Cabo Fun

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

Wow, we're in May. It's amazing how time completely changes once you have a baby and seems to accelerate out of control. As it is, Sebastian will be 7 months old in a couple of days and I have been meaning to write this post for over 6 weeks.

I can't even remember what I wanted to say about it, but the fact is we had a wonderful first beach vacation with little Seb and my parents.

For once we had a more laid back trip, enjoying the resort, taking it easy. We stayed at the beautiful Hacienda del Mar Sheraton Resort and had a nice 1bd suite with a kitchen which was great since we could cook some meals in, keep Seb's milk refrigerated, sterilize bottles, etc. We did learn that traveling with a baby is more technical than it seems!

We did venture out of the resort to visit both San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, had a beach day at Santa María and drove down to the "Magical" town of Todos Santos. I do have to say that I was a little disappointed by this town: it's more a street than a town and its main attraction, the Hotel California, has only the name in common with the famous Eagles song. The 1h drive through the desert to Todos Santos was very pretty though, so we had a nice outing even if the "magic" was not quite there!

Check out the pictures, they're really nice, if I may say!

Back in the Game

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

It has been a while since I last posted on this blog. As it turns out having a baby is a full time activity and our travelling was limited to visiting our family in Chicago to introduce them to Sebastian.

But now Seb is 4 months old and we've resumed our travels around Mexico. Our first outing was a week-end trip to the State of Hidalgo. We'd been meaning to go visit the Basaltic Prisms for a long time and I'm glad we did, the site is amazing!

The Basaltic Prisms are made of igneous rock, known as prismatic basalt, formed into a fifty meters high vertical wall of gigantic columns, decorating the walls of a gully known as Alcholoya. These basaltic prisms were formed by the accelerated cooling of lava millions of years ago. They are at the waterfall formed by the San Antonio Dam, which falls through the prisms and into the river. This geologic phenomenon is unique in the whole continent.

Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, considered the father of modern geography, visited Mexico at the beginning of the 19th century. Impressed by the beauty of these prisms, he made sketches of this formation in 1803; now exhibited in the Museum of British Art, in London.

We stayed in the "Magical Village" of Huasca de Ocampo at a beautiful small hotel called Casa Azul.

The Programa Pueblos Mágicos ("Magical Villages Programme") is an initiative led by Mexico's Secretariat of Tourism, in conjunction with other federal and state agencies, to promote a series of towns around the country that offer visitors a "magical" experience – by reason of their natural beauty, cultural riches, or historical relevance. Curently there are 35 Magical Villages in Mexico.

On Sunday we visited the site of Peña del Aire (Air Boulder). The drive there was breathtaking with deep canyons, rivers, mountains surrounding us. The micro-climate of the area is reminiscent of African Savannah, which is incredibly beautiful.

Before heading back to Mexico City we visited another Magical Village: Real del Monte.

Real del Monte is a small town lying at an altitude of 2700 metres (8,800 ft). The municipality was once the richest in the state when gold and silver were discovered before the Spanish Conquest. The town's steep streets, stairways and small squares are lined with low buildings, some dating back to colonial times. The houses with high sloping roofs and chimneys indicate a Cornish influence, the legacy left by 350 Cornishmen employed by the Cornish firm that ran the mines between 1824 and 1848. Today, typical Cornish pasties (a local speciality known as pastes) are baked here and are unknown outside the State of Hidalgo.

This was a wonderful first trip as a family and I cannot wait for the next one in less than a month!

Check out the pictures from the trip by clicking the picture above.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

(Click to Enlarge)

Oh my, the summer is over! Classes have started (though I am not teaching this term with baby Klein coming in a little over a month) and I realize I didn't blog at all during the summer.

It wasn't because nothing was going on but rather the opposite: growing a baby in your belly is hard work, and trying to keep our usual crazy active adventurous lifestyle has been challenging. But here we are, end of summer, still working, still having fun and having spent an amazing time!

In June, Tony's brother and his family met us at the Mayan Riviera and we spent a week at a resort, visiting the Mayan ruins of Tulúm and Cobá, snorkeling at the awesome Xel-Ha eco-resort, and having lots of R&R.

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

Then in July, we celebrated my aunt's Maggie's birthday.

(Click to Enlarge)

Finally, my french parents, Simone and Didier, spent three weeks with us at the end of July and beginning of August and we spent the week-ends showing them around the city and took a long week-end to visit Merida and its surroundings. The trip was really nice. I got to see my friend Nadine that I hadn't seen in many years, we visited the Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Dzibilchaltún and got to swim in beautiful cenotes.

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

So there, that's what we did on our summer vacation... Now in case you're worried we didn't have enough to eat, here's some pictures of some of the things we tried on our trips...

(Click to Enlarge)

World Heritage Beauty

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

For Memorial Day week-end Tony and I went to Guanajuato, a UNESCO World Heritage town, capital of the state of Guanajuato.

To start off this world-class trip we took a luxury bus so Tony could have that experience. Luxury buses in Mexico have only 23 seats per bus, 3 per row, and are as nice (and recline as far) as First Class airplane seats. You get greeted by a snack and drink, they have wireless internet on board and they show movies with the sound going through headsets on each seat (as oposed to some buses where they blast the movie to the whole bus, whether you want it or not). On this bus, the 5 hour trip to and from Guanajuato was very pleasant.

Guanajuato, founded in 1554, was a rich mining town originally built over the Guanajuato River, which flowed through tunnels underneath the city. In the mid-twentieth century a dam was built to redirect the river into underground caverns and avoid the frequent floods. The tunnels were lit and paved with cobblestones for automobile traffic, and this underground road network carries the majority of cars driving through the city today. It is one of the most notable features of the city.

We had a wonderful week-end walking around the historic district, venturing into its many narrow alleys and taking advantage of its amazing variety of cafes and restaurants in beautiful plazas. We stayed at an Inn called El Zopilote Mojado and were the only guests there so we had this HUGE house to ourselves. We visited the Diego Rivera Birthplace and Museum and the Alhondiga de Granaditas, a 19th century public granary which played a key role in the Mexican Independence. Of course we couldn't miss a visito to the famous Mummies:

About 1 in 100 bodies buried in the cementery of Guanajuato experience natural mummification. In the late 1800s the town instituted a "burial tax" for the families of the deceased. When some of the poorest families were unable to pay the tax, their relatives were dug up and placed on public view in a purpose-built museum. The 'Guanajuato Mummy Museum' still adds corpses to this day; two children were added who died in 1984 most recently due to their relatives' failure to pay the $20 per 5-year rental fee. The museum holds 111 corpses resting on velvet pillows. Today, it is reported that the proceeds from the museum help fund the city's coffers to a considerable degree.

On Sunday we visited the Ex-Hacienda San Gabriel de Barreda, a gorgeous property outside the city with 17 different beautiful gardens surrounding the main house, still decorated in its original funishings.

It was very nice to get out of town for a few days, especially since we hadn't been able to get out much between me being so sick my first trimester of pregnancy and dealing with all the stuff for the new condo this last month.

Check out our trip's pictures to give you a glimpse of the beauty of this town!

Home Improvements, Part 2.7

So, on the good side: the carpentry project is done! The guy had to stay until 10h40PM to finish, but he did finish. Right now, I am still upset by how much it took to get it done and how messy and unclean the workers were, but I hope to be psyched about the final product soon...

Here's some pictures of how the nice carpenters decided you don't need any work benches nor to protect the brand new furniture and floors from dirt and sawdust:




In the end we got

• closets in both bedrooms (the green one is our bedroom, the yellow one is the office/baby's room)
• a cabinet in the living room
• additional cabinets and an island in the kitchen to match the existing ones.

Here's the results.

The adventures of an obsessive compulsive in a new condo.

So, a little bit over a year and a half ago, Tony and I decided, together with my parents, to invest in a small condo in a developing neighborhood in Mexico City. The construction was supposed to end in February-March 2008 and we were planning on renting it once we got it.

After finding out we had to come back to Mexico for a couple of years (long story) we thought it would be great to live in our own condo during our Mexican time. The place wasn't quite finished yet, but they promised us by July we would be living there.

In September, the place was ready to move in, but the builders had problems getting the paperwork needed for a sale (another long story). In each of the successive months we were told it would be done within days....

Finally in April 2009, we managed to get everything sorted out and sign the deed. Here's where the second part of the adventure begins: brand new condo, should be simple enough to move in, but no.

We spent a couple of weeks getting estimates for window treatments, closets and services such as internet, tv, etc... trying to have everything done before moving in in early May. Here's what's happened:

The Services Adventure:

This I thought was the easy one: call the cable company, transfer our internet and tv service to the new address. They did the transfer contract and assured me 3 days later the service techs would come. Then talking to the next door neighbor I find out there's NO WAY to get such service here because the closest pole is too far away and they won't install a new pole. So I call the cable company back and ask them to check the address of the building: "Oh, you're right, no service there!" Thanks a lot! I then had to return to the office and cancel the contract.

I then move on to alternative options. For tv service we picked one of the 2 choices of satellite service. They said it would get installed within a week... it's been 11 days!

For internet (the important one since Tony relies on it a lot for his work) we hired a wireless service advertised as reliable and efficient and for which we could get the modem right away. It sounded too good to be true... and it was! The thing works awful and Tony's had to go over to my parents' house to work! So we come to the last resort, go to the evil side and hire the national phone company, which forces you to have a phone service in order to have internet... We're still waiting on them to call us and let us know when they will install the phone line so we can go to their office and pick up the modem. Wish us luck!

The "Quirks" Adventure:

As with every new construction, one is expected to find some details that need to be corrected. We've had several "issues" to address, but here's my favorite so far.

After installing our washer and dryer, the plumber and I found out the hard way that the pipes didn't work: the patio got flooded when testing the machine. He checked the drain and it seemed fine so he said the problem was in the pipes below (which run on our downstairs neighbor's patio). I called the construction company and they promised the architect would come the next day.

After waiting all morning, instead of the architect we get the guy in charge of minor repairs who checks the drain and comes to the same conclusion my plumber had come to: "Oh, they need to send in a plumber!" No kidding!

Two days later the plumber comes, checks the drain, and, you guessed it, comes to the exact same conclusion: "This is in the pipes below. I need material, special tools and permission from the neighbor."

Finally the next day the pipes get fixed. Was it that hard, really?

The Closets Adventure:

This one has given me nightmares! Our condo, which is 500 square feet so it needs good storage solutions, comes without closets. They sell it to you as "that way you can get them in your personal style." I just think they're cheap!

So we needed nice closets in the two bedrooms and we also wanted to improve the storage in the kitchen and build a custom cabinet in the living room. We hired a very serious looking company and their architect was very nice and made a project we were excited about.

We had to wait 3 weeks to get it, but he said installation would take a day and then we'd be all set.

Last Thursday their secretary called to tell me they would come by first thing in the morning. After several phone calls complaining about the time, the workers finally showed up at 2PM! After an hour of unloading and filling every single square inch of the place with material and tools they got to work. There were only two guys working and 5 hours later they had started on both closets but were very far from finishing and had not even looked at the living room or kitchen.

Saturday they came back and worked the entire day, but were still not done.

Today they were supposed to come at 9AM and again got here at 2PM but SWORE they will be done today. We shall see!

I cannot describe how upset I am at this whole situation. In addition to how long this is taking them and how invasive it is (pretty much turning the whole place into a workshop, with no protections while drilling, cutting wood, painting...) I am still not convinced I like the results. They keep saying it will all look great in the end, but I am still waiting for the magical moment they're all promising.


All I really want is to have a nice orderly condo in which to chill... is that too much to ask?

The posse in the sun.

(To view the picture album click on the picture above)

On the last week of February some friends from Raleigh and Fort Collins came to visit us. Dave and Jay came to Mexico City a few days before to tour the town, then we drove to Acapulco, where we were met by Alison, George and Dave to spend a week at the Mayan Palace resort and do some R&R under the sun.

In Mexico City, we visited the Anthropology Museum, the historic downtown district, the National University Campus, the Dolores Olmedo Museum, the ancient canals of Xochimilco and the historic district of Coyoacán.We also did a day trip to the pyramids of Teotihuacán.

In the Acapulco area we took a boat tour around the Coyuca Lagoon (where Rambo II was shot), enjoyed the sunset at Pie de la Cuesta, spent an afternoon at the island of Roqueta, saw the famous Cliff Divers, visited the San Diego Fort and had fresh seafood by the beach at Puerto Marquez.

Of course we also took time to hang out by the beach and play in the surf, float along the resort's pool (which they advertise as one of the world's longest ones) and enjoy everyone's company.

One of the days boys and girls split up: the boys played golf in the resort's 18 holes course while the girls had a blissful day at the spa. It was heavenly!

As always, food was amazing and we made sure to sample lots of seafood and try a variety of places ranging from little shacks to internationally acclaimed restaurants. Here's a sample of some of the food we ate! (Click on the picture to see a larger version.)


Once again, we had an amazing vacation and were very happy to share it with our friends. Check out the trip's pictures!