Baby Sea Turtle Awesomeness

Remember the first time you went to the beach to help set baby sea turtles free on their life of adventure?  Thanks to some kind volunteers and community members in Nayarit, I can now say yes!  I headed out to the coast for a serious sweat cleanse while helping two other Peace Corps volunteers with their Conservation Week activities and learning about environmental education in Mexico.  

 I think this beautiful tree gives you a sense of the humidity. 

 Welcome arch to beautiful San Blas.

Great kingfisher mural. 

On the way, I had a quick layover in Puerto Vallarta where I immediately started dripping sweat and encountering lots of Canadians.  After traveling to the next bus station (and getting advice on how I really needed to be looking for a boyfriend), I met an older woman who chatted with me while waiting for our next bus.  She works on the beach braiding tourist’s hair and was going to visit her pregnant daughter up the coast.  We talked about if I had any children, why I was living in Mexico, what my work was, who was paying me, what I was going to do in San Blas, if I had found a boyfriend yet – i.e., the usual.  Then she asked me how many years I had been studying Spanish and when I said 7 months, her face had such a great look of surprise, and her praise was so sweet that I honestly started to tear up.  When she randomly pulled a sliver and turquoise ring out of her bag and said that her friend who sells jewelry on the beach gave it to her as payment for braiding her daughter's hair, and did I want to buy it, I said sure.  It wasn't something that I needed but it was lovely, and I thought “every time I look at this ring, I will remember this nice woman from the bus station.”

  Old church in San Blas, which is conveniently located next to..... 

  ...the new church in San Blas. 

 Town center, home to many great stands for local artists. 

There was quite a bit of confusion for my new friend and I when we tried to board the bus as the driver insisted he was not going to the locations printed on our tickets and sent us back inside where the people at the ticket counter insisted he was indeed going where we wanted to go.  We went back to see him and he left the bus in a huff and brought back a man in a sweater (seriously – in a SWEATER in Puerto Vallarta) and he explained that I had to go to Tepic to change buses but could use the same ticket, and the other woman had to get off earlier and then pay 10 more pesos for her connecting bus.  When we finally arrived in Tepic, the bus driver yelled for me to wait and then took my ticket with instructions not to move.  When he returned he said there was no time to spare, but after 4 plus hours on a bus with no bathroom I pleaded for el baño and he said “Ok, but hurry” and then gave me the 5 pesos to pay for it from his own pocket.  I ran to the bathroom and made it back just in time to get on the bus with my fellow passengers, for the last 1.5 hour leg of the trip.

 Jess took me to a fort above town; a soaking wet hike with great views. 

  Old fort. 

  View from the fort. 

 So many palm trees. 

I finally arrived and dropped off my bags at a gloriously air –conditioned apartment and then went to help with a painting exercise with a gaggle of happy, energetic kids.  I’m not one to wake up before 8:30 AM these days so I was really surprised to see how dark (and dripping hot) it was at 5:30 AM when we set off for turtle glory the following morning.  We passed by half of a giant commercial airplane that is placed near the beach as a tourist attraction, walked by the perpetually flooded street, and arrived at the beach to find crates full of uber cut baby sea turtles!  A little after 6 AM we headed down to the water with local children and adults to set those turtles free as the sun rose and flooded the clouds above the Pacific with colors.  Bucket list item completed!

 This is how dark it was when the first turtles were released. 

  Site of our early morning start. 

  You're free little buddies - head for the water! 

  Turtles heading into the surf. 

 Baby sea turtles entering the sea at sunrise. 

 Sunrise in San Blas. 

Afterwards we did a trash clean-up on the beach where we found plastic rings from six-packs, cigarette butts, beer cans, 4 baby diapers, plastic soda bottles, corn cobs and about ¾ of a watermelon.  Gotta give those sea turtles a fighting chance when they return.  Other fun activities included Storytime with a very energetic storyteller who had us impersonate wolves in front of the kids (nothing like howling gringas to make kids really laugh), an activity where kids created notebooks out of scrap paper, cardboard and fun animal stencils, a composting workshop and a screening of “Buscando a Dory.”

  Early morning beach clean-up. 

  Sunrise view during our beach trash clean-up; not bad! 

  Composting workshop. 

 I'm pretty much an expert at drawing apple cores and banana peels now. 

I also heard about the importance of building good relationships to really be effective in your work and saw the strong relationships one of the volunteers had formed after 2 plus years in the community.  Before I left for the Peace Corps, another volunteer told me they thought the people who worked with kids were the happiest, and I can see why she said that.  It takes a lot of energy to be "on" with kids for extended periods of time but they can be so much fun and energize you at the same time.  

  Casa de Cultura. 

  We got to watch this mural progress during the week. 

  Jess took me to Our Lady of the Rosary near the fort above town. 

 Outside old church ruins. 

I returned home after an 11-hour, 3-bus travel day with a few more bug bites than when I left, and a greater appreciation for what the environmental education volunteers do and what kind of challenges they encounter.  Most importantly, I returned to a MUCH cooler climate for which I have never been more grateful.  I will also always be eternally grateful for the opportunity to get to know two other volunteers better and witness my first ever sea turtle release.  Baby sea turtle awesomeness for sure. 

Día de los Muertos

I recently experienced my first Día de los Muertos in Mexico which provided a good opportunity for some cultural exchanges.  The week started off with English class lessons about Halloween traditions in the USA, which I loved as a kid (and a college student).  I can verify that trick-or-treat is not an easy phrase for non-native English speakers to pronounce, and we had to explain that everyone really just gets treats.  Cindy brought back candy corn from her recent stateside visit and after we explained it was all sugar, no corn, and not fake teeth, it was a hit!  I wore an Arkansas Razorback snout as my "costume" and we played Halloween bingo using giant corn kernels and candy corn.  

Fun fact: the English and Spanish words for zombie are almost identical (zombie, zombi). I think we can all agree that is super important information to know.

 

Display for Día de los Muertos in the main plaza. 

 English class learning about Halloween customs. 

 Artistic bingo photo from Carlos, an English class student. 

The following evening I headed to the central plaza for the Altares de Muertos, Marcha Fúnebre, and Festival Cultural y Kermés, all in celebration and honor of the dead.  Some of the altars were theoretical and designed by local art students and others were in remembrance of members of the community.  Their favorite items were placed on the altar to welcome back their spirits and included things like favorite items of clothing, shoes, foods and drinks, along with photos of the deceased and sweet drawings and words.

  True altars in the main plaza. 

 Artistic display in the main plaza. 

 Altars and art in the main plaza. 

I passed the evening with my new friends Iliana, David and their two little boys and ran into several people I knew, including the super nice woman who cleans the Presidencia, Cindy and her friend Marta, a gentleman who often works with our office, and Lorena, one of the daughters from my host family.  Lorena is part of a local dance troupe that performs traditional Mexican dances in amazing costumes with great theatricality.  This was my second time to see her perform and she did not disappoint, dancing with a lit votive in a glass on top of her head!

At the end of the night I found Lorena in the crowd and we chatted about her beautiful performance, how my Spanish was improving, how she wanted to practice English more, and how all I needed now was a boyfriend.  The next day I heard this song, which is starting to make me feel like Mexico is doing a hard sell on the boyfriend merchandise. 

  With my host sister Lorena. 

   Images from the night walk. 

  Art in the plaza. 

Altar in la presidencia. 

The following night I headed to the Panteón Municipal for an evento cultural and Concurso de Catrín y Catrina Mejor Vestiges.  The street was filled with vendors selling flowers, hot dogs wrapped in tortillas, french fries, and churros, and everyone was headed to the cemetery to celebrate their loved ones.  Earlier in the week there was a workshop on making the lovely Calvera Catrina, and her statues were on display throughout the town.  There’s something really beautiful about this celebration in Mexico.  It's a gift to have the opportunity to glimpse a stranger’s life from their altar and to witness to such a lovely custom in the flesh.  

Catrina art on display around town. 

There is a love of hotdogs here that I will never fully understand.  Last week I had to ask the chef to "hold the hot dog slices" on pizza. 

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. 

The beloved bistec birthday tacos. 

 Birthday cupcake with Enrique and Carlos. 

Important birthday vocabulary. 

Coffee, Cats & Dogs

A coworker told me it’s now scorpion season and that they love wood ceilings (just like my termites) so I need to shake out linens and clothes and keep a watchful eye out.  Apparently they’re only deadly if you have an allergic reaction and there’s some kind of anti-venom for scorpions sold in the local drugstore, which is information that should comfort me more than it does.  Cindy recently found a scorpion in her house and I’ve started finding small yellow larvae from something dropping from my ceiling so I’m a little amped up about critters these days and my sleep is starting to suffer. 

Showing off my town to an ex-volunteer who now lives in Mexico, after a rare, good night's sleep.  

Sign from a bar in Guanajuato; here's to a life without termites.   

Every time I hear a different noise or think I feel something on my bed, I have to jerk off the covers and turn on the light to make sure all is as it should be.  I’m starting to mellow out a little bit as I get more familiar with seeing things crawling around (although clearly not enough to stop writing about this).  For example, this morning I found a small spider crawling on my bed and I just knocked it off with only the noise of “Merrr” vs. any shrieking.  Then I saw a huge cockroach on it's back by my bed and realized that at least one noise I heard in the night was real.  There went my mellowness.  My house is scheduled for a termite fumigation soon so let’s hope that poison knocks out a few other things at the same time.  

In the meantime, I’m lucky that we have really good coffee here, which I often need after a sleepless night, so let’s talk about coffee.  And dogs.  And - because why not - cats.  

If you know me well, you know how much I love dogs – especially dogs I don’t know that I run into on the street…. Yesterday I saw a giant German Shepard romantically (and aggressively) pursuing a teeny-tiny Chihuahua.  I really wanted to tell him that no matter how great her personality, the physics of this relationship just weren’t going to work out.  Other dogs clearly make more appropriate choices for their novias because I’ve seen quite a few pregnant dogs here, and this is not my first time to witness two dogs engaged in a courting ritual on the street.  I’ve only had one dog act aggressively towards me and sure enough, it was a small dog that chased me in front of my house.  I was like, yo, I live here so you’re the one who needs to step off, perrita!  I’m pretty tough.

This would be one of the nice dogs - who frequently hangs out at our office and has fantastic ears.  

I don’t see many cats here in Mexico but I have seen two napping in my backyard.  One is a tabby who looks well-kept and the other is a wilder looking white-when-clean cat.  I’m not sure which one was responsible for pooping in front of my patio door but if that was some kind of power move, it’s on gato! It’s possible that all the cats in town are currently in heat because I heard a serenade of cats howling like they were engaging in some kind of fight-club for cats for hours the other night. I also awoke to the sound of a cat howling outside my bedroom window two nights in a row so something is definitely in the feline air these days.

Scruffy white cat napping in my jungle of a yard. 

As for coffee, that’s one of the core products targeted for sustainable practices with our project so I’ve had the opportunity to taste many different blends.  I’ve also had the opportunity to get out in the woods to see coffee plants and talk with people who are growing and processing this liquid gold (which I have at times bought directly from their house).  We are blessed with especially tasty coffee in this region and should you come visit me, I will totally hook you up!  It’s so good that one of my fellow volunteers returning to the US requested that I bring her 4 bags of it to take back as gifts.

 Perhaps the most polite person you'll meet in Mexico, Don Balbino. 

 Coffee plants.

Coffee bean; sadly many are suffering from plagues. 

 

A sampling of our local coffees. 

I must confess that Starbucks is present in Mexico but only in the big cities and I promise I haven’t purchased any of their coffee here.  I did take advantage of their free wifi once in Guadalajara and I bought my favorite drink, a Sanpellegrino Aranciata.  Side note: if my family wanted to have this delightful beverage available for me in copious amounts during my next visit, I would not object.  I was a little sad not to be able to take advantage of my free Starbucks cup of coffee this year for my birthday because I definitely can’t afford Starbucks now and free stuff is my favorite, but such is the hardship of being a Peace Corps volunteer.  Instead I had to brew my own fresh, locally-grown coffee.  That’s right – I finally took the time to learn how to use a coffee pot.  I realize this is something most people learn when they’re like 4 years old, but it took me a little longer to put forth the effort. 

To be fair, I forgot to buy coffee cups after I bought the coffee maker, so the first time I actually tried to make coffee, it was only partly successful.  Now I have 2 lovely coffee mugs and, thanks to my coworker Alma, I'm up to 4 plates and 4 bowls!  I also purchased a big jar full of utensils from a volunteer heading back to the US, so now I have more than 2 forks.  Good coffee, 4 plates, plentiful forks AND a fumigation on the way?  Living in the lap of luxury. 

 The white dishes were a much-appreciated gift from my coworker!  

My colorful coffee mugs.  

Starbucks in Guanajuato; yes, they have cups with each city name on them here too.