San Pablito and Pauhuatilan..Home of Papel Amate!

So yet another wonderful place we discovered only one hour from Tulancingo!! We visited Pauhuatilian and San Pablito two Otomi villages in Hidalgo. The people in these villages speak the indigenous language of Otomi as well as Spanish. In San Pabilito the women make this special paper from the bark of a tree that grows in this area. First, they strip the bark and boil it. Then, the pulp is dyed or left natural and pounded with volcanic stone into a flat sheet of paper. People also make elaborate designs on this paper with paint or with strip of paper woven into it!! We visited many people's homes and they welocmed us and let us take many photos of this process and their art. It was incredible and we made a lot of friends that day. Take a look at some of these cute kids!!!

Wedding at Ex-Hacienda Xala!!

Well, it has taken me a while to post all of the wedding photos but here they are!! The wedding took place at an hacienda called Xala very close to Erik's family's village of Cuidad Sahagun. It was a beautiful day with over 300 guests at the party. The next day the celebration continued with a trsditional Mexican rodeo, lots of food and more mariachis!! It was a great weekend and after that we went to Acapulco with friends and Canadian visitors!!

March Break in the Costa Esmeralda!!

We had some visitors from Canada!!! Yeah!! Donelda, Jeff and little Adam came to enjoy the sights and sounds of Mexico. We went to Costa Esmeralda near Veracruz and Tecolutla. We also visited El Tajin, a beautiful ruins nearby. Later we visited Real de Monte and Huasca. It was a great time and everybody was picking up Spanish and loving the food!. It was a great way to spend the March Break!

Erik's Birthday Party

On March 4th, Erik turned 21 again and invited all his friends and family to have tacos al pastor in local pub called El Desvan owned by one of his friends. Here are a few pictures from the fiesta!

Hacienda San Miguel Regla and Santa Maria Regla

Hi Everyone!!

Here's are some updates..I have been pretty busy getting ready for the wedding so I haven't been keeping up with the blog. Here are some pictures of some old hacienda close to Tulancingo. There were once communities where rich farmers and miners lived and had workers living in the hacienda. Now, there are hotels and museums where films are done and people learn about history. Zorro was partially filmed at Santa Maria Regla. Take a look!!

Three Kings Day and Jen's visit!!

Yeahhhh!! I had a visitor!! Jen came to visit from Canada and promote her very cool job on class afloat and attend a wedding. So we had a very nice traditional Mexican meal and toured around Mexico City. Also, January 6th is Three Kings day or Three Wise Men here and this is when children receive gifts from the Three Kings. They write messages on balloons and let them fly into the air.Children receive gifts at night and celebrate the next day by eating some special foods. Then people eat special round cakes and if they find the baby Jesus in the cake they have to have a party on February 2 for the presentation of Jesus. Always about parties!! Here are some pictures form our Three Kings party and Jen's visit. We also visited the Basilica of the Virgen of Guadalupe which is one of the holiest places in Mexico.

My birthday on the beach

So this is exactly the way I like to celebrate my birthday ...on the beach. We came to Acapulco on Christmas day and then on my birthday we spent the day on the beach and went to hear a Spanish guitar concert with Chamin Correa that night. The only thing that was missing was friends and family!!

Christmas in Mexico Feliz Navidad!!

Christmas here started with the posadas that celebrate Mary and Joseph's journey for a place to have baby Jesus. So every neighbourhood reenacts this and people go through the streets singing songs with sparklers and candles. They sings certain songs and then a family will let the singers into the house and give them food and everyone rocks the baby Jesus that they have in their nativity scene...they are huge here!!! Of course there are pinatas filled with candy and the seven points of the pinata represent the seven mortal sins ( I didn't know that) Then there is a lot of dancing and singing!! Here are some pictures of some of the Christmas posadas!!

Christmas Concert

Here some pictures from the school Christmas concert in December. It was the first Christmas concert I have ever been at that was outside. I survived and my students were fantastic!! Take a look!!

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:)