San Cristobal, a few of my favorite things

It is (was) the weekend, and I will be a tourist until Monday. I have laid in bed listening to the rain and reading, I have gone out for beers and live music with a small group of other single travelers (from Austria, Australia, the UK and Switzerland) and I have walked the city. I have also gotten drenched in sudden downpours, even with my rain jacket, so my room has acquired a musty smell from the clothes hanging there attempting to dry.

Mexico (in general) never fails to surprise me.

On Saturday morning I woke to pouring rain and thunder, so I stayed in bed, munched on rambutan while reading, waiting the storm out. Marimba music echoed up the open floor plan of the hostel. When I emerged for the day I was baffled to find a full Marimba troop taking up the entire foyer of the building (I was even more surprised to see them there, still playing, when I returned almost eight hours later).

One of my favorite things about Mexico is the layout of the streets (not the city design or the barrios for that matter, I am forever getting turned around), but the aesthetic layout, whereby the entire street-on both sides-is wall like with many doors. For the most part (or maybe just for me) you cannot possibly guess what is behind the doors (there are very few signs) until they are opened. It could be a shop or a home. The doors could open up on a small landing leading to a open air garden foyer or a small space that barely holds a snack counter and a drinks fridge.

Every day it seems I walk around the corner and something incredible pops out of nowhere. The Temple of Guadalupe, for instance, which peeked out as I rounded a corner. Completely distracted, I made my way to those steps.

At the bottom of the steps there was an impromptu soccer game being played, at the top there were some teenagers sitting listening to 'Slim Shady' on a cell phone.

The top offered a nice view of the city.

San Cristobal...at first

I am here: San Cristobal, it is much cooler and rainier and therefore homelike. It's actually quite cold in the evenings, which makes me glad for my hat.

I took a bus from Tuxtla to San Cristobal, it was a bit surreal to be sitting in a greyhound type bus, with a dubbed version of Spiderman 3 playing, while watching the beautiful landscape. It is a lush and beautiful area, but the landscape also tells a story as each available space on the extremely steep hillsides that the highway cuts a path through is planted in corn. It looks to be the second planting of the season and I marveled at the short stalks, some adjacent to wide stands of trees and others on long-cleared land.

The city itself is extremely colorful and beautiful. There is a substantial backpacker and expat presence. My first full day (Friday) I took to orient myself in the city. I wandered to the Zocalo and to the plaza, there are pedestrian walkways which are teeming with locals, foreigners and indigenous women and their children selling beautiful woven items and clay trinkets. I found a coffee shop, I had not been expecting that as most of the coffee I expected to see was nescafe. It is a cruel irony that some of the world's best coffee should be grown in place that has limited access to the finished product. There is one roasting facility in Chiapas.
I ordered a cappuccino (something I've never had, but sounded appealing) and sat down to write and review my maps, I was completely derailed by two little girls who came by my table and started laying trinkets on it before I even knew what was happening.

I remembered this behavior from the last time I was in Mexico, kids wander into open air restaurants moving from table to table to sell things. It's extremely difficult for me to reconcile my position in this, I bought a trinket. She said it was an elephant, but it looks more like a ram to me. The two girls were distracted by my journal and one took up my pencil to draw an elephant for me. Her companion took up the pencil without pause to offer her rendition. It was bittersweet for me to watch these two little girls drawing. It was a school day, yet they were wandering the Zocalo with baskets of clay statuettes. They almost looked nervous at the sheer pleasure of drawing for a moment, for taking a break from their daily life. A guilty pleasure for doing what all little girls should be able to do. I felt a constriction in my chest as I watched them cover a few blank pages in my notebook.

Tuxtla Gutierrez

I've spent the last two days in the capital of Chiapas, mostly just trying to get my bearings and such, being more of a tourist than a researcher.
I flew in from Mexico City in the evening and as we got closer, I witnessed the most incredible electrical storm some miles off. What a different perspective being in the air gives you.
It was probably one of the more uneventful, yet exciting flights in my experience. I am still a bit wide in the eyes about the fact that I have actually pulled this off. I have been wanting to come here for years. And here I am. And I got grants to be here, it's just fabulous....I hope I can hold up my end of the bargain.

The airport had a queue for taxis where you tell them where you're going and pay ahead, which is kind of cool. I made very small talk with my driver, we seized on the world cup which carried us a few miles. I experienced my first military blockade within 10 miles of the airport. I asked the taxi driver about it. He said they were looking for undocumented Guatemalans....

And here are some things I've considered in the last 24 hours
1) I am very thankful for my sleeping bag
2) I am very white, in fact I think I was the only white person in Tuxtla
3) My Spanish is not as terrible as I thought (and people are very kind), mostly the latter
4) I have a universal love for outdoor markets

5) I am an incurable map turner (but hey it works!)

I awoke in my room yesterday and looked outside, and took the only picture of the time spent in Tuxtla (I was too embarrassed to take photos...I felt like such a tourist), the view from my room. Not pictured was a woman hanging clothes to dry on the rooftop adjacent (after the sun went down, I noticed that she replaced the shirts and pants with underwear...waiting for cover of darkness?)

I bought some rambutan at the market, and considered some mango, but decided against it due to the bug situation in my room. I cleverly (I think) hung my kilo of fruit from the shower curtain hanger, where, the next day, it remained unmolested.

Tuxtla is a capital city and I think for tourists it's usually used as a jumping point to other places, like Chiapa de Corzo, San Cristobal, Palenque, so I didn't feel any special need to try to "see everything."

One thing I did look into was the Coffee Museum, I figure if I'm going to be studying coffee farmers it would be prudent. For the equivalent of 50 cents I gained entrance and received a personal tour. It was more about the current state of coffee than a history, we talked about current production, statistics, certification and producers. It was a very useful conversation for me, and most likely an exercise in extreme patience for my guide.

I also sat at a restaurant close to the central plaza and had lunch (and a beer) while watching the Germany/Spain game. It was quite fun.

Today I traveled by bus to San Cristobal, which I already find more enchanting than Tuxtla. I'm in residence for the week at a hostel close to the Zocalo, which is quite fabulous. More on that later. For the moment, I seem to have excellent access to wifi...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!

I got to watch the last 5 minutes and then the first half (replay) of the Uruguay-Netherlands game when I arrived at the Mexico City airport today. I must say...the commentators are so fabulously long winded and animated that you can't even hear the buzzing noise from the stands. I might even seek out a place to watch the Spain-Germany game tomorrow...

Your script is running slow...

...your computer may become unresponsive.
I love stuff like this

Meandering south...or, tourist in my own country

I am sitting at Sky Harbor watching the sunrise over the landing strip, reflecting on the last few days. I'm glad I am easing my way out of the country by moving southward in a couple of trips rather than just one extraordinarily long day of travel. Not that today will be a short jaunt, but I am slightly closer.

My "self-portrait" skill is improving...

these make me think of 'truffula' trees:

dear family, dear friends...

As I noted last month, I am partaking in summer pre-dissertation research in Chiapas, Mexico from the beginning of July to the end of August (Joe and I will be meeting up at the end of August in Costa Rica!)
I will do my best to provide updates on this blog when internet is available to me.
This trip is largely exploratory, put differently, I'm going to be learning a lot, and likely the hard way...

Wish me luck and look for a postcard in the mail ; )

'Beer stimulus bill:' Joe in the news...

'Beer stimulus bill' would cut taxes on small breweries | KVAL CBS 13 - News, Weather and Sports - Eugene, OR - Eugene, Oregon | Local & Regional News

...click through to watch Joe at work

Garden Updates...and the year of the snail

This is going to sound wrong, but I've been waiting for an overcast day to take photos of the garden...It's been so nice here...however, this morning dawned gray so I snapped some shots of the struggling garden.


I say struggling because we inadvertently cultivated a snail friendly environment over the winter by mulching with leaves and while it was a great strategy, and the beds overwintered nicely, we are now in our second round of planting, the first attempt having been decimated by snails and tiny slugs. After much research and some attempts at peaceful deterrence by Joe (read: marigolds and evening flashlight hunting and removal by bucket-loads), we are now onto the beer method, which I feel much less guilty about after having lost 3 rounds of pole beans, the entirety of our kale, kohlrabi and brussel sprout seedlings and watching the sugar snap peas suffer.

Blueberries and the magnolia (notice the new and amazing shining white garage door in the background)

The poppies have taken over...seriously. I planted one packet of seeds in between the artichokes and in the bed of the raspberries last year...they needed no help this year to get going (see all that orange...)


greenberries, soon to be blueberries
Little hop of horror (heh heh), the hops are also doing quite well:
Our first cherry from the bubala tree
my half milpa (just corn and sugar pumpkins, no beans), seedlings at the moment
The hops in all their glory
Summer raspberries (left) outstripping the fall ones (obscured by poppies)
Rhubarb still going strong
The first climber of the surviving pole beans (take three), the empty trellis looks so bad...
Much taller artichokes this yearthe sedum stretching out...


A volunteer onion (I think) coming from under the neighbors fence in the backyard

Fava beans and tomatoes...the only thing the slugs and snails have left alone

Surviving cabbage and broccoli
Solstice garlic...everything seems to be running a little late this year, so I think these will stay in the ground a bit longer, they're just starting to produce their 'whips'

sugar snap peas....


I'll be anxious to see how things do while I'm away. I'm already missing the sugar snap peas....

What has been really amazing is to watch the perennials change year to year...and while I don't think it's quite come to a "clip show" phase, I do want to put the cherry tree in perspective...

[From left to right these photos were taken 02.21.2009 (original planting); 06.27.2009; 06.29.2010 (almost a year to the day from last summers growth)]:

When algorithims fail...

Google uses algorithms to display ads (in a very minimal way). When referencing a page of a book I do not currently have in my possession (I heart googlebooks), ads come up, very discreetly on the side of the page, I generally ignore them...

The book I was referencing just now "Lawn People" is a political ecology study of the lawn that questions why lawns have such power over people and why, despite a desire to be good ecological citizens, we pour billions of dollars into chemical lawn care each year....whoopsie!

Soccer [blanks] the world

I still need to find out if Soccer Explains the World, but I'll tell you, today, I'd say it creates community throughout.

I heard the US score and advance this morning. Not because I was watching a gamecast, or listening to the play-by-play on the radio, but because I heard the cheer go up while sitting at my computer writing.

Die hard soccer fan or not, there's something about the World Cup...

Frolfin'

Ahhh, and now come the days of no homework...

Hale's

Cream ale on nitro...eat your heart out ;)

Caution: may cause giddiness

I have recently undertaken acupuncture treatment, something I had been talking about with Joe for awhile, and then finally decided to do.

My conversations with Joe centered around alternative treatment more generally, but one of my questions in this context was whether an ancient treatment from China/Japan could be equally successful for people living in a different cultural context? Put differently, I wondered if the impact of acupuncture would be as dramatic for folks who did not have the same everyday life (read: diet, exercise, sleep patterns etc.) of the culture that the treatment was cultivated in?

At this point the question seems rather moot, I absolutely enjoy the treatment. Whether it can be a comprehensive preventative medicine is beside the point...I have never achieved such a relaxed state. Laying on my back on a table with needles sticking out of me brings the matrix to mind, perhaps, but after a few minutes my body/mind finds a place between waking and sleeping that is positively sublime.

Yesterday I walked to my midday appointment from campus, knowing full well I had to return to my office and finish my last paper of the term.
I didn't think about it once. In fact, I emerged from the office stifling giggles. I felt positively giddy.

Summer Research

So, I received some polite stares from friends over Memorial Day weekend when I explained what I was up to this summer. I realize that I have not been particularly forthcoming about my plans, part of it was because I wanted to be able to announce my funding and explain the trip, but didn't want to be too precipitous. So.....
I have received funding for graduate student summer research from the Center for Latin@ and Latin American Studies and from the Center on Diversity and Community to conduct pre-dissertation research in Chiapas, Mexico for two months this summer.

I leave on the 1st of July. I will arrive in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State and make my way east to San Cristobal de las Casas, where I will spend some time at CIESAS Sureste.
Following that I will be in the southeast of Chiapas, adjacent to (and sometimes in) the Lacandon Jungle volunteering with a grassroots organization there. I am first going to be involved in testing for GMO corn, but I hope to get in touch with the farmers that work and produce for the Mut Vitz coffee cooperative, a fair trade producing cooperative that is made up of Zapatista affiliated farmers.

The academic line on this one is that this work, this summer, will contribute to my eventual dissertation research which focuses on the tension between production of luxury crops for the fair trade marketplace and production of subsistence crops. I chose Chiapas because it is unique in that the small farmers (read: peasant farmers) there have been fighting for land rights since prior to the Mexican Revolution, moreover, they have somewhat effectively petitioned the government for communal land rights in the post-NAFTA period, they are traditionally subsistence farmers and they are supported by the Zapatista social movement. So, my inquiry here is two-pronged (1) how does the production of fair trade crops change the way people produce for subsistence (or does it)? and (2) how does producing for the fair trade marketplace align/contradict with the oppositional politics of the Zapatistas, who deploy a much deeper critique of the marketplace?

So, I have to get my immunizations updated, my anti-malarial prescription filled and figure out how to pack for jungle/mountain/city conditions and fit it all in my red backpack. Oh the calamity!

Race!

Early mornin' on the mountain... (posted from the mountain)

and to follow-up:
What fun! Getting to participate in this relay race was quite exhilarating, a good time with good friends.
I dragged myself out of bed at 4:15am to rendezvous with the mountain part of the relay team (skier, snowboarder, runner) and was the first to be dropped at the holding site (photo above). I spent the 3 hour wait time looking like a total nerd, wearing all my bike stuff plus other warming fleeces, hats, whathaveyou and reading for school. When the runners started to come in and pass off to their riders, it was impossible to not get caught up in the excitement.

Everyone before me rocked their leg of the event, I saw runners coming in that looked like they'd rather have been force-fed poison then ever run again, but Holly was amazing. I took off on my 40 mile adventure down the mountain...it was glorious. I got passed. a lot. but I passed some people too (one of them on a hill!). And I got cheered on by my teammates who, I think, were proud of me, and that meant a lot.
I know that I brought the team down significantly for my time, but I must say, being competitive is not my strong suit and frankly, it was a personal achievement. 40 miles in 2 hours 28 minutes including: 3 downhills (topping out at 37 mph) and 5 significant hill climbs (scraping the barrel at 4 mph at my lowest) with an average of 15 mph.

...and then at the end there was a shower, a nap, some margaritas and all the amazing gourmet tacos you could possibly eat.

oh yeah? Well, your ad campaigns are stupid.

Seen while in NY, a new Diesel ad campaign...takes one to know one?