WWOOFing at Green Acres

Here we are in beautiful Aticama! I got a touch of “la tourista” in San Blas, and we waited around all afternoon in the zocalo until 3pm to take a taxi out of town. The friendly cabby chatted it up with me on the way to Aticama, and we got there a bit early. We waited in the shady plaza. It was right on the rocky beach and we watched giant pelicans fly right in front of us. While waiting, a herd of cows was driven through the middle of the road along with all the car traffic. About 20 minutes later, the signature purple Chrysler van rolls up, 2 other WWOOFers hop out, and we hop in. They were just in town to shop, and on the way back, Amaranth told us to pick up any supplies we’d need at the mini-super.

Green Acres is truly a tropical paradise. About 1.5 miles out of town, it’s a 10 square acre sanctuary of beauty and tranquility. We learned that a hectacre is not 100 acres, but about 2.5 acres. We were greeted at the gate by the farm’s roving dog pack. There’s 7 of them, all rescued, and they are sweet as can be. Lucy, Sparky, Opie, Penny, Winky, Emily and Dupie! They also have a large pen of roosters, chickens, ducks and geese. All are pets, and none get eaten. The farm grows primarily mangos (to sell) and then every kind of herb, green, vegetable, and medicinal plant you can imagine (for themselves). Most of the farm’s water comes from rain collection and a mountain river source. But in dry times like now, the river is very unreliable. They conserve water as much as possible. The whole farm has a terrific view of the Pacific ocean and the surrounding beach.

There are four permanent residences on the property. Wally designed and every one of them himself. The “Casita” is essentially a camping trailer on a foundation. Exterior roofing, shower, kitchen and furniture has been added, and the whole thing has been screened in. That’s near the bottom of the property. Two other WWOOFers are staying their with their little boy.

A bit lower is a little home for an old grouchy Mexican named Lorenzo. Amaranth & Wally took him in because he really had nowhere left to go, and they thought he was a good gardener. Turns out he’s not a good gardener… or good at much of anything except sitting around. We only briefly met him, but he has a reputation around here for showing up late, doing very little work, complaining about everything, and botching the jobs he does do. Wally and Amaranth call him Larry, but he doesn’t know that.









We live in the “Cono.” It’s a nine sided guest home build mainly of concrete. It has two floors, two beds, one bath, and one kitchen. We are currently the only ones living here, but were are expecting a young woman from New York on Sunday. They rent out the rooms for $500 a week, or just stick WWOOFers there if it’s empty. We have a great kitchen, it’s cool all the time from the windows, and a passion fruit tree right outside our door! We’re truly very comfortable. We chose the bottom floor because it’s much cooler (though the top floor has a magnificent view of the ocean). There’s a huge plaster replication of Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel painting on the ceiling.







Last (but certainly not least) is the home of Wally and Amaranth. This place is truly a palace! Winding staircases, arched doorways, furs and whalebones, a Jacuzzi overlooking their orchards, painting studio, yoga room, computer room, library and more! The whole thing is cooled by the breeze. It’s a three-story home that Wally built in stages. The most impressive part is the kitchen and patio on the third floor. It’s all open air, gorgeously decorated, with a strong sea breeze and the smells of Amaranth’s most recent creation. When one eats lunch, they get a magnificent view of the town, the sea, and the sky, framed in palm leaves, hammocks, and brilliant tropical flowers. It truly is a something out of a fairytale.

Life on the farm is productive and ends relaxed every day. Wally is in his 60’s and wears the same outfit of a hat, Dickies overalls and the same crusty shirt. He’s Caucasian and was clearly a handyman in his younger years. He loves to drive this bright yellow mish-mash car with no doors, a Porsche body, and huge elevated tires! Style and power! Amaranth is a small, gentle Japanese-American whose first language is English. Neither of them are fluent in Spanish, but they get by very well. Nevertheless, they supposedly have a terrific reputation around town, largely for their open hearts and generosity to everyone. Amaranth abhors to hurt anything with a pulse, and her food is always vegetarian. She’s a terrific cook, as well, making abundant, diverse lunches that she serves every day at 1:00 sharp. We always say a quick blessing and sip on passion fruit juice and her latest creation with a greens-salad that was picked just hours ago. She’s a painter and intense foodie from what I can tell. She’s always relating things to raw foods, super foods, pickling, and fermenting. They always have lots of funny stories to tell, and they have been incredibly gracious.

We quickly befriended our WWOOFing neighbors, and we already feel like close friends. Their names are Bard and Zoey. They’re from Albuquerque NM, and they own a perma-culture business there. They are in their thirties. They spent two years in Zambia with the Peace Corps, and have WWOOFed in other countries like Australia. Their landscaping knowledge has been very helpful in guiding our projects. We work with them all day and at night we enjoy cocktails made of citrus, passion-fruit and tequila, while we work together to make a group dinner. Mostly we’ve been feasting on these giant blue prawns that Aticama is known for. They are so sweet, caught fresh off the beach, and run about $4.50/lb. What a deal! They also have a precious 1 ½ year old named Bard, but they call him “Little Bard” or “L.B.” for short. He’s always dirty, always having fun, and always exploring. It’s great to have him around to keep us lighthearted.




We wake up at 6:30am each day. The roosters start going crazy at 4:00am, and at 5:30 the lady on the loudspeaker gets crackin’. Apparently, the town has a lady that, for 10 pesos will blast whatever message you want throughout the city, and can be heard loud and clear from everywhere on the farm. She hollers about anything from advertisements for juice stands and tamales, to “Happy Birthday Maria, your parents home you love the cake they got you”, and “Benjamin, please come home. You’re breaking mama’s heart.” She blasts each one 5 or 10 times a minute or so apart. So far, we’ve worked primarily on cobbling a driveway up to house. The four of us have laid 65 feet of cobbling in three days. We dig into the rock with pickaxes, haul boulders over, fit them into place, and cover them with dry cement. It’s hard work and HOT, come 9:30am. We quit around 11. We also have been clearing banana leaves, building a palapa (straw hut), and planted, bordered, and seeded a vegetable garden.

Aticama is our favorite town so far. Small, beautiful, and the locals are all so friendly. I'm alreadybuddies with a dozen locals like Alba, Nini, Jesus, Angel, Lupita, Patricia, and Carlos. They love to chat, and it just takes a smile or a laugh to have them call you by name on the street.

We'll leave you with a final photo. This is Julia in the back of a Mexican's pickup truck driving into town! I started chatting with a guy that was waiting for a taxi with us. No taxi or bus came, and eventually his buddy rolls up. He says to hop in, and we did! Just look at that smile!

We love you all back home! You'll hear from us again within a week, maybe twice. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Hasta luego!

--Philip

More Bikes Than Cars

Last night we went to McDonald’s! No...not the McDonald’s with the golden arches and meat of questionable origin and quality. I’m talking about the 50+ year old restaurant that’s just a block away, was founded by American expats, and is staffed by Mexicans. They have a massive list of Nayarit specialties, and it was one of the three restaurants that Norm said he’ll eat at. We asked if we could sit upstairs, and when we got there all the chairs were on the tables, and only the bartender was present. He immediately jumped to attention, sat us by the balcony (with a great view of the town and street below), and proceeded to guide toward an excellent dinner and evening. The place was dead… I mean dead. We got some “queso fondido”, a michelada & bottled water, and then asked Juan (our server) why nobody was there. We immediately became friends, and we talked about the menu, the town, his family in Guadalajara, and even what teams were playing on the TV. It was truly a beautiful night. We watched all kinds of colorful characters on the streets below as we enjoyed fresh fish from the Pacific, cream of oyster stew, homemade totopos (chips), and Modelo Especial (Modelo seems to be the favorite beer around here). Eventually more people began to arrive, and Julia could only do her best to bear the heavily synthesized Mexican love songs blasted overhead. She said “I could probably stay in Mexico much longer if it wasn’t for the music.” It would seem they do karaoke a lot of the time, but the business didn’t warrant it last night. We watched down below as the candy sellers and kids selling refreshments made their way home, new tourists freshly arriving with their luggage and smiles on their faces strolled down the street, and a pack of Americian highschool boys wandered down the road (Modelos in hand) with no clear idea of what to do with themselves or the beer (lots just got dumped out, and cans got crushed, without the gumption to litter). There was this one guy in a white truck that drove by at least four times. He has these massive speakers on the roof of the cab that were blasting some local pop station. The point? No idea. But Julia accurately pointed out “Mexicans are willing to go the extra mile.”

It would seem our night would end with peace, satisfaction, and a feeling of love for our fellow man. We crawled into bed, feeling lovely, and tried to go to sleep. About an hour later we were woken back up.It was around 9pm, and we started hearing this very loud, very bass-y music coming through our walls. Turns out, our hotel is right across the road from the local disco! From 9:00 until 4:30am (yes, I looked at my watch) this bone-rattling oompapa music kept us from sleeping much. On top of that, Julia had acquired a nagging shallow cough. She had the night before too, but when we turned off the air conditioner, it went away. But tonight (with no AC) she hacked and hacked without stop until morning (one cough per 15-30 seconds by my count). As we left our room in the morning, our upstairs neighbors said “A bit noisy last night, wasn’t it?” I hope disco isn’t popular on Sundays!

Speaking of Sundays, today is the beginning of San Blas’ International Migratory Bird Festival! The whole zocalo is prepared for the event, with a massive stage, tons of fold up chairs, and big boards with the schedule of events. Lots of tourists from all around the world are arriving too. Julia is really excited, and hopefully we’ll get to partake in a little of the action.

Our day started out with another visit to the mercado where Julia enjoyed a gordita harina (basically a fried flour pillow), and we sipped on fresh juice. One guy sitting next to us was cleaning a bizarre looking fruit, and I discovered that “Yakka” doesn’t mean “yucca” at all… it means “Jack fruit” ! Julia wasn’t brave enough to try it, so we sipped on a lovely blend of strawberries, pineapple and carrot juice.

We rented a couple bicycles today ($4.00 a day) and did as the locals did… riding to our destinations. The bikes are a bit rickety, and we had some tire issues. Still, it is a faster way to get around, and it seems true that bikes outnumber cars in this little beach town.
Julia was feelin a bit under the weather today. We spent a little time at the beach, and I went swimming. I think I caught one wave for every crab I stepped on. They’re everywhere, big, and cranky! I tried to convince Julia they just wanted a hug, but she wasn’t buyin it. Every so often a group of guys would come by with nets and a cooler and scoop them right out of the water! Yum! I can’t wait until we have our own kitchen down here. Julia was ready to head back, so we packed up and rode to the hotel. She decided to crash in the room, and I wandered around the town. I had the best tacos I’ve had yet at a little family place on the zocalo. Tortillas made in house, grilled on the griddle, and stuffed with your choice of fillings like tongue, tripe, and carne asada. Myself, I tried one with shrimp, one with marlin, and one with chicken. Que delicioso! You also got to help yourself to their topping bar, with 6 homemade salsas, pico de gallo, cabbage, pickled onions, radishes and limes. I overloaded all of mine with as much as they could hold (yes, one did break). At $.0 80 US per taco, I’ll definitely be coming back. I sat and watched the taxi queue that was forming 3 feet away and enjoyed watching them interact. When one taxi left the queue, the more fuel-efficient cabbies would just push their car forward without ever turning it back on. Mexican efficiency right there for you!

I also just got off the phone with Amaranth from our farm! We had a lovely chat, and she informed me that they only have dial-up internet, and most of the workers drive 10 minutes into San Blas for a faster internet connection. That means we will only be able to update this blog once or twice a week starting this Tuesday. So don't worry, we're not kidnapped! And we will be updating regularly, we promise.

--Philip

San Blas

Above is Julia showing that "Estancia Las Flores" indeed lives up to its name! Yes, we've made it to San Blas in one piece, and we have fallen in love. Okay, so getting here was something of an ordeal, but we'll get to that in a moment. For now, we're happy, full of sun, sand, fish, tequila, and joy.















Yesterday we woke up bright and early, ate some "questionable" looking pork tacos from a rickety street cart. Julia bit the bullet, and we chowed down right there on the sidewalk. (Still no "Tourista"!) We did a tiny bit of strolling and grocery shopping, but we were honestly ready to get out of Puerto Vallarta. The town is crawling with hawkers, beggars, clueless tourists, and an extra helping of Mexican filth. We asked the hotel receptionist when the bus to the bus station comes. She says "Oh, all the time. Every 5 minutes." We camp at the right spot... and 45 minutes later (right when were ready to throw in the towel) here it comes! We rode to the station, purchased tickets to Tepic and got aboard our bus. It was definitely the most comfortable seats we've sat on here, and they had AC. Julia was greatly relieved! It was a twisty, 4 hour bus ride through the jungled mountains. Every 20 minutes or so, the bus would stop and someone would jump on selling food, drinks, and other goods. We finally pulled into Tepic (quite carsick), purchased our tickets to San Blas, and the lady told me it left in two minutes! We ran as fast as we could... but we missed it! So, we bought a ticket for the next one (an hour later), pulled up some stools at a little food booth, and munched the hour away. Delicious quesadillas, "burritos", pepsi and salsa! I also was educucated on what "pierna" and "sincronizadas" are (pork and a combination of pork/chicken). We used the pay-per-use banos and watched little Mexican chiquitos bumbling around.



--Philip


Ok MY turn to write now. :) It has been quite an experience for me these past three days I have to admit. I've pretty much run the gamut of emotions, but I can happily say that now, here in San Blas I am quite at peace. We had a rather interesting ride here, with us confused about which bus we had to take in order to get here from Tepic, and it was an interesting ride in it

self. The bus driver had the most interesting side-kick, a man who looked about 30ish with swinging arms, a bit of a belly and a nasty cold. He would just stand at the front of the bus chatting it up with the driver, at one point actually stopping the bus in order to hit on a lady just standing on the side of the road as well as breaking out a little mini tv to get a signal in the bus.


After a rather bumpy and winding road, passing little colonies of towns with little dirty children and chickens and pigs, we finally arrived in San Blas. We got out of the bus, grabbed our luggage that of course had migrated to the very back of the holding cell under the bus, and stepped into the street. We had not a single clue where we were, I start feeling the panic creep up on my face and there across the street we see the zocalo (the middle square of the town) and I see a rather white, middle aged woman looking at us from across the street with the look of pity on her face. She comes up to us and directs us to a group of three people sitting in the zocalo on a bench, one, we are told, is "Norm" and will be able to answer all our questions. Lo and behold Norm and his wife Janet are ex-pats who hacve lived here for 42 years. With them was the sweetest little Canadian lady, Inge. We chatted it up abit with them, and they not only pointed us to our little hotel, but also directed us as to where was best to eat and so forth. We went to our hotel to clean up and also buy some new bug spray, because apparently the OFF we brought with us actually ATTRACTS the bugs. This was the discussion that brought us to this conclusion. As follows:

Janet- You got bug spray? Us-Yeah Janet-I'd put it on right now Us-Oh ok ::shuffle in bag to get out the OFF and start spraying it:: Janet-Is that OFF? Us-Um, yeah Janet-That actually attracts the bugs ::stop spraying::

I thought it was rather humorous. We then learned MUCH to my delight that the rumors we had heard in Puerto Vallarta were true, Humpback Whales are here right now off the coast mating and having little (ok, not that little) babies. If you know anything about me, you know that I about fainted with delight at the prospect of going whalewatching. Norm offered to help put us in contact with someone who can take us out. I will update you on how that turns out. Mark my words, I will make this happen.


So after we chatted with them, we headed off to a nice dinner, then to bed. This morning we woke up around 7:30 and headed to the local market that Inge had mentioned to us for morning grub. Boy were we excited, we made off with two huge drinks of fresh (as in just squeezed in front of us) orange quice mixed with blended whole bananas, papaya, strawberries and pineaple. De-LISH. We also had a yummy "torta" basically a chicken or pork mixture topped with lettuce and tomato on a bollilo. With our tummies full, we bid Inge farewell and headed to the beach.

It was about a mile walk from our hotel down to the beach. Playa de Borrega. It's just beautiful, not only was it almost deserted, but right when we got there I spotted a pod of dolphins hanging out just like a quarter of a mile into the ocean. Naturally I thought they were whales at first and almost had a fit, but Philip calmed me down with "they're dolphins" and I could breathe again. They were way fun to watch, as were the couple of young mexican kids out surfing. Philip was pretty much green with envy as we watched them catch every wave coming in and out. They aren't big, but fun looking enough. I am sure Philip will want to try this as soon as possible. And I am also sure I'll get some good pictures out of it. We walked a long way down the beach and back. We had no towel so we mostly just waded and then sat in the sand for a while. For lunch...oh boy...a whole fried fish served with tortillas and fixins, along with a fish torta, a Corona for Philip, a freshly macheted Coconut for me and a cocktail glass full of oysters for Philip. And it was all about 10 dollars, thats Mexico my freinds.

So in all, we are quite happy here in San Blas, where the bikes outnumber the cars and yummy food a plenty. We go to our farm on Tuesday, but I am sure more adventures await us here in San Blas.



Until next time,

Julia

We've finally touched down in Mexico!

We are greatly enjoying ourselves, though Julia is (admittedly) experiencing some culture shock. Our flight was uneventful, but we did enjoy viewing the beautiful mountains and desert. We touched down, got through baggage claim uneventfully, and were immediately accosted by a guy asking what hotel we're going to. We told him, and he pulled us aside telling us all the vital info about Puerto Vallarta, including which buses to take and delighting in our Spanish. We eventually learned that he works for a resort in P.V. , and was hoping to persuade us to book some time there. We didn't take the bait, largely because we are only staying here one night. We thanked him for his services, stepped outside, and were immediately overwhelmed by the heat, dust, and traffic! We weren't totally clear which bus to take, even though buses passed by us every few minutes. The Americans that appeared every now and then were completely unhelpful, and eventually I just had to jump aboard a blue bus and shout at the driver "Van al Centro?" He said yes, and we hopped aboard.

The bus was old, dusty, filthy, full of locals, and had incredibly uncomfortable seats. I paid the guy $5, and told him to keep the change ( even though it only cost about $1.80 for both of us). He wasn't sure what to do. The roads really are horrible, and our driver wasn't older than 19. It was pretty jarring. Julia and I argued about when we should jump off, but at her insistence, we got off at the perfect time. There were no announcements, or signs of any sort. We headed down the road, past taquerias, beggars, and barbers, and inevitably made it to the Hotel Belmar.

We tried to check in at reception, but the lady (well into her 50's) insisted she couldn't find our reservation. After must searching, we discovered our credit card had been rejected (it often is for over-seas charges) and the reservation had never been made! Fortunately, I insisted we get some cash in Houston before we leave, so we were able to pay in cash. My Spanish got us through quite effectively, and inevitably, we got a room on the fifth floor. The lady apologized that it was so high up, but pointed out we'd get terrific excercise. Our room was small, cute, and avocado green. Our internet worked just fine, and we got a great view of the hotel the whole way down. We set up base in room 26, left, came back, and realized our key was actually for room 27! We had entered the wrong room by mistake (it was left open by a maid, we think) and were then unable to get back in. We told the ladies downstairs, and they had a good laugh before giving us a different key.

After we got that all sorted out, we got some pesos from an ATM, and wandered along the beach and the river. We did see some cool wildlife, including a giant iguana, some beautiful pelicans, and lots of fat, loud, oblivious Americans. We grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby seafood taco stand called "La Calamari Adventuroro" yes... The Calamari Adventurer. Julia munched on some smoked marlin tacos and bottled water, and I enjoyed a delicious octopus tostada and a Pacifico beer! Yum! We sat at the "bar" and got a front row view of the kitchen and cooks. Sanitary? Questionable. Cheap? Certainly. Delicious? Definitely.

We headed back to hotel, cleaned up, rested, made a few essential phone calls, and headed back out. As this is a tourist/party costal city, not much is happening at 5:00pm when we headed out. Hence, our restaurant of choice had nobody in sight... including staff! We wandered around, and inevitably hit a beautiful island between the two rivers called "La Zona Romantica." It was a manicured, picturesque tourist walkway, flush with all the lanterns, scenic views, and posh restaurants one could hope for. We stopped to chat with one of the resaurant owners, and inevitably chose his restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed his sense of humor, margaritas, pico de gallo, tortilla soup, fresh fish, and "large shrimp" (e.g. prawns). It was thoroughly enjoyable, with a great view of the river walk. Julia did get a bit freaked out when she pieced together that frozen Margaritas have ice... and ice gives you "la tourista" (the infamous Mexican intestinal illness) . I wasn't especially worried, since it was a fairly swanky restaurant and a place won't stay in business if it's best seller to Americans make them sick. We also hesitated over the pico de gallo, and the free salad, but I said "What the hay?" and Julia eventually followed suit. We had planned to hit another place afterwards, but either from the homemade chips or the long day, we were ready to turn in afterwards. The meal was probably the most expensive we'll have in Mexico (around $46.00 US), but it was less than half what a meal like that would cost in the US. We've agreed that from now on we're going cheap street grub all the way (at least for a while).

Tomorrow we have to take a bus to the "Central", then take another one to Tepic, switch buses, and head to San Blas. We'll update you once we're there!

Final Days

Today I succesfully called our host farm in Aticama! I just got their answering machine, but the wife (Amaranth) is DEFINITELY American, and her voicemail is in English! I left her a brief message. Skype is an amazing program. Only $0.09 a minute to calle to Mexico, and only $0.02 to call to switzerland! We can save people as our contacts, and autodial them, just like a cell phone.

I then called our first hotel we'll be staying at. It's in Tepic. We should be arriving there on Thursday afternoon. It's about 3 1/2 hours away from the Puerto Vallarta airport, and we'll be taking the bus. The bus leaves every hour, and our travel guide says there's a tourist center right outside the bus station! Perfect! Anyway, I talked to the receptionist at Hotel Morelia. It's only about $9.00 a night for the both of us, and our guide says it has a "lush courtyard, big, clean, white rooms, and shining floors." I was pretty intimidated to have my first telephone conversation with a Mexican in interior Mexico, but it was just fine. He had to repeat things once or twice, but I managed to make a reservation and ask my questions. He seemed taken aback when I asked if anyone there spoke English ("Nooooo...") or if they had the internet there ("Noooo... No tenemos el internet aqui.") I could hear the slightest bit of a smile in his voice. When I asked how far from the Central Camionera (bus station) was from the hotel, his response was "You can take a taxi here for about 30 pesos." Hmm... Not exactly what I asked, but helpful nonetheless.

Our guide says "The best of Nayarit's bounty -- most notably seafood and fruit -- gets served in Tepic." I can't wait!

Monday will be my last full day in Austin. Tonight is my last night at Bellagio, after over 2 years of employment with them. Thursday will be our last day in the United States. Tomorrow is my birthday and I'll be holding a birthday/going-away party here at my family's house. It should be a wonderful time -- a chance to catch up, say goodbye, and spend one more evening with the people we love.

--Philip

A sigh of relief

YAY! So yesterday my dear mother informed me that my passport had safely reached its destination, thank GOODNESS!!! I was so worried about that, God knew it, and he showed me a little mercy by not making me chew my nails on it.

Got our Hep A shots yesterday which turned out to be just fine and dandy. It was like a flu shot, short and sweet. We got them at the CVS minute clinic, which is the BEST, by the way, for us uninsured folk. There's no line, a real doctor in the office and a whole range of services at really affordable prices. I know it sounds like I've been paid to plug them, but the past two times we've went we've had such a good experience, really nice, knowledgeable people, all in all great.

It's amazing, most everything has fallen in line. The last major things we need to pick up or do we are gonna get done today, and then the last thing is just to pack. Crazy, in ONE WEEK we will be in the air flying away.

Unfortunately I have a bit of a head cold, but I'm alright, just a little under the weather. Hope everyone is staying warm and healthy and we'll post again soon I'm sure.

OH! Ps- Philip's showcase went great, now we just sit and wait for an agent to call. We will keep you updated!

Phone stuffage

Ok, so i just got off the phone with Sprint learning about how we will and will not be able to use our phones.

As it costs 1.69/minute for calling, we will be using it in emergencies only. Primarily we will be using our Skype account (basically we can call anywhere in the world from our computer via the Internet for around 2 euro cents/min). However, no one is able to call us back obviously. So if you get a vmail from us, dont try to call back on the number.

We will be getting coverage and able to check our voicemail in many of the towns we plan to stay in, however at our farm we will have jack squat as far as cell coverage, but we will have Internet access.

Also, if we are in an area in which we are able to send texts we most definitely will as it only costs us 20 cents/text! So look out for those!

The thought of going without cell phones and being tied to our little faulty laptop is quite a scary/cool proposition. It will be so refreshing not to be tied to my little white cell phone. But at the same time i know it gives people a sense of security to be able to contact me, and for that reason I am sorry that we will not always be able to contact people. But this is the best we could do and even if worst comes to worst, our computer/cell phones all get stolen or something , we will always be able to find an internet cafe/hostel that will allow us to check our email and contact people. We will try to use email and updating this blog as a means of letting everyone know where we are/how we are doing.

As for our trip, we are having a slight change of plans. Our farm contacted us the other day asking if we could withhold coming to them until the 27th as they have had a proposition from someone to rent their little guest house that we will be using until then. So as we have already bought the tickets for the 22nd we will be flying in that day to Puerto, but we will go to Tepic for a few days and then San Blas for the remainder of the time before we go to our farm. Those are the two closest towns to our farm, and both have really cool things to check out, so we are just fine with this little change of plans.

Everything seems to falling together, the one thing that is really worrying me at the time being is my passport. Since i got my name changed so late, i had to send in my passport along with a chunk of money to Pennsylvania, and now i just have to wait for it to come back. And its guaranteed to at the very latest be in the DAY BEFORE we leave. Yikes...but hopefully it will come in before that.

Ok peeps, im gonna try my hand at putting in a photo of the place we are going to be, Tepic.
Bye for now,
Julia
ps- if anyone is reading this in the Austin area, Philip's birthday is on the 18th, and we are planning a potluck Philips birthday/were going away party. Will keep you updated on the time choice ect.

Tickets

Well, today we purchased our ONE-WAY tickets to Puerto Vallarta for Jan 22nd. Everyday that goes by just gets me more and more excited about this whole thing. I'm reading all our Mexico travel guides and getting revved up for the farm and the travels to follow. I am going to send all the peeps on my email base the link to this site so that you can follow up on us while we are gone, hopefully we won't be having too much a fantastic time that we can't keep up with it. Hopefully I can also add photos as well as funny stories that I am sure we will be experiencing.

There are still many things left on the list to do like getting me a passport with my new name (Julia Lorenz-Olson)on it, and getting the Hep A shot, buying a good set of travel carry-on bags with wheels, not to mention packing, and hopefully getting an audition scheduled for us in Houston right before we leave.

We will update more as the date nears, and if anyone has a problem posting responses on this, just let me know!

Much Love,
Julia