In case you haven’t heard (though I can’t imagine you haven’t), Lucy’s family is coming from Mexico.  I mean like her whole freaking family.  And, Mexican families are big.  We’re talking, like 20 people…

What I am getting at is this:  We’d love to have some Gringos around to hang-out with.  So, if you get a chance, have a look at our calendar, and let us know if you would like to join us.  It’s pretty much going to be a party every day!  I know it’s all in Spanish, but I can help you with it… I’m also trying to get an English version up soon… I’ll let you know as soon as I post that.

That’s all for now… hope to see you all soon!

So, after our adventures in Michoacan we returned to Guadalajara, Jalisco for some relaxation with family and some gastric recovery.  Some of our favorite people to hang out with in Guadalajara, are Claudia

and Omar

Claudia is Lucy’s cousin, and Omar is her boyfriend.  Omar and Claudia are always great hosts to us, and always have some great places to show us.  It’s pretty cool to have some savvy people there our age, who can show us the “hidden secrets” of the city. Like last year when they took us to eat at the restaurant/refraccionaria.

That night, after we drove around and relaxed for a bit, Jorge wanted to prove to everyone how much of a nerd he is.  ”I must read Harry Potter beyond any reasonable stretch of feasability!” he exclaimed…  This is how determined he was to read that damn book.

Jorge setup a candle with several additional wicks in the form of matches inserted into the candle.  This acted as a sort of nuclear glowing device which allowed him to simultaneously read his book, and nearly cover the entire floor with a river of hot wax.

The next day, we woke early to go to eat gorditas and menudo.

While I can say that the gorditas were quite delicious, I have always found menudo. To be completely repulsive.  I just can’t stand the look of it.  It’s a pungent soup of mint, beef intestines, and what I can only assume is diarrhea.  In any case, we had a lot of fun at the restaurant… see?

Due up in the next blog: The Adventures of Carmen. You are going to love this one… expecially the girls…. it’s gonna be “cute”.

Today we got back from what truly was a memorable experience in Mexico.  I saw things that I never thought I would see, and had an amazing time.  I can truly say that this was two weeks that literally changed my life.  I will spend the next few days tweaking the existing blogs, and finishing up with about 3 or 4 more blogs summarizing the last portion of our stay in Mexico.

I realize that I got a bit lazy in the last week, as I made a conscious decision not to spend my vacation at the beach in Puerto Vallarta seeing the world through a viewfinder.  I promise, however, to get things up soon so that you can see what we did in our last week.

Thanks for bearing with me….

Another of the incredible sites we visited in Sahuayo was the family garden.  (Remember that we are with Jesus’ family) We walked through the door of this seemingly normal house, and were greeted with a huge garden.  It was like a little tropical sanctuary in the middle of a house.  I just couldn’t seem to find a picture that captured the scope of the place, or that seemed to do it justice.  Instead, I decided to do something completely opposite and take some extremely close-up pictures. 

Ok.  So I am positive that I mentioned that fact that we were in Sahuayo during their festival.  The festival includes many traditional activities such as mask-wearing, bonfires, eating, drinking, drinking, eating, feasting, and drinking. And feasting. And drinking.  The traditional drink of the festival is simply called ponche (punch).  This is made by combining a mash of sour pomegranates, cane alcohol, chocolate, coconut, almonds, walnuts, apples, and cinnamon.  They let the brew sit for 24 hours, and then serve it up in mass quantity.  Mass. Quantity.  This is a 5 gallon bucket of the stuff.

It might look like vomit… but, it smells like a sweet White Russian, and tastes great.  There’s just one problem though; they never let the glass stay empty.  I don’t know how many cups I proudly polished off, hoping for respite from the esophageal burning.  Each time they filled my glass with more ponche and each time I choked it down with the determination of a physical therapy patient leaning to walk again.   After a few glasses, we started to munch on some duritos, and potato chips.  I foolishly shoveled them down with hunger, unaware of the trial they had planned for me.   Later, we gathered in the street in front of Jesus’ family’s house to build a bonfire which symbolizes lighting the path for the coming of Patron Santiago. I again foolishly assumed that we would just be sitting there hanging out, so I scarfed down some more duritos.  Little did I know, that a half an hour later they would bring us a Banda to celebrate Steve’s birthday.   With the banda came several pots of Tamales!  zOMG!  By this time, I was so full that words cannot even begin to describe the pressure I felt coming from inside of me. That’s when I was served two massive tamales.  Maybe it was the acid reflux, or maybe they actually were that big.  Maybe the tamales had been plotting this for days.  Sitting in the pot, slowly steaming to rich tender perfection, all the while plotting their attack on the middle third of my body.   Finally, the edible assault had ended… for the day.   The next morning, we looked to find rest from the continual onslaught of food.  However, we found none… we were served a breakfast of fresh tortillas, refried beans, and carne asada. 

After breakfast, we were really starting to gear-up for the fiesta.  The fiesta involves dancing with HUGE masks.  These masks are made of cardboard, and covered in paper maché. (Yes there should be a little hat over the “a”… I know.)  They are then covered with decorative fabrics, glitter, and feathers.  Thousands of people dance with these masks from babies to adults.  Here we are with an adult mask… it’s taller than I am. 

Here we are with a 9 year old member of the family and her mask. This girl danced all over the city with this mask from 1 in the afternoon until midnight. 

Here are some more masks from another group.  This group was huge, and was one of more than thirty groups that would participate in the festival.  I know that it’s strange the the font changed right now, but I don’t know how this happened or how to fix it.  Damn CSS….

Here is the crow gathering around Patron Santiago in the streets.  Thousands of people would flock to be near the statue of the saint today.  It was amazing to see how many people came to greet the saint and shower him with perfume and offerings.

(Or how to avoid Diahrrea whilst really packing it in…) 

Mexico days 4-6 brought us a trip to Sahuayo, Michoacan.  Michoacan is the state in Mexico known for Carnitas.  Carnitas are a wonderful concoction of pork meat fried in pork fat.  It doesn’t really get any better than that.  During this time in Sahuayo, it is also the season of the festival for Padrino Santiago a martyr of the Cristero Wars.   

Having the proper history in hand, we set off.  We thought it best to depart by bus for two reasons.  First, roads in Mexico can be dangerous if you aren’t familiar with the route.  Second, the tickets cost $85 a piece.  That’s “$” Pesos, not “$” Dollars. Mexico has a wonderful bus line called Primera Plus.  The buses are like luxury charter buses, and they look like this: 

 However, since Sahuayo is a small town with no central bus terminal, our bus looked like this: 

We were told that it takes about two and a half hours to get to Sahuayo from Guadalajara by car.  With all the stops of the bus, it took us around four hours!  After much rattling, and shaking, we finally arrived.  We were met by our friends Steven and Toyo.  We would later meet up with Jesus’ family.  (No, not Jesus Christ… just our friend Jesus.)   

Anyway, Jesus’ family took us to eat Mariscos at this ranch-like outdoor restaurant.  Restaurants like this are very typical in Mexico.  It’s like a huge cafeteria with two open sides.  I’d say it can seat about 500 people if you plan it right.   

After dinner, we went to see Sahuayo’s biggest monument, Cristo Rey.  There are several Crosto Rey’s in the world, and even several in Mexico.  This particular one is the third largest in Mexico.  Though not as impressive as the largest one in Guanaguato, the statue is still impressive when you think about the context of it.  This is a hand-sculpted work.  It is also at the top of what is an impressive hill to say the least.  Back when this was done (after the Cristero Wars) these stones would have been carried up the hill by hand.  I have no idea how they did it.   

Surrounding Cristo Rey was a lush green area.  The green color would come to be a metaphor for how I would feel for much of the rest of the trip.  I know that might not mean much now, but when you read “Part 2″ you’re going to laugh your ass off at that.  Trust. Me.     

Ok… It is afternoon right now, but I am off to the Internet Café to upload this blog and the photos.  I know that it´s not the typical sarcastic blog, but I just don´t have it in me right now.  Tonight I am going to write the commentary on the second day in Michoacan… I promise not to disappoint you with that one.  I hope that you are all well.  I will see you soon.

I think that many of you might not know what a typical day is like for us here in Mexico.  I don’t say that to sound condescending, but it probably isn’t what you would expect.  True, we come here on vacation–to relax and to be with family.  But, life being what it is, the Ledezmas also come here to take care of personal business.   In the morning we had a wonderful breakfast of beans and chuletas ahomadas.  What are chuletas ahomadas?  They are quite simply the most delicious breakfast meat you will ever have.  The translation is smoked pork-chops, but that really doesn’t do them justice.  Meaty pieces of heaven would be a better description.  Yes, we have them in the US, but not like this.  Here, the expert butchers slice them super-thin, and they are then pan fried to perfection.  If only you could smell them! On to the “family business” I was talking about.  WIth the annual trip to Mexico, comes the annual trip to the dentist.  So, off to the dentist’s office we went, books in hand.  I took Way of the Peaceful Warrior, and The Triathlete’s Training Bible, and Lucy took Me Talk Pretty Someday.  Did I mention that Way of the Peaceful Warrior is a book that will change your life?  Seriously.  After about two and a half hours of waiting around at the dentist’s office, we returned to the house for a bit of a snack.  Then, Carlos and I were off to the fish market to get the day’s comida.  This market was really cool, and did not smell at all like I expected it would.  They say that fresh fish doesn’t smell “fishy”.  It that’s true, then this must have been extremely fresh fish.  I am acutely averse to fish odor, but I was not greeted with any of the expected odors.  Instead I was able to just enjoy the amazing sights of a large variety of fish, and many amazing colors.
 

After dinner, I grabbed a quick nap.  Then it was off to San Pedro for some coffee with the group.  I forgot to take the camera… but there wasn’t much to be seen.  Perhaps another time I can take some pictures of what really is an historic part of Jalisco, Mexico.  I could go on for days about the little plaza and the famous El Parian, but as I said…. perhaps another day. For now, I am off to bed.  Tomorrow we leave for Sahuayo, Michoacan.  I am excited!  A new state, and new friends.   

Until next time.

On day two we find ourselves settled and accommodated nicely in our home base. Today would be a day filled with warm reunions and FOOD.

First thing to do on a Sunday morning in Mexico of course is go to mass. On our way to the local church, we pass some of the places that remind me that I am in fact in Mexico. We pass Ramón’s store, and say hello. Though it’s been almost a year since we last visited, he still remembers us. That’s the way people are here… I guess there’s just something to be said about “small town” customer service. Even though Guadalajara is a huge city (one of the largest in North America) each neighborhood has its own small town closeness. Everyone knows you.

Following last night’s pozole we weren’t exactly in the mood for a feast, so we mulled around a bit and waited for hunger to set in. When it finally did, we grabbed some Pollo Pepe. For you gringos, that’s the Mexican equivalent to El Pollo Loco, with one key difference… Pollo Pepe is edible.

To let lunch settle we just kind of hung around the house some more. Lucy took the opportunity to take an extended nap on the couch.

After some rest, we went to the Mall with Omar, Claudia, Robert, Paola, Brian, and Jenny. As you can see, there is never a short list of people when you are traveling in Mexico. The list is either long, or longer. After that it was off to Claudia and Robert’s house (they’re Lucy’s cousins) for the night.

Their mother Irene owns an Oxxo. Oxxo is Mexico’s version of 7-11 (although the real 7-11 has since tried to move in on Oxxo’s territory). So, for a midnight snack, it was off to the Oxxo to make a “backroom sandwich”. Here was our cocina:

We split a huge bigrote in half and made an awesome sandwich for everyone.


Then we grabbed a 1 litre Coke, and passed it around for everyone to share.
Which reminds me… We don’t have 1 litre Cokes anymore, do we? I feel like I don’t see them in stores anymore.

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. You’ll notice that I am posting Day 1 and 2 at nearly the same time. That’s the way it is around here…. I’m on vacation, bitches. Get over it.

Today we got the royal treatment by Aerolínea Mexicana De Aviación. And when I say Royal treatment, I mean below average. You know that you are flying to Mexico when you have to go out the back door of the airport in order to get to your plane.

I took the opportunity to snap a presidential pose by the staircase.

We then proceeded up the stairs to our glorious Airbus. I felt bad because there was a lady who could barely walk behind us, but she still had to climb the stairs. I took the opportunity of the delay to snap a picture of Lucy.

There is that moment when you get on a plane and you say, “Ahhhh…. now I can relax for the next couple of hours. It will at least be moderately comfortable here. That exact moment it when

I saw this sign:
You can imagine how I felt about that. I spent the next three hours with just enough space in front of me for my small paperback book Way of the Peaceful Warrior More on that book soon…

Ok, that’s it for now. Even though you might see these posted at various times, I am writing at night, and then will have to upload in the morning since I don’t have any internet access at the house.

Stay in the present, my friends……