mariposas mañana

Hola mis amigos,

Well, we´re here in Angangueo, Mexico in the state of Michoacan. Somewhere in the surrounding mountains are clouds of butterflies. Tomorrow, bright and early we will venture out into the pine and fern forest to find them. The town here is built on a steep slope with narrow winding roads. The homes are all squat and brightly colored with laundry and flowers hanging from the windows. Our hotel has a little terrace\roof to sit on and view the hillside. It is pretty idyllic.

Oh my, I have a lot i could talk about. We´ve had some pretty magical experiences the past few days. but before i get into that i just want to note the extreme number of clowns and circus animals that we have come across while traveling throughout mexico. seriously, there are so many clowns - kevin agrees that we´ve seen at least a dozen in the less than 2 weeks that we´ve been south of the border as they say. and - lets see - 1 tiger, 2 lions, one bear, i think 3 camels, and probably some more that i can´t think of right now. and not all in one place. and we never actually went to a circus. crazy. generally the clowns were seen in separate occasions than the circus animals too. this was not something i was expecting to find in mexico in such numbers.

So we spent almost all of our first week on the coast, and some of it was awesome, and some of it was infested with retired americans and canadians in rv´s and expensive food and senior frog. Since turning inland, though, we´ve been totally loving mexico. We spend a couple days in a city called Colima that was so special. i think if i ever expatriate to mexico, i´ll probably go to colima. it is a small university town with gorgeous gardens and a church on every corner. sunday night there was a big mariachi concert in one of the aforementioned gardens and an oaxacan festival in another. Saturday we were wandering around and passed an open door through which was a striking piece of art and jazz music and couches. we had to do a double take to realize that this place was a coffee house. After visiting the festival de la virgen de la salud (the virgin of health) we went back there to find that they were having a concert of aztec music that evening. so we hung out and met the owners, jazz musicians - one from mexico city and one from Maryland - this cute little african american man named bindu who had studied in new orleans. they were so amazing and welcoming and had started this coffee house to create a safe haven for the arts in colima and encourage kids to get involved with the arts. Kevin invited them to Chicago to play at the loft and they just might come. And they welcome any of our friends to come perform there. It is truly a magical place, inhabited by a magical couple. Bindu has some amazing stories to tell and he´ll ramble on for hours if you let him. which you should.

i can´t possibly spend anymore time in front of this machine.

i love you all.

viva mexico

i´m in mexico and blogger is in spanish, pero yo hablo español muy bien, so it is OK.

so i´m in another country so it is time for me to go back to this old thing right?

kevin and i are in jalisco on the pacific coast in a small town called Melaque. It´s been cloudy, but the water in the sea is warm, so there has been plenty of swimming with fishies and baby turtles (ok - i only saw one baby turtle, but it was cute enough to kill a whale). Yesturday i found myself in the middle of a feeding frenzy as a school of small silvery fish surrounded me, followed closely and intently by a huge flock birds. Pelicans, terns, gulls, egrets and boobies (he-he) divebombed the water all around me scooping up as many fishes as they could swallow. A few lucky ones took refuge from their feathered foes in my bathing suit, which incited a giggle in me that lasted for at least an hour. It was by far the most comical swimming experience I have ever had.

The bird watching has been superb. I´ve never seen so many pelicans in my life, let alone the numbers of blue footed boobies that hang out on the rocky shoreline. Flying boobies everywhere! It is like a dream come true.

Soon we´ll be headed inland towards las mariposas in las montañas.

adios mis amigos.