Xela

I made it to the lake, which was absoluetly beautiful! Lago de Atitlan is situated between 4 volcanoes, and the scenery is amazing. I arrived in Panajachel and took a boat to Santa Cruz, where I would be working at Islaverde Hotel. I worked for a week, getting their compost cleared of plastic and cans, building beds with what I could find, and planting/transplanting some veggies and herbs. Unfortunately, all they really wanted me to do was yard-work (pruning, cutting grass, etc.)-it was a beautiful place to do yard work-but I had come to do organic gardening to produce for the kitchen/restaurant. Anyway, I knew that I wasn´t really needed there or doing much anything of significance (not to mention feeling uncomfortable with my somewhat high-strung anorexic boss), so I moved on after a week. My time there was not a total waste though-I learned a couple of things in the kitchen, helped the compost situation (which will unfortunately, probably go to heck again now that I have left), and took an amazing hike to San Marcos and back.

After leaving the lake, I headed to Xela (Quetzaltenango), which was going to be my next stop anyway. If I stick to my sort-of-tentative-schedule, I´ll be here for about another month. I applied for a volunteer position at an organic community garden directed toward local women who learn and work the land, and then get to take the veggies home. It seems very well done, with a great compost program, and I have a meeting on Monday to talk about what I will be doing, get to know people, etc. I also found a pretty good hostel to stay at, with a great group of people who are all staying for at least a month. One of the girls from Seattle and are I are going to be roomates for the month, and there is another girl from Fort Collins. I´m loving the feel of the city, some great cafés, veggie restaurants, and markets.

Currently, my favorite thing to do is go to the market and come up with different recipe ideas and experiment in the kitchen (the kitchen is one of the reasons I like my current hostel). I´ve tried a couple of fruits I had never seen before, and some of the staples are fresh, delicious, and cheap: carrots, beets, spinach,squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, banana, onion, etc. I have been making a very conscious effort not to buy anything packaged (some exceptions like oil, and rarely pasta or yogurt), and I always take my own bags to the markets and panaderías.

I arrived in Xela on ash Wednesday, and it seems that the party will not be stoping any time soon. Every Friday there is a huge "feria" outside of the cemetery and the church in front of it. It´s beautiful; with all the families, the church decorated and full of people and candles, tons of food stalls-mostly fried, delicious sweets-my favories are the macaroons and pumpkin seed discs, and some hilarious carnival games and rides. Tonight some of us from the hostel may go to a big football (soccer) game together.

And for everyone´s entertainment: I sometimes go to aerobics at a really ghetto gym by my hostel. I always stand in the back, but my head is a good foot above everyone else´s in the mirrors in front of us.

No wonder people love Antigua

I've spent the last few days in Antigua, Guatemala, which represents little of "real" Guatemala but is still a lovely, comfortable place to hang out. I've stayed at a really nice hostal with cute rooms, breakfast buffet, drinking water, internet, and solar power-a bit of a splurge ($7/night), but worth it. Town is full of brightyl painted architecture and cobbled streets, with several nice parks. The market here is huge and very different from those in Mexico. On the west side all of the chicken buses come to pick-up and drop-off. They are the most elaborately pained school buses I've ever seen, with flashing lights, painted characters, and entertaining drivers. I looked like a silly white girl walking around between them, just taking it all in. Most of the fruits and veggies are in the outdoor section of the market and the prices are even cheaper than in Mexico. I bought potatoes, carrots, garlic, onion, green beans, and avas (I don't know what they're called in english) and made a pretty tasty veggie soup. I aslo bought delicious hand-made blue corn tortillas, and found a wonderful panaderia-the best bread I've had so far (sorry, Casa del Pan).

Yesterday after breakfast,reading on the roof, and a walk around town I took a "tour" to Pacaya volcano, the only active volcano around Antigua. IThe tour was really just a ride and then a guy who walked in front of us on the path and didn't really talk. Thick clouds were all around the volcan and this "sunset tour" looked like it might turn out to be a bit disappointing. Anyway, it kind of felt like walking on the moon: weird grey rock, thick clouds sitting on the ground, and at one point we wet "skiing"-there is a section of the side of the volcano that is reallt loose rock and you just rin down it. Then we hiked further up to where you can actually see and touch the red lava-ther were people roasting marshmallows. On the hike back all the clouds magically cleared and we saw the red red sunset and all the other volcanoes around the town. It was beautiful!

When I got back I met up with some people from the hostel and went to see one of the members of Buena Vista Social Club play weith another group of musicians. They played a couple of my favorite songs and people were dancing some great salsa! It was a great last night in Antigua, and now I'm off to the lake.

Pine Trees and Palm Trees

Quite a bit has happened since I left San Cristòbal,. This is a condensed version:
I:
-traveled to Palenque where I slept on a "bed" which was a slab of cement in the shape of a bed coming out of the cement floor.
-visited the Palenque ruins, where I was convinced that the howler monkeys were going to attack.
-went to misol-ha and agua azul waterfalls in the pouring rain, which made the rivers and waterfalls look more like chocolate milk than anything else
-spent a night in a Lacandon village, where I didn`t understand a word of the mayan language.
-made the boat ride to the absolutely amazing mayan ruins of Yaxchilan and then across to the Guatemalan border.
-swam in the lake around Flores, Guatemala in the middle of the afternoon with the moon over head and the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen.
-snuck into the Tikal ruins where I painted and took a nap at the top of one of the temples overlooking the canopy with the tops of the other pyramids sticking out.
-ate watermelon in the rain on the roof of our hostel and listened to the awkward students practicing at the music school.
-saw all of the horrible deforestation due to cattle raising in Guatemala (and Mèxico).
-climbed a rope ladder down the Semuc Champey limestone bridge and crawled into the caves underneath (google this place for pictures-seriously!)
-ate cardamom chocolate, made from cocao and cardamom grown not 5 minutes from where it was made and then consumed... by me!

Who knows what´s next!?

Estiercol

"Estiercol" has become a huge part of my life in the past two months. It`s also knwn as: caca de vaca, cow poop, or manure. A lot of my work on both the farm in Oaxaca and the garden in Chiapas has consisted of collecting cow poop-which is actually a fairly enjoyable job (except when it`s windy and the powdered cow poop gets in your eye or sticks to your sweaty face). Anywya, the food here at La Casa del Pan is delicious! It feels great to collect the cow poo to build the beds, where we plant, water, care for, and then harvest the veggies we serve at the restaurant. I work in the mornings and eat the lunch buffet around 3. Lately I have been spending my afternoons in the kitchen with the cocineras, who are helping me with spansh and teaching me a bit of how to make tortillas, yoghurt, flan, and tons of other delicious treats!

There is a ton of live music here in San Cris, and I love going to the bar just next door to listen for a while before I get into bed. There is an amazing fandango (traditional music from Veracruz) band that plays all over town, as well as a dub reggae ban that`s really fun to dance to. Last week some friends and I went to a big fandango at Casa Blues, and by the time I left around 11pm there were over a dozen people playing percussion and the famout tiny little guitars, with women doing the amazing fandango dancing.

My 1st day off I went to Chamula as I already wrote about, and my free days have gotten better since then. My 2nd, I walked out to the periferico (the road that runs arund town) and down to ther river. I was just going to walk up the river and have a picnic, but ended up finding "El Encuantro" Ecological Reserve. There was an interesting trail with a great view of the city, and I stumbeled my way around for a while. My next weekend I attempted to take my one-speed bike out to the village of Zinacanta. It`s a steep 12km trip, and there was a lot of walking with my bike by my side involved. But I made it and it was a great day (the 1st day of sun after a solid week of cold, cloudy, rainy days-which I thuroughly enjoyed as well). Zinacantan is know for it`s textiles and I saw tons of beautiful weavings and embroidery. I bought hilo (thread) at the market there and embroidered an owl on my sweatshirt, attempting to do it in their traditional style. This morning I got up and took a colectivo out of town, past the garden, and to Huitipec ecological reserve, where I had a really nice 3km hike. It`s beautiful, peacefull rain forrest and I was absolutely the only one there. I`m going to spend the afternoon hanging out with a friend, and probably get to bed early.

A couple more days here, and off to Palenque.

La Huerta

After spending an uneventful New Year`s on a 12-hour over-nite bus ride from Oaxaca, Oaxaca to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas I am at La Casa del Pan (the restaurant whose garden I am working on). The garden is absolutely amazing-about 20 minutes out of town on a colectivo, and a minute walk up a hill- it`s a beautifully organized veggie garden overlooking the valley. We have every kind of lettuce I can imagine and tons of other delicious treats- snow peas, radishes, rhubarb, and more. Evey day after work at the garden (which consits of planting, harvesting, compost, digging, weeding, cleaning, and whatnot) we eat at La Casa del Pan. It`s an organic veggie buffet, home-made bread, a "plato fuerte," and dessert. The food is amazing, and the bread comes from our built-in bakery. We (a french guy and australian guy and myself) live in a room behind the restaurant/bakery, right next to an independent movie theater.

Leaving Oaxaca was hard (I almost rented a room in a friend`s house, and stayed to work a the print studio), but I love San Cristobal as well. Like I said, there is as independent movie theater in our "building" and there are tons more around town, the food is amazing everywhere-tons of international people, everyone is super friendly, there is a bit of art, the indigenous towns are really interesting, and the landscapes are impossible to explain-I love the weather here too!

Today we rode horses with one of the guys who works at La Casa del Pan to Chamula, a close-by indigenous town, to see their Sunday market and rituals in the church. Interesting, but a bit touristy now, so in the next weeks I`m going to visit at leas one of the other villages. Anyway, this place is beautiful!!!

Feliz Navidad

Where to start!?... I have finished my month on the farm out in Etla, which was an amazing experience, and am now staying in a hostel in Oaxaca city. Christmas in the city was amazing: The 23rd was Noche de los Rabanos, a night in which unnaturally large radished are carved into various scenes of Dìa de los Muertos, the Nativity, Jesus, the Cathedral, Virgins, and much More. The 24th I took a bus up to the outskirts of the city and had a vegan dinner with some other American I had met the night before, in a defunct mini-mansion where one of them lives. Then I came to the zocalo (equivalent of old-town square) and watched all of the calendas. Calendas are like mini parades-each church has one with it´s own band, float on a truck with the litte kids dressed up as angels or as the nativity scene, and people marching behind with candles. There are tons of fireworks, way too close to your face and way to loud, but it´s absolutely beautiful. It´s been so much fun to people watch.
One of the best things that´s happened to me in the city is that as I was walking down the street one day by Santo Domingo, I looked in a window and saw a print press. I asked to look around, met the "maestro," and have been there working on my prints everyday since! I love everything about being in a print studio and have been learning a lot (I have a degree in printmaking for those of you who don´t already know; but the different set-up and language difference has made a big difference)! We all ate Christmas lunch together on the big work table, and they told me folk stories.
I decided to skip my few days at the beach and am going to keep working on printmaking, visiting art museums & galleries, hopefully see a weaving studio, and eat more amazing Oaxacan Mole! The it´s off to another farm in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.

Oaxaca (Wa-Ha-Ca)

I made it from Yelapa to Oaxaca, and took a little day and a half stop in Mexico City. I went to two amazing museums, one where Frida Kahlo grew up and another where she and Diego Rivera lived together (the house from the movie Frida, if you´ve seen it).
Now, I´m working at Divertigranja in Oaxaca. It´s serious physical labor, but well worth it. We spend the morning feeding the animals. Ready for the list?: mare, burro, turkeys, ducks, chickens, peacocks, dogs, cats, squirrle, guinnea pics, doves, monkeys, falcon, crocodiles, emu, ostrich, goats, rats, and I´m sure there are others I´m not thinking of. The other project I´ve been working on is a huge raised-bed garden. We have most of it double-dug and have haulled over tuns of vaca caca (cow poop) from the dairy-farmer neighbor. I´ve never shoveled so much or actually used a pitch fork before in my life, and my pussing, blistered hands are very attractive, I assure you. Now we just need to get some seeds going, and the garden will be well on it´s way.
I spent my day off with another volunteer from the farm walking around the zocalo and the markets. We had mole, tuna flavored ice cream (don´t worry, it´s a cactus fruit not a fish), queso oaxaqueño, a really good corn drink "tejate" (the kind we all had together out of the huge bowls, m&d), and sampeled lots of chocolate. I also bought a beautiful naturally died & hand woven scarf-thank goodness, because it gets Really cold here!
December it party central, so we´ve been to a couple already and have tons more on the way. Last night we went to a party, that was really a catholic mass with a meal following at the family´s huge home. Some of the other parties will probably be more party-party, with some mezcal involved (the local liquor).
Monte Alban next weekend with my friends, and I´m sure that amazing food will be involved!
Anyway, Oaxaca is just as wonderful as I remember it, it not more, and I´m livin´the dream.