Autumn's Adventures in Mexico: Birthday Tacos

I recently celebrated my first birthday in Mexico and it was a fitting start to my last year in my 30s. It had all those things you look for in a birthday celebration: a house full of volunteers, local bebidas for everyone to taste, a live rendition of the Las Mañanitas birthday song in Spanish (with dancing), lots of laughter and tasty food. I guess Mother Nature was looking out for me because there was no rain, zero incidents with creepy crawlers in the house and both bathrooms held up to heavy use.

We ran into this little guy on the trail where we saw lots of his friends.

Talking shop under a huge plastic orange tree, as one does.

I tried to absorb all the wisdom I could from these expert volunteers who each had 1.5-3 years of Peace Corps experience and are some seriously cool cats. I’d say this was a good poster group for the “work hard, play hard” credo, and we viewed some great Youtube videos showcasing the talents of two of my guests. Cindy and I did our best to show them the local sites and had Sonia, one of our English students who also works as a tour guide, take us on a grand journey traveling through the surrounding mountains to see some of our charming pueblos (and a luxury resort with perfectly manicured grass which is a definite rarity).

Our intrepid tour guide, Sonia.

Waterfall near Navidad.

Lake at Sierra Lago.

If you've got 3500+ pesos a night to spend, you can stay here (i.e. I will never be staying here).

Lots of art on display.

A few words about Sonia as she is worthy of some praise. The first time I saw Sonia she was "graduating" from the tour guide program and taking SO many selfies. Here's what I've learned in the last 5 months: Sonia is an incredibly kind and hard working woman. I'm guessing she's in her early 30s, and I know that she is married with three young children. She works as a tour guide, is going to school and studying all the time, and almost always attends our weekly English class where she diligently works on pronunciation and creating strong sentences. She also has this great, outgoing personality that makes people instantly love her and is the best photo-poser I've ever met She has an amazing ability to create a model-worthy pose every time the camera comes out and I'm trying to learn this important life skill from her.

The lovely Sonia; my posing skills need a lot of work.

During our tour I got to see some new sites and while walking around a lake Sonia asked me if Cindy and I lived together. I said no and she asked “why not?” I tried to explain the difference in the cultural norms in the US and Jess added that it’s against Peace Corps rules for volunteers to live with other English speakers, but it highlights a perception that I frequently run into: that it’s really sad that I live alone.

One day at the fruit stand I was talking with the owner about my new house and saying that “the only thing I’m missing is….” and she jumped in with “company? You must be so lonely in that house.” I was going to say “a sofa.” People often look at you sadly when you say you live alone and they almost always ask right away if you have kids. Or a husband. Or a boyfriend. Even the people who I buy gas and water from ask me these questions. And they give you the head tilt with sad eyes and slightly downturned mouth when you say no. They seem a little less sad when I tell them about my 3 nieces and cat back in the states (all similar enough to my own kids to fit the bill), and when I explain that I only have this great opportunity to live in their community because I don't have all those things (i.e. world, you are welcome).

I finally got that sofa, but I'm still missing one more chair (and all that family).

That mountain in the middle with a kind of flat top is a volcano!

Sights from our tour.

Bird chilling in Yerbabuena.

Living in a culture that seems to value family more has made me think about how I should try to live closer to mine when I'm done with this adventure. And after such a great six months with my host families, I was a little worried about if it would be different to live alone again, but worry not, I readjusted just fine. I love coming home to do, and wear, whatever I want and if I want to talk with people all I have to do is open my front door. Or have 6 volunteers come stay with me. That filled my house with plenty of company and gave me even more things to talk about with the locals. After dropping off all the gringos at the bus terminal on Sunday, I headed out to do my weekly shopping and everyone asked me about my visitors. Where were they from? What did we do? Did they all really stay at my house? And, most importantly, did they like it here? (Of course - this place is beautiful!)

The following Monday I headed into work for our weekly English class where I got a second round of Las Mañanitas, enjoyed a cupcake with our students, and shared all kinds of important stuff regarding birthdays in US culture (how to help people celebrate turning 29 forever, etc.) At the end of the day, I headed to the local taco truck for some birthday tacos. If you want food but don’t want to cook, you've basically got two options here: go to a restaurant or go to a taco stand. I am lucky to live next to what Peace Corps staff has described as the best taco stand in Mexico so I splurged on $2 for 4 tasty tacos which you can top with all kinds of goodies. I decided the best thing I could do in the coming year would be to start visiting that taco stand on a regular basis and form a strong friendship with the owner. Only good things can come from friends with fresh tacos.