Backtrack: May 26 - 27 ❤ Sick...leaving early

I spent most of the day in the house...well, really I spent all day in the house except for going to the internet cafe with Paula to change my flight to leave early.  I felt really bad going back to the house and almost ran back.  Paula kept stopping and asking if I wanted to take a taxi, but I kept saying no because I couldn't imagine going over the speed bumps feeling the way I did.  I thought I might have exploded.  I got back to the house without exploding, but I felt really bad the whole day and still didn't feel like eating.

Paula's daughter in law came over with Beto, Nando, and Mayo to try to diagnose me.  I felt better with them around than with Paula's sister because her sister was almost yelling at me.  They didn't understand that my stomach was telling me not to eat and that everything edible made me feel nauseous.  Paula went to get more Suero, toast and jam, bananas, and Gatorade.  She still thought I wasn't eating because I was angry.  I told her I wasn't blaming anyone for my sickness.  She said she felt really bad that I was sick and started to cry.  I told her that I couldn't tell her how to feel, but that I didn't want to eat because my body didn't want food.  It's not like I wanted to feel that way either.  Her daughter in law brought me some pills to stop my stomach issues.  I wasn't sure if I should take them, but figured I would need to if I wanted to be able to travel.  I ate two little bananas and Nando and Beto started telling me stories about when they had the runs.  Beto said that he was far away from home and knocked on a stranger's door to ask if he could use the bathroom and they let him in.  Nando said he loved cucumbers when he was younger and he ate too many one time and got the runs.  They said that when Diego's brother Tani came to visit with his girlfriend Keiko, Keiko ate too much mole and ended up with the runs.  I don't know if that really was the reason, but it was funny to hear all these stories and it lifted my spirits.  They were telling me that they could take me to all these cool places on Sunday because they didn't work and I told them that I was leaving early.  So they said, next time then.  Beto went to get videos of the Guelaguetza, which is a big dancing event in Oaxaca.  Beto and Nando have danced in the event before.  I watched some minutes of it, but it was so hot in the room that I went back outside to lay down in the hammock.  They left shortly after and Paula asked if I wanted to go to the woman who performed cures.  She said she would take a shower and ask me again, but she never asked again.  I was actually considering it.  She gave me two bananas and left the door to the kitchen open for me.  I was tired but I got up to take a shower.  The cold water felt so good.  I slept for a bit and then woke up to go to the bathroom.  I couldn't sleep after that, so I started singing songs in my head.

I got out of bed around 4 AM because I thought I should take a picture of the goat head in the refrigerator, but when I looked, it was gone!!!  I think it might have been under this bit of plastic in there, but I didn't want to upset my stomach any further by trying to uncover it.  I tried to go back to sleep and finally had to get up to get ready at 5.  I managed to eat 3/4 of a banana before my stomach started to turn.

Paula came with me in the taxi.  There were so many speed bumps.  I tried to breathe deeply to calm my stomach, but the window was open and I just got a big whiff of gasoline.  So then I started counting how many times the taxi driver made the sign of the cross, but after a bit it turned out that he picked his nose or bit his nails more than he made the sign of the cross.  I did manage to differentiate them though and he ended up making the sign of the cross only six times.

We got to the airport with no problem and Paula came inside to wait with me.  I had tried to give her some money at the house before we left, for using her phone and buying me all of the food and Suero, but she told me, "No, friendship is worth more than money."  Before I got up to cross through security, she gave me a hug and told me that she was sad that I was leaving early because I got sick.  In the house she had given me two small embroidered cloths.  One was from Marta and had my name embroidered on it and the other was from her.  They really are beautiful.

I tried to sleep on the airplane from Houston to San Diego, but there was this woman in the row in front of me who was talking about every detail of her life.  I looked at the guy who was sitting next to me and he made a gesture with his hand that she was talking too much.  I laughed and she continued talking.  She ordered a rum and coke when the flight attendant came around with drinks.  After a couple hours, the man next to me said, "She doesn't stop talking!!!"  I told him I thought we knew more about her life than she did.  She ordered another rum and coke and the guy looked at me like, "This isn't good for us."  I laughed.  The flight attendant came back and said that they had already locked up all of the alcohol but here was her coke.  She said something like, "Well this isn't going to help much."  The guy and I laughed.

My dad was there to pick me up from the house and it was a relief to see him.  My sister had given him some coconut water for me to drink and he had brought it in the car.  At home, I drank some water and ate a piece of bread.  I felt better but was weak and tired.  I talked to Candy and was sad to hear that she canceled her tickets to go to Oaxaca since it wouldn't be the same without me there.  I talked to Diego also to make sure he told his mom I had arrived safely and to thank her for everything.

I felt bad that I had to leave early, but with the heat, the mosquitos, and the heavy food, I don't think I would have been able to get better there.  Even at home it took me three days after I got home to find something that helped me get better.  Activated charcoal is a Godsend, I tell you!!!  After I took that I was on the mend.  I was so happy to be able to eat normally!!!

My mom and I went shopping and to eat pho again.  She's as addicted as I am now.  We also went to our neighbor's 70th surprise birthday party.  After that, I packed up my bags again to head out to Cancun...

Backtrack: May 25 ❤ Marta's House

This morning Paula took Marcos to the airport in Oaxaca.  I told them I would go to Marta's house instead of joining them.  Marta said they would come back to get me around 10 but they ended up coming at 11.  This morning, when I finally got up after Paula and Marcos left, I realized that Paula had left the door to the kitchen locked and I didn't have any food or water.  I ate and apple that I found and wanted to open this large jug of water that was out, but I thought that Marta would be coming soon to get me.  By the time I went over there I felt horrible.  I thought I'd feel better after drinking water and eating something, but I still felt sick.  I ended up sleeping for 2 hours and then I tried to eat again, but the food they gave me was spicy and greasy and I couldn't eat much of it.  I was frustrated because I didn't want to say anything bad and I didn't know exactly what I could eat.  I started crying and Jesica hugged me.  Marta asked if I wanted to travel around more and she told me that she knew Ejutla was "feo" (ugly) and that I probably missed my family.  Jesica suggested that we go to the internet cafe.  Paula came to the internet cafe while we were there and we went back to Marta's house.  They wanted me to eat something but I didn't want to eat what they served me.  Everything I looked at made my stomach turn.

Paula and I went home and she told me she was sorry for keeping the kitchen locked and that she knew I was mad - but I wasn't mad.  I just wished I was with my mom so she could take care of me.  Paula told me that the dog had gotten loose and had eaten some eggs.  I drank some yogurt and water and then lay down.  Paula and her sister came into my room to try to figure out what was wrong with me.  Then Paula rubbed an unbroken egg on my head, chest, stomach and back and then cracked it into a glass of water.  I thought she was going to make me drink it, but she didn't.  She asked me if she could spit Mezcal on my head and demonstrated by spitting it on the wall.  I told her no, so she told me I should maybe just drink it.  She put a fan in my room and kept asking me if I wanted to go to the doctor.  She told me to come into the kitchen to eat, and she put two bowls in front of me with tortillas.  i just ate a tortilla and drank some water.

I finally got to talk to my sister and my mom and they told me that it sounded like I was dehydrated and to drink lots of water with salt in it or soda with salt in it.  I drank and drank and drank until I felt sick to my stomach.  Paula went to get me an electrolyte drink called Suero.  I drank all that I could and then tried to sleep...

Backtrack: May 24 ❤ At the House and the Cemetery

Today Marcos went to Oaxaca and I stayed at the house with Paula.  She was washing clothes and wanted to know if I had some clothes I wanted to wash.  I told her I did, but before we went to eat something in the comedor (restaurant) near to her house and then we went to the plaza to buy flowers and food.

After we got back I washed my clothes and Chucho came to the house with his dad.  Chencho was putting a bigger window in the room I was staying in.  Chucho kept me company while I finished washing my clothes and hanging them to dry.  He was showing me different-colored butterflies that were flitting around the flowers in the garden.  He saw a little worm and he told me that it was a little snake.  I told him he should put it on some wet ground so it could live, and he launched it into the air and it landed on some dry ground.  He had been putting water on this black lid and the water dried within seconds.  He said he wanted to put the worm on this black lid to burn it.  I swear, boys are boys!!!  Marta and Jesi came then and I played loteria with Jesi and Chucho.  We went into the kitchen to get something to drink and were mixing different sodas that were leftover from the party to come up with drinks that tasted good.  Chucho didn't want to put strawberry soda in his because he said it was for girls.  Jesi put it in his drink anyway and he said he liked it.  He had a little strawberry-colored mustache.  We told him that and he said that I had a grape mustache.  Jesi said he did but I didn't.  Oh, poor Chucho.  We went to watch TV in the other room and I kept falling asleep.  The heat puts me right to sleep.  Marta asked if I wanted to eat, but I wasn't hungry.  Then Paula asked me if I wanted to eat and I said I wasn't hungry yet.  She brought me some soup to try anyway and asked if I wanted more.  I told her that I would eat later, that I felt full.  She put her hand on my belly and asked how I could be full.  I don't understand the need to get me to eat!!!  After awhile, Chucho and Jesica came to tell me they were leaving.

Marcos came home and I ate soup and some tortillas with him.  I sat in the hammock and watched Chencho putting cement around the edge of where the new window was going to go.  I went with Marcos and Paula to the cemetery so that they could put flowers on Marcos' father's, grandfather's and grandmother's graves.  They arranged the flowers in the vases around the graves.  They put fresh water in the vases and also threw water over the gravestones and on the graves.  The mosquitos were eating me alive, so Paula took me back out to the front while Marcos finished up.  Paula called to some people selling pastries and asked me if I wanted one.  I said no and she told them that she kept on trying to get me to eat but that I wouldn't.  I was getting really exasperated with the whole food thing since I had just eaten before we had come.

When we got back, Chencho had finished putting in the window.  There was dust everywhere in the room and so Marcos and I cleaned off all the dust from the bedframe, walls, and floor.  He brought out a cold mango from the refrigerator when we took a break.  It tasted so good since it was so hot still, even at night.  It felt good to have a really clean room before going to sleep.

Oh, and Paula found the pollitos (little chickens) that she thought she had lost the day before.  :)

Backtrack: May 23 ❤ Tree of Tule and Mitla

This morning I woke up sort of early since we were going to Oaxaca (we actually never quite made it there since there were people protesting and roads were blocked).  We went by Armando's house to get him and then met up with Marta's family at a restaurant to eat breakfast.  We had bread, hot chocolate, and eggs.  It was hard for me to decide what to eat because they don't have descriptions with the names of the items on the menu.  Marcos took me back to see where they were preparing the food so that I could choose more easily, but it didn't help much.  There were three hammocks outside the restaurant and Jesi and Chucho were playing on them after they finished eating.  Chucho had one that you could swing by pulling on a cord by the hammock.  He was swinging himself up really high.

Chucho swinging himself on the hammock outside the restaurant.

Jesi on her hammock.

Next we went to Tule to see the tree of Tule that is more than 2000 years old.  It's huge.  There were formations in the trunk and the branches of the tree that looked like a lion, a monkey, and various other things.  Chucho kept coming up behind me and poking me to scare me.  I would do the same and he would say he wasn't scared.  One time I really got him good though.  :)  We went to look at the child of the oldest tree.  Its child is more than 1000 years old.

Facts about the tree of Tule.

The tree of Tule.

The tree of Tule and the church nearby.

Armando, Marta, Marcos, Chucho, Paula, and me in front of the tree of Tule.

We left the park and took some more group pictures in front of a fountain.

Paula, me, Marcos, Jesi, Chucho, Marta, and Chencho at the fountain near the tree of Tule.

We then went to a circle of shops to look around.  I tried on some dresses there but they were all really big.  Chucho and Jesica were looking at this shirt at one of the stands that had drawings of women's boobs labeled with the fruit that they looked like underneath, like coconuts, mangos, grapefruit, etc.  Chencho asked Jesi if she wanted the shirt and she said no and walked away from it.  haha

We ate ice cream in a marketplace nearby.  Chucho wanted to try rose petal ice cream, so he got that and lime ice cream.  The rose ice cream tasted like cheap rose perfume smells.  It was not good and he ate everything except that.  I got guanabana ice cream.  There were guanabana seeds in it.  Chucho told me to save the seeds so I could plant them at the house and when I came back there would be a guanabana tree.  :)

We got back in the car and drove to Mitla, where there are ruins as well as lots of shops.  We all walked around the first set of ruins and then I went with Marcos to look at the shops.  After that, I went with Marcos to see the other part of the ruins.  There were small tunnels that we could walk into.  They were so hot and humid inside the tunnels that it felt like a sauna!!!  I saw this really big, red, fuzzy ant in one part of the ruins.  I was going to take a picture, but I wanted to figure out what it was first.  They said it was an ant and that it was good luck to see one.  I was just about to take its picture when it ran back into the cracks of the ruins.  Oh, well.

Chucho looking around the ruins at Mitla.

Jesica in the doorway between rooms in the ruins at Mitla.

I'm sitting on the stairs at part of the ruins in Mitla.

The ruins at Mitla had beautiful designs carved into the walls.

Me sitting by the entrance to one of the tunnels at the ruins in Mitla.

Near the ruins at Mitla.

We left the ruins and went to eat dinner.  I got something called Coloradito.  It was a red mole with chicken.  It was really good.  The rest of them asked if I wanted some Mezcal, but after trying it the first time, I really didn't want to have any more.  :)  There was a TV on and Chucho was telling me, "It's like the shirt we saw when we were leaving the really big tree."  It took me awhile before I understood that he was talking about the busty women on the TV program and the shirt that had compared cleavage to fruit.  haha  He's such a sweet boy, but I suppose boys are boys!!!

When we got back to the house, Paula said she thought she lost the little "pollitos" (little chickens) that had been wandering around in the garden.  She was looking around for them with a flashlight.  I was exhausted after the long, hot day, so I took a shower and went to sleep (but not before checking for worms under my pillow.)

Backtrack: May 22 ❤ San Bernardo and other natural springs

Today I got up a little bit late.  When I made my bed, I lifted up my pillow and discovered four little worms underneath.  Oh, it was so yucky.  I think they are worms from the corn.  I'm going to make it a ritual to check underneath my pillow every night before I go to sleep.  :)

After I dressed, I ate with the family.  A lot of them came over to eat the food leftover from the party the day before.  I think they knew that I hadn't really liked the goat that much because they served me other meat.  I ate it with tortillas, beans and quesillo.  Almost everyone left after the brunch (they called it lunch but since it was 10 AM, I'm calling it brunch).  Another family came.  They had a little girl who reminded me of my niece.  I had gone in my room to read and she came into my room with a ball and wanted to play.  She couldn't speak at all, but she would point or motion with her hand and make little grunting sounds.  When she wanted me to come she would move her hand to come and point at my shoes.  We went into the room where Paula and Marcos slept and she showed me a big stuffed bear.  Then she was fascinated as I turned on and off a flashlight she had found.  She wanted to press the button to turn it on and off herself.  :)  She got bored with that and she went to go look out the door to the street.  She was pointing to the horse that was eating in the field across from the house.  She would turn back to make sure I was looking too.  Then she went into the bathroom and liked when I turned the light on and off.  I helped her wash her hands and then she pulled off a piece of toilet paper to dry them off.  She was so cute.

After they left, I went with Paula, Marcos, Armando (Paula's brother), and Carmela (Paula's friend) to two natural springs where fresh water streams out of the ground into small pools.  The first place we went was called San Bernardo.  It was really pretty because it was so natural.  There were people bathing in the fresh water.

Paula taking a picture of the fresh water streaming from the ground at San Bernardo.

San Bernardo: Paula walking around the freshwater pool.

San Bernardo: You can see people bathing at the far end of the pool.

Across from the natural pools, there were huge trees and some picnic tables underneath them.  It was really hot that day, so it was nice to be in the shade of the huge trees.

San Bernardo: Spring water coming from the ground near the huge trees.

San Bernardo: "Take care of the trees like you care for your family."

San Bernardo: Paula taking a drink from the spring.

When we left, we ran into some people selling corn on the cob from a large pail.  Paula asked if I wanted some and I told her no.  The rest of them munched on their corn as we drove to the next destination.  This next place we went to was less natural and had cement and posts around the spring water.  They had put up the posts so that people wouldn't throw coins into the water like they might into a fountain.  There was a place in the middle of the square selling food, but when they asked if I wanted something, I still wasn't hungry.  We made our way to a church and went inside.

Outside the church.

Walking into the church.

Paula praying in front of the altar.  

Inside the church, Paula and Marcos prayed.  Marcos told me to follow him up and around the altar.  He told me that when he was 10 years old, he had put his ear up to the rocks to the side of the altar and could hear a sound like the ocean but now he couldn't.  Was it the place or him that changed???

When we left the church, we went back to the place that sold food since Paula's brother was sitting there talking to the people who worked there.  It was cool there under some trees.  They asked me again if I wanted something to eat and I said no.  The woman said that maybe the "gringita" didn't like mexican food like they didn't like american food.  I told her in Spanish that I just wasn't hungry and she said, "Ay, mira como entiende el español!"  ("Oh, look how she understands Spanish!")  I had been getting frustrated because if I said I didn't want to eat, they would assume I didn't like the food, even if we'd just eaten!!!

We went home and then to Marta's house.  Marta made us tostadas with beans, quesillo, tomato, and chiles.  After that we ate gelatina (jello).  The mosquitos were attacking me at their house and Marta gave me a towel to put over my legs.  I started to fall asleep, so they took me out to the hammack they had outside and put a sheet over me so the bugs wouldn't get to me.  I was fighting to stay awake, but my eyes kept closing.  I'm not sure how long I slept, but when I woke up, Chucho was there next to me, waiting for me to come play with him.  They were trying to decide what to play and Chucho was blowing feathers from their pet birds over me.  We finally decided to play "canicas" (marbles).  Yesi got  a sharp pole and dug the holes into the ground so we could play.  I'd never really played marbles correctly, so I wasn't very good at it.  It was fun though.  After we played a bit, Marcos said we should go.  We passed by an internet cafe on the way home and they left me there so I could use the computer for an hour and then they came back for me to take me back to the house.

Backtrack: May 21 ❤ Paula's Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Paula's birthday.  I felt really useless this morning because I didn't know what to do in order to help out.  When I asked Paula, she just told me I could sit and drink an atole, which is a hot rice drink.  Frustrating!!!  I went in my room to read my book so that I wouldn't be in anyone's way.

After a bit, Paula came to my room and asked if I wanted to go buy cilantro at the market with her.  I jumped at the chance.  We ended up buying cilantro, cheese, and meat there.  I'm really not used to how unsanitary the food treatment is here.  The meat was out hanging on metal rods with flies buzzing around it and the woman pulled it off with bare hands, cut off a piece, and then put it on the scale before handing it to Paula.  We had that same meat for lunch.  I supposed it would be all right after being cooked, or at least I hoped so.  We ate it with salsa, tortilla, and quesillo and washed it down with atole.  After eating, I went with Paula and another woman to the molinero.  We had two big buckets full of things to grind, so we took one of the little taxis that have three wheels and no doors, kind of like a motorbike with a roof and floor.  One of the buckets was full of ingredients for a bean mole, and the other held ingredients for horchata.  At the molinero, they have lots of big machines to grind up different things.  Certain machines were used to grind dry items and others for wet items.  Other people were there grinding ingredients for hot chocolate and coffee.  Paula took a pinch of the chocolate mix from the machine and told me to taste some.  It was good.  Really sugary.  A woman poured all the ingredients for the bean mole into one big machine and added water to it as the machine passed it through and back into the bucket.  She and the other woman we came with were pushing it down with their bare hands and then scraping their hands on the side of the machine to get the excess off their hands.  They passed it through the machine about three times before they were satisfied with the texture.  The horchata was easier to grind, and I think it only needed one pass through the machine.  I just couldn't help thinking about cleanliness again.  They weren't using gloves and there were flies buzzing all around there too.  We were waiting for another little taxi to come by and Paula and I went across the street to get some decorations for her party at a small store.

When we got back to the house, more family started coming to the house, including Jesi and Chucho.  They wanted to play games with me again, so we started off playing loteria, a bingo-like game that uses pictures instead of numbers.  This time I was not so fortunate and I lost all my money, which really wasn't my money since Paula had given us some pesos to play with.  We played a game with a bottle after that.  The person who the bottle was pointed at had to pick truth or punishment and the person who the other end was pointing at asked a question or gave the punishment.  After a bunch of truth questions, Chucho finally picked punishment.  We rolled him up in a rug like a taquito and later on made him wear Paula's straw hat.  He didn't want to do any of the punishments we told him to do, especially when I wanted to take pictures.  Jesi and I eventually endured the same punishments and we took pictures of each of us.

Chucho wrapped up like a taquito.

Chucho not wanting to be photographed with the straw hat.

Finally a picture of Chucho's face!!!

Me as a rug taquito.

Me and the straw hat.

Taquito de Jesi.

Jesi's supermodel pose with the straw hat.

After that they wanted to play encantados (enchantments) but that required running around and since it was so hot, I was not really up for that.  Marta asked us to get some more "limones" and this time I pulled down 12 with one big pull.  We went out to go to a small store near the house and Jesi and Chucho bought sweets, lollipops, and gum with the money they had won in loteria.  They gave me some gum and a lollipop.  I noticed that one of the pieces was rum flavored.  Really?  Gum for kids flavored like rum???  haha  Chucho wanted to stay outside to wait for the guys to come back with the goat.  He was picking off these little tubes from a corn plant on the side of the road.  He said that you could blow on them and it made a sound that would call snakes.  I asked him why we would want to call snakes.  He ignored my question and just started blowing into the tubes until he got one to whistle.  I finally got a few to work as well.  We gave some to Yesi and we were all whistling in no time.  Thankfully I don't think we summoned any snakes.  :)  The chivo (goat) came in a big tub in the back of Chencho's pickup truck.  They unloaded it and brought it into the little shed by the garden.  They served me first, giving me goat meat, guacamole, beans, tortillas and consomme.  They also served me horchata.  Jesi noticed that I didn't have any sangriento (I think that's what she called it) and brought me a bunch in a bowl.  It really just looked like congealed blood.  I tasted a little bit of everything, including the sangriento, but stuck mostly with the goat, tortilla, beans and guacamole even though the goat meat was really heavy and greasy.  I wasn't a big fan of the consomme or the sangriento.  The horchata was cool and refreshing.  They had added melon in it.  After we sang happy birthday to Paula, I watched as they served the cake and gelatina (jello).  Marta was serving the cake with the knife, but the woman who served the gelatina would cut a slice, stick her hand in the container to grab the piece she just cut, and then plop it out onto the plate.  When I got my plate, I picked at the inside of the gelatina but couldn't bring myself to eat it all knowing how it had been served.  The DJs started playing music and people started dancing.  I danced with Jesica the whole night.  Chucho was sulking because he wanted to play not dance.

After almost everyone had left, Nando started talking to me about Ejutla de Crespo.  He asked if I had ever tried Mezcal and I said no.  He had a bottle that he had been soaking fruit in.  He gave me a few drops of it to taste.  Wow, that stuff is strong!!!  I talked further with Nando and Beto about what else I could do around Oaxaca while I was there.  Finally, they left too, and I took a shower.  I got to call my mom finally to let her know I had gotten there okay.  Marcos told me that we would try to find an internet cafe the next day...

Backtrack: May 19 - 20 ❤ First days in Ejutla de Crespo

I arrived in Ejutla de Crespo at 8:30 pm.  The airport in Oaxaca is really tiny.  There was one line for us to pass through customs, one revolving belt at baggage claim, and a small area on the other side of baggage claim to perform the luggage scan.  Everything went really quickly and Paula (Diego's mom), Marcos (Diego's brother visiting from Santa Barbara), and Chencho (Diego's brother-in-law) were all waiting for me.  They helped me with my bags and we all piled into Chencho's truck.  We stopped to eat tacos and tostadas at a small restaurant.  We washed the food down with mango juice.  When we got to the house (Ejutla de Crespo is about 45 minutes from downtown Oaxaca), Paula didn't have her keys.  Chencho jumped onto the roof and inside to try to open the door, but a key was needed to open the door from the inside as well.  They finally got the key from a neighbor and we went into the house.  The center part of the house is all open.  The strip right outside of the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen is covered by a roof, and then the garden/patio area starts.  There was a hammock hanging right in front of the front door and an altar down the hall from the front door.

The hammock by the front door as seen from the door of the room I stayed in.

The altar at the far end of the hall.

Each of the rooms, including the kitchen, had it's own door and separate key.  I put my things into the room near the front door and then took a shower.  Paula brought in some roses that she said she had forgotten to bring to the airport for me and also offered me a small yogurt.  I gave her the chocolate and small church I had gotten for her in Peru before I went to sleep.

The room I stayed in.  Oops, I forgot to make the bed that day...

I woke up at 7 AM, and everyone else was already up.  A lot of family came over and more family called to wish Paula a happy birthday.  Tomorrow we're having her birthday party at the house and they're going to have a goat to eat.  Paula's sister and her son, Mayo, came over as well as her son Hugo's wife and their two sons, Nando and Beto.  We ate bread and hot chocolate in the kitchen.  They brought out fresh tamales also, so I ate one of those.

The kitchen.

After breakfast, I went with Marcos into the downtown area of Ejutla de Crespo.  He showed me the marketplace and the church and then we went to eat ice cream.  Their ice cream is spectacular.  It's much lighter than ice cream as we call it.  They make it fresh at the little shop with fresh fruits and other ingredients.  I had tuna ice cream.  I know that sounds gross, but tuna is what they call the red fruit that grows on cactus.  Marcos had a mix of tuna and leche quemada (burned milk) and then ordered another of nuez (nut).

We went back to the house and went with the rest of the family to go talk to some "comadres" (friends) about what Paula needed for her party the next day.  At one of the places, the boys, Beto, Nando, and Mayo, were knocking mangoes out of a tree using a really long stick.  We ate some and the rest we gathered in our hats, shirts and hands.  There was a huge turkey with all his feathers spread underneath the tree.  Paula also has turkeys, chickens, and a dog at the house.

Chickens at Paula's house.

Chickens, roosters, and turkeys at Paula's house.

We went to a small church and we all prayed in front of the altar.  That is something I'm not accustomed to, but I just watched what everyone else was doing.

Back at the house, Marcos and I ate bread and honey for a snack and then I relaxed in the hammock.  Marta (Diego's sister) came over with her children, Jesica (12-13) and Misael (7 1/2), whose nicknames are Jesi or Pili and Chucho.  Jesi was talking to me a lot and she served me lemon juice that they had squeezed and Marta served me mole with chicken, rice and tortillas.  It was really good.  When I was done, Jesi and Chucho and I went to go gather more "limones" (they look like really small limes) for agua de limon (lemon water).  We gathered up a bunch and they were so impressed that I got 10 limones to drop in one big pull.  We squeezed the limes after we had gathered up a bunch.

The garden area with several types of fruit trees and flowers.

You can see the "limon" tree at the back of this picture.

When we were done squeezing "limones" we went to the front of the house and played soccer with a soft little ball.  One time Chucho kicked the ball and hit the plastic class that Hugo's wife had in her hand.  Whatever was in the glass went all over her and she was really wet.  She was standing in front of the door with Paula's sister and Marta.  We all tried not to laugh, but we couldn't help ourselves.  She shook herself off and told Chucho that he had a crooked foot.  haha  Really it had been the fault of the wind.  It blew the ball over in her direction instead of going straight.

We decided to play escondidas with Nando after the mishap playing soccer.  One time when I was hiding and Chucho had already been found, he found me before Yesi.  He knelt down with me and whispered, "You know there are rats in here."  He's so funny.  Yesi was very impressed that no one had ever found me while we were playing.  The truth was that Chucho was the only one who ever found me in my best spot after he had already been discovered.  It was outside the garden gate among the corn and banana trees.  :)

Banana trees...the corn was planted to the right of these trees.

After we tired of playing escondidas, Nando showed us how to play airplane, which is just like hopscotch.  I ended up winning!!!  It was getting really dark, so Jesi and Chucho left with their family and then the rest of the family left one by one until it was just Paula, Marcos and I again.  I took a shower immediately since I was so sweaty after playing all day in the hot sun.  Paula asked me if it was prettier there or in Peru.  It's so hard to compare.  They just seem so different to me, plus the people really make up the feel of a place and I'd only just begun to get to know the people better in Ejutla...

Backtrack: May 11 - 19 ❤ San Diego with my Family

I was finally back home after four months of traveling.  It was nice to be able to relax, run errands, and spend time with my family.  I decided to change my schedule for Oaxaca, leaving later and coming home earlier.  I planned to leave San Diego three days later than planned so that I could spend time with my sister and her family.  They were staying with my parents for a couple of weeks and I was dying to see my niece and nephew!!!  I decided to come back earlier since I made plans to go back to Cancun to spend more time with Juan.  :)

Here are some of the highlights from my time in San Diego:

My mom and I spent a whole day together before my sister came home.  We started off at Mitsuwa and had our first taste of the ramen soup at Santouka, the noodle restaurant inside the asian market.  With our bellies happily full, we went off to Fashion Valley to do some shopping.  After some hours there, we were ready to eat again (there must have been more time in between...haha).  I had been raving about a pho place that my friend Ray Ray had taken me before.  It was a day for firsts since my mom had never tried pho.  We ordered egg rolls and each had a small bowl of pho.  She was in absolute heaven.  She loved the pho but couldn't stop talking about the egg rolls.  :)  A yummy day to say the least!!!

My mom made me an appointment downtown to get my passport renewed quickly.  This is something new and you wouldn't believe the steady stream of people coming in for various passports or travel cards.  I highly recommend it if you are pressed for time and need your passport ASAP.  Since I was in San Diego, they said I could just come back to pick it up, which would guarantee me getting my passport in 2 days.  Crazy fast!!!  :)  Check it out: http://travel.state.gov/passport/npic/agencies/agencies_5393.html

My nephew Jackson is much more grown-up now.  I can't believe he's almost 5.  He's got a crazy mane of beautiful curly hair.  He won't let anyone cut it!!!  He's totally got the surfer look down.  :)  He's still the biggest monster truck fan there is and was playing with his trucks in the dirt outside every chance he could.  He loved my mom's strawberry-scented soap and would tell everyone to smell his hands after he washed them.

My niece Charlie and I are like kindred spirits.  She loved spending time with me, although it may have been because of my food.  I bought Dudley's molasses cookies and when I had them, she kept holding out her hand for more.  She sure is a good eater!!!  :)  One day my mom, dad, and I walked with the neighbors and their kids to the park.  My dad and I had to carry Charlie the entire way up and down hills.  She gave us a good work out.  I kept track of her while we were at the park and right before we left, she was staring at some older girls who were playing in a little house in the sandbox.  They told her she could come sit with them, and she was in heaven as they made a pretend cake with the sand and sang happy birthday to her.  She loved her new friends!!!  :)  She sat with me while I talked to Juan on Skype a few times and my mom told me that the neighbors came down one day and Charlie said, "Hola!"  Apparently Juan and I taught her that!!!  haha

My sister and I went to Target and a health food store together, so we got to spend some quality time, just the two of us.  It was nice to talk to her without having Jackson or Charlie interrupt.  :)

The time passed by quickly and soon it was time for me to get on another airplane...

Backtrack: May 8-10 ❤ Mother's Day, Yoga, and leaving Quito

On Mother's Day I was supposed to go with Gina to Mindo, but I woke up not feeling so well.  Instead Gina came over to watch Joshua while Leah, Leo and Lucas went to brunch.  When they came back, Leo barbecued.  I was still feeling really tired, so I ended up falling asleep on the couch inside.  Leah went out with Gina and then for a walk with Lucas and when I woke up, Joshua wanted to play.  I played with him for a couple hours and then put on a movie since he wore me out.  :)

On the 9th Leah took me to the post office so I could mail all my postcards and that night we went to another yoga class with Gina.  The instructor had us do handstands and this other girl was doing a handstand on her forearms, so I decided to try it too.  I was so proud that I was able to do it.  :)

On the 10th, Leah and her family took me to the airport.  It was a long trip back to San Diego.  I went from Quito to Lima, from Lima to Los Angeles, and then Los Angeles to San Diego.  My flight to San Diego had been changed and I had to wait 6 hours in the LA airport.  I'm not sure what it is about the LA airport and me, but it likes to hold me hostage there.  Plus I had the privilege of having my suitcases searched coming in through LA.  The guy was asking me all sorts of questions and so I had told him I was a software engineer among other things.  I was busy trying to pack up what he had already gone through and he told me that the chocolate I had brought from Ecuador had coca in it.  I said, "Really?" and that I had bought it in a grocery store.  He said it's legal there but not in the US.  He said something like, "Come on, miss software engineer."  After I thought about it a little more, I realized he was referring to cacao.  He must have realized what an idiot he had been because he didn't confiscate it from me.  ;)  I was so happy to see my dad waiting for me at the airport after such a long time traveling...

Backtrack: May 7 ❤ Lago San Pablo & Otavalo

Today we went to Lago San Pablo and Otavalo.  The water was so high in the lake that they had taped off the entrance to the dock.  We ended up just taking Joshua to the park and then going to Otavalo.

In front of the dock at Lago San Pablo.

Joshua and Leo on the bridge at the park at Lago San Pablo.

Leah and her family at the park at Lago San Pablo.

 Leo's friend Cesar joined us for the day and he was so much fun.  We all went to lunch in Otavalo where there was a band playing.  After that, we walked around the marketplace and Cesar and Leo helped me get blankets, handmade cards, and scarves for much less than the people originally asked.

We left Otavalo and tried to get to the nearby condor park for their bird show.  It turned out they hadn't even run the later show and we got there five minutes before the park closed so they wouldn't let us in.  Oh, well.  We drove back to downtown Quito and on our way back I took some pictures of the views.  We ended up seeing a rainbow, too!!!

On the way back from the condor park.

Rainbow!!!

Leah had wanted to eat dinner at this place on the way back, but it was closed.  We went by a Greek place she suggested and they were just closing up.  They said they didn't have much business since the vote had happened that day.  We ended up at the Mexican restaurant we had eaten at before.  Leah and I shared a chimichanga.  It was really tasty.  :)  A nice way to end a long day.

Backtrack: May 6 ❤ La Mitad del Mundo

We finally made it to La Mitad del Mundo (the middle of the world) museum.  They had some indigenous art, signs indicating that we were on the equator, and the tour guide showed us some things that are different on the equator.

Shrunken head at the Mitad del Mundo museum.

Shrunken animal head at the Mitad del Mundo museum.

Standing by the line indicating that we are at Latitude 0...the equator!!!

 The tour guide showed us how the water in a tub swirled one way on one side of the equator and the other way on the other side.  Directly on the equator, the water didn't swirl at all.  It was pretty cool to actually see it.  He also had me do different things to one side of the equator and then again on the equator.  For instance, he had me press my fingers together as hard as I could and he tried to pull them apart on the side of the equator.  It was hard for him to do, but when we were on the equator he did it relatively easily.  He said that the pull of gravity is less on the equator so less force was needed to pull my fingers apart.  He had me walk on the line of the equator with my eyes closed, and I felt a pull from each side and it wasn't that easy to walk in a straight line.  Then he challenged me to balance an egg on what looked like a nail-head.  It took me a little bit of time, but I finally did it!!!  They gave me a special certificate for successfully balancing it.

After a little bit of effort, I balanced the egg on the equator!!!

Cuys (Guinea pigs) in one of the native houses at the Mitad del Mundo museum.

After the museum, Leah and I went to get manicure/pedicures at the place where she usually goes.  For both it was only $12!  Unheard of!!!  We took Joshua and Lucas to a park in an enclosed neighborhood where there are a lot of expatriots.  Leah's friend Robin was there with her daughter and I met some of the other mothers Leah knew and their children.  I was trying to stay with Joshua.  We'd been to the park before and I'd looked away for a second and he'd fallen between the slats on one of the ladders they have there.  The rungs are way too far apart for kids.  Or maybe just because he's only 2.

Back at the house, some of Leo and Leah's friends came over to see Lucas.  They have a daughter who's about 8 or 9 and a baby who was around or under a year old.  Their daughter was playing with Joshua.  I wanted to be social, but I was so tired.  The midday sun at the museum had wiped me out.  I was trying to read my book on the air mattress, but it was tough when Joshua and the girl were doing "trampolines" (somersaults) on the edge of my air mattress.  After awhile they went off to entertain themselves with other things and I fell asleep.

Backtrack: May 5 ❤ Mindalae Museum, Sorbetto, and Yoga

Since Joshua had a fever, we decided to put off going to La Mitad del Mundo so Leah could take him to the doctor.  She dropped me off at Mindalae Museum so I could keep busy while they saw the doctor.  This museum displays the artesenia of the indigenous people of Ecuador.  I was pretty much the only person in the museum.  The exhibits were set up in enclosed rooms and had motion-sensored lights that lit them up when I walked in.  It was sort of scary walking into a dark room alone and then having carvings like the ones below light up with just an eerie glow beneath them.

Wood carving in the Mindalae Museum.

Decorative llama in the Mindalae Museum.

Statues in the Mindalae Museum.  These were especially spooky after walking into a dark room.

Indigenous instruments.  The one on the right is made from an armadillo!

An indigenous chest covering for males.  It's decorated with feathers and a toucan head.

Indigenous women's outfits, made from different-colored seeds.

A shrunken head.  There is some controversy over which museum has an authentic shrunken head.

The museum had a store like the one we had gone to in the Centro Historico.  I looked around and got some jewelry that was made from seeds like the indigenous women's outfits.  I sat at the cafe out in front of the museum, ordered guanabana juice, and wrote postcards while I waited for Leah to come pick me up.  I waved at her and Joshua as they walked toward me and she told me that Joshua got so excited to see me.  I suppose it would be exciting for a two year old to recognize someone along the street.  :)

Later on, Leah and I went to meet Gina for a Sorbetto ice cream.  We had wanted to get margaritas for 5 de Mayo, but since Ecuador was having a vote that weekend, they enforced Ley Seca (Dry Law) a few days before the vote.  So we settled for ice cream instead of margaritas.  I got dark chocolate sorbetto and was very happy with it.  Probably more happy than I would have been with a margarita.  ;)

After dinner, Leo was watching You Tube videos of Shakiro, the Chilean man who can sing like Shakira.  If you haven't checked him out, it's pretty funny and amazing how much he does sound like Shakira.  :)

That night we met up with Gina again to take a yoga class.  It felt really good to stretch and get my muscles heated up.  Plus it helped me sleep better at night.  :)