Chapultepec

This was a beautiful castle built by the French government when they tried to govern Mexico. It is surrounded by a huge park where many people visit on Sundays with arts and crafts. It was so interesting and you could see the elaborate lifestyle they had before in this castle!!! Check out these pics!!

Emmanuel's Baptism

Well, the baptisms here are definitely a big party. We were asked to be godparents for Erik's cousin. Her little boy is an angel and so we started to buy all of the things we needed. We needed to buy an outfit..it was like a bishop dress for a child with a cap with shoes, a shell to pour the water, an engraved medal with his name, shoes and a candle. Then we had to have little souvenirs with Emmanel's name and our names for each of the 120 guest. We also had to throw "bolos" After the four course dinner of traditonal food we threw coins and candies to all the children. So the baptism was at the church then we went to a hall where we had the dinner and a dance!! But the church ceremony was the best. There was a couple to be married, a first communion child, and ten children to be baptized. SO the priest arrived late after we had listened to a toothless man talk about religion for one hour. Then the priest fell asleep during the ceremony but woke up to light enough incense to choke the crowd so one of the older children to be baptised vomited all over the floor the ice cream he had eaten before church. With all of this, there were small children smartly dressed in suits carrying plastic bags and bowls of ice cream running thru the church...while indigenous women were looking on. All in all it was quite the ceremony and everybody was blessed and went away happy!! That will be interesting to see on video!! Check out the pictures of this beautiful boy ..he was a perfect angel during all this commotion!! Also Ana Sophia our niece was at the party so we had to include a picture of her too!! What a cutie!!

Snow White Blanca Nieves!!

We went to a really nice birthday party on the weekend for Victoria..my friend Carolina's ,liitle girl who just turned three! They had a puppet show and some latin dancing. It was a great time and her cousin Emiliano was there as well..very cute:))We drank some Chilean wine and chatted about old times:))

The Day of the Dead!!

Hello Everyone...sorry I haven't written..November has been very busy!! Halloween was great with a two day vacation. So we went to a waterpark near Mexico City with Esperanza a friend who was visiting from Canada and her family. Also, everyone here decorates altars for the Day of the Dead to remember their family members who have died. They decorate with flowers,food, pan de muerto (special sweet bread),drinks and candy skulls with everyone's name on them..some of them are made of chocolate. They also have little dancing skeleton to celebrate life and laugh at death!!
Everyone goes to the graveyards and decorate the graves and maybe have a picnic there as well. So this was very interesting!! They also have trick or treating but it isn't as popular as in Canada. Also, I couldn't find any orange pumpkins so I had to buy a ceramic one :(( not quite the same!!

Honeymoon in Ixtapa

So we finally got some time to get away to the beach!! Fortunately we didn't go to Cancun so we had very nice weather. The beaches in Ixtapa- Zihuatanejo

A Weekend at St. Cecilia Ranch

On the weekend a few teachers, Erik and I went to a nearby ranch that is owned by a friend of ours.

It was beautiful! They had restored an old home and built a new house with Mexican rustic furniture and many arts and crafts from the area. But it also has modern details such as heaters, a jacuzzi and satellite tv. The house was surrounded by a pine and semi-tropical forest. We went horsebacking riding and did some hiking. It was such a relaxing place to be..and the family had this pack of beautiful dogs..you will see them in the pictures so Nala made a few friends too! It was such a nice place I didn't want to leave:)

Huasca

This is a beautiful village near Tulancingo where many film have been done. They sell crafts, clothes and it is also a great place for pottery. We went there on Sunday just to spend the day. Nala also came along and really enjoyed some chicken tacos in the market.

Also included is a picture of Nala sitting at the table..Don Wences was trying to train her to sit at the table...you can also see her very short haircut..slight miscommuncation with the pet groomer.

We also went to a charreada which is a Mexican style rodeo where charros try to catch horses using fancy rope tricks as well as a trick riding such as jumping from horse to horse!!

Pedro De Gante!! My beautiful students!!

Here are some of my great students from Pedro de Gante a private catholic school here in Tulancingo. I teach grades 7,8 and 9. They have a pretty good level of English and many of them want to study in Canada eventually! Check out those uniforms!!. They are very respectful and ask permission to come in the door, to go out and stand up when you come into the class..a little different than Canada. They have strict rules about hair, skirt length and even have rules about neatness of hair!! Yes, very different.

More Wedding Photos!!!

These are some phots that we took on the beach. It was about 7;30 at night and a soccer team was relaxing on the beach and decided to initiate a series of cheers for us ..so the entire beach was clapping and surrounding us yelling "NOBIOS NOBIOS RAH RAH RAH!!" It was hilarious!!

Pictures from In and Around Tulancingo!!

These are some pictures of some local crafts and the cathedral here in Tulancingo.
Also there are some pictures of our favourite place to eat fast food..fast seafood!!
You can eat fresh shrimp, soup, crab and a beer for $3 for two people!! And the last picture is Sunday lunch at Erik's Grandma's house..even Nala loved it!!

Happy Mexican Independence Day!!

We celebrated Mexican Independence Day in Acapulco. There were fireworks, traditional dancing, lots of food and fireworks!! At 11pm everyone yells EL GRITO!!
The yell of independence " Viva Mexico" It was a fun night and the next day we relaxed in the sun and had a few margaritas..very nice.
Of course, the nopal cactus that grows in my region mostly is eaten in quesadillas and salads as well it produces fruit which people eat "tunas" or cactus pears! I love nopales!!