One Neat Shot

Sunset from Tepeyac

Ciudad De Mexico, Mexico

Captain´s Log: Already!

Ya logré! One month already. A seasoned veteran of the wild Mexican expanses... Well kinda. True, I still have no running water in the homestead, but I haven´t exactly been home much. I finally decided to look for a ¨real¨ job (yea mom, I said it). The last week has consisted of meetings with principals, directors and teachers of various local schools trying to secure a job. So far no such luck, but I won´t know until next week. Not to worry fretting friends and foes, not all has been work. I made time to buy a motorcycle (125cc nothing too crazy), go clubbing in Toluca, bargain hunting in Tepito, and picnicing at a haunted dam. Yes, you read correctly... a haunted dam! Apparently the expanse of water that lies ten minute from my house isn´t a giant charco of raw sewage, but in fact a eerie huanted inland lake. To be completely honest, I wasn´t there when the haunting took place or even there to see the pueblo that once stood in the valley. So the story goes that there was once a small town in a quaint valley close to where I live. In this village there was a church with a beautiful brilliant solid-gold bell that rang every day at noon and every night at midnight. The campana was so loud that it could be heard some 25km away throughout the entire valley. Well it came to pass that there was a flood (really) and the entire village sank. As it goes, nobody was hurt, they had time to get our as the flood waters rose. The entire village is consumed, mind you, the church was rather tall. Today no trace is seen of this mysterious village. Even more incredible is that the farmers in the surrounding milpas built a series of tunnels to siphon water from the lake, forming a dam. Well some years later a group of archeologists tried to raise the famed golden bell and with all of their might couldn´t surface the beast; in fact the bell only sank deeper into the frigid waters. Even more suspicious were the eerie phantom figures the divers saw under the surface of the water. The bell can still be heard some nights at midnight. This is what was told to me as I was about to take a dip into the intense blue water...needless to say i opted out of the swim, I did stick a finger in the water...suspiciously cold for a body of water that small and in the Mexican sun. I do know that I ate dam well that day. It was Domingo and a family invited me to la presa to picnic. When I say picnic I don´t mean PB&Js and a two-liter of Faygo Moon Mist, I´m talking steaks (steaks), longaniza (spicy pork sausage), nopales (cactus), caña (fresh sugar cane) and jamaica (Hibiscus flavored water). We´re not talking Tupperwares either, a grill, comal and about 25 people (of course all piled into one F-150) all helping prepare the feast. Swim that day I did not, but eat a feast next to a haunted dam - another check on the list of things I´ve done in this lifetime. If you hear a bell at midnight. . .

Captain´s Log: Michigan to Michoachan

Besides frequenting posadas, parties and palenques, I have been travelling in and around the state of Mexico. On Friday, my surrogate aunts, cousins and I took a two hour trip to Angangao, Michoachan. Angangao lies just on the other side of the Mexico state-Michoachan border and is site to the winter nesting of the fabulous Monarch butterfly. After an additonal hour long ride switchbackking up the highest mountain range in the state we arrive at El Rosario Butterfly Sanctuary. An hour later after ascending a most steep mountainous path we arrive a grouping of red trees. Upon closer inspection the tress are quivering and waving, not for the wind, but in fact from the thousands of Monarchs living in them. Not only are the Monarchs blanketing the trees but swarming the dense forest. Absolutlely incredible.