around ixtlan

ed took some of these pictures early in the morning, around sunrise

this is the view from our apartment (oh yeah, we moved again a few days ago, hopefuly for the last time. we are now in a fully furnished apartment, with private bath and kitchen)

the mountains, shortly before sunset

sena and aiyana, walking around, looking for a fiesta

how cute are these kids?

here are some pictures from yesterday's kids parade. some of the children were dressed in traditional costumes, and some were carrying live rabbits and ducks as they marched through the streets.

these are taken in the kindergarten, before the march began

one fiesta after another

i guess we came here at the right time. there's a party, or fiesta, going on every day it seems. over the past 2 days, it's been fiesta de la soledad, a celebration of a local saint. they had fireworks, marching bands (very loud, and we followed them around on the streets of ixtlan because the kids wanted to); yesterday they had a thing for the kids at the soledad church, where they gave out tons of treats. sugar and artificial colors were abundant once again, but fortunately they also gave out tangerines and popcorn, and i was able to persuade the kids to only have one sweet and give the rest away.

tonight starts the fiesta of ixtlan. each village has its own fiesta, and ixtlan's will last 3 days i think. vendors have already set their stalls in the streets, and the carnival rides are being prepared. sena and aiyana are especially excited about the rides, and they'll get to try them tonight when the fiesta officially begins.

this morning there was a little party at the kindergarden. it was really cute, some of the kids were dressed up in costumes; the kids had a procession on the streets, and everyone stopped to look at them. sena and aiyana participated too, and i took some pics, which i will post later.

market day in ixtlan

aiyana, in front of a small convenience store, with a bag of potatoes we just bought at the market


the market, which is at its busiest on mondays, is both in and out of doors, as you can see in the following pictures.

pictures from the fiesta

lollypops for the first time. aiyana was a huge mess afterwards, with sticky drool running all down her chin, neck and chest.


sena was really good at hitting the pinata. she made a dent in its head, and got one leg off. no candy fell out though...


playing games with all the other kids. the big girl next to aiyana is simone, our american neighbor. she is 10, and loves playing with sena and aiyana. her little brother hobbs, who is 5, also plays with them.


the woman in the red shirt is the owner of the hotel we were staying at. she is also the grandmother of the litle girl whose bday was being celebrated,

and here is the birthday girl, sofia, and her mother. she was really sweet and wanted to give everyone kisses.

ocean dream

last night, i had a beautiful dream that reminded me of this line from Ikkyu:
"We live in a cage of light, an amazing cage"

my dream was called "Love is an ocean"

in my dream, you and i were walking on a road, out into the ocean
a road with incredible views of light reflecting off blue, calm water
i could not believe it, a road out in the ocean?
i knew it would have to end, which it did, eventually
and then there we were, at the end,
you and i looking out into the ocean,
looking into all that Love

fiesta

we were invited to a birthday party for a one year old girl last night. her grandmother was the owner of the hotel we stayed at, and she asked us to come to the fiesta. wow, what a party!!

it was really fun for the kids, and it was crazy. they had 3 or 4 pinatas, made of ceramic, and the kids were hitting them so hard with some wooden bats, and when they finally broke, everybody rushed over in a mad stampede. they also had all kinds of games, which were really fun, and borderline dangerous, especially for the smaller kids. only one kid got hurt, when a pinata fell on his head (remember it is made of clay), and he was slightly bleeding. he was the son of the american professors, but nobody was too upset bc they are used to it. i have to admit i was feeling pretty protective of the kids...

the other thing about this party was the amount of gifts being given out to the guests, and most of all, the amount of sugar being consumed by everyone. wow! i have never seen so much sugar eaten in one sitting...
it started off with softdrinks (water was not available, until i got a bottle), then sweet tamales, then a huge cake with pink icing, then multi-colored jello colored with synthetic colors, then two types of very sweet hot drinks, and i think that was it. oh, no, i missed the prizes that fell out of the pinatas: lollypops, candy, andother sweets i didn¨t recognize except for the artificial colors.

i kind of expeceted this, so i told the kids before the party that they can have one sweet thing, whatever they want. so they had their first lollipops ever. they were really good about not asking for all the other stuff.

but in any case, the party was really high energy, really fun, and we all feel that it was a great experience. sena wants to have a party like that for her birthday, but with a carrot and bean cake instead of sugar. i don¨t know if i am up for that, but we¨ll do something special for sure.

is it really december?

i've never had a december like this. even though it's dry season, flowers are blooming and they're beautiful. yesterday i saw a peach tree in blossom - it was so lovely agaist the clear blue sky.

the girls and i, walking around the village

early morning - a street near our hotel

these little flags are strung everywhere. i find find them so joyful, the way they blow in the wind on the clear blue background

lovely flowers in a garden

peace

falling in love with ixtlan

i'm really starting to like this place. i loke the simple rythms here, the people, the food. i like how small it is, how everyone knows each other (although i do like my privacy too); mostly though i like the mountains, the clear air, the blue sky, and the incredible views. it almost feels unreal...

here are some more pictures:

iglesia santo tomas, stands in the ceter of ixtlan

i love this picture of sena sitting by the church

sena asked me to take this picture of her and aiyana

a man walking in front of our hotel

the mountains, before sunset

sick of pictures yet? here are some more....

view of the mountains from near our hotel


a corner of the monday market (on mondays the market is at its busiest)


this is the famous juice bar we love


this is the view from the street our new hotel is on

sena taking in the view of the mountains

a hug before leaving the cabin in the morning

sena and aiyana waiting for the bus with ed, before school in the morning

the market...

this is the kindergarten, and aiyana is the little girl in the center of the picture, holding the teacher's hand, with the red hat. she was so cute!

we moved to ixtlan

the kids are having such a good time right now. we just moved again, came from the cabin we were at, down to a hotel in ixtlan. the drive back and forth, from the cabin to ixtlan, was getting to be too much; although the surroundings were beautiful...

now we're in ixtlan, near the market and everything else that's of interest to us. the hotel we're at is cute, small and clean, and it has a courtyard that's great for the kids.

sena and aiyana really like being in mexico so far, but at times, it's really hard for them and hence for all of us. they become really clingy and demanding. i think the change of culture and the loss of our routine and everything they're familiar with is a lot for them. i try to remmember that and be supportive when things get difficult...

i was talkng to the american woman, the anthropologist, whose name is laura, and she was saying that her kids had a hard time too the first time they came here. this is their third time, and she said that now they're fine, but the first time they were clingy and demanding; the second time they felt more at ease and made some friends, and now they love it here.

i was talking to her this morning, and she told me that she's doing research is on zapotec women, the ways they organizing themselves, and land rights. i'd love to learn more about her stuff, it sounds really interesting. i'd love to learn more about zapotec women in general. i see them carrying their babies in the marketplace, and one of these days i'll have to stop one and ask her to show me how they make their slings. the babies seem very content, wrapped in a sling on their mom's back or hip. another thing i noticed is that people here find it unusual to hear a child cry. so when sena or aiyana start fussing, everyone asks us what's wrong and why they're crying, which actually makes me feel very self-conscious, despite knowing that their intentions are good. i asked laura how come their kids don't cry so much, and she said it's because there are always so many people around, family and friends, that kids just end up being passed from one person to another, and are quickly comforted when upset. i guess ed and i can't do too much about that, our kids do cry when they're upset, and we try to console them as best as we can, but sometimes it just doesn't work; and they won't go to anyone else but us...so i guess i'll just have to learn to be less self-conscious when people ask what's wrong...

so we now live 2 blocks away from the market, about 2 minutes walking distance. i love walking down the narrow cobble-stone street, with its beautiful view of the mountains, to get fresh fruits and vegetables at the market. i get just enough food for the day, and go back for more the next day. i'm making a lentil stew right now, with carrots, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes and lots of garlic. now that we can cook in our room, the eating situation is a lot better. we still eat out at least one meal a day, plus snacks, juice, stuff like that, but it's nice to be able to make our own meals too.

pictures of ixtlan

flags in the town square

aiyana walking away from our cabin

aiyana and sena love to play on this tree in front of our cabin

sena, hanging out

view of the sierra norte mountains from ixtlan

(i´m having problems uploading pics the way i usually do, so i had to reduce these in size, but hopefuly you´ll still see them all right)

life in ixtlan

we found a little comedor (place to eat) in the market, here in ixtlan. i love it, the food is delicious and it´s so cheap. lunch is about 2 dollars, and you get a soup or stew, with rice and tortillas, and cafe con leche. i´m eating meat too, because otherwise my choice is beans and rice all the time. it gets old after a while... the kids and ed are not eating any meat though, and they mostly have rice, beans, eggs, bread, tortillas, stuff like that.

another favorite place here is the juice bar. the kids and i love it. we can pick any combination of fresh fruit and vegetables, and they juice it or make a smoothie for us. it´s delicious, no added sugar, nothing but fruit, and milk in some cases. aiyana loves banana strawberry, i love papaya, and sena loves a smoothie made with bananas, papayas, milk, and granola. each portion is huge, and it costs under a dollar. and the woman making it is very nice and friendly towards us...

i´m starting to really like ixtlan. it´s a small community, of maybe 200 houses. the people here are of zapotec, mixtec and aztec origin. there are 3 ´gringo´ families: us, a british woman with 2 kids and a husband who works at the university, and an american family with 2 kids; the americans are geography and anthropology professors doing their research here. the university here is focused on forestry and environmental science, and it´s up in the mountains a short distance from ixtlan.

people here are very friendly, and really love kids. they want to pat sena and aiyana´s heads, and always smile at them or ask them their names. our kids are not used to this kind of attention, so they´re a bit shy... but they enjoy being here, and are getting used to the different ways of being.

it seems like everyone here knows each other; we deffinitely stand out, but i don´t feel self-conscious about it. so far, nobody asked us for money, or tried to sell us things we don´t want, as is the case in most tourist destinations (including the city of oaxaca). people here are not rich, but neither are they very poor. we didn´t see anyone sleeping on the streets, begging, or looking as though they don´t have enough to eat. i get a feeling that these people are humble and proud at the same time.

in ixtlan, as in the rest of latin america, it seems, they love music. loud music. music is blaring in the town square every night, and every car or bus we get on, unfailingly has some loud music playing. i like it, it makes things very lively.

my spanish is definitely improving, the kids are picking it up too, and sprinkle their sentences with spanish words once in a while. ed´s still looking for a tutor, and he´s doing his best talking to people at the market, on the street, etc. i´m the main interpretor so far, but soon enough the kids will take over, especially if they continue with kindergarten (aiyana´s going now too, today is her first day and she´s doing great...).

peace

dreams

two nights ago, i had a beautiful dream. i was high up in the mountains, like we are right now, looking down over a distant valley. i let myself go, and i started to fly. i was having so much fun, flying, doing all kind of flips and turns in the air. everything felt so easy. and i felt so free way up there, above everything else, just playing. when i woke up from this dream, the same words were running through my head over and over: ´god is all, all is god´.
last night i had another beautiful dream, in which all i felt was love. i´m still high from it.

pictures from ixtlan and surroundings

this is our cabin in the woods, a few kilometers away from ixtlan

street in ixtlan


the church in santa maria yaguiche


the old woman who invited us to her house

walking through santa maria yaguiche with a hat full of flowers

view of the sierra norte mountains, from santa maria yaguiche

peace

ixtlan de juarez

so, let's see...
where to start? i'll start with where i am now. i'm sitting in sun, outside our cabin, in the forest, a few kilometers outside the village of ixtlan. ixtlan de juarez is a small mountain village, at 2200m altitide. it's sunny and warm right now, but soon, as evening falls, it will get really chilly, and tonight we'll need to make a fire and bundle up. i'm glad we brought both summer and fall clothes - we're making good use of everything.

everything s quiet around here, except for birds and some distant dogs that bark or howl once in a while. this is an ecotourism destination. very nature-oriented, very low key, clean and quiet. i like it a lot. the kids love to play outside in the woods, and there's nothing to worry about, so we let them run as much as they want. there are other cabins nearby, but i don't know if other people are staying in them. so far, it seems like we're the only ones here. there's a restaurat also, where we go for breakfast and dinner, and again, other than the people working there, we're usually alone.

although we're enjoying the beauty and privacy of this place, we're starting to feel a bit isolated, so we're trying to find something else, a guesthouse in ixtlan, where we can stay and be more in the middle of things. from where we are right now, we can go back to ixtlan, and we have been every day, but it's cumbersome, so we want to move closer. i'm glad we got to experience this place though, it's very special.

yesterday, we went to a different village, called santa maria yaguiche. someone told us there was a fiesta going on there, so we took a taxi and went. the fiesta ended up being pretty dead because it was just starting up. but we found a playground as soon as we got there and the kids were happy playing for a long time. then we started to walk around, and we asked some people about a place to eat, and they said there weren't any, but why don't we come in and sit with them? we did that, and they brought out a nice meal and drinks for all of us; we talked and ate, and when we got up to leave, we asked them how much we owed them, they said nothing. they really wouldn't take anything, but were so nice to us, feeding us and trying to make sure we had a good time in their village. the oldest woman there, whose house it was, was maybe 4ft tall, and very old, and she showed me her kitchen and posed for a picture when i asked her. she was really sweet. after leaving her house, we went for a walk around the village, which turned out to be a real highlight. the views were spectacular, high mountains in the distance, with small villages sprinkled here and there. santa maria yaguiche has no paved road; only dirt roads and lots of walking paths. it's pretty high up, and we could all feel slight headaches from the altitude, especially as we climbed.

today was market day in ixtlan, and we went to check it out. got some nice fresh fruit, and some vegetables that we plan to cook over the fire tonight. our cabin has a fireplace, and we make a fire every night, to keep us warm. this morning, ed cooked eggs and homefries over the fire, and they were really good. we got some zucchini, beans, mushrooms, and garlic at the market, and we'll be cooking them soon. the fruits have been really good too. i love the papayas the best. today i had some nice papaya juice that a woman made right there in front of me, and it was delicious. we've been also eating fresh pineapple, and different types of bananas.

the kids have been playing really well together, here around the cabin, and also in town when we go there. sena will be going to kindergarden starting tomorrow, from 9 to 12:20 every day. it will only be for 1 week, after that the kindergarden will be closed for the holidays. but she's really excited about it, and we are too. there's one other little girl there who understands and speaks a bit of english. everyone else speaks spanish only, but i'm sure sena will get along. it's kind of an adventure for her, and us, i wonder how it will turn out. the kindergarden is really small and cute; there are only 3 teachers, with one class each. they do music, painting, phys.ed., and lots of outside play. i think it will be good for sena to be exposed to such a different culture and language.

i can´t believe we¨re in such a beautiful place. the mountains especially, are so stunning. thank you for everyone¨s messages, it´s fun reading them.