Apr

2010

New Page With Camping Information

We’ve added a new page to our blog with location and information on all of the places we find to camp on our trip. We’ll update the list periodically throughout the trip as we find new spots. The link can be found on the right side of the updates page under “Pages”. One word of caution is that the information posted here is only up to date as of the time we stay there. Places and rules change often in a lot of these places. We hope this information will be helpful. Happy Traveling!

By Lacey | Posted in Nothing yet... | Comments (1)

Apr

2010

Belize- Crooked Tree

Oh Belize, Belize you sneaky little country… we did not expect to like you as much as we did. In fact our plan was to drive right through your territory and right into Guatemala. We were told by many that Belize was expensive, touristy and unfriendly. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Belize is beautiful, it can be expensive, but that can be avoided easily and finally people are extremely friendly and helpful (in our experience).

The border crossing was fairly straightforward. There are always unsavory characters trying to swindle money from gullible tourists. I must say some of them are very smooth and even seem trustworthy at first. Our humble recommendation is to just avoid any non-uniform individuals and always demand a receipt when money will exchange hands. A guy on the Mexican side of the border tried to get 250 pesos (~$20 dollars) a piece out of us as an “exit fee.” When we told him we didn’t believe him and demanded a receipt from him, he immediately changed his mind. You have to wonder though how many people actually pay.

After the border crossing we hightailed it to the Crooked Tree Wilderness Sanctuary, considered by some to be one of the best birding destinations in Central America. We are not birders, but we really enjoy being around wildlife and we have definitely developed a bit of a curiosity for birds… but we are not birders We arrived at the small village of Crooked Tree and found the perfect accommodation for us at the Crooked Tree Lodge (their website has wonderful wildlife pics). The Lodge is right on the shore of the Crooked Tree Lagoon, is very well designed and impeccably run by a local family (the father is a British expat).

The main house of the Crooked Tree Lodge

Our plan was to spend the night at the lodge and then head for the border with a quick stop at the Baboon Sanctuary near Belize City. A few minutes at the lodge and we knew that would not be the case, a few days later we had to peel ourselves from our camping spot. We were hooked on Belize.

The Crooked Tree Lagoon is teeming with wildlife, especially birds. The tropical weather is not horribly hot (at least not while we were there) and it was a pleasure to walk around the village and all the Cashew (“crooked tree”) plantations. On our second, or maybe third day there was a big party in the village: The Tilapia Festival. Tilapia is an invasive fish species that was accidentally introduced to the Belizean waterways. Tilapia is abundant in Crooked Tree Lagoon and for some reason they celebrate it with an annual party that includes dancing, eating, truck mud bogging and many other activities. There were a total of four tourists at the event (including us). Among the many highlights of our day was lunch, which consisted of two plates. One had fried tilapia, bean stew and rice, the other was a little more offbeat and it consisted of freshwater turtle, gibnut (a large rodent that is also known as a “Paca” in the rest of Latin America) accompanied by rice and beans. The food was outstanding and washed down with some ice cold beer.

Our food stand of choice, try to read the menu which includes iguana, turtle, gibnut, etc.

Lunch: rice and beanswith gibnut and turtle

Fried tilapia and a Guinness

Sadly we discovered that although neither the Gibnut nor the Turtle are listed as endangered species, some experts say their populations are definitely dwindling, so our footprint just got a lot bigger. Sorry.

We had a great time in Crooked Tree and we are very glad that it single handedly changed our mind about the length of our stay in Belize. Enjoy the pics.

By Luis | Posted in Nothing yet... | Tagged belize, border crossing, crooked tree, crooked tree lodge | Comments (4)

Apr

2010

Our Last Weeks in Mexico-Catch Up Part Two

From Zipolite we had to high tail it to San Cristobal de Las Casas to meet up with Jennifer and Vanessa. “Jenessa” as we called them are good friends from California who were coming for a three week visit. They flew into Cancun and took a crazy 18 hour bus ride to meet up with us in San Cristobal de las Casas. San Cristobal is a beautiful town perched in the mountains of Chiapas.

A few hours down the windy mountain roads from San Cristobal we stopped in a small town to visit the ruins of Tonina. These are some of the quietest and most accessible ruins we’ve visited so far. There were maybe 5 other people there. In Tonina you can still actually climb all over and go inside the tombs. This isn’t something you find very often in Mexico anymore, due to high volume of visits and unscrupulous visitors that abuse the freedom.

Along some more narrow windy roads we made a stop off at Agua Azul just south of Palanque. There was a small blurb about this place in one of our guidebooks, but we weren’t prepared for the beautiful series of waterfalls, with turquoise blue water running through the middle of the jungle that we found. This place is amazing! The weather wasn’t exactly cooperating with us when we were there, but on a nice sunny day, an afternoon spent swimming in this beautiful location would be the highlight of any trip.

A little further north, we arrived at the Maya Bell campground just a short walk from the ruins of Palenque. Maya Bell is set at the edge of the jungle, and you are treated to the sounds of howler monkeys waking up with you every morning. Some folks at the campground told us the monkeys had been coming out into the campground for a show lately, but we didn’t get to see any during our stay. From the sounds of things, they weren’t too far away in the mornings. The ruins of Palenque have been among our favorites so far. It might be that the location of the ruins fits the classic picture of tall pyramids nestled into the jungle that we often imagine with Mayan ruins. As our fellow traveller Dan Grec mentioned: you get a pang of Indiana Jones as you arrive to the ruins. Whatever the case, it is a beautiful place and well worth a visit. We never hire guides, but we hired a guide that we met at the grocery store the night before. He was a very nice and knowledgeable man who treated us to a whole different take on the history of Palenque residents of pre-columbian times than we had heard before. We’re not sure how much of what he told us was accurate or even true but it made it very interesting to look at the ruins in a whole different light. He is a bit of a conspiracy theorist with a very revised view of history.

Leaving the jungle behind we headed up to the west coast of the Yucatan peninsula on the Gulf side. We visited a few towns here that were interesting, but we all had a hankering to enjoy the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean, so we made a straight shot across the peninsula from Merida to Cancun. We’ve been in some pretty touristy places in Mexico so far, but I don’t think anything could have prepared us for the Maya Riviera. Public beach access is almost non-existent, as the beaches have all been taken over by huge all inclusive resorts. In Cancun, we ended up taking the ferry over to Isla Mujeres (12 bucks round trip), just off the coast of cancun and paying 50 pesos (4 bucks) a piece for a lounge chair on the beach, but at least we finally got our first day at a beautiful Caribbean beach enjoying the sunshine and warm water. We spent about a week with the girls driving down the coast of the Riviera Maya, enjoying the beautiful beaches, swimming in some cenotes (beautiful fresh water swimming holes, connected to underground river systems) and checking out the ruins at Tulum. It is hard to find a nice place to relax and enjoy the area without paying an exorbitant rate in this area, but if you look hard there are still some gems to be found.

After three weeks that went by way too fast we dropped the “Jenessa” twins off at the airport in Cancun. It was a little weird to be back to just the two of us again. After a few days of re-packing and re-supply in Cancun, we finished our journey through Mexico, making our way down to Chetumal and the border with Belize. It has been a little over 4 months since we came to Mexico. It is such a big country with so many different regions we could probably spend a lifetime exploring, but for now the south is calling.

By Lacey | Posted in Nothing yet... | Tagged Agua Azul, Cenotes, Chiapas, Maya Bell, Maya Riviera, Mexico, Palenque, San Cristobal de las Casas, Tonina | Comments (0)

Apr

2010

Teotihuacan to Oaxaca-Playing the game of catch up

Sadly, we have to admit that we have fallen extremely behind on this blog thing. We would love to be able to blame it on horrible internet, a catastrophe that has prevented us from getting to a computer, or something else beyond our control, but unfortuately the blame is all ours. I guess our only excuse is that we have gotten caught up in all there is to see and do and just haven’t made time to sit down and write about them. In this post we will make a sad attempt to catch up and start again fresh (once again). Unfortunately we won’t be able to even begin to do justice to the many places we have visited since our last post, some of them being amongst our favorites so far. We will, however, post a bunch of pictures and hope that they at least will begin to convey the beauty of the places.

From San Miguel de Allende we made our way to Mexico City, or as Mexicans call it, DF. One of the most common things we have been told on this trip is that what ever you do, don’t drive in Mexico City. The problem being that in order to try to cut down on air pollution, DF (and in fact the whole state of Mexico) has a policy called “Hoy No Circula.” It basically translates to: you can’t drive your vehicle at least one day a week, that day corresponding to the last digit or letter on your license plate. We were told by lot’s of people that if you attempt to drive in Mexico City or the surrounding area and have foreign plates, it doesn’t really matter what day of the week it is, you are going to feel the “mordida” (the bite or a bribe).

Keeping this in mind we decided to leave the Landcruiser in a campground outside of the city limits and take a bus in. We found two nice campgrounds located just north of the city, but they are still located within the “Hoy No Circula” zone. We decided to take our chances, so after checking the day of the week and our license plate, we headed to Teotihuacan just north of Mexico City. We found a nice little campground there with no problems from over zealous corrupt cops looking for extra income. As an added benefit the campground is walking distance from the ruins of Teotihucan and only a $4 bus ride (for both of us) to the city.

We were very pleasantly surprised with Mexico City and instead of the dirty smog filled city we had heard about, we found a beautiful clear city with a great downtown area. In parts of the city we felt like we were walking through an old European city. One day we spent 6 hours walking through the Museum of Anthropology and didn’t even make it to the second floor. This really is a must see museum if you happen to be in the city.

Leaving Teotihuacan we made a straight shot for the city of Oaxaca, and arrived at a campground just outside of town just as it was getting dark. Oaxaca has been one of our favorite places in Mexico so far, we could have easily spent a few weeks there. Oaxaca is known as the state that produces some of the best food and crafts in all of Mexico and it definitely lived up to its reputation. Monte Alban is located just outside of the city and is one of the better archeological sites we visited. We were even treated to an early morning tour of a Mezcal factory owned by the owner of the campground. We both agree that some Mezcales take the cake over tequila anyday!

In Oaxaca we met an awesome couple, Catherine and Cale (The C’s). They are backpacking around Mexico and were staying at the same campground as us. After enjoying their company in Oaxaca for a week, we made room in the Landcruiser for The C’s and headed to the beach for a few days.

We ended up at Zipolite, a nice bay with a nude beach on one end. A beautiful stretch of coastline on the Pacific. We were able to catch a great day of beach, sun and a little water (unfortunately there were big unruly waves and not the best swimming conditions) while trying to avert our gaze from all (or maybe some) of the nudists walking around. What is it with nudists and the insane idea of bending over right in front of other beachgoers? Can’t they at least bend at the knees ? We bid our sad farewell to the C’s in Zipolite as they made their way back to THE Baja.

By Lacey | Posted in Nothing yet... | Tagged Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico City driving, Oaxaca, Teotihuacan, Zipolite Beach | Comments (0)

Mar

2010

San Miguel de Allende… it will suck you in

Funny tidbit: Upon arriving to the campground in San Miguel de Allende we met Joachim and Bärbel our new neighbors -a German couple who are driving a really cool and large 4 wheel drive RV around the Americas- one of the first things they asked us was how long we intended to stay for. We immediately replied in unison: “2 to 3 days max”. Bärbel simply laughed and said, “that is what we said when we got here nearly a year ago!” Bärbel’s prediction turned out to be somewhat true; we ended up staying in San Miguel for 3 weeks!

There are many things about San Miguel de Allende that make it an appealing place to stay. For starters the town has a very quaint small town “feel” (even though it is fairly large town of 62,000 give or take). This “feel” could be because of the classic old colonial spanish architecture, with narrow cobble stone streets, neat shops, and a nice plaza with a beautiful church sitting up on the hill (actually several plaza’s and churches). The town also has what seems to be the largest number of resident ex-pats and is a popular weekend destination for Mexico City folks (it seems that people who live in Mexico City tend to get away on the weekends, as just about every town within a few hours drive gets a large influx on the weekends) which means that this town has all the amenities of a larger city. Another appealing aspect of San Miguel, the one that was the impetus for our long stay here is the Instituto Allende. The Instituto offers spanish language classes as well as just about any art class you could possibly desire, from weaving to painting to most importantly (at least for Lacey) silver jewelry making classes. After chatting with Bärbel and some of the other ladies in the campground who were participating in the class, Lacey decided that it would be a great class to enroll in.

We originally planned to stay for a week while Lacey learned to work with silver, and since we would be static for a week we decided to take the time to take care of a series of small things that had been adding up as we traveled. One of the biggies on this list was getting a solar panel we could use to supplement our electrical needs and take care of our battery draining issues. We had already purchased a photovoltaic panel/charge controller at a deep “Bro” discount from our dear friends Steve and Amy Bohner from Alchemy Construction, but the panel was sitting at BajaRack’s warehouse in San Diego waiting for a safe delivery address from us. Of course the shipping took a little longer than we thought it would and Lacey liked her class so much she had to stay another week. When the panel finally arrived thanks to the diligence of our friend Sergio at BajaRack, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. I mean much worse. A very unseasonal crazy rain storm in which it poured 5 days non-stop, punctuated by intermittent thunder and lightning and periods of hail as well. We lived in a tarp city for 5 days… and yes, this is supposed to be the dry season, I guess the rain gods are not paying attention to this fact.

Our mini Tarp City during a little break of the storm from Lost World Expedition on Vimeo.

The campground we stayed at in San Miguel has been our favorite so far, The San Miguel de Allende RV Park and Tennis Courts. At first glance the campground itself is nothing special. They do have great bathrooms (some of the best so far) and tennis courts if you like to play tennis. It is also conveniently located in town and the downtown area is just a short walk away; admittedly a short walk uphill at an altitude of close to 7,000 feet sometimes does not feel that short. You definitely get in shape if you stay here for long. The most appealing thing about this campground is the great group of folk who stay here, many of whom return year after year. Everybody is very welcoming and there is a great sense of community amongst everybody that comes through here. We made some great friends, it was hard to say good bye.

Perhaps the only draw back of the campground is that it is located right next to a church that likes to ring its bells allll night long. Since this bell ringing, along with setting off aerial bombs (very loud booming fireworks) at ungodly hours in the morning seems to be a Mexican custom everywhere, you can hardly blame the campground. At some point you just have to go with it…that and buy a good pair of earplugs!

San Miguel de Allende is a lively town and it seems as though there is always something going on to celebrate. While we were here the town celebrated the birthday of Ignacio Allende who is the namesake of the town and a national hero of the revolution. The town celebrated by having a big parade through town and a special mass that we didn’t see (the idea of sitting in church for a few hours on such a beautiful day was enough to overcome any curiosity we had).

Another great place in San Miguel is the Botanical Gardens, Charco del Ingenio. They are located up on the hill outside of town. We took a bus to get up there and as we didn’t quite know where they were we asked the bus driver. He told us he would tell us when it was time to get off. Eventually the bus driver called us forward, pointed up a street and told us just walk up the street and it was right there. We started walking and pretty soon the street had turned to dirt and the buildings slowly started disappearing and still there was nothing to indicate the botanical gardens where anywhere around. Apparently the bus driver had sent us on a wild goose chase, but after about a half hour of walking around in the middle of nowhere and asking directions we finally found the place. It is an amazing preserve of a total of 380 hecatares, crisscrossed with pathways and all variety of native plants. It is a beautiful place to spend a few hours walking around and has great views of the town below.

By Lacey | Posted in Mexico | Tagged Botanical Gardens, Charco del Ingenio, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende | Comments Off

Feb

2010

Guanajuato, Guanajuato (City, State)

We spent a few days in Guanajuato after Luis’ first visit from the stomach fairy, otherwise known as Montezuma’s Revenge… Oh yeah, he was down for the count 2 days. No fun. But we have a pact that goes something like this: if one of us gets any kind of stomach problem we pause the camping and stay at a hotel, it does not have to be a nice hotel, but it needs a bathroom (in the room) and running water. I know that may be more info than we needed to share, but this blog is also for the Luis and Lacey of the future, a journal of sorts.

Back to the post… Guanajuato is awesome. We really enjoyed our few days there, tons of walking on ankle hating cobblestone streets. The city was founded in 1554, so it has been around the block and you can tell (in a good way). The city is also designated a World Heritage Site which is some program concocted by UNESCO to preserve certain spots around the world, neat.

Panoramic view of the wonderfully colorful City of Guanajuato, taken from the statue of El Pipila.

The city sprawls over a relatively small valley, the houses spread throughout the valley and climb up the folds of the mountains. This location means that there are tons of narrow little callejons (alleys) winding up the steep hillsides. The locals have got to be in good shape to live here. Some of the callejons are so narrow a young Romeo and Juliet couple are fabled to have exchanged kisses across the ally (unfortunately we don’t have any pictures of this particular ally because every time we went the ally was packed full of tourists lined up to take pictures). A very interesting fact is that the valley used to be a river basin (the Guanajuato River), when the Spanish built here the river mostly flowed through tunnels underneath the city; however, after many years of raising buildings to accommodate repeated flooding a damn was built and some of the water from the damn is rerouted to an underground aquifer, but in our humble opinion a large storm could be trouble. The tunnels where the river used to flow under the city were then paved for automobile traffic. This series of tunnels run all over the city and minimizes vehicle traffic through the city, can’t say that this works all that well, but it is very cool and a point of interest of the city.

One of the underground tunnels in Guanajuato

There are tunnel entrances throughout the city, we tried walking through one but felt like we smoked twenty packs of cigs in 30 feet...

I think we are not gonna bore you with semi decent descriptions of the city and yada, yada, yada… so we are gonna post a ton of pics and describe them. We will say, however, that Guanajuato is a beautiful city and one of our favorite for historical buildings so far.

But before that… The Mummies of Guanajuato: here is a place we visited mostly to satisfy some inner morbid desire to experience it and understand why it exists. All of the mummies in this museum are naturally mummified, they do not go through the extensive process that Egyptian mummies went through. The dead bodies in this museum were part of a group exhumed from the catacombs under the Panteon (the main church) between 1865 and 1958 in Guanajuato, at a time when law required relatives to pay taxes in order to keep the bodies of their deceased in cemeteries. If the relatives could not pay this tax, they would lose the right to the burial place, and the bodies were exhumed. Ninety percent of the bodies in the Guanajuato Panteon were exhumed because relatives did not pay the tax; however, only 2% of them were naturally mummified. Some of these 2% are in the museum we visited. WARNING!!! Do not look at the following pics if mummies and death may disturb you… we were deeply disturbed after the visit to this Mummy Museum. Most folks in Mexico view death in a very different way than other cultures do.

O.K. now without further a do: the photos of Guanajuato

By Luis | Posted in Nothing yet... | Tagged blogsherpa, El Pipila, Guanajuato, Mexico, Mummy Museum | Comments (6)

Feb

2010

Guadalajara to the Interior

Guadalajara is the next stop on our trail, and is our gateway to the colonial interior of Mexico. Let us start this post by showering you with a trivia tid bit for your next cocktail party: This city is named after the Spanish city of Guadalajara, the name of that city in turn originates from the Arabic word wad al hayara (sp?), which roughly translates to “Valley of Stones”; the literal translation of the Iberian name Arriaca, meaning “stony river”. What would I do without Wikipedia?

The downtown area of Guadalajara is great for spending an afternoon walking around, but man is this a big city! 4,095,715 people in the Guadalajara Metropolitan area. Lacey spent some time here back in her high school days on exchange, but she didn’t even remember how big this city really is. It was a bit of a shock for us, our last “City” was San Diego over 2 months ago!

The highlight of Guadalajara (for us) is the Mercado Libre located near the old cathedral. It is the classic Mexican mercado only on steroids, 4 stories and a whole block where you can find anything and everything you could ever want and more. The place is huge, you could spend an entire day getting lost (really lost) in the place and still not see the whole thing.

The other sight not to be missed in Guadalajara is the Teatro Degollado next to the cathedral in downtown. It is a beautiful building and the inside has a great mural on the ceiling.

Not the greatest image, but I think it depicts the grandeur of the Degollado Theater

At the theater we met Carlos Hernandez and Enrique Manzo two industrial design students who had meticulously created a huge sculpture of Mary Joseph and Baby Jesus, a floating angel and a reproduction of the theater out of cardboard. Pretty impressive stuff.

By Lacey | Posted in Nothing yet... | Tagged Guadalajara, Mercado Libre, Mexico, Teatro Degollado | Comments (0)

Feb

2010

Arts and Crafts and Falling Trees

The town of Patzcuaro does not seem to show up on the radar of super touristy places. It is not one of those towns that when talking to people back home they would know where you are such as they would with Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta. It does however, have quite the reputation with other travelers and a visit to the town was recommended by many people we met on the road. We really enjoyed the town which is great for walking. There are two main plazas, both with lots of activity going on all day. The main plaza was torn up for renovation during our visit, but the multitude of shops and outdoor cafes around the plaza were perfect for sitting and enjoying a tasty beverage while people watching. Patzcuaro seems to be a popular destination for Mexico City folk (Chilangos) on the weekends, so there was no end to the amount of time we could sit and watch people from all different walk of life go by. We were particularly entertained by two very energetic local children, who serenaded the patrons of the cafe in exchange for whatever donations people would give. They gave quite the performance, and we couldn’t resist some photos.

One of the best things about Patzcuaro and its surroundings is all of the unique crafts that you find at the local stores. You can spend a whole day walking around town checking out all of the stores and galleries, and if you are not careful you might end up with a full bag or vehicle to take home.

The history behind these crafts is fascinating, I will not bore you with details, but here is a rundown: the Spanish Bishop Vasco de Quiroga a firm believer in More’s Utopia, was living in the area in the 1500 and he decided to teach different crafts to indigenous communities. So the majority of the items you find in Patzcuaro are made in communities that were educated hundreds of years ago by Quiroga. Each town specializes in a particular item or material, and if you feel like bargaining or finding the good deals you can go directly to the artisans for a reduced price. The town of Capula, northeast of Paztcuaro is known for its pottery work, particularly the beautiful Catrina dolls they make.

La Catrina dolls are based on this 1913 zinc etching by Mexican printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (image from Wikipedia)

The Catrina doll is a skeleton dressed in elegant clothing and is most often associated with the day of the dead celebrations. You find the dolls dressed in all variety of elegant dress, all though the styles tend to the classic upper class dress. We fell in love with the Catrina dolls and tried for a long time to figure out how to store one in the Landcruiser without breaking it to no avail. The fingers on the dolls are so tiny, the doll wouldn’t last a day with us. Another town to check out is Santa Clara del Cobre which specializes in copper metal work. You can find plates, beautiful pots, and even sinks made out of hammered copper.

We stayed at a great campground just outside of the downtown in Patzcuaro where we met Al and Marilyn. We really enjoyed hanging out and talking with them, and even had the privilege of helping to celebrate Al’s birthday. We won’t say how old he turned, but he doesn’t look a day over 50!

Danza de los Viejitos (T’ARCHE UARAKUA, The Dance of the Old Men) from Lost World Expedition on Vimeo.

We ran into this street performing troupe in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. This is a typical dance of the Tarascan or P’urhépecha natives of the region. The video is short and of relatively poor quality (point and shoot camera), but these guys danced for hours non stop it was quite amazing and enjoyable to see.

One day while driving around the lake we found an interesting place called Centro de Ecotecnias. They are a small non profit that builds and sells alternative low technology items for rural households. Their biggest seller is a version of the Patsari stove which is a cook stove designed to improve indoor air quality of homes by funneling all of the smoke out of the house. Many households, especially rural houses, still use wood fired ovens for cooking. Most of the smoke from these ovens goes directly into the house causing health problems for many. These stoves are specially designed to burn wood thoroughly and carry any byproduct of the burn (smoke) out of the house. The thourough burn of the wood provides another benefit of this stove: less wood consumption . They are also in the process of developing a biodigester to harvest methane fuel from animal waste which can then be used for cooking in the kitchen. Another one of their projects is to help preserve the traditional non-genetically modified strains of maize (corn) in the face of increasingly industrialized farming in Mexico.

From Patzcuaro we headed to Morelia for a night then on to Los Azufres. Los Azufres is a national park in the mountains that has sulfur springs everywhere. The area is very beautiful, surrounded by a towering pine forest at an elevation of over 9,000 feet. There are lots of thermal springs in the area and large thermal power plants all over the place. We stayed at a place called Rancho Viejo which had been recommended to us. It had been overcast and rainy for the last few days and when we got out of the truck we knew we were in for a cold night. Rancho Viejo has a campground and most importantly several pools fed by the thermal hot springs, with the temperature of the water in the pools decreasing as you get further from the source. The place is very picturesque, with green hills covered in pine trees and lots of pools filled with steaming hot water. They even have an enclosed room built around the hottest pool in order to create a natural steam room of sorts. We high tailed it to the pools as soon as we got there for a nice long soak to thaw out. While we were sitting in the comforting hot water the wind picked up, then it started to rain, then hail. We knew we were in for an interesting night in the tent when thunder and lightning started going off all around us.

We weathered the night even though the crazy rain and wind kept going all night and we woke up numerous times to the sound of trees falling all around us (well at least Luis did…Lacey did wake once, but managed to sleep through most of it). Hearing trees fall around you while sleeping in a tent is not a comforting thought, believe me. When we woke up at sunrise, we saw 4 downed trees laying around us. The weather had decided to give us a break for a bit, so we quickly packed up while we could. After the long night of rain and cold we briefly considered heading for the beach for some warm weather. However, we really wanted to see the interior and historical Mexico so we sucked it up. While we were finishing packing up, another tree cracked and fell in slow motion not 100 yards from us. We looked at each other and said let’s get the hell out of here! But not before we got one last soak in the nice hot water…we needed to thaw out a bit before hitting the road

By Lacey | Posted in Mexico | Tagged catrina dolls, Danza del Los Viejitos, Hot Springs, La Catrina, Los Azufres, Patzcuaro | Comments (1)

Jan

2010

Fruit post I

We love food. One of the wonderful things about travel is not just seeing new places and meeting new people, but trying new foods. Different spices and cooking techniques make all manner of dishes taste completely different even within the same towns we visit, but nature’s bounty is what has us mesmerized and constantly titillating our taste buds with its cornucopia of fruits. As we head closer to the tropics this bounty is apparent and fresh. We have not even left Mexico at this point and even though we are both seasoned travelers we have encountered new fruits. We will try to catalog a few here on the website. Some of you may know a few but not all of you will know all of these fruits… please enjoy.

First we will post our most amazing discovery. A fruit very similar to the revered and stinky South East Asian fruit: Durian. This fruit is called Yacca by the locals in the coast of the State of Nayarit (have not found a more scientific or generic name). It is a very large fruit of irregular shape, I would guess that a good sized Yacca could way more than 10 pounds. The outside skin -unlike the Durian- is not spiky but it does have segmented dimples of sorts. In order to minimize my destruction of the english language via my description I have poached a picture from wikipedia (of a Durian)… the inside of the Yacca is very similar.

Photo of a Durian NOT a Yacca. Courtesy of Wikipedia.org The inside structure of both fruits is very similar.

Describing the fruits flavor will be near impossible for someone of my near nil literary caliber. My best shot at it would be to call in an ice cream flavor: Tutti Frutti. Tutti frutti literary means all fruits in Italian, granted the ice cream tastes very synthetic… but this fruit really does taste like an amalgamation of fruit flavors. If you take a bit and close your eyes there will be hints of mango and apricot, or is it honeydew melon and strawberries? You decide, if you ever see this fruit please do your taste buds a flavor and try it!

The following entry is still of impressive size, but relatively disappointing flavor. It is known as Cidra and it looks like a lemon on steroids.

The lemon on steroids of the citrus world: Cidra. Notice the diminutive lime next to it.

We found this behemoth of a citrus near the town of Patzcuaro. I asked a local what it was and if it was good, he did not answer and proceeded to climb the tree cut one down and said: “It is good, sweet and 20 pesos please.” We paid for our fruit (even though the guy obviously did not own the tree, he just happened to be walking by). I cut into it and noticed a very large amount of pith. I removed as much pith as possible and wound up with a fruit very similar in size to a grapefruit. The flavor was very disappointing, because there really was no flavor to speak of. I cannot blame the fruit because it may have been picked before its prime, so the verdict is out for the time being.

The following fruit I (Luis) am quite familiar with and I happen to like it and other members of its Passion Fruit or Passiflora family. In Mexico they call this fruit Granada China and it is not the same as the commonly known Passion Fruit. Passion fruit is very tart and sweet, this fruit is just sweet no tartness here. It has a thick and relatively plasticky feeling outer shell and inside is a sac full of seeds which are themselves surrounded by a small bag of slimy juice. You cannot really bite down on the seeds just swirl in your mouth and take in all the flavors of the juice. Very good fruit, but a caveat is necessary for those of you with an adversity to slimy textures.

Granada China or Parcha. It is more oblong than the more popular Passion Fruit. The pic on the right is a small individual seed in its juice bag housing.

Last but not least in this post is the Mamey Zapote (pouteria sapote). The brown outer layer has a texture somewhere between sandpaper and the bark of a tree. We have seen it made into milkshakes at street fruit bars. The fruit’s flavor is variously described as a combination of pumpkin, cooked sweet potato and the texture is smooth creamy and sweet. I cannot say this is my favorite fruit, but I may try it in a milkshake which may be a good vehicle for its flavors.

Mamey Zapote

By Luis | Posted in Food | Tagged Cidra, fruit, Granada China, Mamey Zapote, Mexico, Patzcuaro, Yacca | Comments (2)

Jan

2010

Tequila!!!

This post is dedicated to Robin, Jodie, Laurel, and Rico, for your love of tequila… we thought of you the whole time!

After Puerto Vallarta we said goodbye to the coast for a little while and headed inland, making a stop in Tequila. We took a really nice back road from Puerto Vallarta into Tequila that was recommended by a few different people. It was a small road that wound through the lush vegetated mountains. If you are in the area, there is no missing the town of Tequila, where “it” (meaning the beverage of tequila) supposedly all started and has given the town its fame. The story of this drink made from the Agave plant is more complicated and in reality it may date as far back as Mayan empire days, but we will talk about it when we get to Oaxaca.

If the agave plants dotting the hillside didn't clue you in to the amount of tequila here, the sign welcoming you into town will. I guess if a town was called Whiskey I would expect the same.

Driving into the town, all of the surrounding hillsides are covered in blue agave plants for as far as the eye can see. It is really quite beautiful for the blue hue the plants impart on the hillside.

All of the hills surrounding town have the blue hue of agave

The town itself is quite beautiful and even without all the tequila factories is well worth at least a day of walking around. There is a really nice old church in the center of town and some nice plazas for people watching. For most people tequila is the real reason for visiting this city, and there are people offering tours of tequila refineries and the plantations bugging you as soon as you set foot on the plaza. There are also liquor stores all over town selling everything from the best of the best of tequila, to big plastic jugs of what appears to be tequila (just looking at the plastic jugs gave us a headache!). We decided to do a tour of the Jose Cuervo distillery which is located just off the plaza. They had a bunch of different tours with the price going up for each “attraction” that was added, and we were a little skeptical at the quality of the tour we were buying, so we opted for the standard tour with a tequila tasting at the end. The tour turned out to be well worth the price of admission and we got the low down on how tequila is made (we also got quite the buzz since you get to try the tequila at the different stages, and they are more than willing to refill). At the end of the standard tour we sat down to learn about the aging process of Tequila and the fine points of tasting. We did a taste of the Blanco, Reposado and the Añejo. All three tequilas were the same brand and same alcohol content, but it was pretty amazing at the differences in flavors. Our take on the explanation of the aging process is that Blanco is only aged for up to 3 months, the Reposado is aged for anywhere from 3 months to a year, and the Añejo is aged for more than a year. Or something like that, at this point in the tour we definitely weren’t paying attention to details. With aging the tequila starts to take on more of the flavor of the oak barrels it is in. We decided we liked the Reposado best, but the Blanco was good for shooting. The Añejo had too much flavor for our buds. But, that is just our unrefined tastes talking. We’re more used to shooting tequila with lime and salt, not sitting down with a cigar with tequila in wine glasses and swishing it around while watching the legs form on the side of the fine crystal while sniffing the aroma and trying to guess what tonalities may be there.

How tequila is made, The Tour:

Before you can go inside the distillery you have to put these fancy hair nets on. With Tequila it is all about sanitation!

The agave plants are harvested and all of the blades are taken off. It takes 8 years for an agave plant to mature before it is ready to be made into tequila.

They randomly select some of the agave hearts for quality control testing. These numbers indicate the ones selected.

The tools used for harvesting and de-blading the agave.

The agave hearts are then roasted in big ovens. The roasting process brings out all of the sugars in the plant.

Roasted agave leaves out for us to taste. They are extremely sweet, they taste like the product of baking sugar cane... sweet and smoky.

The hearts are then mashed up and go through two phases of distilling in these big copper vats.

The tequila right after fermentation is 50% alcohol. It is surprisingly smooth, with a nice clean flavor. Care for a refill anybody?

The tequila is then aged in oak barrels in a climate controlled warehouse. The aging time depends on the type of tequila being made.

Other uses for agave and the fibers left over from distilling.

The amount of charring on the inside of the barrels the tequila is aged in gives the tequila different flavors. The barrels that are used in this factory come from Tennesse and France.