It is so hot in Puerto Escondido these days that...

(a very cool photo of our sun)

…your flip flops literally melt as you walk across the sand at noon.

...piles of woody debris on the roadsides and vacant lots spontaneously burst into flame.

...you can cook beans in the kitchen without the burner, just don't forget to add extra water or they will burn!

OK, so none of that is actually true, but it is HOT. And HUMID.

Check out footage of Jeremiah unsuccessfully attempting to disrobe after playing soccer in the afternoon heat. He and his shirt are irrevocably stuck together.

Side-trip to Huatulco and coffee farms / tropical forests

A sample of the habitat that we left on the coast:  hot, dry.

Maguey - crowded, friendly, noisy beach in Huatulco.

At our hotel before we departed for the mountains

Las Senoritas Bogaard

Our tour guide Juanito.

So we recently returned from an overnight journey to a town called Las Bahias de Huatulco ("the bays of wa-tool-coe"), located a few hours east of P.E.

(I had trouble placing this video where I wanted it on this blog - it is short, showing Jeremiah, JB, and then Amy on a rope swing at the river. see below. Footage filmed by Liesl)

What I am sure used to be a quiet little fishing village with a series of protected bays and beautiful beaches is in the midst of a transformation into a resort destination - and all that that means. Lots of Mexican families, taking advantage of a 4-day weekend, were there with us.


So we bused from P.E. to Huatulco on two different "regular" buses in just over three hours. Lots of curvy roads but no barfing this trip! We secured a hotel room in an adjacent town called Crucecita (a cheaper town five minutes away from the beaches - its where all the workers live).


Our first afternoon was spent at La Playa Maguey - along, as you can see, with a lot of boats and ships and families. It was, shall we say, a high density beach experience - and not exactly what Amy and I were looking for. This beach had a bunch of restaurants all along the waterfront - small kitchens and big sand-floored eating areas, plastic chairs and tables protected from the sun (thank goodness!) by a series of rough-cut timbers and layered palm fronds - classic tropical architecture.


Little boats - lanchas - came and went with people. Big motorized double-hulled catamarans barged their way to shore, blasting American and Mexican pop music from scratchy speakers, and unloading and loading scores of Mexican tourists for a meal, a drink, and some time in the water.


So, the next morning, after feeling that we got taken for a ride with our meal at the beach, we shifted gears, walked to Crucecita's plaza and jumped in a van with three Mexican families for a trip into the mountains to visit an area known for it tropical forests, clear rivers, and organic shade-grown coffee farms. It was wonderful. Our guide Juan, as usual, spoke only spanish. He was very sweet. We took a long, winding dirt road from sea level to 800 meters - to La Llano Grande - a high open area at the upper limits of where coffee can be grown in this area.


The people on the tour with us were all very friendly. We sampled locally-grown coffee; we ate a family-style meal of mole chicken, frijoles, rice, and pork. The high forest canopy was filled with scores of noisy, colorful parrots; butterflies were everywhere.


We learned about local medicinal plants. The high point of the trip, however, was the river that we hiked into with, that right, tons of other families - kids, parents, and grandparents. We spent a couple hours here swimming in the river, jumping off the rope swing at the base of this gorgeous waterfall, talking and laughing with people.

See the photos below. It was a welcome break from the beach, the heat, and we got a good glimpse of one of the places that produces some of the organic, shade-grown coffee you all drink in copious amounts back home. Hopefully, all the farms all like these. The coffee plants were growing amidst what looked to me like a diverse, healthy, intact forest. The clear, cold water of the Rio Copalito seemed to confirm that they were doing things right.

A photo at the farm - 'La Gloria' Coffee Tour

The falls - cascadas - on the Rio Copalito.

The Bogaards experiencing some local, natural beauty aids.

At the base of the falls.

The rope swing at the river.

Tiger Butterflies.

There are two frogs quietly sitting in this flower petal, hoping that no one notices them.

Some of the amazing flowers in the forest. Does anyone know the name of this one?

Liesl & Jeremiah join a soccer club in PE!

So Liesl and Jeremiah have both joined a soccer club (for the next 6 weeks) where they can train 3 days a week for 1.5 hours with a number of other kids their age. Their first day last week is shown in some photos below. Because of some conflicts, a bunch of the boys and girls did not attend, but there should be more kids that show up.

The coaches are good, nice, skilled, though the afternoons can be a little hot and humid, but this is great place to sharpen their soccer and their language skills and learn some tips from some very skilled Mexicans, and meet some new kids who live nearby.

The facility is quite nice - a fenced artificial turf field, small - about two or three times the size of a basketball court.

Here is the facility, with J making a run, and L is next up.

Liesl making a shot on goal.

J showing some good form here : )

Liesl with another shot on goal!

Like father, like son...

Both Jeremiah and Joseph have decided to stop shaving during our time in Mexico. Oh, and don't feel like you HAVE to comment on this post... : )

Gastronomic Research: Mangoes

I have been conducting daily (often several times a day) experiments since arriving in Mexico.

So far, I have found no evidence that one can eat too many mangoes.

Tree-ripened mangoes are messy, juicy, and delicious - I have collected strong evidence to support this.

As for any evidence of harmful or deleterious effects on body or mind of eating too many mangoes - I have no evidence whatsoever to date.

But please rest assured -- my research continues...

My "ah-ha" moment re: this region's seasonally-dry tropical forest

Toward the end of our family's wild trip up and over the mountains from the Oaxaca Valley to Puerto Escondido several weeks ago, we descended into the foothills of the coastal mountains.


I was expecting tropical forest - lush, verdant, viney, with palms and coconuts, and impenetrable without a machete. But the forests in these foothills look almost dead - whole hillsides brown and leafless. The trees are spaced relatively densely, but with very little understory.

It is open and park-like, but dry, seemingly devoid of life. Not what this traveler from the "Evergreen State" expected. When I asked a local woman riding in the van with us if the forests always looked this way in the spring, she said "si, es normal". 


There are occasional pockets of green - along the arroyos and in the folds between mountains. Or individual trees, standing alone, deep green and healthy. And there are scattered palms - coconuts, for example, that stand alone or in bunches, or on plantations.


So this week (April 22), with the kids in school and Amy studying spanish, I jumped in one of the countless vans that run constantly back and forth along the coastal highway, connecting the scores of pueblos and families and businesses.

Amid stops for people to jump in and out, we passed close-cropped fields, dusty roads and yards, dry wetlands, quiet communities built with mortar and adobe. Scattered bony cattle wandered across dry fields. Pecking chickens and sleeping dogs just beyond reach of the tires. The orange sun peered through the smoky haze.

As we crossed one of many wide, dry arroyos and trickling streams, I suddenly realized we would only see one face of this area during our time here, at the end of the dry season.

The end of May and early June will bring the dependable afternoon rains that have transformed this arid, almost barren forest landscape for so many centuries into the lush, rich tropical forest of my imagination. These deciduous trees will awaken and erupt with new life.

The dry dusty streets and alleys will run muddy. The dry arroyos will be overwhelmed by run-off. It will all start over again, and this will be in many ways a totally different place.

Tepetes -My visit with Oaxaca's traditional rug weavers (Amy)

Back in March, before the rest of the family joined me, I took this incredible tour with En Via, a great organization specializing in micro-finance loans for Oaxacan women. The program requires three women working in partnership to apply for a loan. Each must have a business plan and make a commitment to one another to follow through with required payments.  These interest-free loans start small, but can grow to larger amounts after the first loan has been repaid.  One of the loan requirements: give three tours of their business to En Via travellers.  When one takes a tour, one's dollars go directly towards loans to women in their program.

 

On my tour, I visited two women that made “tepetes” (beautiful, traditional, colorful woven rugs) and another woman who spun and dyed the yarn that are used in tepetes. Their loan provided them the initial money to buy supplies so they could weave their own tepetes and keep all the profit, rather than weave for someone else and be underpaid for their labor.

The town we visited is named Teotitlan and is well-known for its tepetes. They were truly magnificent.  Here are a few photos.

This 6 year-old was born into a family of weavers. He proudly showed us the first rug he ever wove. It was clear he enjoyed being part of the process as he showed us how to grade a local grass for a yarn colorant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the boy's grandfather, showing me his loom.  He was very willing to pose for this picture.  He was a proud man and has been weaving all his life.

I love this photo. Unfortunately I did not get a photo of the woman who was the En Via participant but this is her son and her parents.

This woman lost her husband 3 years ago. The EnVia loan
helped her buy supplies to weave her own tepetes and sell
    them from her house.

She is demonstrating spinning the wool.  She was a truly beautiful woman.

This is a famous Diego Rivera painting.                                                                            Actually - It is a weaving done by the woman's husband in the photo above.  Spectacular!!

A common scene outside the town of Teotitlan: freshly spun and naturally-dyed wool drying in the sun. The dyes originate from minerals, insects, and plants, and have been used for many centuries.