3 days before this our panga driver had seen a whale, so they are returning to the bay for winter. He typically doesn´t see dolphins at this time of year becuz they don´t like the warm temperature of the bay in summer and fall. Instead they stay out by Las Islas de Marieta, off Punta de Mita. Pablo suggests I take the local bus to the village of Punta de Mita, then a local panga boat out to see the dolphins -- great to get this inside info to save money over the tourist offerings from the ctr of Vallarta.

Quimisto is one of the water-accessable towns south of Puerto Vallarta. It´s pretty small, tho it does spread down the coast a ways, plus inland along the river. Pablo stayed in town to accost the tourists and directed me to the trail to the beautiful and well-known waterfalls. He explained that there are horses for hire, gave me the typical cost, then assured me that it was an easy hike and I didn´t need a horse.

I crossed the river and came to a y-junction after about 15 minutes. Altho this isn´t the norm for me, I decided to take the road MORE traveled. This turned out to be a mistake. After another 15 minutes a vaquero (cowboy) came along, swinging a machete from on his horse. He asked where I was going, I told him to the waterfalls, and he said "Vas malo. Vas malo." (you´re going a bad way, you´re going a bad/wrong way) I asked him "por que?" in a tone of voice that probably revealed that I was wondering if he meant becuz I was alone in the woods and just met up with a vaquero swinging a machete.

He turned out to be very nice and friendly. I followed him back down the trail as he explained that I was on my way to Yelapa, a popular tourist destination from Vallarta that would have been another 2 hours of walking on the trail I was on. He offered to carry my pack for me. I declined his offer. Near the bottom we came upon another fellow in the woods, and the vaquero explained my mistake and they laughed. I caught up to them and said in Spanish, "Hey, it´s ok. I love an adventure!" And they laughed even harder in appreciation of my graceful acceptance of my fate.

I think I may have to resurrect an old nickname from before my hiking guiding days: Lost Trail Lori.

I did find the beautiful Quimisto waterfalls after this 30-minute uphill sidetrip delay. I had a nice swim beneath a few different falls. There were about 40 tourists there when I arrived, but I had my packed lunch on shore and waited and soon they were all gone and I had the pool below the big falls all to myself. Nice! The current was so strong that I couldn´t swim close to nor behind the falls. Powerful!

First Mexican skinnydip

On the recommendation of a local fellow, Pablo, in the little village of Boca de Tomatlan, I hiked from this cute little seaside village thru the fairly dense seaside forest, to a teeny little beach called Playa Colomitas. It´s about 2km and took about 45 minutes cuz of the heat and the steep uphills and getting lost down deadend side trails once in a while. There´s a trail, but it gets obscure.

I was sure glad to see that beach, cuz I was really hot and sweaty. Better yet it was empty of people and it had a lovely creek flowing into the turquoise ocean. Nice! I clambered up the creek a ways to look for neat swimming holes, and found one. Since no one was around I slipped off my bathing suit and went in for a quick dip, then I put it back on and headed back down to the beach to have a well-deserved snack from my pack. A lovely aftn outing. In another 30-40 minutes of hiking I would have been at Playa Los Animas, further down the same coast. That beach is much busier and has a village on it. The tourist boats from Vallarta and the local "panga" boats stop in there all day long.

Chocolate Divas

I found the little chocolate store that Patricia told me about in Old Vallarta. It´s run by two Canadian ladies, Charlotte and Carol. They gave me a free sample of dark chocolate and a free entrance coupon for the local botanical garden, which their biz is a sponsor of. I told them of my plans to volunteer at http://www.bosquevillage.com/en/volunteer.php and they were very intrigued. Puerto Vallarta doesn´t currently have a market for food, just for things. At least not in the central downtown core area. They are currently organizing one and want it to be very eco-friendly, so were quite interested in the eco-friendly technologies used at Bosque Village.

The next morning I took the local bus to the botanical gardens. The actual gardens weren´t stunning... I guess I´m spoiled cuz I was just at Butchart Gardens in late September, and there probably aren´t too many botanical gardens in the world as impressive as those!

They did have some really cool interpretive signs for some of the key food plants. The Canadian chocolate ladies sponsored the sign on Cacao and I learned some very interesting things: the Latin name translates to "food of the gods" (who would have guessed that?!!!) and cacao beans used to be used as currency by the indigenous people here. When women rule the world, we´ll go back to using cacao beans for currency! One of the indigenous names for this plant is cacautl, hence our current use of cacao, switched to cocoa most often in English.

My favourite part of the visit to the botanical garden was a swim in the river. Had it all to myself for half an hour, then other tourists arrived as I left.

Si, mi Reina

My ego is sure getting a kick out of hearing, "Si, mi Reina" (Yes, my Queen) and "Claro, mi princesa" (Of course, my princess) from the waiters at the beach restaurants. I´ve started talking to myself silently in Spanish, so now I call myself "mi hija" (my daughter) or "mi Reina" (my Queeen), depending on how confident I´m feeling.

A lot of Spanish is coming back for me, from having spent a winter in Central America 9 years ago. I´m even able to use past and future tenses, and I get the inside scoop from locals about stuff cuz I ask them in Spanish and dbl-check for second opinions.

I´ve been exploring the edge of the Bay of Banderas (Mexico´s largest Pacific Bay, and one of the world´s deepest, where humpback and grey whales come in winter)...taking the local bus which is waaaay cheaper than the tourist boats from Vallarta. Heading south, from a town called Boca de Tomatlan you can take cheaper boat trips to the water-accessable places, or hike to some. I´ve also been north to Punta de Mita, the furthest north tip of the bay, scoping out the cost of boats to go snorkel with dolphins, sea turtles and manta rays in the UNESCO World Heritage Site near there. Too expensive on my own, so I´ll wait until Feb when there will be more tourists.

Sunday night in PV

There´s lots to do around here, including entertainment in the central plaza of downtown/Old Town Puerto Vallarta each evening and I checked it out on Sunday night. The crowds were larger than normal, apparently, becuz it was Sun nt of a long wknd, plus there was a big fundraising event for a clinic for kids with cancer. You could get your hair cut or shaved off for a donation to charity, plus volunteers walked around with collection jars and sold food to the crowds.

A lit up pirate ship came by and set off fireworks, too, which doesn´t happen on every night.

The entertainment ranged from street performers and clowns (my grasp of Spanish is not enough to catch the comedy) to boy bands (ohmigawd! the young girls screamed as these guys strutted with synchronized head, arm and leg movements.) I just laughed at my intro to Mexican culture! The evening was salvaged when the youth portion of Ballet Folklorico came on stage to dance some of the traditional Latin/Spanish dances to music from all over Mexico, in a variety of costumes.

I'll get to see more of that today -- there's a big parade for Dia de la Revolucion this morning then a free dance show at a mall later tonight.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the sun and heat and warm water. Oh, and I've discovered a few new ways to ward off swine flu -- get thrown about the tropical Pacific Ocean getting water up your nose and in your mouth, gargle a bit while floating on your back, then roll over and spit. Another option is to eat chilaquiles for breakfast -- hoo boy! Even tho I ordered the less hot sauce, my nose was running like crazy and got thoroughly cleaned out.

Packing and getting ready

Life is a whirlwind these days as I'm busy packing and preparing for the trip. This is the first time since early 2001 that I'll be traveling for multiple months, and it's a little unnerving. I'm flying to Puerto Vallarta on November 14th (just 3 more sleeps!), and flying home from there on February 13th. In between, who knows!

So far I have a reservation in the Zona Romantica of Puerto Vallarta for the first 3 nights, and a map of Mexico. I'll hop on a bus and explore south and east of PVR over the course of the 3 months I'll be away, looking to find some opportunities to volunteer and contribute along the way.

I've heard there's an energy influx for this date: 11-11. Maybe that's a factor with the poor sleeps and being frazzled this week. Or maybe it's just heading off sola into the unknown again, jumping off the edge and trusting (?) my cape.