Still tripping

The family kind of tripping, though! Yeah, I am eight and a bit months pregnant, but as long as I feel fine, we still get out once in a while.

Two weeks ago I got a nice reminder of why I miss College. No, it wasn't the partying, that is not the case in Mexico. As an informative parenthesis and for those who cringe at the idea of living in a College town with young kids, well, College in Mexico is a very different thing than in the US. As my husband would put it: it's more like Grad School… not that much partying and a lot of studying. Why? When you enter College (Universidad here), you enter the field you have chosen and right away get on the nitty-gritty of things. There are very few writing courses, and math is already centered on your field. So if you are going to "Mayor" (actually, there are no mayors here either, it's your degree) in Law, you take law math, law history, law everything… and you've better not flunk it. So, there is less time for having parties, more incentive for studying. And the living arrangements are different too. Most kids live at home while attending college, or live with families that rent out room and board to students, very few dorms… no way you can get away with a loud party with an old lady as your landlady….

So back to the perks of living in a College city in Mexico: culture, services, libraries, top notch Orchestra, The Book Fair. The FILU- book fair of the University of Veracruz, not any book fair, either, every editorial house in the Country (and some international) had a booth at this fair. From kid's books to specialty books to learning aides, it was really well stocked. The boys had a blast attending workshops (from kite making to puzzle solving) and having meals there, too (shrimp in ancho chile and chicken in marinara sauce). Of course, the prices for books are better than the bookstore prices, but the biggest plus: conferences. we Had a chance to listen to Elena Poniatowska, she is a legend in Mexico, and she was there, one of the topmost writers and political speakers in our little city of Xalapa. And the concerts, right in the middle of the Fair, concerts of some of the best regional artists that the State has to offer. Some of our musician friends were amongst the groups: Los Macuiles and Son de Canela. Really a treat!

Now, this weekend was a different trip: we went beach hopping. Since we had such a long time of drizzle and rain, we got in the car as soon as we saw the weather report for the coast called for a decent day. We usually head for the boy's favorite beach: Playa La Mancha, but this time we decided to check out a different beach. We headed north, past the Laguna Verde power plant, to playa Muñecos. It was dreamy but littered. Seems there had been no cleaning from the Municipio for a while, so there were bottles on the bluff over the beach. As for the beach, it was beautiful! The surf was pretty hard because of the passing Norte, but you could still see how blue it usually was. There are really nice rock formations and colorful rocks scattered on a soft sandy beach. Unfortunately, I can't really do much climbing up and down anymore, so we couldn't stay at Muñecos… So, next beach.

We went back South to Villa Rica, a few Kilometers South. This beach we had been to before and has a nice little town scattered at the edge. We drove to the Southernmost edge of the beach, where sea hits the lagoon, and set camp there. It was very nice and quiet, just us and the crabs for the longest time. The boys caught crabs in the lagoon, the dog had a little swim, I had a nice walk and hubby took some photos of the wonderful lush landscape around the lagoon. The sand is white (this always surprises me of the Gulf, since there is so much petroleum drilling) and the water started off as pretty blue, then the winds hit. Unfortunately, the sunny weather became very windy and we had to take our shade down (before it flew away) and the water got murky.

It ended up being a short and sandy outing, but it was nice to get out to the warm and sunny weather of the neighboring beaches. You can't beat driving one hour East from a 63F degree, overcast day to a 93F degree, sunny beach.