Amber's Travels

Chile de Agua

Chili de Agua is my absolute new favorite chile pepper. Unfortunately, I could not find them anywhwere in Austin. I was able to obtain some seeds on my trip. Currently they are beautiful little seedlings that I guard with my life. I'm hoping to be able to put them outside in a week or 2. This year, since I'm starting so late I'm only testing with 3 seedlings. If it works, I will test several in the spring.

Heading Home

7/29/04

After showing up to live with Susana on Monday, she suddenly moved me out to a house in the village. It was like staying in our garage, but painted pink with dolls stapled to the walls. After the run with bed bugs I was nervous to sleep in a bed that I didn't know, but was willing to give it a shot. In the matter of 3 days I had the following experiences that helped me realize that maybe I'd do better off if I was in a situation where I could go "home" somewhere at night that I felt safe and clean. The "interesting" parts of the day would be much easier to deal with if there had been an escape at night.

Day 1 - cutting nopales in knee high brush something scurried past and I found myself praying that it was a rat.

Day 3 - at 7 am most of the village is still asleep and therefore have their attack dogs still out. I went to go pick up some chickens from Oscar, the local chicken farmer to carry them to Susana's for class. The night before it had flooded, I got lost at the very deep muddy river, carrying chickens and chased by barking dogs. It is funny now since I know that I don't have to live through that every week.

Also I was able to determine that with the family issues, the chauffering duties, sanitation issues, personal safety concerns and some other personal issues that this wasn't going to be as much learning and cooking as I had hoped for myself and for school. The cons were outweighing the pros unfortunately. I had yet to even cook Oaxacan food with Susana...with her staff and with other students yes, but not with direct information from Susana. She is very busy.

I did learn some truly valuable things and I am thankful for the experience. I hope to continue with Spanish and the traditional and cultural slants to cooking. I was truly engrossed with the way people adapt and fully utilize the ingredients available to them.

I came home Thursday. I am disappointed in myself and with the situation at the cooking school, but I feel it was best for me. I hope to work something out for my externship with my food writing in the reviews section and some of my other work.

Man These Sundays Really Get Me Down

Hello all.

I was awoken today (my birthday) by Susana. She came by to tell me I have to come out to the ranch to meet Eric...her soon to be or may possibly already be ex husband. So I guess those are my plans for my birthday. She also mentioned that driving her children to and from school is the most important part of my job for her. I'm just not sure about this...she also mentioned there were a lot of other "weird things" she had to tell me about life at the ranch. I'm not sure if after bed bugs, bronchitis, and the interesting week of stolen tourist card fiascos that I'm up for anymore "weird" goings on. I'm ready to settle in and cook and it looks like maybe I'll be more nanny than cook. I'm not sure that is what I signed up for. I plan to be pretty honest with her today about my expectations. I want to be sure we both get something out of this not just a free baby sitter for her while she travels.

School's Out

Well, my 4 weeks of Spanish class have ended and I got a 96.4. I hope that I can make that transfer somewhere. I feel like I'm at a weird point where now both my Spanish and my English are at a 5 year old level. Now I can't remember some words in English as rapidly as I should be able to and my Spanish still consists of mis-conjugated verbs and some interesting charades to get my point across. I figure it will take time, I mean after all there are 14 tenses here and not all are used regularly. Anyhoo, I'm hoping to have a nice relaxed weekend before I start the externship. (I can't believe there are still 4 more months right now). Wish me luck and I hope time passes a little faster once I'm working.

Cuajimoloyas - The Cloud Forest

7/18/04 Today I was transported into exactly what I imagined a cloud forest should be. We started out at Tlacaloula for a barbacoa consomme that gave us the energy to ascend one of the tallest mountains in Oaxaca. We drove through the clouds to a land where green drips from the trees, rocks and earth. This is a village called Cuajimoloyas. From what I understand it is a village that has been given to the natives to own and manage. They run some ecotourism tours from here through land that they all collectively own and work. They grow wild mushrooms (not cultivated), potatoes and mustard greens among other indigenous plants. We met our mushroom guide and went into a fairy tale world (and I didn't even eat the magic mushrooms). It was beyond beautiful. I often find my self stumped for adjectives to describe these mysterious and beautiful places. It was chilly, foggy and magical. We dug in the loam to find edible mushrooms. We found toxious, poisonous, "magic" and wonderful culinary specimens. It seems odd to me that the "inedible" mushrooms were always the most beautiful. It was like an easter egg hunt in fairy land. We all wanted to be the next person to find the ones that made our guide so happy. His wife uses these to make a mole or a stew. We spent several hours wandering around this fog searching. Sometimes we forgot we were supposed to be foraging and just soaked in the beauty. Our guide took us into an ancient cave where he said that the energy of the ancestors were strong. We each spent a moment inside feeling this energy. I felt the spirits everywhere. I have to believe my luck on this trip (the week I haven't posted from yet) has changed. Today was my favorite day of this trip so far. I loved Monte Alban, but this was so far of the beaten path and we were invited into a village home for a late lunch of our findings. How much more special can one feel? Also, I have to mention that our driver, Joaquin is truly the best driver in Oaxaca. He got a van full of women down from the mountain without brakes today. He is a buen hombre! I think I'm taking a tour of Mitla with him for my birthday...hopefully the van will be fixed by then. Check out the pictures, they do it more justice than I can.

Hasta Luego Jaime

7/11/04 Today we got up at 5:45 to get James to the airport for his 8am flight back to Austin. I can say I'm a little jealous that he'll sleep in a great bed and have a wonderful shower tonight. The past week has been very trying. I'll spare you all the details because I really don't want to have a negative attitude since I have so much time left here. Maybe as time passes I can put the past week into perspective for you without being negative. I'm really going to miss him. Through all of the trials of the past week he really shone as my hero and a true partner. When I returned from the airport it was still cool which made it nice for a nap. It was a day that fit my mood...cool and rainy. I caught up on my reading and studies and finally went out around 3:30 for toilet paper. All the stores were closed, it is after all, Sunday in Mexico. It is nice because the city was quiet and I could actually hear the birds and wander slowly without dodging the traffic. It was very peaceful if not productive. I went back out around 5:30 and wandered further to find a store that was open...the ONLY one I believe, and was able to get toilet paper. I'm just proud I got back home without James navigating. I had popcorn and yogurt at the posada for dinner. Around 7pm I had a new experience...I've gotten used to the water going out, but never DURING my shower. Yep, got all soaped up and the water stopped. I thought I'd use some of the bottled water we stockpiled...unfortunately, they were all in the refrigerator. I'm sure it would have been funny to watch and may be funny to hear, but I have to say...cold water isn't pleasant, but REALLY cold refrigerated water definitely not so (it's been 2 hours and still no water so I'm glad I improvised)! Anyway, I think I got most of the suds off and am ready to start a new week with a new outlook. Just keep in touch for the next 2 weeks. It is going to be difficult for me to keep in touch after the 25th as Susana's Ranch is really far out there and not equipped with the most modern of communications. It is however, a very beautiful cooking school and everyone seems truly happy to attend classes there. I'm going to help her several days next week as she has her big Guelaguetza week long cooking class and a food writer and someone from Food TV will be there. It should be a wonderful opportunity. I've been itching to cook recently and am looking forward to it. I have some pics that James took of the cooking class and I'll post them as I get a chance. I definitely will not be able to post pictures while I'm out at the ranch, so have some patience with me. I'll do my best to stay in contact.

Monte Alban

7/3/04 Today was amazing. I'm not sure I have enough distance from our visit to Monte Alban yet to say much other than I am in awe of how advanced that society was. Also, we were incredibly lucky to find a Zapotec guide who spoke English. He is the grandson of a famous healer named Dona Cande who died at 113 years old. He grew up on the tallest mountain encircling Monte Alban and was very excited to share the knowledge of his ancestors with us. James understood his name as Rolando, but I believe it was Orlando. If you go to Monte Alban, ask for him. He was the closest to an old Austin hippie we've met so far. He wasn't formally educated but was the most knowledgeable and intelligent man we've met. He took the time to stop and explain the uses of all of the vegetation as well as all of the spiritual and mathematical reasons for the locations and uses of the buildings. My favorite building was the astronomical observatory. It had stelae that represented each astronomer (every astronomer had different tattoos around their eyes) with the constellation they founded. Another truly fascinating item was the stelae that are referred to as Las Danzantes. Once thought to be dancers in a psychedelic mushroom trance scientists have finally discovered these to be documentations of different medical conditions. The room in which they were discovered is thought to possibly be a medical library or healer's office. They document hunchbacks, breach births and other physical deformities. Finally, our guide explained the big draw at the Solstice which is a chamber that receives the direct light of the sun twice a year and sends the beam glowing down to a platform where a priest dressed in reflective gold dress would address the indigenous people. Another interesting tidbit were stelae that depicted races other than Mesoamerican. They have documented proof that Africans, Asians and other races were at Monte Alban before those cultures were believed to have transportation sophisticated enough to cross the oceans. I have a ton of other small facts that I probably will not post, but may get around to working into a story. Like I said before, it was an amazing day. We had been told it was maybe 2 hours of entertainment, but we were there for 5 hours and felt we needed another day.

Santo Domingo

Ok, I think you all know James and I aren't what you would call "religious", however we couldn't help but feel a tremendous amount of piety when we went into the Cathedral Santo Domingo. They have what I assume are called relief frescos containing the family tree of the saints all over the roof of the church, plus the altars are carved from gold. It was beautiful. Also at the cathedral is a huge museum containing artifacts and historical items from BC to fairly current Mexico. I highly recommend going and wandering for a few hours. James and I were really drawn in by the huge historic library that had all sorts of religious and historical text from all cultures. Unfortunately, you cannot browse them. I'm sure they are restricted to special scholars. James went haywire with pictures again, so look for the photo album. We'll weed through them and get them uploaded sometime soon.

Planetarium

Made some young friends that are the daughters of the owner of the hostel. They are very sweet. The middle sister, Jasmine, invited us to a private party at the planetarium overlooking Oaxaca city. We weren't sure what we were in for, but we had a great night. It was a small gathering after the planetarium closed. The curator brought out his telescope and showed us the moon, Vega, Alpha Centauri and Jupiter. We had a great time trying to practice Spanish. The funniest thing was watching James try to have a conversation about black holes, physics and the space-time continuum in Spanish. It was a good mix of locals, foreigners and Ex-pats. Plus it was a beautiful view of the city and the heavens.

First Day of School

6/28/04 Today went well. We made it to school on time and both feel like we've been placed correctly. James was worried at first that he was not in the right class, but after the afternoon conversation class we both realize we have much to learn. We signed up for extra conversation classes in the afternoon, but I will miss some of those since Susana wants me to come help during Guelaguetza week. I'm also going to sign up for some cooking classes at school (these workshops are at no extra cost) so that I can get some of the kitchen vocabulary down. The teachers at ICO are very patient and speak slowly for us in the beginning classes, but no English. I'm surprised at how much I understand but how little I can respond. Our conversation workshop teacher talked with me a little about superstition. He was a little horrified that I owned a black cat, but did not consider himself superstitious. He believes in an "energy" but isn't certain about ghosts and witches.

I also decided to stay in my hostel for the entire 4 weeks in the city. It is rustic, but I am comfortable here and think I'd like the time to myself before moving in with a family in Etla for 4 months. After James leaves, I get to move into a room on the roof from which I'm told I can see the main dances of the Guelaguetza on the mountainside. It is a beautiful view of the rooftop garden and the surrounding mountains. Hopefully, it is also a little cooler up there at night than in the room we have on the interior of the hostel now.

I was originally thinking I would send back gifts to some of you, but I found out from my teacher today to send even a small item it cost her $90USD. I don't think I'll be sending anything home except postcards and emails. I may try to do some shopping before James leaves if he has room to carry items back with him.

A student in my class recommended a restaurant called VIPS and we went for lunch since it was very close to school. I won't waste time reviewing it as it was very much like a Denny's. Not impressive. For dinner we went to La Rustica and had pizza. It was a nice change after eating at a very small local place last night that upset our stomachs a little this morning. Speaking of local fare, we passed a place today that had the soup special listed as "Sopa de Gato"...Ken or Ruben or Monica, if you read this, please let me know what that means because in my limited Spanish I read that as cat soup and I'm sure that can't be it. Anyway, we'll be back up to local fare tomorrow, just have to give the system time to adapt. I have found that the wine here leaves something to be desired, but I was expecting that. I actually think that the temperatures without air conditioning have turned the wine a little; even wines I know taste a little off. Luckily the beer tastes great. I think it is kept much cooler than the cerveza in the Yucatan. Not much more to report today unless you want to hear Spanish practice.