Friday. 12.3.10

Today the suegros had made plans to meet up with some friends from San Jose. When we got there in the late morning, they had plans to take us to the forest for a barbeque. Good thing we took Charlena too, because there was a lot of people and we wouldn’t have all fit in one car!
And so far, the roof rack is coming in quite handy! We got to put it to use once again as we loaded up the (brasero) stand for the coals to put the comal on, and a big tank full of “pulque” a fermented drink that is made from the pencas from the maguey plant. The same kind they use for making tequila. This pulque is a thicker drink, and sort of resembles beer more, but is definitely an acquired taste. Some drink it straight and natural, others add or mix in fruity flavors! So far, the only one I’ve tried that I can have more than one taste of was mixed with coco (coconut).
We took the road from San Jose further up, in to an area called Los Ranchos, through that and into the mountains. There was some off roading and Charlena handled very well… with the exception of those few times when she just dies out… but that’s been happening, it’s something on our list we need to get checked out still! But other than that, the car did fine, and even got baptized in pulque because of the rocky bumpy road. And even though she wasn’t built to have passengers really, since we took out the back seat, she’s getting quite used to having people in the back! That board we made to level out the back is coming in handy so far!
When we got to our destination, it was this little clearing, surrounded by pine trees at the base of the mountain. Immediately all the cooks, get to the task of setting up the kitchen, and all the food, others gathered leña (firewood) to start heating the comal. And the rest of us got to finding and positioning big rocks for goal posts and splitting up teams for another cascarita! We played with all the kids until the call came “¡A comer!”… and we’d worked up a hunger by then so we all went running!
Lunch was gorditas de ava y frijol, quesadillas, tacos de chorizo, carne asada, bistek de pollo; fresh salsas, sliced pepinos in jugo de limon! What a picnic! All hot food!
We grubbed then all layed around for a bit. Then the kids said they were going to hike up to the “Virgen”. Apparently at the top of this mountain, it’s known for showing the image of the virgen. At one point there was a major rock slide, and when it settled there was an image of the Virgen de Guadalupe that was revealed. This mountain is known for it, they say. So, all full we start tagging along. We ask how long of a hike it is, and they say about a 20 minute hike!
So, after an hour of almost a straight up inclined trail - we finally reached our goal!!! Pheeeeeeeeeeeeew! Perhaps this is one way to work off all that good food we’ve been eating! This was a rough trail, but at the top was a beautiful view of all the surrounding area! We were high up there! And we got to see the Virgen!
We laughed with our guides, saying it was a 20 minute hike. Even the hike down took longer at 30 minutes. But we arrived just in time to eat at the picnic one more time.
All the kids seem to taken quite a liking to Charlena. I guess all the metal makes them think thoughts of a jungle gym, because they climb all over her!
Since we didn’t get any shopping in on Wednesday, we were still trying to get to Tenancingo to give it a try again. So we started trying to rally our group to wrap up the day. As it was, it was starting to get dark anyway, and all the drinks were out, except for a little pulque.
So, we packed it up and on the way in, stopped off at the place where they make the pulque and got to see barrels and barrels of it, in different stages of the fermenting process.
Once back in San Jose, we thanked our kind hosts and said our goodbyes.

Can you see the Virgen?

Josue and I headed off towards Tenancingo once again. Since it’s Friday night we thought we’d find a lot more happening. But as far as vendors went not so much!
But what we did find that caught Josue’s attention were what looked to be some kids dancing up top of the kiosko (gazebo) in the center of the jardin, b-boy style. So we went up top to check it out….
Sure enough it was a group of kids showing off their skills, but the thing we found most curious was that they didn’t have any music. Josue started a conversation with them and found that they are usually there on the weekend nights, and for sure every Sunday night. So we talked to them for a bit and then headed back to the car. On our way to the car, Josue was all excited and wanting to go back to hang out. I reminded him we had our music with us and our little Makita radio, so we decided to grab that and go hang out for a while.
When we got back to the centro, the kids seemed a little excited to have some music. Although, in the car, the Makita sounds loud enough, but in the middle of a town it gets drowned out easily on most songs. Still it was better than no music at all - how do you dance with no music?!
So they start showing out, and taking turns, and Josue even got in on the action and showed them some of his moves. He was so happy and seemed to be having fun. Not long after, another guy got there and he seemed to be a little more advanced, and a lot more interested in talking with Josue and learning more. A little while later, another guy got there, who seemed to be more advanced still. We kept the music going as long as we could, but the battery was going to die, since we used it for the majority of the day. Josue danced with them and talked to them, and I took a lot of pictures and gave some of the guys our cards, told them to keep an eye out on the website for their pics.
What we learned is they’re still kind of new at getting their group together, but so far their name is “B-boys Tenancingo”, but they all gather here from the surrounding towns.
We said bye to our new friends and took off towards home. That was an unexpected end to the night.
Back at home we find the family winding down to the usual tea and pan dulce, before bed.

Thursday. 12.2.10

Since our family will be leaving soon, there are plans made from here to the weekend to spend time with different people. Today, we’re all going to meet at the Abuelitos’ house for lunch with the family on Josue’s Dad’s side.
A day at Grandma’s house is always nice and relaxing! The temperature’s always just right, the food is always delicious, and it’s just mellow!
When we get there, the ladies are all busy in the kitchen, we find Tia Maura at the clequil. (Tia Maura is another GREAT cook!) Tias Mika & Lucy were in the back working on the enchiladas, and Tia Yola joined in with them! At Tia Yola’s urging I get in there to help roll some enchiladas. It’s not something I’m a stranger to, but it seems to be interesting to people here to see a “guera” cooking! So I’m finding out!
When it’s time eat, the table is full. We eat red chicken enchiladas, the sauce was a tomato, chile y mole mix - very tasty, and I’m not even that big on mole. There were also quesadillas de pollo, on freshly made tortillas!
After dinner we go outside to play around with all the kids! Tio Regulo’s kids like to play games, and teach us a new board game and a card game we’ve never played. Some of the rules seemed a little funny, had us wondering if they were making up their own rules - it reminded us of playing games with Jenna, Daniel & Isabel!
When you’re at Abuelita’s house, you have plenty of yard to play in and run around in. Then if you like you can go for walks following any trail you like. Then in no time, somebody’s in the kitchen again warming food up for the next round!
It was a real relaxing day spent with the extended family!

Wednesday. 12.1.10

Today was Josue’s nephew Eloy’s birthday and the family was invited to his birthday party at Tia Maura’s house. But first we wanted to go to Tenancingo to do some shopping and see if we could find things for our family back home, since Josue’s family would be heading home at the end of the week, we knew we could send stuff home with them. But apparently, Wednesdays here, are like Sundays over there - most places are closed! I guess it’s the known rest day, for the majority of the people who run the puestos. So, what we found was a very empty jardin and surrounding area. Unfortunately - not so good for shopping, but we tried anyway. We walked around for a bit, did buy some chiles to send home to Dad, and then headed back home.
When we split up from the family in the late morning - the plan was they were going to go to Abuelita Cata’s house to pick her up and then head to the party. So, if didn’t find them in San Francisco, look for them in Buena Vista, if we didn’t find them there go on to the party in La Joya. But since we took a little longer than we expected we just went straight on to Buena Vista! Which was a good thing, because our timing worked out perfectly, that we found Abuelita at the side of the road waiting for a taxi. So we stopped to pick her up instead, and found that the family hadn’t come by yet. She looked so cute there all ready to go, with a basket of goodies to take. I climbed in to the back and Grandma rode shotgun.
Josue decided to head back to San Francisco to see what the family was up to, and we found them at the bottom of the street by the church, they were just getting some last minute things. Since they knew we had Abuelita with us, they told us to go on to the party. We were the first to get there, and got to enjoy some time with cousins Jr. & Noe and Tio Joel by ourselves for a bit. The rest of the family was not too far behind. The birthday boy turned five today and was dressed all sharp.
When it was time to eat - dinner hit the spot. We hadn’t eaten all day, and it was quite a bit a cooler in La Joya because they are higher in altitude there. We had posole and tostadas! The warm soup was perfect and the tostadas were light and tasty! The hosts went all out and had cake and gelatina for desert… not to mention a piñata for later or actually two!
So, I’m starting to learn the other versus for Las Mañanitas… back home, we usually just sang the first verse, or atleast that’s all I ever really sang! But there’s more - right after Las Mañanitas, is a little cheer, to blow out the candles, then they chant “que le muerda, que le muerda” for the birthday person to bite the cake, and I suppose it’s tradition for someone to push their face into it, because so far both birthday parties we’ve been to they’ve done it! Then “que lo parta, que lo parta” for the birthday person to slice the first piece! It’s all festive and fun.
Then round two of the tostadas!! How are we ever going to lose weight here with all this good food?!!
Now it was time for the piñata! Same as over there, it goes from littlest to biggest. One major difference - this piñata’s core is made of clay - that’s right, a clay pot filled with candy. And a new thing for me - they have a song to sing for each person’s turn. When the song is over, that person’s turn is over! It goes like this:
Dale dale dale
No pierdas el tino
Porque si lo pierdes
Pierdes el camino
Ya le diste uno
Ya le diste dos
Ya le diste tres
Y tu tiempo se acabo!
Se acabo!
It’s fun and it keeps rotating through all the kids, and the “big kids” that get in on the action!
One of the bigger kids broke the first piñata, and then after they went through the whole line of kids twice on the second piñata, they moved on to the big kids, Lalo had his chance (he’s 17), then Nery(29) wanted a turn, then they had Josue(27) go, then Jon(18), then Tania(30) and she’s the one who broke it!
It was a fun night!
Oh yeah… and Josue says there’s actually another verse to that song, if the person doesn’t break it.. Goes like this:
Ese niño es muy tonto
Es muy tonto
Se parece a su papa´! (for the boys)
Esa niña es muy tonta
Es muy tonta
Se parece a su mama´! (for the girls)
For my sobrinos over there - ask Tata what it means! It’s all in fun!

Sunday. 11.28.10

Today the suegros had plans to go to San Felipe to eat tacos de carnitas at a puesto that their friends set up. So in the late morning we went with them to eat. On the way home, Alberto decided he didn’t want to go home, and asked where we wanted to go. He decided he wanted to go to Cuernavaca. So we headed that way. First we passed through Ixtapan De La Sal, Tonatico, and then we hit Cacahuamilpa, where we saw signs for some caves. Alberto made a quick u-turn and we went to check them out. This was our first stop on the “Bugamundos” Tour at a National Park. Parque Nacional Grutas de Cacahuamilpa, Guerrero, Mexico.
For 65 pesos per person, we were able to go on a tour of the caves. It was a total of 4km hike down that took a total of 3 hours to return to the entrance. Our guide was neat and he included a lot of humor while describing the formations. In these caves we were told have the world’s largest stalagmite on record. It looks sort of like a champagne or beer bottle overflowing. He said that Corona has even gone in there to record it for a commercial. We took a lot of pictures, but eventually Josue put the camera away, because I was getting nervous that the drastic change in temperature and humidity would mess it up. The air was extremely thick in there, you could feel the condensation building on your skin. To date that is the most humidity I’ve ever experienced. Total opposite of AZ’s dry desert!
After we left here, we kept going towards Cuernavaca, the original goal for the day. From this point it was atleast another hour or so away. By the time we got there, dusk was on it’s way. We walked around the main church and the jardin. We walked up the street some to see about something to eat. Right off the bat, Cuernavaca seemed to be a little more upscale, with fancier dining and shopping, not exactly what we were looking for. Well, we weren’t really looking for anything in particular, just checking out a new city I guess. But as far as dining, we are all used to the “puesto” style stands, which at first we weren’t finding any. Since it was getting late, we got back in the car to head home, but on the way - we encountered the real jardin with all the puestos and mariachis hanging around. We got down to check it out, unfortunately this town didn’t leave a good impression as far as food. Josue kept saying we should’ve just kept driving until we found a little mom & pop taco shop somewhere along the way, but the rest of the group wasn’t sure if we would find any, and were getting hungry, so we ate there in the jardin. It wasn’t so great, but held us over. This made us realize that we could easily run a little stand, selling much better tasting food ourselves.
On the way out of the city, the main street we were traveling on had many little shops to choose from - we should’ve listened to my babe! We make it back to Villa around 8pm, just in time to stop for a round of tacos, at what’s become our favorite taco stand - “Tacos del Rodeo”, where they sell delicious tacos al pastor, topped with a slice of pineapple, cilantro and onions and a fresh avocado salsa… mmmmmmmmmmmm! And on the side, they always have rabanos, sliced pepinos & lime and sal! What more could you ask for?! I love those cucumber slices, with lime and salt… reminds me of home!

A nice day of unexpected adventure with the family!

Saturday. 11.27.10

Today was Tia Prima’s birthday! We went with the family to Chalma to visit a famous church that is said to have had many miracles happen there. Mari & the family wanted to take her there to pray and say thanks for another year. It was a very beautiful church that was built right on the mountain side. The center of this mountain town the path to the church is full of vendors of all sorts, toys, keepsakes, food, snacks, candy… you name it! I guess it’s tradition here, that when it’s your first time visiting Chalma, you should wear a “corona” (crown), so there are people all over selling crowns made from fresh flowers. At Mari’s urging, Josue bought me a crown. When you enter into the church, you are asked to leave your crown at the door, when you leave you can pick it up again, or any crown that is there. It was a very pretty drive to get there, we went through Tenancingo and just kept driving east, which took us through a very steep mountain road.
On the way home, we stopped off at a restaurant for some barbacoa tacos and back to San Francisco! Once back at home, all the ladies got on with the cooking for the birthday party. Josue & I went into town (Villa) with Ma & cousin Leti to get some last minute party items; ice, tortillas & cilantro! The birthday girl had a craving for some mole, so dinner was rice, beans, chicken & red mole, with a side of fresh pico de gallo with chiles manzanos.
A little while after dinner Josue got some little cousins & nephews together for a “cascarita” (what they call a pick up game of soccer) and we must have played for 2 straight hours on the side of the house! Final score: us - 20, them - 14!!! His little nephews were saying I was “dangerous”! That was funny to me - I‘m so “peligrosa” when it comes to soccer ! We got all sweaty and the game ended up being much more intense than either of us thought it would be, but we had a lot of fun!

Off to the showers, then had some drinks with the Tias & cousins to wind down!
What a great day!