Unexpected beauty

Megan:
I guess you don't really know if a pair of shoes is broken in until you've walked 30 miles in four days. Well, four blisters and a lot of duct tape later, I can say that my hiking shoes were not exactly broken in prior to this trip.

Jon and I just finished an amazing four days of backpacking in the Sierra Norte Mountains in the state of Oaxaca. It was apparent after our first deep breath on the trail that this environment reminded us of home...the smell of warm pine trees and fresh mountain air. I don't think it occurred to either one of us until that moment how much we had been craving a meaningful interaction with nature.

We spent our days hiking between several tiny mountain towns, each day with a different local guide we hired to lead us along the many unmarked trails. Each night we were welcomed into quaint, but comfortable little mud-brick cabins. We enjoyed eating our meals at the local Comodor (dining room) in each town where we were cheerfully served whatever dish had been prepared that day. "Chocolate de leche" with "pan trigo" (rich spiced hot chocolate with dry wheat bread) has become a favorite bedtime snack.

I'm not sure if it was the calming effect of being in nature or the welcoming warmth of people we met along the way, but something on this trek reminded me how beauty can manifest in so many different ways. Beauty often has so little to do with material goods or economic wealth, although I think it's easy for us to get caught up in that. In the past few days, we experienced moments of beauty in a small patch of wild flowers who had made their home on the side of a road; an amazing lightning storm on the horizon that lasted for hours; layers of mountains each growing more faint as they disappear into the distance; the unbelievable warmth in the smile of a stranger. Although the people we met had very few material goods to share, they gave freely of themselves in so many other ways. Now, with replenished hearts, our eyes are a little more open to see the unexpected beauty we encounter every day.

Climbing a pyramid... or two

Jonathan:
Without really meaning to, it looks like we've taken a week off from communicating... and evidently from taking pictures as well. We sat down at the computer today, fully ready to go through the normal drill of sifting through a couple hundred pictures and deciding what to share, and we realized that we took a cumulative total of six pictures in Mexico City (all of mine were of signs... go figure). So, for pics of the city you'll have to do an image search or something, sorry.

We did however manage to get a few good ones on our day trip to the spectacular ruins at nearby Teotihuacan. We had heard these ruins are normally overrun with hoards of tourists, and massive tour groups being herded from one overlook to the next, so we did our best to get there early. After downing a fantastic 3-course breakfast and two giant glasses of "cafe con leche," we were on the subway headed for the bus station by around 6:30am. We managed to catch the first bus out to the ruins, and we were delighted to find that the crowds and tour groups were, for the most part, taking the day off. Even after the first hour or so of eerie silence, we were still able to find quiet corners throughout the rest of the day. The ruins themselves were amazing, mainly due to the sheer scale-- The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan is the 3rd largest in the world, behind the big one at Giza and another one somewhere else in Mexico. The one here is missing the top quarter, but it's still something like 40 meters high-- really big. I found that I wasn't quite as impressed by the technical accomplishments or the architecture because the craftsmanship and ingenuity seem pale in comparison to the numerous Inca ruins Megan and I explored on our trip through Peru a couple years ago. Regardless, when you're standing in front of two hundred million tons of rock that was piled together without the use of the wheel, you can't help but feel pretty impressed.

The rest of our time in Mexico City ended up being pretty rewarding, and far less scary than we had expected. After exploring a big chunk of the city, and getting our fill of great restaurants that seemed to grace every corner, we managed to catch a movie while we were there. The highlight of our time in Mexico City was stumbling upon an incredibly moving photo and film exhibit (there's a link in the "Ashes and Snow" post below).

We've spent our past several days in the city of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. We've enjoyed the slower pace here, but the heat is starting to get to us a little bit. Today and yesterday it was around 35°C (I think that's pretty hot). Tomorrow morning we are headed into the nearby Sierra Norte wilderness for about 4 days of backpacking, some nice high elevation, and hopefully much cooler temps.

Ashes and Snow

Megan:
While in Mexico City, we were fortunate enough to see an amazing photography and film exhibit that beautifully captured the spiritual essence of elephants, whales and other creatures. The photographer integrated imagery of humans and animals together with incredible grace. The whole experience was quite powerful and calming. Below is a link to the exhibit website.

http://www.ashesandsnow.org/

Spending time with friends

Jonathan:
It's interesting to think about the relationships we build over the course of our lives, and how every once in a while some just seem to fall into place-- the connections happen at the right time on the right level, and suddenly you are left with a great friend you weren't really expecting.

We spent our final days in Guanajuato soaking up as much time as we could with our friends David & Heidi, who we met and got to know over the course of our brief time there. A young couple like us, they too have taken a break from their "real" lives (in the Seattle area) to spend some time getting to know themselves a little better. Fortunately we all decided to make Spanish learning a priority at the same time, and Megan and I were given the opportunity to connect with these amazing people. After two weeks of sharing drinks, a home-cooked meal, and fantastic conversations that inevitably seemed last until the wee hours, it was tough to say goodbye. We feel very fortunate to have crossed paths with our new friends, and we are looking forward to hopefully seeing them again in the future.

After a brief visit to San Miguel-- enough time to look around, stop by Starbucks, and decide that we missed Guanajuato-- we continued on to Guadalajara to meet up with one of our best friends Shannon. Upon meeting her in her hotel lobby though, we were ecstatic to find that she had brought her husband Jason, one of my closest friends and cycling buddies from Boulder-- a fantastic surprise. We spent two solid days catching up with our old friends, and exploring the city together. Shannon even treated us to a private yoga class in their hotel room (she's our instructor back home). Not surprisingly, spending time with them felt like not a day had gone by-- a wonderful reminder of the great friends and support we have back home.

We arrived in Mexico City this morning, and we've spent today getting our bearings and starting to explore this overwhelming but fantastic city.

Enjoying the view

Jonathan:
Our Spanish classes continue to feel like exactly the right thing to be doing, and Guanajuato still seems to impress us every day. We've enjoyed having a little bit of a routine here... Getting to know the waiters at our favorite restaurants, going to the same coffee shops to do our homework each afternoon. It's been nice to stay put for a while.

Our Spanish learning has been intense to say the least. My level of enthusiasm seems to go up and down, sometimes multiple times within a day. The more I learn the easier it is to feel overwhelmed by what I don't know. Every once in a while though, I'll find myself casually discussing politics with our host family, or talking about the relationship between Spanish and modern indigenous languages in Mexico with a few of my instructors at school, and I realize that I know more Spanish than I think I do.

In addition to our studies, we've enjoyed using our free time to get to know this area a little bit. This past weekend we went with a couple other people from the school to a nearby town called Patzcuaro (nearby is like 4 hours). Patzcuaro is a really charming colonial town with a very different style than Guanajuato. All of the buildings are painted the same two colors, and every sign for everything in the city-- hotels, restaurants, shops, businesses... everything-- is painted in black type with the first letter of each word in red. It's bizarre. It feels more like a compound than a city. We stayed Saturday night in a remote cottage on a tiny island in nearby Lago Patzcuaro which provided a nice contrast to the bustling urban evenings we've been enjoying here in Guanajuato.

This coming weekend we're planning to spend a day or so in nearby San Miguel de Allende... we've heard mixed reviews about this intensely Americanized colonial town, so we're looking forward to seeing it for ourselves and maybe even stopping by the new Starbucks while we're there. As a special treat our dear friend Shannon just happens to be in Guadalajara this week, so sometime on Sunday we'll be heading that way to spend a few days with her. Can't wait!

Learning to learn

Megan:
I cannot say enough positive things about our experience so far in Guanajuato. As Jon already mentioned, a pleasant surprise seems to greet us at every bend in the road as we explore the city. But even more impressive are the benefits we are getting out of our language classes. The school and my motivation level have surpassed anything I had hoped for. I am finding that the better I become at communicating, the more I want to learn! I cannot picture a better scenerio than walking out of a Spanish class and being immersed in a community that speaks the language.

We have been sharing a home and two meals a day with a local family while we're here. We are enjoying the opportunity to eat delicious home cooked food, share stories and practice what we are learning each day in school. I must admit that I often have to just smile and pretend to understand what they are taking about, but Jon has gained an ability to understand of most of their stories, and I'm getting better each day. We spent our dinner last night speaking mainly in Spanish with each other. Our conversations are typically very basic and a little broken, but are becoming more natural and fluid all the time. We have enjoyed spending our afternoons finding opportunities to practice and our evenings doing our homework over a glass of wine.

With much enthusiasm, I am off to study a little before bed.
Buenas noches.