Our last week and a half in Mexico was FULL of first-rate fun.  I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

taking a horse to some sweet-jumping-into-cenotes!

  So many turtles to swim with!

our home on the beach for four days.

nothing like a good jump to start off the morning

Thank you Mexico! It was a pleasure!

monkeys, cows, water, and pickups

It has been a long and wonderful week since the last blog! I can`t believe how time flies!

We are now traveling with Shahar, a super nice guy from Israel who has been traveling for the past year and a half. 

The state of Chiapas has a ton of incredibly awesome treasures tucked into its dense jungles, and we`ve been working hard to find as many as possible! 

Treasure #1 - Cañòn del Sumidero! Huge canyon outside of San Cristobal. We took a boat down through the water-filled fissure with towering walls 800 meters above! I felt so tiny. We saw some crocodiles, pelicans, and Christmas Tree Falls it immediately made me feel like making cookies and singing carols... I think the Christmas-spirit bug will bite hard this season! 

Treasure #2 - Aguacero! Absolutely the most beautiful waterfall any of us had ever found in our lives!  We found out about this hidden piece of paradise from a postcard we bought, fell in love with it, and tracked this mythical creature down!  We took a van to a bus, and from one bus, to another bus, to another bus, and then walked down a road in the middle of nowhere, with not a soul in sight, we hoped our rainbow chasing would lead something more than a muddy creek.


After wondering the road for a while we finally started seeing some shimmers of gold! And a HUGE pot of gold we did find! At the bottom of 720 steps, criss-crossing a river, traversing some rocks, and scampering up some terraced watering holes, we found everything including the leprechauns!
The towering series of waterfalls on one side of the river and a thousand foot red rock cliff on the other, and we were the only three there. We were over-whelmed with the beauty and we decided that this is what heaven would look like... at least part of it.  We swam the swift river, crawled through caves and caverns, poked at the wild vegetation, and got pummeled by the force of high falling water. 

Treasure #3 - Dìa de Muertos! What a celebration! We found a great cemetery in San Cristobal and it was packed with families, flowers, instruments, and food.
We were warmly welcomed by a few families to join them by the grave of their loved ones. They gave us some treats, drinks, and we talked about tradition, family, and travels. Mexico has proven to be one fiesta after another. No matter where we are, there is always something to celebrate with dancing, songs, and colorful happy people. 

Treasure numero cuatro - Laguna Miramar!  Wow. This one was way off the beaten path. We started in a little town of Ocosingo and took a pick up truck six hours south into the jungle. It felt so wild to bounce away from civilization for such a long time. The entire time I was in my favorite spot on the truck... on the roof sitting on my backpack with my face in the wind and only the hood of the truck between me and the road. Once we got to Emiliano Zapata there was an announcement made over the village loud speaker for the Presidente de Turismo to come to the ``office`` to meet three stray gringos. Six very happy men showed us to some river side cabanas and showed us where the yellow house was where we could get some dinner. We ate, played some cards, and crashed early and hard before a 6 o`clock wake up the next morning.

In the morning light, we hiked about two hours to Laguna Miramar! One of Mexico`s most pristine and remote lakes... we discovered that this rumor was 100% true.  Once again we were the only tourists who had been there in the past two weeks!

We took a ``kayak`` around the lake and found a cave with HUGE fresh water turtles and way too many bats, we nearly tipped the boat a few different times. The lake also offered hieroglyphics, a waterfall, and the water was perfectly clear and bath-tub warm! 

Treasure #5 - a huge day of travel brought us out of the depths of the jungle, into the city of Palenque where we found a place to sleep before we collapsed into a coma. The following day we woke up and headed out on a tour that would bring us to the Palenque ruins, and the waterfalls of Misol-Ha and Agua Azul. Palenque was a huge tourist trap compared to what we had been used to the rest of this trip. Somehow we have avoided the tourist part of Mexico so far. But the ruins were incredible. Fascinating structures, sculptures, hieroglyphics, tombs, courtyards, and all surrounded by a thick cloudy mysterious jungle. If i could have a super power, I would love to see what had happened in the past where ever I stood.

We just got off of a night bus from Palenque to Merida, different parts of my body fell asleep from time to time, but never the whole thing  at the whole time. Wow a little painful, but I`ll sleep like a rock tonight.  Off to snorkel through some Cenotes!  Hope all is well! 

Oaxaca, the mountains, and a job!

I can´t believe how time flies! We´re half way through our tour-de-Mexico, and I feel like we have so much more to explore!

We just finished a beautiful five day hike up in the Sierra Norte Mountains Northeast of Oaxaca.

Day 1: We caught a super early morning bus up to the village of Cuajimoloyas, found a little cabin, left packs, and headed out on a day hike to Canyon de Coyotes. Beautiful hike with great vistas. After spending 2 weeks on the coast, coming up here to Cuajimoloyas and hiking around at 11,000 feet makes me feel like a little kid running after an ice cream truck... just gasping for air. After the hike we were exhausted and took a great siesta in the sun. We found an incredibly delicious comedor where we ate a grand feast of 2 quesadillas, 2 sopas, 2 orders of frijoles, extra tortillas, 2 orders of arroz, 1 chili relleno, a soda, 2 chocolates con leches, and 4 pastries for grand total of 77 pesos! About $6. We felt like we were cheating. We returned to our cabin on the hill, built a huge fire in the fire place, warmed up (very cold up there when the sun goes down), played cards, and I fell asleep on a soft bed next to the crackling fire.

Day 2: Beautiful 8 mile day hike to Benito Juarez a neighboring pueblo. Met some nice men in the forest two with machetes and another with a big gun. Haha. Ah... they were just choppin stuff down and helped us find the right trail.


Day 3: we got a guide to take us about 11 miles to the pueblo of Latuvi! What a beautiful hike through high alpine forest, spanish moss, great vistas of the mountains, and ended with a climb up to Latuvi perched on the tippy-top of a ridge. The setting and small villages reminded me a lot of Northern India hikes around Woodstock where Ethan and Jamie lived. Some fellow hikers dicided to do that same hike without a guide (sin guia), they left Cuajimolyas about 10 minutes after us and they arrived in Latuvi about four hours after we did. We were pretty happy about our decision con guia. We found a basketball court and played a few games of gato.

Day 4:  hiked from Latuvi about 10 miles to Amatlán con guia. On of the most wild hikes. We would not have found the trails without a guide. He led us through fields filled with cacti, down into a spanish moss forest, through woods filled with Truffula Trees from Dr. Seuss, down to a rushing river, and then back up over recent mud slides to the little puebla of Amatlán. We stayed the night. Found Maria´s house and ate right in her kitchen. She just served us what she had cooking that evening and it was scrumptious! Some bikers joined us, Chelsea had crashed on her bike and dislocated her shoulder, and rocks gobbled up a good portion of her left arm.

Day 5: Breakfast at Maria´s house with Arian and Chelsea. Grabbed a little pickup truck that took us 30 minutes to another little village where we hopped on a bus back down to Oaxaca.

 I made a swing from the rafters out of broken chair & p-cord!

Highlights of the week:
- Opera in Oaxaca -- ended up being a live stream from NY city! ahhh haha. we nearly died with giggles as we slowly realized what we had gotten ourselves into.
- Corridor de Carne -- there are no words
- Brian joined in on a marching band practice as one of the drummers.
- Donkeys everywhere in the mountains. In the cool night air it sounds straight from a horror film.
- AND I have officially been offered the job at Bold Earth as one of the directors in Golden, Colorado. I will be moving out to Denver this January!

We just took a night bus from Oaxaca to San Cristólbal. I somehow slept for about 9 hours of the ride!

much love from mexico.

pictures from first 2 weeks

from the roof of a very high hotel in Acapulco... not supposed to be up there.

Pescado Diablo at Playa Linda in Ixtapa

Baby sea turtle happy to be released into the Pacific Ocean here in Puerto Escondido

Coasting into the land of parades!

5 nights here at my favorite beach town of Puerto Escondito

Well shucks Pacific Ocean... I loved you while I had you. Thank you for your kindness, for letting me swim out of that nasty rip tide, for keeping the sting ray away from stabbing my heart, for only washing machine rumble-tumble-twisty-mc-gooing me a couple times while surfing, and all the many colorful sunrises and sunsets. You, good sir ocean, are a fine piece of work!

We loaded a bus for Oaxaca City of Wonder early Thursday morning. What we thought was going to be a six hour tour-de-countryside turned into some gnarly eleven hour tour-de-where-the-freak-are-they-taking-us? Apparently we hopped on the extended unabridged version. You live and you learn. Brian learned not to sit on a wallet for that long, I learned that western movies dubbed over into Spanish are even better than strawberries dipped in chocolate, and the cute little old couple next to us learned they should never have sat next to two antsy, ADD American travelers.

Jumping around the ruins of Monte Alban here in Oaxaca

We arrived into Oaxaca (wa-ha-ca) right before sunset, found a cute little family run hotel right by the Zòcalo (city center), dropped our stuff and sprinted out onto the streets like grey hounds after a bunny! Our growling stomachs were nearly audible over the hustle and bustle of the food court. I caught the proverbial bunny and quieted the monster within thanks to an incredible bowl of traditional Oaxacan stew. Right in the middle of a perfect bite, some wonderful, well-intentioned woman came within ten inches of my face with a platter of fried grasshoppers. Well shucks, if I didn't nearly lost that mouthful. Miraculously, I swallowed and chirped out my most sincere "no gracias señora". Perhaps tonight, with a soda in hand, without the element of surprise, I'll give these little chapulin a chance.

As we strolled through the brisk mountain evening air, we were happily surprised to hear a marching band coming our direction. We looked at each other, checked my watch, and nodded in understanding that clearly there should be a huge parade on a Thursday night in October. We joined right in, walked with the dancers, bands, and floats for about an hour through the ancient streets of Oaxaca... A city we are quickly falling in love with. The best part and an image I hope to hold forever was dancing in the midst of giants. We were in the presence of sheer brilliance as 15 foot paper mache costumes circled around us. For the first time in weeks I wasn't the only one head and shoulders above everyone. 

Today it`s off to the spanish opera in my finest travel clothes, planning a hiking trip into the Sierra Norte mountains, dancing in more parades, and trying to fix my camera.

mazunte mazunte!

Hola friends and family,

Weather down here in Mexico has been perfect the past two weeks! Two rain storms but they were both at night. We've been staying in wonderful safe rooms every night for about $18 for both of us. The buses are a blast, I had some guy playing a guitar IN my ear and singing for about twenty minutes too long :) oh man it took every thing I had to not fall into the biggest giggle-fest ever.


We've met sooooo many great people. Right now we are staying with this guy Amiliano... Oh he could talk my ear off til next Tuesday.

Today Amiliano took us spear fishing!!!!!! It was bizarre and so out of this world. We walked out on this point that Brian said looked just like new Zealand, down to a little  cove, and slid into the water with our snorkel gear. We saw a pod of about 30 dolphins, three spotted sting rays, tons of beautiful fishies, and about eight huge ancient looking sea turtles!!! So incredible. We swam for about thirty minutes, saw a school of good fish and and amiliano handed me the spear gun!! I hadn't even seen him shoot it yet. So I took the awkward five foot gun, he showed me the safety button, I swam down 15 feet, and shot this crazy gun right into the middle of the school. It was exhilarating to say the least. I missed and all the fish swam happily away.  But so did I... no hard feelings there. We swam in the salty water for just over three hours! You get chilly after that long even when the water is warm. At one point I got seasick and thought I was going to loose my early morning breakfast right into my snorkel. Thankfully I dodged that bullet.
We missed all the fish. Amiliano was sad. But we swept the bottom of the ocean floor for clams and sea snails, pried them out from under their rocks and collected a full bag. As we pulled our salty selves out of the water I was impressed to see the wrinkliest bath tub hands in angela van drunen history. I barely recognized them and could only hope they would return to their normal form in a few hours. We trudged up the 220 steps to Amilianos hilltop cabanas, pried our snails, cleaned our clams, cut up some veggies and learned how to make a mean dish of ceviche! After that much needed meal Brian took a nap, I read in the hammock, and and the dogs chased the cat. Around sunset we wondered into town ate some tacos, bought a pint of ice cream, hiked back up to our hill station, and played a good round of Yanif while talking about and enjoying the brilliance of strawberry ice cream with chocolate cookies.

I just killed a cockroach, I'll pretend it's the last one, and I'll soon be fast asleep.

Sadly I don't think my camera could handle all of the under water excitement and it might be dead. Brian says to have hope, Amilano says that miracles happen. I agree with them both and maybe tonight the circuits will unfry and we'll be firing on all cylinders in no time.

blogging here we go!

Good morning from Mexico! My mom and dad always taught me how good it is to share. The best thing I can share with people is my life, my heart, my passions, and my love. So as I travel through life, and at times through the world, I´d like to share with as many people as possible. Last night I shared my strawberry ice cream with Amiliano, this morning as the sun was rising I shared my faith with him, and later today maybe I´ll share my seat on a bus with an old woman selling bread. Here´s to the good life, of realizing that everything I have is a gift and I hope there´s nothing wrong with regifting.