Well, since I’m in Mexico and now actually have something to write about, I thought I would sit down and start a blog. I don’t know how consistent I’ll be while I’m here, but I figured this would be the easiest way to let you all in on my adventures.

To begin, a recap:

I am now in Tepoztlán, a village in the mountains under a volcano (hence the name of my writing workshop, Under the Volcano). The streets are all cobbled and windy, and covered with markets that remind me a great deal of India. It’s all very colorful. Mixed in are strange reminders of Mexico’s emergence: American cars are all over the place, there are several ATMs in town, and there’re probably about 5 internet cafes per street. It’s very hilly, so you get beautiful views of the mountains surrounding the town on every corner. More on all of this later.

Conor and I woke up this morning at 4:30 and had a harrowing taxi ride to the airport—he flew home, and I started my trek here. Before this, we were in Baja at quite a unique little “resort” called El Cardonal’s Hideaway along with Conor’s mom, Cate and brother, Ian. We were, naturally, expecting beach weather and a quirky-but-fun place to spend Christmas, and what we got was…interesting. You really had to be there. I’ll give it to you in bullet form:

• The Owner: Eddy Beauline, an exorbitantly grumpy 60-some year old gay lawyer, who at first told us he was 87 (we later deduced that he was lying because of a comment he made about the year of his birth). He dressed up as Santa on Christmas, and proceeded to give Cate and Ian the long story about his 23 year old lover who has kidney failure, and who—despite Eddy’s support and money for a kidney machine—has become a “bitch.” He and Eddy are no longer emotionally involved. “He was beautiful.”—Eddy
• The Help: Javier, an androgynous young Hispanic who wore very short army shorts and a pink midriff-baring tee-shirt. Part way through the week he died his hair sort of pink. He was also the cook. Carla, a friend of Javier’s sister, all-around the most cheerful and helpful person of the bunch.
• The Gringos: There were several, and we had Christmas dinner with them.
• Dan, the Vietnam veteran/doctor of some kind, married to a Mexican woman whose name I can’t remember. His hobby (apparently more than a hobby before he met his wife two years ago) is restoring old cars. Pre-marriage he had upwards of 15 cars in his shop in Seattle. Post, he’s whittled it down to 8. He told us a harrowing story about his daughter (from a first marriage): When she was in high school she tried to play truant. After the 2^nd time she did it, Dan told her that if she did it again, she would be sleeping on the floor, with just a pillow, and would have to remove all of her belongings from her room. She skipped again, and what happened? She moved all of her stuff out of her room that day, and spent the next month sleeping on the floor with just a pillow. She came home from school and went to her room. She received her meals on the floor in her room. “That’s what you get with an army man. Boy, you don’t disobey orders.”—Dan. He told us another harrowing story about crossing the border by car at 3 AM and being forced to pay off the Mexican border police. His reaction? He’s going to get a gun license. He had a wonderful saying to justify this move that I cannot remember. It involved the number 6 and 12 and sounded like one of those sayings that our fearless leader would have botched in a speech.
• Diana and Frank: Frank seemed to be an ex-hippy, and Diana was a well-meaning bimbo with a broken arm. The real entertainment was their son, Sam, and his girlfriend, Soshiko (???). Sam and Soshiko are seniors in High school, and so I asked if they had met at school. Hah! Soshiko, it turns out, is from Canada, and she and Sam had been dating online for 2 years. Sam is homeschooled. This trip to Baja with Sam’s parents (the whole lot living in a trailer while Diana and Frank build a house) is the first time they have ever met in person. Amazing.
• The Weather: Really, really windy. If it hadn’t been for the wind, we could have spent the whole time snorkeling, but instead we read a lot. A LOT. And sat outside wrapped up in blankets. We did get a few nice mornings, so we got to see some cool fish, but during our first attempt (on one of the windy days) we lost two of the mask and snorkel sets we had come with. Good times.
• The Food: Not half bad, as we had a kitchen. However, we ate a pretty serious amount of cheese. We had some excellent fish, especially on our last day, at the fancy hotel down the coast (with private landing strip).
• The Roads: The power of relativity is truly amazing—on our way in to El Cardonal’s, the mountain road up the coast seemed like a serious death trap with sandy, rock-filled cliffs on either side, just waiting hurl a boulder down on the car, and big holes in the road where car-sized chunks of asphalt have slid away into the ravines. However, after driving the rental car into one of the arroyos to go for a hike to see “cave paintings” and after playing on ATVs on the coast road and in another arroyo, the drive out back to La Paz seemed wonderful: the road was paved! The car wasn’t bottoming out on big rocks and sand!

I have left a great deal out of our scintillating vacation, but you get the idea… and I’m tired of typing. As soon as I have a chance I’ll post some pictures!

Next installment: Exploring Tepoztlán/Trying to find a decent printer. Woo!