Teas and other things

Long time no post!

Things continue happening.

I want to start figuring out how to use some of the plants here to make teas and other useful things. I think chamomile is growing wild here. There is also lemon verbena for tea, and boatloads of rosemary that could be used for soaps or other things. It is difficult because there is rarely someone here who can identify plants, and I of course am basically clueless. Slowly slowly I learn!

There are visitors here for Dia de los muertos (the Day of the Dead). It should be fun to see the celebrations! We will go to Patzcuaro tomorrow to see big-city celebration, and then hit up small towns to experience the cultural event. Today if there is time we will put together an ofrenda. All of us will print pictures of lost friends and family and pets and remember them in celebration! It really is a cool holiday.

Here is a cool picture I took recently:

I'm starting to learn how to do a little editing in Gimp, but really I know nothing. It is a confusing program! The only editing I did on that photo... well, I don't know what I did. I clicked "Auto", and the program changed my picture a little bit. Strange.

I don't know what that flower is. Here is a coriander (cilantro) flower, which I had never seen before! It is a little blurry:

Pretty flower. Maybe in a little while the flowers will give seeds, and then I'll have coriander to use.

Happy Halloween!

Jaripeo

UPDATE: About five million people get to this blog because of the picture here on the right. What is it you are searching for?? I do not understand. Please leave a comment!

A lot of the little towns around here are named after saints, and host parties on the day of the year that recognizes the respective saint. Then, everyone from all the other little towns attend that town's party and everyone drinks and eats and has fun etc. They also host Jaripeos, or bull riding. Uricho had one last week and I got to see my first Jaripeo, which was not so thrilling and kind of strange.

I guess the bulls were a bit tamer during this jaripeo than most, but it was pretty silly in my opinion. The bulls obviously do not enjoy it, and people get really hurt. We saw one guy get stomped on and it did not seem pleasant. But, it was very fun to see *so many people* attending this event in this teeny tiny town. It is a giant party!

More and more visitors continue to come here, which is fun because it provides a variety of people to chat with. Soon there will be folks down for Day of the Dead. Things continue happening!

Morelia

I had a nice trip to Morelia last week. BIG city WHOA! Maybe twice the size of Madison. Mostly we did un-fun stuff, such as visit stores that I do not like with lots of fluorescent lights and busy stupid people blocking aisles. We went to:

*Costco. I'd never been to one before. It was fairly horrifying. Everything is in BIG BOXES and nothing is healthy or good. But, it is a good place to buy some things because they sell stuff in bulk. We also picked up a super cool telescope which has been really fun to play with, so that was a bonus! I haven't looked at the sky with it yet, except the moon in the morning a couple of days ago, but it seems fairly powerful. A good tool for this area, since the sky is so bright and clear!

*Wal-Mart. ECH! It is funny, Wal-Mart is the same everywhere. It is good to go there because we can get fruits with seeds that are normally not available, and try to propagate those plants here in the forest.

*Home Depot. Pretty much the same as the ones in the U.S., except everything is crammed into about half the space.

After the shopping in the big crazy stores, we took a taxi to the center of the city. We didn't spend a lot of time there, but Morelia will be a fun little town to explore. Pretty buildings and things to look at.

This picture is of the cathedral, which is similar to most cathedrals, so is nothing special but is kind of pretty. It is fun to notice the architecture here after my time in Spain last March. Very similar. Shocking!

Unfortunately, somewhere in Morelia I picked up some sort of virus or something that made me sick for three days. I got to watch a lot of good movies though, so it wasn't all bad. And I read "The Clan of the Cave Bear" which apparently was really popular... it is entertaining! And it's a series! And all 5 books in the series are here! So I am on the second one now.

We are preparing the place to accommodate more visitors. This month should be pretty fun-- Day of the Dead prepping for the end of October/early November. There are some folks from the U.S. coming, and likely some people from around this area.

And right now another composting toilet is being build! That will make four total. Lots of humanure!!

Tofu-tastic

Every Tuesday is Market day in Erongaricuaro, which is a fun little change from life in the forest. We stock up on fruits and veggies for the week that we can't get here, plus some bread, tortillas, cheese, and eggs. It is interesting to learn to cook in the order in which things will go bad without refrigeration. Sundays and Mondays we eat salads from the garden, as not much produce lasts the whole seven days (though surprisingly, things like carrots and some fruits can last a super long time!). Cooking here is nearly preferable to eating in town, since the food there lacks variety and healthiness... (I still like to eat in town sometimes. Easier. And it can be fun to order something when you aren't totally sure what it is.)

This Tuesday was REVOLUTIONARY in the market. TOFU exists here! There is a couple in a rancho nearby who make tofu weekly (**fresh**) and sell it in the market. Holy crap! It is so good! I made broccoli tofu stir fry and was in heaven. Yum! The same couple sells amazing baked goods. They bring a bit of variety which is nice, since many of the vendors sell exactly the same stuff. They also have a cutie baby and a nice dog, and they speak decent English so I can talk to them. Bonus!

Tomorrow I head to Morelia for the first time since the night I arrived. It is mostly a non-touristy type trip, but it will be fun to see a bigger Mexican city. Eronga, the town with the market, is something like 5000 people. The other two towns within walking distance are 400ish each. Morelia is around 600,000. Big change! I'm looking forward to it, but I already know that I'm glad I don't live there-- I still do not miss traffic lights and busy people running around blathering. The forest is nice and peaceful.

In other news, things continue to happen here. We've been clearing trails that have become nearly grown over, which is fun because it involves wandering around in the nice place. Some of the dogs have been getting fixed which is *great* since there are already ten of them (though every one of the ten is sweet and adorable and awesome). And a vet might come up and vaccinate them all, which is awesome because it is a pain in the neck to get dogs into town. There is one older dog here, Goldie (golden retriever awww awww awww), who just got heart medication and is about a million times healthier looking. She is a sweetie. It is amazing how one teeny half pill can improve health by such an insane degree.

So it goes!!

Topes

In the US, one of my least favorite things to experience is red lights. I'm not a patient person, and the lights on the way to work every day last year drove me craaazy!

Here, my least favorite thing to experience is topes, or speed bumps. They are ALL OVER THE PLACE. Grrrrr!!!!

This is Honey Cupcake. She just had surgery so no puppies for her! She is a sweet little thing, nearly narcoleptic, and goofily disproportionate. She makes me smile!

Things happening

I saw the lunar eclipse a few nights ago and forgot to write about it the 29th. It was pretty sweet! I woke up around 5:20 to use the bathroom, and while peeing I remembered that it was supposedly going to happen between 3ish and 6ish in the morning. Stepped outside, saw shadowy moon, and within about ten minutes it happened! Great timing! And, immediately after the eclipse ended clouds came by and covered up all the moon and the stars and everything. And I went back to bed. I don't think I've seen that before.

A guy came by yesterday to collect mushroom micillium for his garden. Cool dude! I made some wraps out of orejas de raton, which are my favorite mushrooms so far. They look like rat's ears, which is the name in Spanish. They are tasty! Apparently there is another mushroom that is edible and ALL over the place, and supposedly quite flavorful (chanterelle). But there are poisonous mushrooms that look kind of like this one, so it's uncertain whether or not to eat it. Mushrooms are tricky.

Toadstool mushrooms! (Amanita muscaria) Famous kind! They are 'poisonous'. I think they are also hallucinogenic (but *extremely* bad for your internal organs). The guy who came to collect micillium said that somewhere there is a group of people where the shaman eats the correct amount of mushroom, and then his pee contains the drug, so they save the pee to drink. And then anyone who drinks the pee also contaminates their own pee, and so on. Good to know, right?

Pasiflora

Check out this crazy looking flower!!

It is from pasiflora plant, or passion fruit, which is an odd fruit I tried yesterday. Tangy! We visited a dude who has an awesome garden, and he made passion fruit drinks in his blender. Very tasty with a bit of sugar!

I also tried lechi, which is not local, and is very strange. I will take pictures of it. Spiky.