Chiapas and the Yucatán

A brief update on what we´ve been up to...
We have spent the last 3+ weeks in Chiapas and the Yucatán Penninsula. Leaving Oaxaca, we spent about a week in San Cristobál de las Casas, which is a beautiful city in the highlands, with lots of indigenous presence. There are lots of women with beautifully-embroidered clothing and babies slung around their backs, selling sweaters, belts, etc. We went to a really interesting museum: Museo de la Medicina Maya, which had full-sized representations of the inside of traditional huts, and showed a pretty graphic but facinating video about the birthing process in traditional Mayan villages. We also explored the city, the market, ate a banana-split, got to know a funny retired Texan guy who lived at our hostel, and went out to a bar called Latino´s and did some salsa-dancing.
Our last day there, we went on a great tour on bikes to a local village called San Juan Chamula, where they were celebrating the last day of Carnaval, which coincides with the Mayan new year. Seeing the area outside the city on bikes was beautiful, and the celebration was facinating. When we arrived, the town, including a large main square, was packed with people in indigenous dress from the town and surrounding villages. We saw groups of men leaping around in colorful outfits and cone-shaped hats with colored ribbons hanging from them. Groups of children ran around with handfuls of dry grass. We peeked in the church, where people were sticking candles to the floor and lighting them, and saying prayers in monotonous voices in the native language. They were blessing bottles of coca-cola (which seemed a little strange!) and some were rubbing others with egg to heal them. We walked around the town and for 2 pesos (about 15cents) we tried a cup of posh, a sacred alcoholic drink that is especially used at celebrations . Eventually, in the square the men had laid down the dry grass evenly on the ground and they lit it on fire and ran back and forth across it. Then a bull was pulled out with a rope and it ran around the square with everyone yelling and running, and some of the ones who wanted a really wild time tried to get on the bull to ride it. David and Jason ran around a bit in the center, but it was crazy enough for me being on the sidelines!

San Juan Chamula (from the internet--you weren´t allowed to take photos)

After San Cristobál, we headed to Palenque and saw the ruins in the jungle, and hung out with our friend John who we met at the second farm we worked on. We went to a river with him and his co-workers at a medical organization he has been volunteering for. Jason unfortunately was feeling sick, so he went to the doctor and got some medication and has been taking it easy.

Ruins of Palenque (from the internet, since I wanted to show you it but I don´t have my camera with me:)

From there, we went to Mahahual, a beach town that is a cruise-ship stop. It was interesting to witness the town sort of from a local´s perspective, since we stayed in town after almost all the other tourists went back to the ship. It was pretty funny to see the parade of tourists ride in on ATVs every morning at 10am. It was interesting to hear the locals´ mixed feelings about their dependency on tourism. The town was also hit by a hurricane in 2006, so it is still recovering from that.
We continued on to meet Dave´s friend Will in Tulum, a coastal town farther north on the Caribbean. Tulum has ruins that are in a spectacular location on cliffs above the turquoise Caribbean Sea. This is basically what Will came back to Mexico to see. And maybe to see us, too. We´re not sure. This was pretty epic.

The ruins of Tulum (also, not my photo. But I promise this is how I remember it, too!)

So from there, last night we arrived in Mérida, the main city in the Yucatán Peninsula. THIS is where the Mexicans in the Yucatan live! There are actually few tourists here, which is nice. Merida is a really attractive, modern city with lots of art to see--music, dance, fine art, etc. We are going to an aviary nature reserve tomorrow called Celestún. We hope to see a lot of flamingos!

Much love! I hope everybody´s doing well!

La Vida Oaxaqueña 2

Some pictures from backpacking in the Sierra Madre mountains outside Oaxaca City:

On the trail with new friends and our guide/ the village of Cuajimoloyas/ Sipping chocolate


The streets of Oaxaca /Dave at the peluquería / at church for Dia de la Calendaria

Well, our time in Oaxaca is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow for Chiapas (San Cristobal de Las Casas, to be exact). Here´s what we´ve been up to in Oaxaca the last few weeks.

We have visited some of the villages in the surrounding area where you can see the local people doing their crafts, such as black pottery in San Bartolo Coyotepec and impressively detailed brightly-colored wooden "animalitos" in Santo Tomás. We also went to the town of Tule, which is known for its massive tree in a pretty church courtyard. We went to a show of the Guelaguetza (say that 10 times fast) which is a dance show of indigenous dances from all over the state of Oaxaca.

Tule (the tree is at left) /Pretty church in Tule / La Guelaguetza

Then Jason (David´s bro) came to meet us! We threw him right into the craziness of Mexico by taking him immediately after his arrival to a wild and colorful market in the nearby village of Ocotlán. We saw tiny women (especially when standing next to Jason) carrying live turkeys on their heads! We also went to the ruins of Monte Albán and Mitla, which were interesting and very different from each other.

Women with turkeys in Ocotlán / David & Jason at the Ocotlán market

at Monte Albán / Mitla
It´s been such a stressful time here that we took a vacation to the coast for a few days. We went to Mazunte, close to Puerto Escondido, which is known for its efforts in turtle conservation and hammocks to sleep in on the beach for $3 (US). First thing, getting on the bus at the 2nd class bus terminal, Jason´s wallet was stolen. David and I realized when we arrived that neither of us had brought an atm card, so that left us with the 2000 pesos total that we had between us. We lived very inexpensively, and it turned out to be a wonderful time. We were even able to go on a boat tour of the area and see marine turtles up-close (pet them!) and we saw lots of jumping rays and a whale! It was overall a beautiful and relaxing time--even though sleeping in hammocks turned out to be a bad idea--colder than we expected and quite uncomfortable! Well, we had nothing to do the next day anyways except lay around on the beach, so it was all fun and good.

So now we are coming to our last days volunteering at the Centro. It has been a great learning experience for both me and David. David has taught several computer classes, and has built a

still-growing vocabulary to talk about computers in Spanish. I (Bria) have gotten to talk with the center´s social worker about her work there and sat in on some of her meetings with the families. I have also done some translation of letters into English for her. I have organized the library and done a lot of coloring with the kids. It´s been fun! We´re ready to start moving again and see Chiapas and the Yucatan!

Oaxaca zócalo (city center plaza)

La Vida Oaxaqueña

After about 10 days here, we are settling into a relaxed, very lenient routine in Oaxaca. Before volunteering, we went on a 3-day backpacking trip through the Sierra Madre, outside of the city of Oaxaca. We hiked from one little village to the next, through the beautiful forests. To me it resembled the Santa Cruz mountains, but with different plants including a mysterious-looking light-colored hanging moss that covered the trees, wild orchids, and tree-dwelling Bromelias. When we returned to the city of Oaxaca, David buzzed his head!

We finished our first week volunteering at the Centro de Esperanza Infantil, which was interesting. Dave´s computer-fixing knowledge is MUCH needed and appreciated. When we arrived, only 4 out of 8 computers were functional, and now all but one can go on the internet! Go Dave, super-computer-fixer man! (This is Bria writing, just so you know--he´s too modest to say that). He will start teaching a few computer classes next week. I´m sure it will be good language practice, and with a new set of vocab!

My (Bria´s) work at the center doing art with the kids has been less needed, but fun nonetheless. There is another woman from the U.S. that comes to do art with the kids, so it has fun to get to know a fellow-traveller and watch her interaction with the kids. The kids who come to the center are anywhere from 3 to 18, which makes art projects a little more challenging. I have been trying to incorporate reading into the projects, since they have a decent library of books in Spanish and also English. There are some great readers! They like to draw pictures imitating the book illustrations.

True to the healthy Mexican work ethic, we have certainly not let our work at the center take up all of our time in Oaxaca. We have walked around the city quite a bit, peeked in some beautiful churches, bought fresh produce and tortillas from little old ladies in the markets, found a library to tackle novels in Spanish, and checked out a good pre-historic art museum, among other things. We have also taken it upon ourselves to find the best local chocolate and mole in the Oaxaca mercado (market). We´re getting close!

We have also taken a few day trips. One was to Tule, a pueblito (small town) that is known for its enormous tree in front of the town church. Personally I think redwoods feel bigger, but this was definately the fattest tree I´ve ever seen. We also went to San Bartolo Coyotepec, which is another pueblito that is known for its beautiful shiny black pottery. Unfortunately we missed a demonstration of the process--there´s no schedule :) --but it was fun to peek around and see the variety of pottery.

Today is Día de la Calendaria, which is a Christian holiday that I had never heard of (what do you think, I´m a Jew :) ) But just in case you haven´t heard of it either, it´s a holiday where people dress up a doll of baby Jesús in very elegant clothing and bring him to church, where the priest blesses the dolls. I have seen people in the streets carrying around these porcelain dolls for a week, and everywhere you look there are accessories to buy for the dolls--tiny golden strappy shoes, head garlands, little chairs, etc. What an interesting holiday!

Pictures to come soon! We send lots of besos!

We´re Back in Mexico!

So, after not posting for a long time, we hope to start posting regularly again! We will update you soon on our time in the Middle East. Thanks for reading!


After a few FREEZING cold (*but heartwarming* :) ) days in New York with Jason, Dave´s brother, we flew back to Mexico on January 19th. We had a hard time believing that we were really returning after such a long and intense time travelling in the Middle East. But we felt better back in Mexico City than we expected. Compared to Israeli and Jordanian culture, Mexican culture feels like home! We are gradually getting our Spanish back by practicing a lot with each other.

Before heading south, we spent two days in Mexico City. We rode a colorful lancha (a long boat)through the beautiful lush canals of Xochimilco (pronounced "Zoh-chee-meel-kho"), where locals used to cultivate floating gardens and the soil is still known to be especially fertile. We also visited Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera´s "Casa Azul" ("Blue House") in Coyocán, which has a collection of their art and belongings as well as photographs and diary excerpts depicting the good times of their relationship.





Relaxing in beautiful Zochimilco Zany and colorful art in La Casa Azul



Yesterday we arrived in Oaxaca! We haven´t explored much yet, but of what we´ve seen so far, it´s very colorful and the zócalo is very bustling. Today we went to check out El Centro de la Esperanza Infantil, an organization that provides services to impoverished children. They find donors who will sponsor a child by paying their educational expenses, and then encourage the child to stay in school by offering them the use of their center. The center offers daily meals and activities for children, such as art and computers. We spoke with a man named Alejandro about doing some volunteer work for them for a few weeks. He said they would love someone to help them fix up their new website and maybe teach some computer classes (i.e. Dave!) and they could also use someone to lead art projects a few times a week (i.e. Bria). We will volunteer there 3 days a week starting next monday. For the few days until then, we´re not sure what we´re going to do. We´ll let you know how it goes!

Check out their project at http://www.oaxacastreetchildrengrassroots.org/