Tepic and back

Well well, this week we started out on a trip to the capital of the state of Nayarit, Tepic. It has about 300,000 people and…a Wal-Mart…which we shall be discussing later. I really wanted to go there due to the fact that a lot of the native Huichol people live there and have many stands where they sell their gorgeous handmade crafts. I’m including a picture of something we bought for ourselves. It’s a sun and moon in gorgeously vivid colors, and all those colors come from teeny tiny glass beads that are glued onto a wooden back. It’s all hand done. I also bought a ton of jewelry for myself and for gifts to bring back.

The ride to Tepic from Aticama was quite a stomach-churner, its all switchback through mountain jungle for two hours. Poor Philip got quite green, but luckily we got there a little earlier than expected and there was a beautiful park where we sat to let our stomachs settle before exploring. It was a bit jarring to be among so many people again. But nice at the same time, it felt so much more energetic. We first headed to the zocalo where there was a beautiful cathedral that we poked our heads into during Mass. It was standing room only, and we felt a little out of place, so we didn’t linger. We walked around for a while trying to find the place where most of the Huichol stands were concentrated. Luckily, right in the center, there was a tourist info center and someone pointed us in the right direction. There was a large row of stands all down this one street. Behind every stall was a line of kids/teens all traditionally dressed and working on dozens of crafts. Apparently the Huichol are very anti-assimilation. They really wear their traditional dress, worship their own deities, and live apart from most of the big cities. Philip got his first taste of haggling in Spanish. This has been something that we have been hesitant to do out of fear that we might insult someone. But in all our guide books it says that haggling for everything in a market to taxi rides is permissible and expected. And the thought of having to bargain in a second language is a bit intimidating, but he got the hang of it.

After I had gotten my fill of jewelry buying, we stopped and ate some cold barbequed ribs that we had made the night before. So…good. We actually came across BBQ sauce in a small store in San Blas and naturally we had to have it. Philip doctored it up really well and we ended up with the leanest, tenderest ribs we’ve ever had. Granted it took us about 4 hours to make, but we certainly didn’t care. It was so worth it. Oh, and I also had some of the best soft-serve ever in Tepic, and I am a self-proclaimed soft-serve addict. It beat my old fave DQ hands down. We also ate some bananas we’d brought that were actually from some of the wild ones growing on the farm. As soon as one of them starts to ripen on the stalk you have to bring them in and hang them inside, otherwise the birds get at them. And apparently whenever a banana tree makes a bunch of bananas, that’s the end of it, you chop the whole thing down, and it has to start all over again.

After our market trip we were determined to get to the biggest supermarket we could. Wal-Mart loomed so familiarly down the road, singing siren songs of more selection than we could dream of. We could not resist. The minute we stepped in, I could just feel our recipes that we’d come up with at the farm getting better. We stayed there for hours just salivating. We actually didn’t end up buying a ton as we would have to trek it all on our backs back home. But real yogurt, flour tortilla mix (they were deLISH btw), Jose Cuervo Tradicional, fresh mushrooms, whipping cream, and a big bag of cacahuates dulces (basically a praline peanut) came back with us. We also came back with, very strangely, a bag of totally un-sour limes…they were very strange and disappointing. We headed back home before dark so excited about all our new purchases.

Tuesday, we had a visitor. While Philip was making amazing fajitas out on the grill, he heard this piteous mewling noise off in the distance. It got closer and closer and finally a little spotted kitten with big green eyes showed himself hovering around the light from the house. He was really skittish and we tried to shoo him away to get him to go back home, but he was obviously lost and all alone. I finally lured him towards a saucer of milk and after the first little pat on his head, we were best friends. He LOVED us. The minute we went inside to eat and left him alone outside, he would cry and cry, even jumping up on the window sill wherever we were to see us. He followed our feet wherever we went outside. I was concerned he would cry all night and keep us up, but he stopped after a while after we went to bed. But when I woke up at 6:00 the next morning, there he was, crying at the door. We figured out that he probably belonged to a small house at he bottom of the hill from the farm. We knew they had a ton of cats there, and he probably just wandered up the hill and got lost. So the next day we took him down and lo and behold, there were a bunch of other kittens all his same size, and the minute we put him down, he seemed at home. We went back to check on him today, and there he was, happy as can be. Mission kitten rescue accomplished.
The rest of the week went by without much ado. Amaranth actually left last Sunday for Arizona to help her mom move there from Washington DC, so it’s just been us and Wally on the farm. In her absence, she asked for me to keep up the house for her, so that takes up an hour or two of my morning. And we have had to go sans her lovely lunches and fend for ourselves. Philip and Wally completed the hen-house. The goose laid an egg; a massive thing that took her a whole day to deliver, poor thing. Then Philip and I dug up a completely new garden in the back of the cono. It was very hard work, pickaxing and then getting all the clumps of grass out to make the new garden. Then we hauled ancient dirt from the chicken coop as well as ash from the fire pile to mix into the dirt to make it extra fertile.
As usual, there was there were many yummy meals cooked. I managed to make speatzle and meatballs with a mushroom sauce…yum. I baked cinnamon rolls from scratch which we then gifted to some of our friends down in town. Philip made a true fire-roasted salsa as well as a gorgeous pineapple/shrimp shishkebab ring, the aforementioned ribs, fajitas with the homemade salsa and homemade tortillas. Then tonight’s orange-beef stir fry. Yummy.
Wednesday we got another animal surprise. We were down by the casita at the bottom of the hill, and on my way back up to the cono I saw Opie (one of the dogs) barking like mad. I thought he was just being silly, barking at us because sometimes he doesn’t recognize us. I was yelling at him to hesh up when I saw something rather large moving through the grass in the space between us. It was a HUGE snake, the thickness of my arm and about as long as me. I could see that it wasn’t poisonous, a constrictor of some type (thanks middle school science Olympiad). I want to say it’s a boa constrictor because of the gorgeous pattern on its skin. I yelled to Philip to “come see this HUGE snake” “huge snake?”, I could hear the doubt in his voice. I felt much better when he saw it and made the appropriate impressed noises. The snake made its way into a stand of grass and got into a defensive position all coiled up. We stayed back enough just to get pictures, we'll add some on here, but you should click on it so you can actually see him, he blended in so well. Philip managed to get some video of him slithering around too. Then after about 10 minutes of gawking we left him alone. Philip saw him again later on and managed to get some video of him. But we haven’t seen him since.
Today we went to Casa Manana to get their Wifi and we managed to book our first hostle stay in Guadalajara. We will be staying at Hostal de Maria from March 5th through the 9th, it had great reviews and the last wwoofer Gina had stayed there on her way here and liked it very much. Going from Aticama pop. 900 to Guadalajara with 6 million people will be a big change. But there are so many things to do there. Gorgeous churches, museums, parks, huge markets spanning 30 city blocks, ballet floclorico, tequila distilleries, and hopefully our first Mexican theatre experience are all things we are looking forward to. And it is less than a week away now. After that we are planning a trip north to Zacatecas, then back down to Guanaguato, then to San Miguel De Allende for another stay at a different wwoof farm. But that one will only be for two weeks. After that…who knows? Hopefully we wont be broke and can get the chance to head down to Oaxaca. Time will tell.

Today we were supposed to get a new roommate, Pheobe. But as yet it is 8 oclock and dark and she hasn’t shown up yet. We shall see.

Saturday it's whale watching!

--Julia

A Week of Waterfalls

Hello again, faithful blog readers. It’s great to be able to post again and reconnect with everyone back home. Make sure to keep those comments coming so we can know how you’re doing too. And Charlie, if you’re reading this in San Blas, let me know!

My body is telling me something. My skin is a golden brown, and my Mexistache is filling in nicely. All this physical work and time outside is both invigorating and exhausting. I go to sleep completely spent each night, and wake up stiff but energetic each day at 6:30am sharp. My shoulders are tired from chopping wood for barbeques and swinging a pickaxe to dig trenches for chicken wire. My feet hurt from the steep 2 mile hike we take into town and back most days…sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. My palms are sore from swinging a machete at everything from bamboo to coconuts to banana trees (yes, I can chop an entire banana tree to the ground in one swing!). Every day at noon I shower off the layer of chicken filth and dirt that’s accumulated in my hair and in all my clothes… and underneath are the burns, scratches, bruises and bug bites that cover every inch of my skin. Literally every work day I haul hundreds of pounds of river stones from one specified location to another, either by wheelbarrow or by hand (Says Wally “What’s a day if you didn’t haul any rocks?”) Even the cuticles on my fingernails are shredded from the seven or eight hours I’ve spent threading fishing rope through sharp metal chicken wire. But the craziest thing of all is that I love it. I mean really love it. The feeling of a good day’s work on your muscles, the peace of the jungle at twilight, a dog by your side (preferably Opie, the three-legged wonder, or Sparky, the golden eyed Alpha male) and a beer in your hand – that’s a mighty fine thing indeed. I find myself each day, multiple times a day, thanking God for sending out into this beautiful land. We continue to have terrific adventures every day, and when Amaranth asked if we would stay an extra week in order to acclimate the new WWOOFers, (she’s leaving to help her mom move to Arizona)… we quickly said yes. Therefore, we will be staying until March 5th.

Remember us mentioning that Michelangelo reproduction on the ceiling of our house here? Well, the painter of that mural showed up 3 days ago to commission another picture in the home of Amaranth & Wally. We got to chatting, and I learned that he’s a nature lover. One thing led to another, and he ended up inviting me on a walk along the river to a beautiful valley he knows of. His name is Dante, and he’s 53. I checked with our hosts, and they said he’s trustworthy and everyone knows about his “nature walks.” We left around 4pm yesterday, and what an experience it was! He took off jogging, and I did my best to keep up with him. We ran a good 2 miles into the Aztec jungle, hopping from one path to another, jumping along river stones upstream, darting through barbed wire, and sliding down steep slopes. My thoughts alternated between “I feel like I’m on a hunt with a wizened Aztec warrior in the middle of the Mexican forest.” and “ I bet this guy’s going to lose me, and I’ll end up lost or macheted in a ditch somewhere.” Since I’m writing this, the latter obviously didn’t happen. Dante liked to stop along the river to dip his face in and drink. Every so often he’d warn me about this guy or that guy nearby who has a pack of dogs we might run into, or he’d let out a wailing grito (the Mexican cries you hear in Tejano music that sound a bit like a laugh). We finally ended up at a pool at the base of a beautiful waterfall. He stripped down and dove in with just his underwear on. He asked me to join him, but I declined (thinking, “Yeah, the second I do, he’ll run off with my shoes and shirt!). He slid down the waterfall, cooled off, then redressed and we headed back out. On the way back we ran into the dogs, and the owner, who graciously said we could use his road any time we want to return to the falls. Returning, we took a different route, and got a bit turned around. Upon asking a family in a truck that was picking fruit, they pointed the way, told us to jump in, and drove us there… through winding, forgotten roads, and past a little lake. Dante ate about 5 of their starfruits during the journey. We made it back before nightfall, and we had Dante over for a delicious spicy yellow curry and lentils that Julia prepared. We talked and laughed together as Julia practiced her Spanish, and then I escorted Dante back to town with my headlamp.

Speaking of waterfalls, Julia, Gina, and I visited a 70 foot high waterfall about an hour out of town. We booked the trip through the hotel in Aticama we use for internet. They hired a taxi for us with a preset rate (475 pesos, or around $35US for a 5 hour trip). We left Saturday morning from the hotel. He drove us out to a remote town, dropped us off, and he waited there the whole time until we returned. It was a treacherous climb down to the bottom, but once there, the girls swam, and I climbed up the rocks. The pool was supposed to be 40 feet deep, and boy was it cold!
We came back from the falls, cleaned up, and got ready for a fun day-after-Valentine’s Day dinner. Around seven in the evening we went to a restaurant called El Delfin, inside the Garza Canela hotel in San Blas. It was really exceptional, easily the best restaurant meal we’ve had here, and one of the best experiences together anywhere. The chef is a woman that trained under a 3-Michelin-Star chef in Paris, and this place is supposed to be one of the top restaurants in coastal-Mexico. We both started out with an appetizer, a curried seafood soup for me and an apple/avocado/goat cheese salad for Julia. Both fantastic. The wine list was…well…the only wine list we’ve seen in Mexico, so there’s not much to compare it to. The only wine by the glass was their house red and white, that was the only description, and Julia decided to get the white. The prices were amazing, about $3.50 US for a glass, which turned out to be quite enjoyable. Then entrees-- me with a seafood stuffed poblano swimming in a yellow saffron sauce, Julia with a tender chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and pear comfit with what seemed like mashed potatoes, all in a cinnamon-coffee butter reduction. They were both divine. We ate as slowly as we could, thanking our very kind and attentive waiter for everything. We were quite satisfied, but we had to look at the dessert menu. How could Julia resist a lemon cake topped with bananas, a caramel sauce and house-made ginger ice cream? She couldn’t. It also came out with a selection of house-cookies, little anise-flavored crescents, much like teeny biscotti and white/dark almond fudges. They even sent us home with extra cookies-- in honor of “el dia de Santa Valentino”. Best part was, for three courses, coffee, wine, and beer, our tab only came to $50 – and that includes the tip!
Needless to say, we left quite stuffed and immensely happy.

Julia will finally get a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream. For her Valentine’s Day present, I promised we’ll go out and view the whales along the Pacific. There are lots of trips out there each day, but they cost a lot, so we originally decided against it. We’re going to work to put together a group of 6 to go out so we can all pay less per-person.

Gina (our room-mate) left on Thursday for Chiapas, Mexico. She decided to cut her stay short by three weeks (and we’ll be staying longer at Amaranth’s request). Our new roommate is named Phoebe, she’s 22, and she is supposedly the manager of a farm or farmers market in America. She's arriving in a week.

On Thursday we strolled into town laden with Julia’s famous coconut macaroons. We stopped and doled out care packages to our friends, and we’d stay and chat about Julia’s recipe, their families, and the quiet, quaint town of Aticama. Each day my love for the people grows. Wally and Amaranth have really opened up to us, sharing funny stories, recipes, and knowledge. Amaranth recalled to us the first time she went to her ancestral home of Tokyo, and how it felt to look like everyone on the street for the first time in 40 years. Wally’s eyes sparkled as he told me about his “Hollywood experience.” As we were salvaging old fence that was thick with twisting vines, he told me about the screenplay he wrote. He and Amaranth took the script to Hollywood, hired a company that held a mass “script-pitching” event, and he described his story to producers like John Malkovich. The infamously heartless L.A. left them misled, frustrated, and embittered, and he’s since soured on the whole screenwriting process. He’s going to let me read the script one of these days. Still, it was sad to see a seasoned, capable man like Wally walk away from something he seems to enjoy so much. He was a cook in the army, he worked crabbing ships in Alaska, he ran a junkyard, and he built his own house… but Hollywood was more than he bargained for. And the stories about the colorful WWOOFers they’ve had in the past 3 years have left Julia and me laughing ‘til we cried more than once.

Tomorrow we hope to be taking a day trip to Tepic. It is the cultural center of the indigenous Huichol Indians, famous for beautiful bead work. We only stopped there on our way to Aticama and didn’t see much, and it’s about a 2 hour bus ride. Hopefully we might be able to catch a van/taxi that leaves from Aticama rather than a bus, it would be much faster.

Be well, let us know how life is back home, and keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Until then, as they say in Aticama, se le vaya bien!

~Philip

Fiestas

Well then, here we are, 3 weeks into our Mexico experience. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem like its been that long and at the same time it seems like a lifetime. I find myself becoming more and more content and familiar with my surroundings. The fact that I don’t speak good Spanish doesn’t really hinder me up here at the farm, but my passive comprehension is getting better. But unfortunately the combined facts that Philip is such a good speaker and my perfectionist bent make that I haven’t much improved my speaking abilities. Ahhhh well. I can brag about becoming more bug resistant. The sight of a spider running over the ground next to my foot doesn’t induce heart palpitations, and the cold shower experience is…well…ok I’m not getting better with that. But I am proud of the bugs. The weather has been just lovely. My favorite time of day is after lunch when I have time to go down to the casita and take over the hammock that lies in the shade of two huge mango trees. The ipod provides the perfect soundtrack and I just sway in the breeze. The temperatures remind me a lot of swiss summers, warm sunshine and cool breezes are the norm.
We have had a run-in with the powerful pepper known as the Habanero. Amaranth had us seed them and dehydrate them so she could roast them and make this excellent pepper mix we use in the kitchen a lot. We had gloves and everything, but little did we know how much pain we were in for. Over the next 24 hours the strangest spots on our faces and arms, even Philips toe would start to tingle and then burn like heck for over an hour. In my desperation I tried everything, dowsing the spot with water or aloe or milk, but I finally found the cure….butter! Yep, I shamelessly slathered butter on my face in the middle of the night and boom! I was cured. That was an exciting find, and now we know. Butter cures all that ails ya. We've been making some consistently yummy meals: fresh made salsa, chicken fried steak, dry-rub grilled chicken, and so much more. A highlight is the meat, all fresh and local and cut by our favorite butcheress, Andrea, and the fresh, hommade cheeses by Ruth. I am incuding a picture of my personal favorite, panela....yum!
Speaking of butter and other yummy things, I think the biggest thing that has changed about me in my time here so far is my view of food. It’s quite different to have a lot of the food you eat come from right outside your door. The eggs that go into your omelet were laid that day. I have to say I feel so much better without access to all the processed foods and frozen things that were a part of daily life back at home. The meat here has also been exceptional; all that we’ve had here has been just recently slaughtered and not grown in industrial cattle yards but just from right there on the hill. The chicken probably saw the light of day, and not only that, it ate what it wanted. I think that despite the fact that those kinds of foods are so much more expensive back home, we will be changing how we eat. But time will tell, I have to admit to missing Aunt Jemima’s pancake mix and Cheez-its.
Right now we are sitting in our newest find, a hotel on the beach where you can come and hawk the wifi for free if you buy a drink. It has an incredible view of the beach and plenty of shade and a little swimming pool as well. I am sure we will come swimming here sometime soon.
With our time at the farm coming to its last half, we are looking forward to post-farm life and what we might do. Our current plan is to visit the huge city of Guadalajara (pop 6 million!) and the beautiful city of Guanajuato. From there we hope to find another farm to stay at for 2 to three weeks and then head our southernmost destination of Oaxaca. We will probably end up flying there as it’s pretty cheap to fly here domestically and the 4 days of bus trips it would take doesn’t sound really appealing. We have heard back from some farms, but nothing is set yet.
We shall be updating again soon I am sure, probably on Saturday or Sunday. Tonight apparently there is going to be a celebration in Aticama! Something having to do with the Virgin of Guadalupe. Tell you how that goes later!
Cheers till then.
~Julia

Later that week...

Well, as it turns out, the guidebooks were right, Mexicans will take any opportunity to party. It was quite the fiesta. It was neat to see all the families come out in droves, the pakcs of roving teens and the women all clustered together laughing and showing off their babies. The small zocalo was packed with people from all around, and it was refreshing to see familiar faces from around town and eat all the goodies. I finally got to have my first churros! This old woman and a man who may have been her son just set up this huge vat of boiling oil on the side of the road with this inredible dough-extracting contraption that they used to pipe them into the oil, then it was all coated in a sugar-cinnamon mix and wrapped in a paper sac....heaven.

The hub of the activity centered around this huge bamboo contraption called the "castillo" or castle. It was about 35 foot high and basically had these huge wheels attached to it that were peppered with fireworks and, when lit, would whirl around, spraying anyone who was near with a shower of sparks. There were 4 wheels, each with a sea-creature in the middle that would light up as it spun. Then the outline of the virgin of Guadalupe with the words "Vive la Virgen de la Guadalupe" burst into flame, andto crown it all, a whirling 3d Pegasus. Then the "corona" lifted off the top of the thing and went way high in the sky and burst into fireworks. It was all quite neat, dispite the fact that we were so tired and the fireworks started 45 minutes late. Thats Mexican timing for ya.

As for work on the farm, weve been focusing on building the Playboy Mansion of chicken houses, and uprooting and restarting a garden for greens. Most of the garden work atcually came from building a path through the raised bed. Its amazing how much time digging and placing rocks takes. Its shocking really. We also made a burn pile for all the random piles of palm fronds and sticks laying about. Now I know how a rotisserie chicken feels.

Today (valentines) we spent some time in San Blas on the beach getting blasted by sand, searching the tianguis (flea market) for some shirts and getting side tracked by the awfulness that was the baby chicks. There were these boxes of DYED baby chickens in every color imaginable, and not like...pastel colors either, bright blue, purple, pink, you name it. And to top it all off, they had these digusting little plastic baseball caps glued to their heads. It was rather ghastly, and it seemed like every single little kid had one or two. Ahh well, we also went to a place where our hosts told us might be able to help us get into a group to go whale-watching. We could go just the two of us, but it costs well over 1000 pesos, and the boats fit up to 6 people and it costs the same wether you have two people or 6. So hopefully something comes of that. We also found a mini-super with a few imported goods like extra-virgin olive oil and nutella!!Exciting!

We also just booked a taxi to and from a trail-head of the Kora waterfalls here. Apparently its a pretty easy hike there yourself, but getting the taxi to the trail-head and back there and back is tricky and a guy here at Casa Manana helped us book it. So tommorow its off to the falls!Love all of you!!!And happy valentines day!

~Julia

Hellspiders and Crocodiles!

Another week in Aticama full of friends, crocodiles, chicken wire, and demonic lobster-scorpion-spiders!

We started off the week with a tour of the estuary. On Sunday morning we jumped into a boat with Zoe, Bard, LB and took off into the mangrove trees. Our guide, Pancho was no more than 15 years old, and he’d stop the boat every time we saw something cool. Black crabs with neon orange claws stalked the mangrove roots. Iguanas leapt from the canopies, and there were many amazing birds. We saw a tiger heron, a golden crown heron, many ibises, cranes, and hawks. But the stars of the show were the crocodiles. We saw 6 or 7 wild crocs of various sizes, from babies to fellows that would eat Julia in two bites! The first big one we saw just below the surface took our breath away! Such a terrifying, ancient beast, only a few feet away! The boat ride ended at a crystal-clear freshwater spring called La Tovara. It was fenced it (to keep out crocs), and was full of swimmers and people sipping beers from the small restaurant there. We swam, swung from the rope-swing, and headed back. We drove back MUCH faster, with some pretty aggressive 90 degree turns. I shouted at Julia to record the trip on her camera. She recorded for about 2 minutes and I shout “That’s probably good!” She turns it off, and (no kidding) 4 seconds later we drive right into two MONSTER crocs floating in the middle of the water way! All five of us in the boat shouted and screamed, the driver killed the motor, and they dived down and disappeared. We just barely missed having a home video of floating dinosaurs for you! Afterward we went to the San Blas beach. We drank Pacifico ballenas (Spanish for whales), bogey boarded, and little LB took one of the beach side horse rides. After a little dinner we headed home for our nightly ritual of fresh passion fruit juice and tequila.

On Monday our other house-guest, Gina, arrived. She’s a native of San Antonio, though she’s been working in finance in New York City the past 3 years. She’s 25, and dating a guy in the Air Force. They plan to move to Dayton Ohio to make a home after her Mexican travels. She had spent the previous month in Oaxaca, studying beginner/intermediate Spanish at a school down there. She’s a bit wimpy, but loves food.. She’s not much of a cook, though, so we help her learn techniques. Dinner has become her favorite part of the day!

We were taken off the road as our primary project on Monday. Wally called in a couple professional road layers to re-set the stones and concrete them. I still wake up each day and haul rocks into the truck or shovel cementante with Wally. We’ve stayed busy, though our work is much less back-breaking. We’ve harvested, peeled, and dehydrated coffee beans. We’ve harvested, juiced, and frozen limes. We’ve been up-keeping the gardens and paths, picking salads, helping prepare lunches, and laying mulch in the form of pumice pebbles. We’ve been doing a lot of watering. I helped Wally re-fence in a section of the chicken coop and thread the chicken wire into the existing layer. Apparently something was getting in somehow and munching the sleeping fowl. He also has a live trap, and this week alone he’s caught three hefty opossums. These are about twice the size of Texas opossums, and twice as mean too! Every time he gets a new one, I have to hold a bag while Wally snags a rope around their neck. Once noosed, the opossums splay their legs out, open their mouths, and go paralyzed (except their whipping tails)! In this state, we easily bag them, and Wally drives miles out of town to release the critters.

Zoe, Bard, and LB left on Wednesday. We wished them happy trails, they rolled down the road… and 20 minutes later they were back because the hood was smoking. Wally figured it out, and they headed out to New Mexico. We hope to reconnect with them when we head to Albuquerque later this year.

Life on the farm is pretty quiet. We have a predictable routine, but we still have discoveries and surprises each day. Such as the “noni fruit”, a tropical fruit that smells like an over-ripe Swiss cheese and supposedly has healing properties. I was delighted to order a ½ kilo of ground beef and watch the lady chop the meat off a huge beef side and grind it right there. When I said I wanted a half a chicken, she took a whole chicken, chopped it in half right in front of us, and asked “Which half you want?” We were invited into the home of the local cheese maker to see how she made it and taste the last batch (we saw her making panella)The tequila is delicious and cheap, the shrimps are huge and cheap, and the wandering pack of dogs have taken a liking to us (I like Sparky, but Julia prefers Penny). And after a failed attempt, we even succeeded in extracting delicious coconut milk and shredded meat we pulled from one of the towering coconut trees.

But the biggest shock we experienced would have to be on Thursday. Julia and I were rinsing off in the shower before lunch, and I started drying off. I looked down at my feet and saw a humongously big black thing, which caused me to yell, and jump away. Julia screamed and climbed the nearest wall. It was a hell-bug like none any of us had ever seen. It had the head of a scorpion, the claws of a praying mantis, the legs of a daddy long-legs, and a thorax of a cockroach! Yikes! On top of that, the body was 2 inches long, the legs spread about 7 inches, and the feelers were 11 inches from end to end! Worst of all, it was blocking our way out! We were trapped by this beast, with little weaponry, and no clothing. I threw a towel on it, then crushed it with a box. When Gina came to the house, we were recovering from the fright, and Julia shouted “Okay, Gina… Just know, it’s dead.” Gina tentatively entered the house, and (pre-warned) looked into the dust pan let out a blood curdling shriek! We spent hours musing over what it was and how hideous it was. Wally and Amaranth said they’ve seen one before, but they’re rare. They had no idea what its name was, but told us they think it’s harmless. Yeah. Think. Julia brings a headlamp to the bathroom at night now, and forces me to shake out our towels before any showers.

Eatin’s good on Green Acres. Amaranth always makes delicious vegetarian lunches on the week days We’ve had quiches, pastas, beans, chayote coconut soup, and a fresh salad each day. We sip passionfruit or lime juice as we chat on the patio terrace each midday. Our dinners are always delicious and elaborate. We’ve had barbecued oysters, serrano-stuffed jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon, shrimp coconut soup, and homemade marinara sauce on pasta, We’ve munched on shrimp tacos, coconut chicken curry, beef stir fry, and the thickest, juiciest burgers you’ve ever sunk your teeth into (with crispy home fries). Gina, Zoe, and Bard always get in on the excitement, and the evening project is a lot of fun. We’ve made mint mojitos, passionfruit margaritas, lemongrass tea, and even French toast with stale bolillos. Amaranth is a wealth of knowledge about the town, the people, home remedies, and food. Whenever we have a question about “How do you…?” she’s usually got a solution. She has a helpful spirit, as is generous with the treasures from her garden.




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Today we leave you with a picture of Alba. Alba is the matriarch of the Mendoza family that runs our favorite minisuper. She loves to yak it up with us, and always greets Julia and I by name. We talk about her health, the town, her hilarious drunk son Jesus, and everything in between. She also gives us free stuff if she doesn't think it looks good (like a free tomato with a "cuerno" or horn on the side). She represents the attitude of Aticama to me, and she really makes us feel like family. Hasta proxima semana!

--Philip