Happy Holidays! I know I haven´t written in a while, so I´ll try to give a succint update of everything.
After the farm I traveled in Mexico and Guatemala for a few weeks. The other WWOOFers and I went to the beach at Zihuatenejo for a few days and then Karen and I took a bus to Mexico City (which I still love). There was an ice skating rink and big winter fair set up in the city square and it was bueatiful. From Mexico City we went to Palenque, a city of Mayan ruins in Chiapas, about 8 hours away from Flores, Guatemala. To cross the border from Mexico to Guatemala, we had to take a 30 minute boat ride in these long and narrow boats. THey were prety cool. We spent a day at Tikkal and then a day at Rio Dulce (halfway between Tikkal and Guatemala City) where we went to a hot water fall. After Rio Dulce, we went to Antigua where we climbed Pacaya, an active volcano and roasted marshmellows on lava flows. It was really cool. For Christmas, I met my family in florida where we rented a house for a week. One day, Beth, Alex and I drove the 2 hours to the everglades and took an airboat ride to see aligators in the swamp. I learned that, like me, alligators also like marmellows.
I arrived in Xela yesterday and right now am trying to sort out my life-meaning finding a job, maybe taking some more classes, and deciding if I want to live with my host family or find an apartment. My biggest plans, besides job searching, is hopefully going salsa dancing tonight. Once I figure out more of my life, I´ll let you all know.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Still in Mexico...
This week, Karen and I fixed a wall of a terraced garden bed, planted about 500 beets, made a low tunnel (like a mini greenhouse to protect the fennel from the frost), and started digging out blackberry roots so we can plant one of the greenhouses. The new WWOOFer brought a hackey sack and a frisbee, which has been fun. I´m pretty terrible at hackey sack but at least have been improving.
The most exiciting news recently in my life is that today I bought a watch for $30 pesos (US$2.50) that says ¨Japan Quality, Made in China¨on the back. I don´t have high hopes, but so far so good.
Living with two Brits, I have started saying ¨proper¨as in ¨Are you going to make a proper fire?¨ Picking this up may be because it actually is better than just repeating the word twice, which is what I realized I sometimes do (or say ¨real¨but proper is better). Por ejemplo, ¨was it a date date¨versus ¨was it a proper date?¨ I don´t think I´ll get to saying ¨Crikey¨or ¨Bloody hell¨but maybe if I were staying longer, I would.
The most exiciting news recently in my life is that today I bought a watch for $30 pesos (US$2.50) that says ¨Japan Quality, Made in China¨on the back. I don´t have high hopes, but so far so good.
Living with two Brits, I have started saying ¨proper¨as in ¨Are you going to make a proper fire?¨ Picking this up may be because it actually is better than just repeating the word twice, which is what I realized I sometimes do (or say ¨real¨but proper is better). Por ejemplo, ¨was it a date date¨versus ¨was it a proper date?¨ I don´t think I´ll get to saying ¨Crikey¨or ¨Bloody hell¨but maybe if I were staying longer, I would.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Corrected phone number and address
Sorry, I forgot to include a very important ¨1¨in my phone number in the previous blog. I´ve changed it on there but just so you know, if you want to call from a telephone or calling card from the states call:
011-52-1-434-1121-321.
And for anyone who wants to send me anything, you can send it to the following address until January:
Stephanie Charpentier
La Democracia Spanish School
9 Calle 15-05
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Central America
I won´t pick up my mail there until around Christmas, but I´ll still get whatever you send.
011-52-1-434-1121-321.
And for anyone who wants to send me anything, you can send it to the following address until January:
Stephanie Charpentier
La Democracia Spanish School
9 Calle 15-05
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, Central America
I won´t pick up my mail there until around Christmas, but I´ll still get whatever you send.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Mexican Phone Number
Hey all, so this is likely the last time I´ll use internet until I leave the farm, so I would love to hear from anyone who wants to call me. It costs me about $4 to make a call just to say ¨call me back¨and then hang up, so I would love it if you could call me on Skype just because you feel like it. It´s best to call after 5 pm Eastern time and even better after 8 or 9pm.
From Skype: Set the country choice to Mexico (which will automatically input the country code). Then type in 1-434-1121-321 and hit send. If it doesn´t go through, just try again because the signal goes in and out so if I don´t pick up, it probably never rang. But it does work (I´ve tested it from Skype) so just don´t give up.
From a phone/calling card: Dial 001-52-1-434-1121-321. And the same thing goes as above about trying again (and again).
The primary cell phone provider in Mexico is a monopoly and charges criminally high rates to make calls. But I have free incoming calls and it´s not that much from skype.
Other than all that, some things I´ve been doing lately:
-preparing beds with fish emolsion (think decomposing fish parts) and bio-char
-planting purple mustard, parsley, beets, cabbage, fennel, etc
-feeding ducks, pigs, geese, chickens
-making compost
-hearding the pigs back in when they dug under the fense and escaped
-baking bread (today we made focaccia bread to use as pizza crust and a rye molassas loaf)
-digging a wallow for the pigs
It´s great because I´m learning a lot about permaculture and how everything works and fits together, not just working.
A new WWOOFer is coming today which will make 5 of us. He´s also Canadian, but I haven´t met him yet so I don´t know much more.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well. I miss you all (and thanks for taking the time to read this)
From Skype: Set the country choice to Mexico (which will automatically input the country code). Then type in 1-434-1121-321 and hit send. If it doesn´t go through, just try again because the signal goes in and out so if I don´t pick up, it probably never rang. But it does work (I´ve tested it from Skype) so just don´t give up.
From a phone/calling card: Dial 001-52-1-434-1121-321. And the same thing goes as above about trying again (and again).
The primary cell phone provider in Mexico is a monopoly and charges criminally high rates to make calls. But I have free incoming calls and it´s not that much from skype.
Other than all that, some things I´ve been doing lately:
-preparing beds with fish emolsion (think decomposing fish parts) and bio-char
-planting purple mustard, parsley, beets, cabbage, fennel, etc
-feeding ducks, pigs, geese, chickens
-making compost
-hearding the pigs back in when they dug under the fense and escaped
-baking bread (today we made focaccia bread to use as pizza crust and a rye molassas loaf)
-digging a wallow for the pigs
It´s great because I´m learning a lot about permaculture and how everything works and fits together, not just working.
A new WWOOFer is coming today which will make 5 of us. He´s also Canadian, but I haven´t met him yet so I don´t know much more.
Hope everyone reading this is doing well. I miss you all (and thanks for taking the time to read this)
Sunday, November 9, 2008
La granja
After leaving Mexico City, Karen and I took a bus 5 hours west to Patzcuaro, where Lisa and Ian picked us up from the bus station. They´re married and in their fifties (I think). Lisa is from the states and Ian is British. They have been living in Mexico on this farm for 4 years, before which Ian was a photographer and Lisa a fashion designer. They bought the farm and100 books on permaculture (which is sustainable, efficient agriculture) and have been figurin things out since. They grow vegetables that no one else around grows and sells them to a fancy restaurant on the coast. They have 4 dogs, 9 cats, 24 chickens, 40 sheep (who aren´t on the farm), and around 30 geese, and a bunch of ducks. So far I´ve been preparing new beds and planting. I´ve planted purple mustard and a special type of fennel.
There are two other WWOOFers besides Karen and me: Damian and Amy. Damian is from Quebec and has been WWOOFing for 3 months in Mexico and Guatemala. Amy is from England and hasnt worked on a farm before but has traveled extensively. And for those who this means something to: she worked in Elephant Nature Park for 6 months, two years ago. We all share a really comfortable room. Damien arrived two days before me and Karen and Amy got there one day after. I think we´re a pretty good group.
So the bad part about this farm is that we´re speaking English most of the time. Lisa can communicate well but Ian doesn´t know much and Amy doesn´t know any. Karen, Damian, and I speak Spanish with each other sometimes, but it´s definitely not the same as living with a bunch of spanish speakers. The best part about this farm, besides that Lisa is really willing to teach as much as possible about farming and permiculture, is that she is an amzing cook and has actually cooked professionally. So each meal is better than what I would usually get in a restaurant. And she´s teaching us to cook. So far, we have made (and I have recipes for) apple cake, a salad dressing, mexican scrambled eggs, rye, caraway, and molasses bread, and clam fritters. There is almost always homemade bread and/or cake in the house.
Overall it´s good so far. We work Monday though Saturday 8:30am-2pm and then some at dusk. There´s not really time to go into Patacuaro, where I am now, after work because its 30 minutes away and you need to take a taxi. Zirahuan is the little town of 500 people that is 1km away from the farm, and which has access to this huge, clean lake, but there isn´t much there, nor is there internet. (This means that I can probably only use internet once a week.) Karen, Damian, and I are strategizing on how to meet people in the town. We might volunteer to teach English a bit, though it´s not an amazing way to learn Spanish. There´s some local antagonism to foreigners who live there, I think mostly because this area is becoming like Florida, just full of retired people who don´t try to mix with the local comunity in positive ways. So I don´t know exaclty what effect that will have on our experience there. I´ll see.
There are two other WWOOFers besides Karen and me: Damian and Amy. Damian is from Quebec and has been WWOOFing for 3 months in Mexico and Guatemala. Amy is from England and hasnt worked on a farm before but has traveled extensively. And for those who this means something to: she worked in Elephant Nature Park for 6 months, two years ago. We all share a really comfortable room. Damien arrived two days before me and Karen and Amy got there one day after. I think we´re a pretty good group.
So the bad part about this farm is that we´re speaking English most of the time. Lisa can communicate well but Ian doesn´t know much and Amy doesn´t know any. Karen, Damian, and I speak Spanish with each other sometimes, but it´s definitely not the same as living with a bunch of spanish speakers. The best part about this farm, besides that Lisa is really willing to teach as much as possible about farming and permiculture, is that she is an amzing cook and has actually cooked professionally. So each meal is better than what I would usually get in a restaurant. And she´s teaching us to cook. So far, we have made (and I have recipes for) apple cake, a salad dressing, mexican scrambled eggs, rye, caraway, and molasses bread, and clam fritters. There is almost always homemade bread and/or cake in the house.
Overall it´s good so far. We work Monday though Saturday 8:30am-2pm and then some at dusk. There´s not really time to go into Patacuaro, where I am now, after work because its 30 minutes away and you need to take a taxi. Zirahuan is the little town of 500 people that is 1km away from the farm, and which has access to this huge, clean lake, but there isn´t much there, nor is there internet. (This means that I can probably only use internet once a week.) Karen, Damian, and I are strategizing on how to meet people in the town. We might volunteer to teach English a bit, though it´s not an amazing way to learn Spanish. There´s some local antagonism to foreigners who live there, I think mostly because this area is becoming like Florida, just full of retired people who don´t try to mix with the local comunity in positive ways. So I don´t know exaclty what effect that will have on our experience there. I´ll see.
Bienvenidos a Mexico
I know it´s been a while since I last wrote. My last week in Xela (the last week of October) I tried to spend it with my friends, rather than on the internet. Karen and I left Xela Nov 2 for San Cristobal de las Casas, an old colonial tourist town in Chiapas. We were going to take a night bus (16 horus) to Mexico City, but a one-hour flight was about half the price at $39 US, so we opted for that. Turns out, Mexico City is BEAUTIFUL. Really. We stayed in the historical (touristy) part of the city where there is a huge cathedral and a palace around a huge public square, all in magnificent European architecture. I hadn´t actually read much about Mexico before arriving so I was stunned when I stepped out of the subway.
The next day Karen, an Irish girl named Charlotte who we met in our hostel, and I went to Teotihuacán, a huge city of Aztec ruins. There are a number of pyramids there, and one of them, the Sun Pyramid, is the thrid largest pyramid in the world (including the pyramids in Egypt). We climbed its 250 steps and it was pretty awesome. Unfortuneatly I don´t have pictures up yet, sorry.
Being in Mexico City also made me realize how much I love subways and how much I miss it. I never would have expected it, but its true. I was also taken aback by how comfortable the first class buses here are, with more leg room than in any bus or airplane I´ve ever been on and really comfortable seats that recline a lot. I read in a guide that Mexico has one of (if not the) best bus systems in the world. I belive it.
The next day Karen, an Irish girl named Charlotte who we met in our hostel, and I went to Teotihuacán, a huge city of Aztec ruins. There are a number of pyramids there, and one of them, the Sun Pyramid, is the thrid largest pyramid in the world (including the pyramids in Egypt). We climbed its 250 steps and it was pretty awesome. Unfortuneatly I don´t have pictures up yet, sorry.
Being in Mexico City also made me realize how much I love subways and how much I miss it. I never would have expected it, but its true. I was also taken aback by how comfortable the first class buses here are, with more leg room than in any bus or airplane I´ve ever been on and really comfortable seats that recline a lot. I read in a guide that Mexico has one of (if not the) best bus systems in the world. I belive it.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Laguna Chicibal
Yesterday, I went with a bunch of people from the school to Laguna Chicibal, a lake that sits in the crater of an (extinct) volcano. Its a 6km hike from the town to the lookout point, but on the way up we caught a pickup part of the way. After the lookout point, we walked down 500 stairs to the actual laguna. The Laguna is considered a sacred place for the locals and we got to see a group of men performing a Mayan religious ritual on the side of the lake. The clouds kept coming in and out so one second it would be clear and the next we'd be in a cloud. The walk back up the stairs was a challenge, but overall it was fun and I had a good time with everyone.
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