I have to send out a special thank-you to the owner of the hotel that we stayed at in Zipolite (Posada Brisa Marina)... the place and the town were a total haven... THANK YOU SO MUCH DANIEL!!!

Ok... so after spending three VERY EXPENSIVE but pretty days in Bayas de Huatulco (took a six hour boat ride yesterday which felt much like a real estate cruise see above), we headed off last night on a 10 hour bus ride into the centre of Chiapas to San Cristobal de las Casas... It was a LLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG bus ride and for some reason all of the long distance buses in Mexico are FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZING!!!

Very pretty colonial town with lots of indigenous people... ENJOYING listening to other indigenous languages in the street....

arriving at the bus station in the morning to discover that we were 2,000 meters above sea level... and it was absolutely FREEZING. Will tour around here for a bit and then on to Palenche. Photos soon to follow... I promise... oh and happy belated bday mom.

The town itself is cool in terms of tourists unlike Acapulco and Puerto escondito... lots of human rights workers... lots of coop type folks... oh and lots of Zapatistas... and amber

So people have been asking me if I am still in Cuernavaca.... the answer is no...

I rather sporatically decided to leave just before Christmas... spent two days in Acapulco (tour Eifel... scummy hotel near the clavadistas but nice view of the ocean)... my biggest culture shock in Mexico is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any real coffee around here... I am now fully equipped with a bialetti cafetera and three plastic spoons

three days in surf mecca Puerto Escondido (Chez Ines... amazing hotel... pool... the works and cheap)... spent lots of time watching fishermen fish for shrimp and oysters holding their breath for up to 10 minutes... i think I want to become a fisherman...

have spent the last three days in Zipotle... small beach village inhabited by Mexicans and Italians... enjoying the sun and the fact that everyone left the state of Oaxaca because of the riots... lots of vacancy... am considering buying property here... and the food ROCKS!!!! Leave it to the Italians!!! Eating lots of guacamole, prawns, and Cajeta. One day we managed to encounter this tiny tiny shrimp that had been living in my beach bag... itsy itsy bitsy.


Promise to add pictures as soon as I can find some electricity.

Will be here for xmas (tomorow)... and will head to Palenche and San Christobal for New Years:)

For those who don't know already.... I plan to head back to Van starting Jan 11th to work for a month before returning to volunteer.... anybody know of places to stay let me know...

Ciao for now:)

Last weekend and yesterday I went to Taxco, town famous for silversmiths and looked at way too much jewelry and little kids eating bugs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sewjE9E4VbQ

Jumiles (the bugs in the video) are supposed to be a delicacy (you eat them while they're still alive). And yes, we paid the kid 50 cents to eat one (it's 50 cents for a bag of living jumiles).

Yesterday was the holiday for the Virgin of Guadalupe. I went to church and watched lots of little kids dressed up and saw lots of images of the virgin... if you don't know the story, google it. I went to the church where the virgin is (it's in mexico city) a month ago... didn't feel like going because it would be reallllllllllllllly crowded.

This last week was fun with my friend Lisa from Van (in the US)... but she's gone home now... and am starting to get itchy feet.

So I'm starting to get complaints that I haven't written in my blog for a while.... so where to begin?

The last three weeks have been a lot of fun because there was a girl at my school from Munich and we spent a lot of time hanging out (see pic above of Claudia, Jan, and Cathy)... going to local museums and hanging out around town.

Two weekends ago I headed to Tepoztlan a small village famous for UFO sitings, and wierd energy.... complete with church and empty convent... hiked to the top of the mountain with Oscar... no sign of UFOs... just possums that made funny noises and ate garbage (click on youtube link):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQSwpm0uU8

The next day I headed to Iguala with my family... ate possole and beef tongue...


This last friday was the official inaugeration of the new president... so I ran away to Acapulco and spent 4 days basking in the sun with Oscar and family. Our hotel had an amazing view, three pools and one with a waterfall that you could jump off of!!!!

Hung out around town, playing in the water and watched the clavadistas:

Note picture of me with clavadista (above). This is a four minute link of me watching the clavadistas (if you scroll to the end of the clip you can watch them jump):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq9IIo7zsP8

Was hard to leave the beach. At the moment I'm back at school.... puttering with my irregular verbs. There is a new girl at the school my age with two kids.... plans to go out dancing soon!!!!

Hola:)

This last weekend I headed up to Mexico city and ended up at a Lucha Libre match... very interesting... a little bizarre... lots of people screaming... Louis, Anna, Paul and I sat slightly dumbfounded. The woman in this picture sat/stood in front of us screaming at the luchadores and making out with her boyfriend for the entire evening... ahhh wrestling in Mexico.

Monday was a big event as it was the day that commemorates the Mexican Revolution. I went into town with my family and watched the parade... and we headed around town and watched the other things happening for the holiday.

Some people asked about the Nagasaki paintings in the church in Cuernavaca... so here's part of it. I believe they were done in the 1500s.

The same day I wandered into a dance shop, bought some castanets and found about all the flamenco freaks in town... there are tonnes!!! The next day wasn't a holiday but all of the kids in town (literally thousands) from every school marched down my street (including the two kids from my house). Every class had a different theme, some danced, some marched, some sang.... it was quite the event... I couldn't see all of it though as I had to run to school.

Last night I headed into town with Claudia from school and we wandered around town, watched a funky native dance with lots of incense, and then some local artists from around down got up and started singing "traditional Mexican music".

We ended up watching this very interesting lady dance... I'm too lazy to work with Vlog but it's on youtube.com. Just click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUN1i_B9YU and it should pop up.. the video is sideways... I promise to put the next video up properly. Claudia and I were discussing how this woman couldn't possible exist anywhere in Canada or Germany.

Ok... where to begin...? This was my week of birthdays and long trips to beautiful places...

The girl in my family turned 11 on wednesday... so we had a BIG little girl party with panata... note the boy in my family beating the snot out of the pinata after all the girls have all the candy and have run away. Fun times...

The next couple of nights I was out with friends... I'm still amazed by the amount of people who will talk to me in my broken Spanish... lot's of fun... beautiful vistas and amazing food. Oh... and dogs on the roofs.

This weekend I headed to the town of Puebla and Cholula with Paul and Luis, famous for the world largest pyramid (in base and width... not height)... in actuality there are three pyramids that are build on top of each other and then grown over with grass half destroyed and topped by a church when the conquistadors came through. From the outside it looks like a hill... on the inside it's wild... legend has it that when you go to the very centre of the pyramid and clap your hands, you can see flashes of light... trippy.

I learned that grasshoppers are synonymous with the god of death... the word for grasshopper is chapuline... and hence the name of many cities... chapultapec... am trying to get my mouth around all the indigenous names... so we saw lots of grasshopper paintings... and lots of grasshoppers.... to eat.

Note the bag in Paul's hand.. Yummy with salsa and lime...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... I managed to get down a few including this one:

This was followed by a fun evening in Mexico City... in a pub and former convent... with another lesson in Tequila (shame on you Choji, Marie and Joel for working!) The next day Paul, Luis, Oscar, Anna and I headed to Queretaro... funky colonial city with lots of monuments.

Today is my Mama's birthday... so Im off to buy flowers...

This weekend was my weekend of amazing dinners and fiestas. I went out on friday night with the people who own the school I am going to... the two Canadian ladies I was with and I allowed the man of the house to order for us.... we didn´t venture to ask what we were eating until after we were done.... as it turned out the meal consisted of...

... a rare mushroom in a pastry shell

... different types of salsa

And, get ready for this....

... tacos with testicles in guacamole (tasted like chicken)

I went to a birthday party on saturday and met some cool people and am doing fun stuff in the evenings. Yesterday, the Japanese guy that lives in my homestay and I went to the cathedral in town. It´s really interesting because a Mexican painted the Nagasaki crucifiction (in Japan) on the walls of the cathedral in the 1500´s.

Oh yeah, and I met up on Sunday with Paul from the summer in Vancouver and had an AMAZING DINNER. This is Paul saying hi to everyone in Vancouver...

We also got a tour last week of a very funky looking church... very ¨Gaudiesque¨. For those who know me well... know that I love Gaudi architecture...

ok... that´s it... ciao for now

Happy Halloween:)

The end of my week at school has just ended. I'm having a great time!!! Dia de los muertes was fascinating both at home and and school. At school we went to the homes of some local indigenous families who had family members who had died in the last year. We brought candles, waited in line with thousands of other Mexicans to come into the home, give away the candle, view the "ofrenda" (see above) and recieve bread, tamales, and hot tea with tequila. It was an amazing experience. We started at 8pm and ended at 12am.

Here the mariachis are playing in front of one of the houses of the dead:

The next day we ended up at the graveyard... another big, bright colourful celebration:

My cold is getting better... and life with my family is great. I went out for coffee and dessert with my mama and a girl who lives in the house who's fast becoming a sister last night. It's great!!! I didn't think homestay would be enjoyable!!!

I seem to have forgotten that I have an aptitude for language in the last 4 years. In any case, I'm making lots of mistakes but people understand me and Mexico is friendly enough that they really try to understand what Im saying.

Hast luego!

So after experiencing the fun and exciting cites of Mexico City, I headed south to Cuernavaca in time for Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead). The city is alive and buzzing. I bought two chocolate skulls for the kids in my family yesterday. The colour orange is everywhere, lots of chocolates and bread. I'm headed to the graveyard tomorow on a field trip... i dont think I'm allowed to take pictures though...

This was my hostel gang for the last couple of days in Mexico City:

I am now in Cuernava... living with a BIG Mexican family and taking Spanish lessons. At the moment I have perfected the phrase "estoy inferma".... i have a really nasty cold.

I took this original picture in Mexico city thinking about how much Nat (i think it was nat) loves "Lucha Libre" only to arrive in Cuernavaca on Sunday and discover that my housemate from Tokyo is living in Mexico so that he can become a professional mexican wrestler!!!!

Oh... how the world is small. My Frespanol has now changed to Jespanol (Japan + Spanish). I am trying not to speak too much in Japanese because Ryota's muscles are much bigger than mine.

School is good... homestay is good...teachers are nice.... now if only I could get rid of my headache and nasty cold...

Ok... so since my last post... I've done many fun things... my Frespañol seems to be getting a bit better and am meeting lots of funky international people...

This is the view from my room in Mexico City:

And believe it or not... this is one of the doors in the parliament building:

Today I went and climbed pyramids in my sandles:

And ate a reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly BIG LUNCH:

And yes... that IS scooby doo on the TV behind us... apparently scooby speaks español.... WHO KNEW?

And learned how to make paper/needle/thread/clothing/alcohol from cacti... from a family that had 21 brothers and sisters!!!! YIKES...

Ciao for now:) Hope you can see the pictures if not i promise to fix them soon....

Hola!!!

Yup Im finally here. So for people who´ve been wondering what I`ve been up to for the last week.....

I went back to Kelowna and hung out with my sis and her family and continued playing with my website...

Then my friend Alwyn graciously drove me to the airport in the middle of the day:

I got onto the plane to seatle... i asked for a glass of wine AND I GOT ID`D!!!

So consequently I was very happy.

I landed in Los Angelas and my ex-roomie Gillian DROVE A WHOLE HOUR TO MEET ME!!! and we had dindin at 11pm.. (note gillian with cake)

After not sleeping on the plane... I got myself off the plane and found the metro at 6am and made my way to the youth hostel... slept for 2 hours... met a girl who's lived in Mexico for 5 years and works with indigenous people here and we ended up at a protest:
After that, the fact that I hadnt slept in about a day or eaten anything for about 14 hours caught up to me and I went to bed at 3pm and woke up at 9am. I think that's a record for me....

So that's it for now... am going out to have some fun!!!

ciao for now