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.  :)