NEW YEAR 2009

Photo: Aqua X pool.

Christmas was a success for our boys. They really were very happy for staying and just relaxing without having to undertake the grueling two day trek to Texas! They even had fun at their end of the cycle party at school and made jokes about singing “la Rama” around the old neighborhood in Coatepec. ( “La Rama” is a tradition of the area in which kids decorate a dead tree branch with tinsel and other ornaments and go around the neighborhood “caroling”. The neighbors then reward them with money, candy or small trinkets. The “Rama” later on will decorate the Nativity scene that every home has.) There was no Rama for us, but a very funky Christmas tree (I call it our shag tree) and a quiet and peaceful Christmas and New Years.
We just finished celebrating Día de Reyes (Epiphany) and filled our bellies with traditional bread. No tamales for us this year, there was no way I was going to make some, but we managed to have good meals for the holidays including a big turkey I roasted, some cod fish and a delicious meal at the best Italian eatery in the region: Casa Italia.
Ok, maybe we are partial to this place, but I have not had a better Pizza or Penne al Fungi this side of the Atlantic! Guido, the Chef owner, is also a good friend and really knows his food. He only uses fresh ingredients and makes sure Italian music is always blaring off the TV in the dining room. We hear from his wife (a wonderful, gorgeous Cuban woman) that they are offering Cuban food on the weekends. We are definitively going back for Cuban soon since we already tried her cooking and it is as good as her husbands! What a couple!
We also took a little trip to Veracruz to visit the beloved Acuario (aquarium). It was fun, but they are building a new dolphin enclosure so part of the outdoors is closed. It turned out to be a short visit due to construction so we decided to go eat at another favorite: La Parroquia. It is a restaurant that has been serving the Port of Veracruz for almost 100 years (my grandmother and my father used to go there in their youth). It is famous because of it’s café lechero (café au lait) that is served from steaming pots right on your table –I can’t have caffeine right now!-, still, we enjoy eating the shrimp and fish and the many people that pass by.
The boys just returned to school today and had a great day. They also enjoyed their marathon swimming at AquaX and felt elated. We all had good Holidays, but there is a certain peace in getting back to the routine, whichever it might turn out to be this year!

Volcancillo (Dec 20th)

Photo: Exit of a lava spout inside the crater.

Since we needed a little hiking, we decided to visit Volcancillo. Close to El Ciclo Verde, the Christmas tree farm, there is a signal off the main road into a little town. There you kind of have to ask around to find the beginning of the trail… yeah, the ever non existent signage!
We got really lucky on our adventure since there was a mountain biker at the beginning of the trail and he actually showed us the way to the Volcano. Although the trail is wide and mostly marked, there are no actual signs or maps that explain what the marks look like (blue paint on some trees) nor that there are other trails that farmers have made that intersect the trail! We had heard from the workers at the tree farm that the trail was about an hour’s hike, the bike guy said about 30 minutes… I think the tree guys were closer! It was a lovely hike up pine forests and lava flows, but it probably took a good hour up hill.
Volcancillo is a volcano that erupted a mere 800 years ago. The lava flow has been great seeding ground for all sorts of pines and firs, but it is still sharp, rugged and almost surreal in some areas. The crater itself is breath taking, and Vertigo inducing. It is surrounded by a series of caves and lava spouts that end up in the impressive sheer walls of the crater. Some hikers actually go into the lava spouts and come out on the precipice edge, but they come with more equipment than we did! It’s quite a view, but for the looks of some little white crosses on the edge of the crater, it is also a dangerous view!
After a nice hike (easier if you have not had a baby in precious months!) we stopped at La Joya, a town on the road back to Xalapa that is famous for its cheeses and other milk products. It was a great drive home sharing delicious La Joya Cheese and Butter Bread!

A Christmas Tree (Dec 9th)

Photo: Searching for the right one! At Ciclo Verde.

Our first Christmas in Xalapa! We just decided not to try to brave the road North with a new born, so off to get the gear ready for the Holidays in Mexico.
Since we left all our Xmas stuff back up North, it was all new for us. It was fun going as a family to get ornaments for our future tree, it was hilarious when we noticed we were picking the colors of the Cleveland Cavaliers… Go Cavs! (ok, we do miss the NBA). But it was rather depressing when we drove to four different stores to buy our tree and they had run out of them! It seems in Xalapa trees start arriving as early as November 15th. We did not want to buy it too early so that it would survive the Holiday season which spans from the 12 of December (Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe) to January 6th (Epiphany), so we had waited as long as we could. Unfortunately, by the 8th of December, there were no trees around. The boys were bummed… and then we discovered Xalapa’s best kept secret… which is not a secret since even buses have ads for the place!!!
El Ciclo Verde (the Green Cycle) is a Xmas tree farm about 30 minutes out of Xalapa towards Puebla. It sits on the mountains on hundreds of acres of land that is used solely to grow pines, firs, etc.
The experience was extraordinary! We drove on a great sunny afternoon in the middle of the week and took a nice little picnic with us. We got to El Ciclo and at the gate they give you a little saw and a map, then they told us which areas were open. We headed to a parking area and started climbing the hill side were hundreds of Nordic Pines were planted. A little bit further, there was another area with hundreds of firs, and further off more and more and more acres of trees. It was not an easy task to decide which tree would come home to celebrate the season with us, but it was fun to measure the beautiful trees and try to have the kids agree on one. Finally, we found the ONE. Dad cut it as we gave thanks to the land for it. A guy from the Ciclo took it, packed it in protective net and tied it to our car. Then the funnest part began: as you drive out of the Ciclo, you get to the picnic area and a big corral with reindeer. We ate, the boys played and checked the deer for a while before it was time to head back home and decorate our beautiful tree.
We were so lucky stores ran out of trees! We wouldn’t have had such an extraordinary experience out in the mountains!

Rafting Jalcomulco (Nov 29th)

Well, with a month old child, no rafting for mom. But the boys had a great adventure in the nearby town of Jalcomulco, epicenter of ecotourism and extreme sports in the area.
Early November, a little girl from school invited the boys to go with her to brave the white waters of the Pescados River to the town of Jalcomulco. Jalco (as the locals call it) is a sleepy town about an hour away from Xalapa and is the HUB for Ecotourism in the area. The town itself is charming and has nice little eateries, but the main attraction is the Río Pescados that runs through it.
So, Dad and the boys drove to Jalco with friends from school, hooked up with a very nice outfitter: “eXplorando” (small, very professional and great with kids… oh, and cheap) and rode a bus with the equipment up river. There, after a thorough tutorial on how to use the gear and what to do if you fall in the “drink”, they embarked on a raft and a kayak (the kayak for one adult and a guide) and started paddling to get to Jalco.
Well, I was absent from the adventure, but for the raving review I got as soon as the boys got home (and the photos), I’d say the three hour trek was way cool, or as the boys would put it: Totally Wicked!
The Pescados only has a few times of the year that are good for kids’ rafting: not too dangerous. Still, I hear that there was a stretch that the kids had to walk on land while the adults passed a certain area of pretty advanced rapids. There were other areas where they stopped the raft to let the kids swim in very quiet waters and even jump from cliffs.
The boys can’t wait until the next White Water season!