Summer, is it just starting?

Wow!!! Summer time is just starting and I feel like is ending. The girls and I just returned yesterday night from our amazing trip to Yucatan and we are exhausted! We traveled - I say to them-, from tip to tip, from one peninsula (BAJA CALIFORNIA) to the other (YUCATAN).

We have so many stories to tell and remember, Yucatan peninsula is just beautiful and we had just a peek of its marvels. Very hot at this time of the year, but I think the heat was just a minus of many, many pluses we found and experienced. As many of you know we traveled as single mamas with kids, very singular because we didn't have any boy in our gang, just girls.

This experience of just girls, was very interesting, made me think how this "travel alone thing" could impact, in the future of our young girls as independent individuals. Made me realize too of the importance of their education.

Let me explain the last part. Yucatan has a big population of Maya people, and when I say "Maya" I mean people that speak this language only or are bilinguals (Maya and Spanish). As we traveled to the places we planned, or just from talking to people, I found out that the more educated the better Spanish they speak, people learn Spanish when they start going to the elementary school. But sadly we saw more women that just spoke Maya, which means they are less educated, with less opportunities. Many of them make beautiful embroidery work, but probably they can not sale their hand crafts in a profitable way because of their less education.

We visited places where women are organized in cooperatives to sale their work, like in Punta Laguna (with the help of a male translator to Spanish). I don't think the mayority of them around the states of the Yucatan peninsula can make it better if they interrupt their school (many reasons to do so, every thing to do with the poverty levels).

I never heard people talking Maya before, is wonderful they preserve their traditions. Talking to the taxi drivers, to our different guides about Maya words made me appreciate the importance of not loosing the traditions and languages of the world, it makes the human culture richer. Also it helps to understand more about the Maya civilization int this part of Mexico, which, let me tell, it comes alive when you stand totally amazed in front of those ruins.

School year "al final".

Almost the end (just a week to go) to finish this school year. A very especial year with lots of things and experiences.
The School had its first year in its new location, that little by little is taking the personality of our coop.
In a personal way I took part of a fabulous project, the School Garden. I never have thought of myself as a green thumb person, but with the advice of the greatest gardeners Annie and Amy, we raised vegetables that the kids actually ate. Even, we had time to plant a second round with kitchen herbs and some flowers.
We spent lots of after class hours planning our trip to Yucatán and talking about new ventures, that hopefully can be a reality very soon.
Thank you every body to be part of this wonderful community that nurtures and embraces our kids development.

I told you no more...

What is the life of a Mexican mom if she doesn't have her blender any more...My long friend "the blender" died today of over- exercise -I think-.
-Yeah- No more, no more, she said for several weeks. I didn't pay attention and she just stop working.
Linking to my last post, Tita, the heroin of "Como Agua para Chocolate" used a "molcajete" '(kind of a mortar) to blend and make her concoctions of ingredients, a hard job to make salsas and moles. The blender took the place of the molcajete and made life much easier and cooking time adjusted to " modern times".
I used the blender to make the basic salsa (tomatoes and onions) for the red rice and alphabet soups. If you add garlic you have salsa to cook meat or chicken, I used it too for the succhini soup, the cauliflower soup, the potato soup, to hydrate mole, pipian and adobo pastes, and for salsas with chile or tomatillo. I guess I have to buy a new one, but that was my very first blender ever, since Pepe and I started our life together back in Mexico City.

Changing topic and still talking about mothers issues. How is the self esteem of a mother, as a person, damaged for a constant negative responses from her children?.
If I ask for an accomplishment of chores, I get a no, If I do recommendations, they better believe what their friends tell them. How is that I have to do complete lectures of facts, when their friends just say something and they believe it just as an act of faith.
And I won't go further with matter of the "lunch"... I like this, I don't like that; why I didn't have today lemonade, but just plain water; I don't like salami in squares, I prefer it in slices... Maybe I can do as the blender: no more and stop working.

I'm a human being, trying to make a healthy lunch for her kids. That is why I post this song from "Aterciopelados of Colobia", Bolero Falaz. The song talks in some parts of my situation, bad if it is yes, bad if it is no, better do do not ask...my part is when she sings with the flowers' guitar. Now, my self esteem can have a musical indulgence.

P.S. On my girls defense, they do what ever I ask, chores or homeworks and so, but I'd love not to explain and repeat myself so many times.

Values, passion and mothers.

Mamá....Pasala bien.

I missed posting a Mother's day congratulations to all of you, Mamas. I know -you girls- had a wonderful day, and it seems that every body appreciates a cozy day at home, school made cards, breakfast and some extra "help" around the house. FELICIDADES A TODAS.

As a tradition, in Mexico, El dia de las Madres, is a big, big deal. Families get together, they eat something as mole poblano or other traditional dish, celebrating a la madre, with music, presents and dirty dishes (because at the end, guess who cleans the kitchen). I wanted for this year to celebrate my-self cooking something like that, and have a cake. In short as we say: putting a long table-cloth. But of course nothing like that happened because I didn't planned it in advanced and no desire of dirty dishes for me.

What wonderful would it be to have some body that cooks, when I'm not in the mood. Then I remembered this fabulous book called "Como Agua para Chocolate", that became a Mexican classic movie.

In the novel, Tita the youngest daughter of a family of three sisters plus the mom, became the cook of the household, and through her cooking she tries to connect with her lover, that by the way, marries with her sister.

The mother in the novel is a horrible woman, selfish and authoritarian, a picture of the anti-mama, but yet the person where the household world spins around. Her lack of comprehension leads the whole story, even after her own death. Luckily for Tita she had her "nana" to support her, even too, after she dies. Mother is a deep feeling for somebody, as the feeling of the "nana" for Tita. Tita herself protects and cares for her sister's children during times when they needed her the most.

As a mother, I try to connect with my children in different ways. One of these is cooking for them, so they feel at home, as well I want to transmit to them the enormous culinary culture we are part of. But definitely I don't look forward to be the center of their world.

Where is the number 7?.

Does somebody have information about a pre-menopausal woman lossing her mind or ability to focus, concentrate or put attention to things? Because these days I have been in a stage of stupidity never faced before.

Years ago, I could remember every thing, for example I never had to write down those days of the month. Today if I don't do it, I'm totally lost, thank God I don't plan to be pregnant again, otherwise I'd have so much trouble trying to figure out my due date.

I never used an agenda, because I knew all my day with no problem. This year I got an agenda for those duties of helping remember and planning a week, but of course I don't remember using it. I have forgotten to pack sac lunches for field trips, I have gotten to school and noticed that Bidane had a book presentation and I wasn't there, just because I didn't read with attention the class newsletter.

And talking about not reading well information, I just got a number 7 out from where the bachelors like to live... -you know when they say: I need my space-. I'll explain my-self better.

On Puppy Heart we read about a Wedding Anniversary. Well, I just assumed that it was a number 7 instead of 6. Why? I don't KNOW. I even had the face to say, -hey is it not a number 6, the one you needed to put instead of a 7? The secure writer replied, I'm sure it was a 6, then I thought maybe she is right...

Maybe it could be a good idea to write a diary, a journal and see if something pops out, or at least I can wonder what is going on...Maybe I just need calcium or potassium, meditation, to practice the warrior pose or just relax.

Performance day!

The girls had performances . Circo para Bidane, obra teatral para Aitana.

First Bidane and her class had Circus presentation, with all kinds of acts, very cute. She and her partner Benjamin made the juggling part.

Bidane y los malabares.


Another participant of the Circus Company, showing his skills.

Wow!!! I kind of made a draft of this event on friday, and until today, wednesday I'm posting it...
Maybe I need some rosemary essential oil to boost my mind. -Hijole-

My little ones.

When I see my friends with small children and all the work they represent, I'm always in surprise how I forgot what is having a little one.
Is fantastic to see small kids being in awe of everything they see, how they experience the world in a total "explorer attitude".
I have to confess that I'm a natural worried person -ask Lauren about forks and spoons during camping-, so being preoccupied for my children safety, food and stuff like that, blocks me some times of having fun with them and recognize their own experiences with their surroundings at the moment things are happening. Now watching my friends with their little ones, brings to me memories of my own girls and help me to treasure them in a even more joyful way.

No hay grasa en las tortillas

- There is no fat in corn tortillas- I like to read Cooking Light once in a while, it depends how thirsty I'm in the store, because instead of spending 3 dlls. in a beverage I do it in a magazine, although is a little more expensive. Anyways, I wrote the last sentence just to make my three readers roll their eyes and think -this woman, so frugal- a little fun in the middle of my second cold in a month, that is not funny.

As a conscious magazine they explain calorie counting for their recipes and other interesting facts about food, among those things, they wrote that corn tortillas have fat, definitely it is not true. Corn tortillas do not have fat, no lard, no vegetable shortening or anything related. If you fry the tortillas then is different.

Tamales and flour tortillas have some fat, in the traditional way lard is used for that purpose. If you are scared of lard (even though it has less cholesterol than butter) and like to buy these products, check the label, now you can find tamales or flour tortillas made with vegetable shortening or even olive oil

Baja California Sur trip's journal

Last week we traveled south of the border, back into our country, just looking for beach fun and camping momentos. It is not we don't have beach here in San Diego, but those calm and lonely beaches of Baja sur await visitors with its calm and transparent waters as well as almost untouched desert's wild life.

If you look at the map, Bahia Concepcion is situated between Santa Rosalía and Loreto, by the Cortez (California) Gulf coast side.

Parallel 28 divides the peninsula in two states Baja California and Baja California Sur.

South of parallel 28 is Bahia Concepción where the beaches have not "sand" derived from rocks, but from pulverized seashells, named biological beaches. Bahia Concepcion has several enclosed beaches rather than one big beach, this special beach where we camped is the last beach, Playa Armenta.

The kids had great time collecting things, snorkeling or just swimming in the calm waters, no worries about waves.

The children found this Sea slug, squishy guy as they called it.

What else to do when it wasn't time for water? enjoy the sunset, of course, but throwing shells out to the water to make them jump, was a big hit among the kids.

What time is good to start getting wet? just after waking up is a good time, isn't it?

I love the road, although the way back was a little tired, but the scenic of the Baja California peninsula is stunning. Spring time is just wonderful, the fabulous desert colors are everywhere, red carpets of tiny flowers, yellow fields, cactus, cirios, elephant trees, palm trees in the Oasis, nude round rocks, volcanoes, and layers of sedimentary rocks that looks like chocolate and cocoa cakes.

Mas de las vacaciones aquí.

Vacaciones de Primavera

Our two weeks of Spring Break vacations ended with lots of experiences and fun memories (well, we had to skip one week of school :) ).

We started with a short trip to the mountains (Mount Laguna) to have a late winter chill, the girls had a blast sliding the snowy slopes with their boogy boards. Then we headed towards Julian to have a nice dinner, where by the way, we were object of the most strange and nice touch of somebody we don't know. For some reason we are not aware of, a guy sited in the table next to ours, payed 20.00 of our bill just because he is nice...We couldn't even say thank you because he left not letting know anything about his altruism.


As winter birds we directed our wings south to have a lovely time in our almost "private beach" with our friends "Los Pollos, a.k.a Arredonald's, we settled a camp over there in Playa Armenta in Bahia Concepción, Baja California Sur. So much fun. Of course the kids didn't leave the water from morning to evening, they did snorkel, gather seashells, made a little aquarium with marine pets in a bucket (later released safe and sound), and play non-stop, occasionally bothered by the local bees. But nothing beat the view of dolphins jumping and playing right in front our eyes, the vultures resting and drying its wings right over the cactus, and falcons catching fish, the colorful fishies, the ray, star fish and the rest of neat things.


OOOOPS! FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS A MI HERMANA RUTH.

Felicidades.

Despierta mi bien despierta, mira que ya amaneció.... ya los pajarillos cantan, la luna ya se metió...

Féliz cumpleaños a mi mejor amigo, gracias por compartir la vida conmigo, por lo menos ya llevamos la mitad de nuestras existencias juntos, que haya muchos dias de San José para tí.

Today is Pepe's birthday, I'm very happy we can reach it together, although he is in Seattle right now.

Ay, ay, ay...

After a horrible week of bad health I realize how wonderful is to feel fine, or at least kind of "normal".

Everything started with a flying piece of plate in my eye, when they say household accidents are more likely to happen that other type of accidents, is true. Have you ever imagined that putting away clean plates can hurt you?.

Then a horrible cold that lasted for days and as a dessert (I hope) a bad wise-molar day turned in a whole nightmare, extractions and soup diet.

My husband has been a big help to me, I complained of him the day I went to the dentist, but I have to say the following day he interrupted his working day when I called him in a desperate situation and stayed home.

If I would know, that removing 4 dental pieces was such a big, big and painful deal, I never would say, o.k doc., do it. I know common sense tells you that is awkward, mostly if you just have problems with one. But in such pain, the only thing you want is help, your neurons kind of shut down and the last thing to come to you is common sense. Believe me, I felt better when they removed my gallbladder.

The crisis in Latin-America

Latin America faced a war-crisis (see the picture sequence to have a better idea) this week, when Colombia attacked a guerrilla camp posted in Ecuador. Although "la guerrilla" named FARC has its issues against the Colombian government and has its "military" influence in territory of this country, they had a camp in Ecuador close to the border with Colombia, trying to be safe from possible attacks from Colombian army. So Ecuador considered this military incursion as a threat and invasion. Then Venezuela and Hugo Chavez moved army to its border with Colombia as well, as a support to Ecuador.

But, as Latin-Americans, the passion has a lot to do, they insulted one against the others and accusations came and went back and forth, until the reunion in Dominican Republic, where all the Presidents of the region sat together. Some raised the voice and so on, until a big hug at the end. It seems that they solved the problem or at least, slowed down the war threats.



At the beginning of the video, is the President of Ecuador saying, - as a country they agree to get over the conflict-, then the President of Colombia goes and hugs the President of Ecuador, after, he hugs Hugo Chavez from Venezuela, and every body claps in joy.

I could go deeper and say, ideology has to do in this conflict, the right against the left, is the FARC a terrorist organization or not, is it true the U.S made up every thing and supported Colombia to attack the guerrilla in other's country territory, so Hugo Chavez would go mad and to have an excuse to so something towards him. Why Hugo Chavez was so angry at the beginning threating Colombia? and then being so conciliator in the reunion... he even sang.

Anyway, I'm glad they agreed and hugged and probably after that, they went to have some drinks, -the Latino way- ¡ a brindar!

Meet the gang
Presidents of Latin-America

President of Argentina in blue, President of Chile in red.

Presenting....

We finally put together the schedule for our trip to Yucatan.... yay! Please take a look to our "flyer", click to enlarge.




click to enlarge.

Ballenas a la vista!

Here we go...


Sailors arguing.
Yes... they were over there....


My girl and I, of course.

Is it a Magician, is it a Gnome, is it a Divination?

Uxmal, a great Mayan city, where some of its majestic buildings still stand in the middle of the Yucatan territory.

This pyramid among other ruins in the Uxmal complex, is a beautiful and attractive building of 117 feet tall, some papers call it the Magician pyramid, but in Mexico this is named after "the one the practices divinations" (La piramide del Adivino). The Legend says that when a certain gong was sounded, the town of Uxmal would fall to a boy "not born of woman". One day, a dwarf boy, who had been raised from an egg by a witch, sounded the gong and struck fear into the ruler, who ordered him to be executed. The ruler promised that the boy’s life would be saved if he could perform three impossible tasks, one of which was to build a giant pyramid in a single night. The boy achieved all the tasks, and became the new ruler.

Uxmal is located along the Puuc route. Since puuc is a mayan word for hills, we can imagine this area of the Maya world as the most "hilly" among a bast territory of flatness that the Yucatan peninsula represents.

Along the Puuc route we do not just find Uxmal, but another cities as well, Kabah, Labna and Sayil. The Puuc cities represent a great deal of Mayan architecture, the buildings festooned with religious icon, reliefs and carvings.

Climbing this pyramid and exploring the other ruins in this archaeological site, would empower our curiosity as the past explorers and archaeologists did, when they did find for first time this footprint from the ancient. A big respect and admiration for those civilizations.

Cenote Ik Kil

I wouldn't come to you with definitions of what is a Cenote, since you can have a better one following the link. But this appealing natural pool is some of the wonders of the Yucatán peninsula.
Yucatan along with part of Central America was home of one of the greatest civilization, the Maya, the Mayan considered this water reservoirs sacred places as the only resource of water they had.
Today many cenotes are open to the public for a refreshing swimming or snorkeling, this particular cenote is called ik kil and is located close to the great city of Chichen Itza.
We hope we can be enjoying its clear waters this summer, on our "Ruins and beaches" trip to Yucatán.

El dia del amor.

Valentine's day, is an special celebration where people wish to each other LOVE, that is fine with me, even my Snape's inner spirit allows that. When my girl started pre-school I remember not knowing anything about Valentine's cards, until I asked Lauren what was that, and then I understood the big deal that this celebration means for kids, I bet is for the candy treats, because they pay little attention to the written cards.
I like to look at my children bags of Valentines when they come back from school, I think they reflects lots of the giver personalities, even if the parents buy them for them, I'm sure they look for something that goes with he/her thoughts. Some ones make them at home (like A&B, last year, but that was an art-craft for a non-school day).
Anyways, I got and email from some body I don't know, but I suspect Eduardo does, because my address is part of a large list where he appears. Talking about San Valentine's alternative day for guys, I replayed with all the sarcasm I usually use when talking with El Pollo because I thought I was writing to him, but noticed that I sent the e-mail to this guy I don't know, if he speaks spanish, then he would think I come from planet Vinager, (see how important is having sense of humor or knowledge of reallity?).
Oh well, I've been busy these days reading and planning a Yucatán trip-project.

Eres un amigo de Obama?

Chico!!! Action, now the new Amigos de Obama, (BUTt, they need to put caption in Spanish of his speeches) let's see if that works for him, in the race for Voto Latino!

The hispanic wall and Obama

The Newspaper El Pais from Spain says something like this, Obama faced a wall not anticipated, the hispanic wall, here something from an article I just read, I know is in Spanish, but you can use a translator to have an idea, try to read the whole thing too. I have to add that Obama didn't get close to the Latino community, I didn't hear in any news how Obama talks to Latinos, just that he sang "Mexico Lindo" in some radio-talk show, and something else, Obama and his speeches resembles a lot to old and all times Latin-american politicians, lots of promises and hopes and at the end (for our countries), nothing to be true or worst. We don't know if that is the case with Obama, but Latinos fear for a not happy ending.
But for all of you Obama followers, "El Pais" is making a poll, Obama or Clinton.

"El rechazo electoral a un candidato negro es un asunto que preocupa mucho a los portavoces de la comunidad hispana y cuya explicación exige un análisis muy profundo. En las últimas semanas, este periódico ha buscado en dos Estados de gran presencia latina, Nevada y California, algunas de las razones de este nuevo fenómeno y ha encontrado respuestas sensatas y creíbles: la competencia de negros e hispanos por los mismos puestos de trabajo, la guerra que las pandillas de las dos comunidades libran desde hace años en los barrios de las grandes ciudades, el trato despreciativo que algunos negros han tenido hacia los hispanos durante mucho tiempo, las enormes diferencias culturales entre las dos etnias... Los expertos y los líderes políticos hispanos se niegan a hablar de racismo. Aseguran que se trata de desconocimiento, de prevención o de venganza, pero no de racismo".