Can’t be sure what happened to the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but here we are, Christmas is closing in way too fast. The weather has been incredible. The days are no warmer than mid 80’s, and the nights have been all they way down to 69 or 70. This year we have received the gift of mild weather for the month of December. Snowbird friends have started to arrive, and we have been busy catching up with old friends, and making new ones. Had a few ex pat friends over for a belated Thanksgiving dinner; an invitation to a couple of friends turned into a party of more than a few people. This is typical. Some friends recently got caught in an 1-1/2 hour traffic jam up in Oaxaca. Being anxious gringoes, they just wanted out of there. Not the Mexicans. Car doors opened. Food and drink suddenly appeared, people mingled, vendors (how is it they always show up at the exact right time) showed up, turned the traffic jam into a party...so Mexican. We laughed, and said “you know you are in Mexico when.....”

It is fun to watch the process of friends acclimating to Mexican life. There is a struggle the first few days, and then total surrender to Mexico’s sweet, easy, delicious, culture. The Christmas season is in full swing here beginning with the Day of the Virgin of Guadeloupe. The parades, processions, music, and food mark the start of the season. It is Mexico’s holiest day, and biggest party of the year. We also hear talk of how many tamales one has made, as this is the biggest tamale making season. We are even planing a little tamale making when Caryn and Micah come. That will probably happen between sunbathing at the beach, snorkeling in the ocean, and pool time here.

It has been very quiet for the beginning of the season. Between the bad publicity of the border issues, and Mexicana going bankrupt, Huatulco and the rest of Mexico has taken a serious hit in tourism. We have heard, though, that all charters and flights for January and February, at least through Continental and Apple Express, have been sold out coming down to Mexico, so maybe it will pick up here. It is a shame that the border issues caused the rest of Mexico to suffer from bad publicity. It is so far from the truth of this country, it is a shame people do not come and see that in fact it is peaceful.

(The LA Times keeps a statistic on violent crimes to date, today reporting 17,790 violent crimes, in city of Los Angeles. Outside of the border statistics, you are hard pressed to match this number for the entire country of Mexico. And yet the perception is so opposite. Very sad. We even had people in Costa Rica asking us about the violence here. It’s not here. It is not near here. I’m still saying the US needs to examen it’s in own role in the violence at the border. And yet Mexico continues to reap the bad publicity, economic consequences, and the war on drugs in the US is fought on Mexican soil at the expense of many innocent people.)

Our fabulous white plastic Christmas tree is up. Larry has decked out the place in lights everywhere possible, and is eyeing the coconut tree now. As we caught bits and pieces of football games in the States this weekend we caught the Chicago Bears game, OMG, and said to ourselves aren’t we glad we are here. Bill and Michelle, friends from Indiana, pulled in Saturday, after driving down, and described their trip in terms of temperature, starting from a snow blizzard and below 0 degrees, to our Mid 80s here. They are not missing Indiana to say the least. Nor are our Canadian, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan friends either. We are eating our roast turkey by the pool....

And so it goes, later.

The Ron's 65th Birthday Tour

The Pacific coast side of Costa Rica is in the throes of development along the beaches. There are also a few very upscale eco-tourist lodge type places, that one guide suggested to us was for those richer than God. We did stay in Jaco for a few days, and explored the national parks here. Carara and Manual Antonio were both amazing and different. Mauricio, an angel of a guide, swooped us up early one morning and the Larry, Ron, Helen, Doreen tour truly began. We hooked up with him at an ungodly hour of the morning to first catch the birds. Worth every moment of lost sleep. We chased down the elusive nesting Macaws, hitting back roads, pockets of forest, and empty beaches, to view the cashew trees that host the nest. Macaws love the cashew.

This journey led us into the face of some significant damage as massive floods occurred a week before we came to Costa Rica. The rain overwhelmed the rivers in this area, and many little towns were severely hit by flood waters. Twenty-seven people died in this storm and the clean up has only just begun, as it is still raining in Costa Rica. Mauricio, our guide from Tour Heaven, of course knows everyone. When our little group trooped over a deeply, deeply rutted muddy road, there was always someone there, with a gleam in their eye, telling is there was a Macaw nest right over there, and sure enough, there they were.

Mauricio also showed off the crocodiles. Lovely, prehistoric creatures. So many. Laying on the sandbars of rivers, swimming close into shore, catching a few sun rays. Scary suckers. Lots of “trailing hands in the water” stories during this viewing. Mauricio also took us into the national park for a tour that showed us those lovely poison dart frogs, plump ground birds, and the usual creatures hanging around rainforests. Mauricio was awesome. He is an educated biologist, with a true love of his country’s assets. It would be foolish not to have a guide into the forests, and he was exceptional. He showed us a splendid day.



Larry and Ron hit the zip line on Ron’s birthday, first thing in the morning. Helen and I stumbled through the morning catching up, drinking the rich Costa Rican coffee, and just hanging at the condo looking for Macaws. The looks on Larry’s and Ron’s faces when they returned from their adventure told everything. They had a blast. It is an amazing experience apparently. Up on the tops of trees, zipping through the canopy, chasing the Macaws. The pictures were incredible!

Manual Antonio town and park is a hilly village area to the south in Costa Rica. This is the national park with all the monkeys and sloths you can see, as well as caiman (a relative to those lovely crocs). Ron, Helen and Larry took the guided tour through the jungle to see this spectacular scenery and animals. This area was actually still mostly closed due to the flooding. Rubber boots would have definitely been an asset. I took a pass on that tour and hung with a few 4 and 5 year old kids, whose fathers were tour guides. Helen, Ron and Larry are the troopers, wading into mangrove swamps, crossing rivers in questionable boats, but they came back with spectacular photos and a good story. The kids filled me in on Tico life, and introduced me to their mothers and grandmothers and aunts.



After exhausting the Jaco and south area, and all it’s Mexican/Asian fusion restaurants, and internet cafes, we headed over to the Caribbean side, passing through San Jose. This is a city I would probably skip, only because with no street names, and addresses, it is a hell of a city to get through. Best to get to the highest point and check landmarks kind of city. With the help of a bus driver, and a police officer who stopped us for driving in San Jose on the wrong day, according to our license plate, we found the road to Puerto Viejo. Costa Ricans control their pollution by keeping cars off the road certain days of the week, according to your license plate number. Gee that sounds familiar. Anything to cut down the traffic would be helpful here, trust me. Once the officer got us on our way, we went through the largest rain forest I could have imagined, like Jurassic Park awesome, and ended up on the Caribbean.

This side is still relatively unspoiled, except for Puerto Limon. It was highly recommended by locals, when they heard we were heading to the Caribbean side, to by-pass that city. It is a major port in Central America, and has everything you can imagine from those 1940s labor movies; this side has it’s issues. Settled by mainly Jamaicans when United Fruit decided to decimate the rainforest and plant bananas, they were brought in to work the crop. It has a decidedly Jamaican feel, with the reggae, roots, and ska music, and the wonderfully delicious Caribbean cooking. (What is with all the Tex-Mex-Thai on the Pacific side?). English, not Spanish is the language on this side, although all the schools now teach Spanish. The English is typically Caribbean, and we had a struggle at first getting it. But if all else failed, we would switch to Spanish and it was fine. We stayed in Puerto Viejo (once called Old Harbor when the banana was king), a sweet little village in the southern part of CR, close to the Panama border. We stayed at an amazing eco-lodge, Cashew Hill, and were immediately immersed in the jungle world of monkeys, sloths, and exotic birds once again.




Helen and I laughed so hard when we first saw the cabina we stayed in. It was a surprise. Mostly for it’s rusticness. Kind of like a tent cabin in Yosemite, but a little damper, and a whole lot more exotic in the sound effects department. The new owners of Cashew Hill, Andrew and his mom and family, have been renovating and begun renting these fabulous rustic eco-everything cabinas. It was unreal. We shouldn’t have laughed. These were the “high” end of accommodations as we noticed later. This place is for anyone who wants a truly wonderland type experience. The setting, the people and the little cabinas are all sweet. Andrew and his girlfriend Elly were fabulous. The road was so bad, they hauled us up and down to the village in their massive four wheel drive everyday so we could go see and do stuff. Well actually it was me they were hauling... Everyone else walked..which was an easy stroll, I’m getting there.... Being at the cabina wasn’t so bad either, as you are in the heart of the rainforest, and the Toucans, monkeys, sloths, and Macaws are still everywhere. Our night sounds could be used in a movie soundtrack. It rained everyday and night. But it is gloriously beautiful, much more “natural” in that the tourist dollar has not turned this into a nightmare of hotels and events.

Tourists are from all over the world here, and it has a much more laid back, slow moving, rhythm reflected in the lifestyle of those who live here. We ate local food at Sodas (little restaurants serving traditional food), and splurged one night at an asian-fusion place run by a German. We also found a great breakfast/lunch place, Bread and Chocolate, whose owner, while running the best breakfast place almost anywhere in the world, is also a chocolatier of amazing skill. We ate everything, including his chocolates. Fabulous. Tom the owner, is from Baltimore and has been in Puerto Viejo going on 6 years. I can see how that happens.

Cannot say enough about how great it was traveling with Ron and Helen on the Birthday Tour. They are fun, adventurous, and willing to try everything. It was Ron’s 65th birthday, and every day seemed a celebration of that milestone with them. They muddled through the cabinas with us with their sense of humor still attached. We laughed a lot, just from the sheer joy of sharing something new and loving it!

Costa Rica

Our morning wake up call.

We came home the other night to crickets, frogs and ocean waves under a starry, warm night. As we settled down for a nice cold beer, a 4.7 earthquake double whammed us just to let us know, we are home.

Costa Rica was a lot of fun. We hung out in Alajuela or a couple of days and had baptism by fire. Costa Rican's don’t put numbers on their homes or business, and they don’t name streets. Oh, there are names and numbers on maps, bless them, but it isn’t public, so to speak. Directions were ALWAYS “go down two blocks past the soccer field, turn left at the Rollo Pollo and stop across from the Chinese Restaurant and you are there". Aaagh! But we did find our way to the casino down the street from where we stayed. You have no idea what country you are in when in a casino. We heard every language. Disco. Hamburgers and Buffalo wings, and cheap mojitos, and more disco. It was weird though, weird vibes. But this is a country with legalized prostitution (and on the Jaco side, it is slightly less than obvious), so who is to judge what is weird, I suppose.

The Caribbean side is far different (with one exception to the whole country, Puerto Limon, which appears to have earned it’s arm pit of Central America reputation, it’s pretty bad there, but it is a major Central American port, soooo). It’s a long very political/racist/United Fruit type story, how this Costa Rica came to be. But really, there are two countries in one, and listening to feedback from people who live there, I don’t think they’d care to change that too much. But everyone must go to the Caribbean for what might have been, because it is slated soon to start being developed. All the more to go while you can.

Anyway, we headed out to Jaco side of the country on that first Friday after hitting the only “non Ron and Helen event”, the Butterfly farm. Seemingly thousands of colorful, other worldly, butterflies flew around us, and as we were the only two on the 3 PM tour it was awesome. Our tour guide graduated in Tourism, (what else, even in Costa Rica), and loved her job. We are now experts on the life of a butterfly. Who knew they live up to a year or more. Well that Monarch thing should have tipped me off.




We went through coffee plantations, much different from our coffee plants; it is harvest right now there. We hung out at the Ramada time share for a couple of days crusin’ the “town” supermarkets, because they get a lot of US food items that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Helen and Ron asked what we had seen when they showed up on Sunday, and we laughed and described all local food markets in depth. Obviously we have no life, but we saw other stuff too, including the beach. We found a store that was like going to Nob Hill in the city. I swear to G**. They had Butterball turkeys, Ocean Spray Fresh Cranberries, Thai Kitchen, and Snickers. This will give you a clue as to who hangs in Costa Rica for the “season”, due to start end of December. And they aren't poor. We sunk to the lowest level, of course, and scored some brats (Johnsonville!!!). It’s genetic. Retirement does affect brain cells.

Ron and Helen showed up just in time, Larry had already lined up a guide tour for Monday. We were going, no matter what. It was so great to see Ron and Helen, helping them celebrate Ron’s 65th birthday. They had just come off their week building a Habit for Humanity home in Grano de Oro, Cartago. They will write their own accounts of that experience, but the stories they told us were moving, funny, and hopeful. They obviously get so much more out of it than they think they give. But the best thing was just to travel the same road for while, and it was so much fun. We had some great laughs, and adventures!



to be cont.

Ramona, Beezus and Keith Richards

It is probably sacrilegious to mention Ramona, Beezus and Keith Richards in the same sentence, but these are the books that are taking up a bit of my time this week. Keith Richard’s Life is addicting, just like his heroin habit. Can’t put it down, except when my student and I read Beezus and Ramona, the first of a still funny series of books, even after having read them countless times when I taught elementary school. That Ramona. And in a lot of ways she is at some levels an early Keith Richards (whose antics and insights will make you laugh as well as shake your head and make you wonder how he survived). Humor.

Actually, Life is the first “rock and roll” - type book I have ever read. It is a fascinating look at the cultural history of the 60’s through to the 2000’s. The Stones, for a lot of us, was the sound track of our youth. The first time I saw the Stones in ’65... as an impressionable 18 year old, my friends and I drove down to San Jose Civic Auditorium, from Berkeley, to see Mick and Keith and the rest of them blow through and stun our sensibilities. Richards talks a lot of music in his book as well, making me wish I had paid more attention during my “I want to be a folk singer with my cheap-ass guitar phase” around this time. Especially the chords and riff stuff. It is heartening to read how much respect Richards had for other, musicians, including Ry Cooder (a favorite, and Gram Parsons) and how much they taught him.

Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary, takes me way, way back to a kinder, gentler, time in the United States. For kids here, they can readily identify with a Ramona and Beezus of 50+ years ago, as they see themselves in these books. It is very strange to be reading this book with my student. I am home-schooling a 5th grader this year, and we had just finished Sign of the Beaver, and she wanted to read a “fun” book before we go on to tackle Sing Down the Moon, and Number the Stars. Can’t wait to read The Giver again though. One of my former students is teaching in China this year, and commented on how does anyone teach the same lesson 15 times and not go nuts. I had to laugh, because in actuality it is 15 different experiences. But I am sympathetic. I had a student once, Dillon, who came to me in the 4th grade, and begged me not to read anymore dead dog books. I’ve kept that promise. And there are books I do not ever want to teach much less read again, including Lord of the Flies ; after the first two or three times I taught that book, I still can’t stand it! That Beezus and Ramona still strikes the fancy of a 10 year old girl is endearing. Ramona would definitely grow up and be a Stones’ fan, I’m sure.

I am having fun though. I have said before once a teacher, always a teacher, even when you retire. This time though, it is a load of fun. And one to one ratio definitely tilts the odds in my direction...classroom management is a breeze. In the case of our English class, though, we let it rip, and have a blast every week. Maybe they would like a dose of Beezus and Ramona, although Miguel, our musician student, would be more likely to enjoy Keith Richard’s Life, I’m thinking.

We are off to Costa Rica next week, need a vacation from retirement. Is that even possible? Later.

Musings

View from living room...yesterday

It’s been a busy week here. Had dinner down at beach last night, Bocana, a favorite spot. This is where the Copalita River empties into the Pacific. It’s a beach that changes by the hour it seems, but it is one of the more popular surfing beaches, and the waves were awesome yesterday. In the past, this beach was also famous for it’s mud-baths, as at the river edge a lovely mud is deposited. Literally bus loads of people would go down to the beach for the mud, then jump into the river to clean it off, or head to the ocean and take a swim to wash it away. The Copalita River has been handling a large volume of water lately, though, and the mud-baths have gone to the wayside for a while. The river is also a great white-water rafting spot, especially now. Bocana is in the throes of development, and it isn’t the lovely, quiet, charming little hamlet these days. I suppose we have to take the “progress” with the good. Great little restaurant down there though. Lucy, the owner, makes the most delicious traditional food. Sat back with locals and new friends, and talked and sucked up seemingly a lot of beer, watching the waves in the moonlight, stars blinking, and children playing in the street long after they should be in bed. It was one of those nights.

I’m glad to have a computer again. Our friend Pam kindly risked a bit of trouble to bring it in. Mexico only allows one computer in per person. She travels with hers, and slipped my new Mac into her carry-on with hers. No one batted an eye in customs. You just never know what goes by customs and what doesn’t. We asked our niece to bring some veggie and herb seeds down when she and her husband come, and I told them to scatter the packages between the suitcases and carry-ons just in case. We are always plotting it seems. Mexico frowns on seeds of any sort coming in from another country. A friend of ours lost peppercorns recently, because even though it is an herb, it’s a seed. Aagh.

We keep up with movies with the computer. Thank Steve Jobs for Itunes I suppose. We just watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and loved the film version. I knew the next one was coming, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and hated to think we’d be off to Costa Rica, before we could see it. The books were wonderful by the way, if you haven’t caught up to the frenzy, read them.

We are heading out to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. The eco-tourist capital of Latin America, Larry wanted to take a look at how Costa Rica handles it’s rich environment compared to Mexico. Southern Mexico is awfully close to what Central America is like, but they do have animal life not found here. We get Tejons (which are large, about the size of a small goat, alien-like creatures with the tail of a monkey, which our little beach is named after), and the usual big cats, including jaguars, but not those beautiful Macaws or the monkeys. Chiapas, just a few miles south of us, benefits more from it’s logistics to Central America, and has more of a variety of birds and monkeys. Hard to believe, but we shall see. Larry’s brother Ron, and his truly significant other, Helen, are working on a Habitat for Humanity project outside of San Jose.

Snowbirds are starting to trickle in, and Fonatur (the local government agency that guides our lives here) is busily repairing streets, and shoring up landslides. Must be the dry season. Changes are even happening on our favorite street in town. Our friend Ulysses has opened up a bar/antijito place across the street from Mama Mia!, our local Italian hang-out, and a delightful breakfast-lunch place that used to be in Santa Cruz, has moved next door to Ulysses. Max, the owner of the breakfast place, makes cinnamon rolls like no other, and serves them with a espresso that reminds me of Italy. Hemingway's Cafe is on the corner, and you can find great music, food and drinks, in mellow surroundings for a laid back evening. We teach English on this street, and on the days we are down there, it takes us forever to get back home. The people, food and drink are vastly superior on this particular street. It even has the best little comida corrida place we have ever eaten at.

And so it goes. Weather has been a steady 85ish, and the nights still incredible. I am up walking more, and am now using just the walking canes. Finally. I thought I would never get off crutches or the wheelchair. Just in time. We are looking forward to the Day of the Dead here, such a lovely, moving experience. Wish you all could be here at this time, it is magical.....

Birds, autumn in Mexico, and street food

The parrots are in full force here this week in the neighborhood. They hang out for a while and then move on to better places to eat, but when they are here, they let us know it. They are loud and chatty and fun to watch. In June and July, there was a flock of about 20, now with the babies and new recruits I'd say there were about 100. They take over entire trees and talk, talk, talk. They talk while they are flying, they talk while they are resting. Loud. I told Larry it feels like we live in an aviary sometimes, between the parrots and the chatty cockatiel behind us. This morning we woke to the cocatiel imitating, we think, a long lost dog friend. The bark sounds like one of those little dogs that bark all the time. Guests always ask where's the dog, we laugh. Then it moves on to a crying baby, whistles a little tune that is a fragment of some sailor-type song, and then on to imitating all the other birds around here, and especially the parrots. The cockatiel loves when the birds come.....

It is already turning orange and brown, but the flowers are blooming. Two weeks without rain and Mexico moves into instant autumn, or I should say summer. Really only two seasons here. Leaves are already starting to drop. But the flowers are blooming like crazy, and the colors are brilliant!

But the weather is still perfect. Had friends for dinner last night. We sat out on the patio watching the sunset, listening to the birds (parrots) quieting down, and the frog/cricket population picking it up a notch. Miss Maggy (our guest cat) snagged a bat, and chased down a toad..our usual evenings. Change of weather funny enough lead to a conversation about food. Street food to be specific, as our guests being from the Isthmus, filled us in on the how some of our favorites are made.

One of the truly great treats on the street are the coconut tortillas. They are amazing. Crunchy, slightly sweet, coconut flavor, so good with coffee. Claudio explained that they are cooked underground, like in a tandoori oven for those of you who know Indian food. They slap the tortillas on the wall of a ceramic oven, in the ground, and are cooked until crisp and slightly browned. Naturally as we were talking about them, we had to have one, even after a grilled steak dinner, with pear tart for dessert, out came the tortillas...that good. Then we switched to moletes.....

Moletes here are amazing. They are prepared by mashing plantains, cooking them, forming them into a sort of meatball shape, and stuffed either with a salty cheese (our favorite) or meat/salsa, then deep fried. We buy them off the women on the streets, still hot, and oh so delicious. Claudio's wife, Adriana, is an excellent cook, and has promised to lead me to the proper method of cooking them perfectly. But that first bite, slightly sweet, slightly salty, is unbelievable.

And speaking of seasons, it is elote (corn) season now. For fans of corn on a stick, dipped in mayonnaise, sprinkled with local cheese, and chile, it is heaven. I held out for two years on this street food before I would eat it. The mayonnaise ingredient had me worried. But last Day of the Dead, up at the pantheon, a vendor was selling them, and I gave in, had to try it, illness be damned. Oh my G!!! It is soooo good. Larry still refuses to go there. He waited for me to get sick after I ate it, and nothing happened. Everybody eats them though. Whole streets of people walking around with corn on a stick, glee in their faces.

We sometimes buy our cheese on the street here as well. The local Oaxacan cheese is a bit like mozzarella cheese, sold in a big ball, and pulls apart like string cheese. Mild, slightly salty, it is so good in quesadillas and tlayudas (another street food treat, a large tortilla, piled with beans, cheese, and other things depending on the vendor). Friends here are doing cooking/food classes for the tourists who come on the cruise ships, and one of their classes is local cheeses paired with local mezcals. Now there's a class. Pairing cheese and mezcal. Sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it (for those of you in wine country). Mezcal is a story unto itself, and we have tasted a lot... When Will and Dan were here at beginning of summer, we did a bit of tasting and found another mezcal called Tobola...still made from maguey (different from Tequila and usual mezcal cactus, but a maguey), that now has turned into a favorite. Everyone has a favorite mezcal though, and like wineries, there are 100's of versions (as I have written before, the mezcal road to Oaxaca is full of “tasting” rooms).

At any rate, we have come to appreciate the street food a lot more than restaurant food here. I don't think there is a bad cook to be found in Oaxaca, from tasting various vendor's food and accepting any invitation for dinner from a local. When we say this, locals laugh, and agree. Then they will tell us of another vendor who does tacos like you have never tasted.... and we are off to another foody moment....

The jungle has taken over!

It has been so beautiful here this week, I hate to even mention it. The mornings have been cool, in the low 70s, and the afternoons have been in the mid 80's, and the nights breathtaking. This is January weather in October. We have been sitting out watching the sunsets (spectacular), counting the stars and smelling the sweetness of evening scented flowers, and watching fireflies filling the trees as if it was Christmas Eve, with sparkling displays of flashing lights. We have begun to dry out, and the local wildlife is coming out of the jungle shaking off wings, basking in the sunny afternoon warmth, and coming around to see what we might have to eat. A new iquana has moved in with us, a lovely large, dark green female. She has been sunning on our solar panels (for the waterfall in the pool), and generally hanging around the kitchen, keeping an eye on us.

We have a guest cat staying with us (Miss Maggie), who can't seem to get enough of all the wild life she can chase. Centa (who is not even acknowledging Miss Maggie), has been chasing a few frogs and lizards herself. Can't keep an eye on them all the time, but I swear they both seem to be always eating something these days. The dark side of cats I suppose.


Larry ready for the dead.
You know it is October here, not just by the change of weather, but I see the days leading up to the Day of the Dead already starting (the special bread has come into the markets). For Oaxaca, Day of the Dead (actually 2 days), is a big deal. I have written about Day of the Dead before, this being a major holiday in the lives of Mexicans, similar to Halloween, but far more spiritual and beautiful here. There is anticipation in the air. Everyone goes to the pantheons/cemetaries, bringing gigantic boquets of marigold flowers, and food, to share with the ancestors. It is two days of food, music, prayer, all on top of the graves in the cemetary. In the evenings most of the graves are lighted by candles, that lends an otherwordliness to the cemetary. The city of Oaxaca is jammed with people during this time, as no one seems to do it better than the Oaxaqueños.

We are now also seeing the gearing up for "the season". The cruise ships have already started to come in, and a few early snowbirds have been sneaking down as well. In another month we will once again turn into a tourist destination, as the hotels and restaurants are in the throes of improvements, revamping, and just plain getting ready. For our snowbird friends, well we can't wait to see you too!

We'll be heading to Costa Rica next month to hook up with Ron and Helen (in laws and outlaws), for a couple of weeks, ending up back in Oaxaca City for a few days with friends. We are flying in and out of Oaxaca right now, as the airline thing (Mexicana went bust, Continental/United, or whatever it will call itself, isn't coming in here until Dec we hear), and it costs a bloody fortune to fly out of here to Mexico City right now. Like we're suffering.

Good time to come if anyone wants to see a beautiful place, without tourists though. The beaches are empty, the water looks good, lots of surfers are coming in we hear. The flowers are blooming; the blue morning glories have taken over everything in sight, lovely.