Grandpa's Farm in The Isolated Hills of Mexico State - Part 1, The First Visit

The Valley Where Grandpa's Farm is Located

My wife's grandpa lives on his farm isolated in the rugged, hilly countryside on the border of the State of Mexico and the State of Guerrero, a few hours southwest of Mexico City.  They say "rancho" in Spanish, but what we call a "ranch" in English has virtually nothing to with the kind of place where my wife's grandpa lives - except that neither are urban.  Imagine an old adobe hut nestled in the bottom of a valley, surrounded by patches of cornfields and woodland.  No electricity, no paved roads, no phones. Up on one of the wooded hillsides you can the town, which is about 100 houses, and the tall catholic church standing out at the center.

The first time I visited, we took a bus from Cuernavaca to Ixtapan de la Sal, a small town which draws a handful of tourists from Mexico City to its outdoor swimming parks, but is pretty much just a little town in the hills, with a picturesque old town centre, focused around a lively town square full of market booths and a nicely kept up, traditionally white painted church.  None of this, however, seems very touristy, but rather very practical for the day to day needs of the people who lived there.  Some of the stands on one of the newer, wider roads sell nick-nacks and handicrafts for visitors.  On our second visit, an old lady selling stuff was so impressed by my one-year-old son, that she gave him a rattle.  He loved it.  (The first time our son wasn't in the picture yet.)

Grandpa

Leaving Ixtapan de la Sal, we took another bus to a smaller town an hour or so down the road, where we got off at a bus station.  From there we walked a short distance to catch a "collective taxi" - a taxi that works pretty much like a bus along a designated route with set fares, where there aren't enough passengers to justify a bus.  When a passenger needs a ride, however, the taxi drivers will fit up to 8 people into a small Nissan!  This is both out of respect for the passengers, who might be waiting a while before the next taxi comes by, and for better income for the driver.  Mexicans are small, but not that small.

The taxi dropped us off at an intersection in the middle of the woods, where the countryside had become very hilly, and the roads very winding.  Everything up to this point had been paved, but this new road was dirt - not gravel, just dirt.  We were lucky enough to catch a pick-up going by.  The driver gave us ride in the back, and hung on for an bumpy ride.  I can't remember the details exactly, but at some point the pick-up dropped us off at another intersection, which was our final road.

This new road curved around a hill, which, as my wife explained, used to be home to her grandpa.  Her family used to climb up the hill from this point, her dad carrying a bag of dried tortillas (which used to be cheap enough, even for the poorest of families, to just toss left overs into sack to give to farmers for their animals) an my wife's younger brother.  This was when he used to own the hill and have his house at the top.  Some time ago, as he got older and couldn't manage the land anymore, he sold the hill and moved his primary residence into the bottom of the valley, where the other half of his land was.

Our final road led around this hill, opening onto the side of the somewhat narrow and deep valley.  As we were walking, a little old pick up, coloured red, with a speaker strapped to the top, drive by announcing the ice cream the driver was selling.  He picked us up, and gave us a ride, explaining that ice cream was a decent business even in these isolated hills where money is hard to come by.  Working men, stopped and came out of their little fields to buy, and children came running, apparently out of nowhere; so far there were no houses to be seen.

The Cousin, 4 Daughters, Great-Uncle and Me (back center)

My wife finally recognized the point where we needed to head down into valley.  We walked down a walkway, sometimes zigzagging along the hillside, other times just heading strait down, until we came to two little adobe houses, one of them fenced off with a wooden gate.  This was (and still is) grandpa's house.  It's old, the adobe is cracked and falling apart in some places, and some of the clay tiles on the roof were missing.

Entering through the gate, we were greeted by some barking dogs, and then a young woman - my wife's cousin or second cousin, I'm not sure - and her 3 daughters (by visit #2, there were 4, as you can see in the picture).  A bit later, her grandpa arrived from the fields, and we met her great uncles as well.  This family - the grandpa, great uncle, cousin and daughters - lived together in these two adobe homes.

Something seemed to be missing in the picture.  I knew that my wife's grandma had passed away many years ago, and that her great aunts lived either up along the main road, and one of them in Mexico City.  But it didn't occur to me until we were leaving after our second visit a year and a half later that there were very few young men.  There were a number of old men, and more young women, with many small children; most of the fathers of these small children were off in the United States.  The event that drew this to my attention belongs to later part of this story.

This was my first impression of Grandpa's farm.  The sights, the food, the people and the way of life all impressed me.

But since this story will probably go on for a while, I'll continue in part 2, tomorrow.

What do Bush, Obama and Hippies in Tulum Have in Common? Politics vs. Solar Panels

Other than the fact that they probably all speak English to some extent, it would be hard to find much else.  But here's on nice little similarity: they're all putting (or have put) solar panels on their homes.

While I don't think too many people associated President Bush (Jr.) with environmental efforts, according to an article in Yahoo news (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/101005/world/us_white_house_solar_power), he was the second president to install solar panels on the White House, powering "a maintenance building and some of the mansion, and heated water for the pool."  President Obama is going to expand on this, installing solar panels to power the residential section.

I wish that big efforts, like this little one, could cross ideological political lines; it would bring more results and positive change, regardless of which side of the political fence (or fences) people are on.

What does this have to do with living in Mexico?  Very near to where I live, in Tulum, currently a little tourist town which was born from visitors to a beautiful pyramid site overlooking the ocean, many residents are beginning to do things like this - solar panels, wind turbines, rain water capture - to minimize non-renewable resource use.  I'm not sure about crossing political lines, but it's definitely crossing lifestyle lines.  The trend is ranging from people buying natural lots in eco-communities to upscale developments where there's no visual difference.

As is often the case, however, some of the most important issues get less attention.  Because of the underground caves and waterways (click here for a Google image search of "cenotes," the entrances to these waterways) which are a really amazing phenomenon and one of the area's main tourist attractions, and because of porous rock, otherwise properly treated waste water is still harmful; these waterways allow deep injected treated waste water to enter the sea, making contact with the coral reef.  The potassium and other nutrients left in the water cause algae to grow, which in large quantities damages the coral, the small visible animal which lives on the reef, and creates the beautiful, colorful structures through calcium deposits.  This means the slowed growth of the reef, and diminishing of the living part of it.

To help address this issue, several organizations are promoting the creation of "artificial wetland" structures to treat household waste water.  Grey water and treated black water is drained into a concrete bed full of rocks.  In this rock bed, fast-growing plants absorb the potassium and other nutrients before it is re-introduced into the ecosystem. They are small, odorless, very low maintenance, and fruits like bananas and papayas can be safely grown in the bed, (and safely eaten - plant roots don't absorb bacteria) and they make for very beautiful gardens.  The idea is slow to catch on because the prospect of having a rock bed full of waste-water in your back yard sounds unappealing.

A number of people in the eco-communities are trying it out, and I have even seen one small, upscale development include this.  The political roadblock here is that the deep injection is "officially" the clean solution, so special water treatment to protect the reef is not being considered.  The good news is that the idea is catching on, and hopefully soon politicians catch on.  Hopefully some day, politicians on one side of the fence will put aside their opposition to environmental measures, and on the other side will stop talking so much about it and actually do something.

On a personal basis, the common ground is a focus on the "bottom line."  Both Bush and Obama were heavily motivated to install their solar panels because of the large amounts of money it would save; the cost of installation in the case of the White House, is expected to be saved back in five years.  The people in the Tulum area are also seeing, and being motivated by this benefit.

New Hostel for Mexico City - Restored Colonial Building Downtown

I'm a big fan of visiting Mexico City – I lived there for a year, and now that I'm away, I can't wait to go back to visit again. It has so many places to see, things to do, experiences to have – more than even a lifetime resident could even come close to discovering, I've been told.


I found a news article (in Spanish) about plans for a new international travellers hostel downtown. In addition to providing a new place for backpackers to stay while enjoying an incredible city, the article also states that "such investments contribute to recover one of the main public spaces of the capital," i.e. the original colonial city center.

The new hostel is located in the heart of this colonial city center, in a restored colonial building. It is located on the corner of the streets called "5 de Febrero" and "Regina." My wife, a native of Mexico City, says that Regina Street is an interesting street to see, because of the classic colonial building and is perfectly safe to take a nice walk down, but she says that many of the old buildings on the street have not been taken are leaning, have sagging roofs, etc. (details not mentioned in the article.)


The location of the hostel was probably purposely chosen to start revitalization of the area – a purpose I fully support. Mexico City's revitalization programs have turned the colonial downtown from a sketchy old ghetto with tonnes uncared-for old buildings, into a charming and beautiful colonial heart of a thriving city. Of course, not all parts of the colonial core have seen the benefits of these programs ...


According to the article, the colonial building for the hostel was renovated and redesigned for young Mexicans and foreigners, who will enjoy many high-quality services, such as internet connections (WiFi and PCs.) Prices are accessible. The name is "Hostal Centro Histórico Regina" (Historic Centre Hostel Regina) and it has 121 beds, with high ceilings and large windows and balconies. There are both private rooms or dorm rooms, as well as a café and city tours.


If you read Spanish, here's the original article – but like most Mexican news, 2/3 of the article is lists of names of important people (who probably don't matter to you) and empty political quotations from those same people at the ribbon-cutting ceremony; the other 1/3 is the info I picked out and translated above. But, in any case, here it is:
TV Radio Riviera, Noticias desde la Riviera Maya
Here's a link with some reviews:
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Hostel-Centro-Historico-Regina/Mexico-City/45200

My Mexico City Experience - Pulque

My experience from the drink called pulque is a direct result of the fact that I had a rather different introduction to Mexico City.

Tourists to Mexico City will see a number of the "usual" sites - the Zocalo (the main city square), the historic downtown, the pyramids of Teotihuacan, the Bellas Artes art gallery, and the canals at Xochimilco, with guided boat tours are a few examples of the most common, and are all very well worth the visit. However, as one friend of mine pointed out, two people could live their entire life in the city with almost no significant overlap in the places they know, things they see and communities they visit.  Mexico City is the second most populous metropolitan area in the world (after Tokyo) and I'm sure this is true of most of the world's mega cities.  I was fortunate enough to have the experience of being a part of 2 multi-day tours by two such people, whose lives in Mexico City had very little overlap.

Extracting the sap from an agave plant

One part of one of the tours (given by the same friend who made that observation) was my first experience with the drink called pulque. Pulque is an ancient drink made of the agave plant - the large, spiky plant that looks like a giant aloe vera.  It is slightly fermented, but not distilled. Tequila is made from another type of the same plant.  Pulque was made by the Aztecs and other tribes in the area.  Some people say it was a sacred drink.  One tequila-like liquor called mezcal, which has a stronger oak-like flavor, may have been made before the Spanish Conquest.  Tequila, in any case, was a distilled drink developed during colonial times, based on these original drinks.

The drink has a milky colour and varies in texture from as runny as milk to as thick as a milk shake.  It's flavor is rather sour, and can be a little harsh at first.  I was lucky enough to try in it in a place where they mixed it with fruit juices, making it much easier to drink.

The bar itself was an interesting experience.  My friend was quick to point out to me that Mexico City is generally not a good place to try pulque, which is produced at a better quality in the small towns in the surrounding areas.  But this bar was one of the few with good quality.  The bar was located on a small, stone-paved side road in a working class community in the south of city (I believe it was in the borough called Tlalpan), and there were only men inside, (and one cross-dresser who was raising a bit of ruckus between two groups of guests.)  The washroom was a trough at the back, sectioned off by a screen.  While I take pride in the fact that I don't shy away from most experiences, I have to admit that I may not have gone into the place if I hadn't been with this friend of mine.

Serving pulque into a clay cup

Since it was mixed with fruit juice, the pulque tasted good.  The texture took some getting used to since it was the thick kind, but I did fine with about two litres - or at least I thought I did.  What I didn't fully realize, despite my friend's warnings, was that the effects of pulque are delayed.  Two hours later my stomach was rumbling, and it felt like it was turning loops inside of me.  At this point we were back home, and I slept soundly for the next few hours!

The next time I had pulque was at my wedding.  My wife, who is Mexican, and was my other tour guide on my initial visit to Mexico City, has uncles who live in the surrounding towns and make their own pulque.  This time it was thinner with a milder flavor, but no fruit juice to go with it.  I definitely drank some, but less than two litres!

So, if you get a chance to visit a smaller community in the center in Mexico (or you have the fortune and the courage to visit a bar like I did - make sure you go with a friend who knows the place and knows its culture) I suggest trying pulque.  Don't expect to like it - at least not on the first cup full.  But finish it if you can, and I'm sure by then you'll be ready for the second cup.

To read about another traditional fermented Mexican drink, read:

Tepache - A Fermented Pineapple Drink

Raising Kids to be Bilingual

I have one son who is almost 3, and he is learning Spanish and English.  I had the fortune of working as an English teacher for adults for the first 3 and a half years that I was living in Mexico, and I asked a few more experienced (and better) English teachers for tips on teaching young children 2 languages.  The approach my wife and I chose was that one would speak only Spanish (my wife who is Mexican) and the other English (myself.)  Despite our best intentions, we've made a few careless mistakes:

• Teaching the wrong word first, because it seemed easier for him to say
• My wife taught him "meme" for "sleep" and I taught him "yum yum" for "eat"
• We are now paying for this, fighting uphill to convince him that those words are not correct
• He can say "sleep," "dormir," "eat," and "comer" but he has tended to stick with the first, wrong words we taught him ("yum, yum" has finally been replaced with "eat," but it took a good deal of persistence)

• Accepting Spanglish combinations instead of insisting on attempts at only one language
• This one's tough; we want to be praise him when he says new words, but after we let him get away with saying "yo eat" once, that's they way he always says "I want to eat" now, even though he's capable of saying this almost correctly in both English and Spanish

To make this all more fun, he throws in some of his own inventions; "bo, bo" means something is falling or hitting another object; "ow" means something is broken has come apart.  So, when he tells the neighbour "yo ball bo, bo. Bus ow," she just looks at us with a look on her face saying, "I know all of that means something, but I really have no idea what."  (Translation: "I threw the ball, which hit the [toy] bus and broke it.")  He likes to re-enact, so this helps at times.

Recently I've started the habit of saying "I don't understand 'agua'," cuing him to repeat the phrase saying "water" instead (and my wife the same in Spanish.)  Now and then, when he's being stubborn, I have to lead him into saying the English word like this:

• Me: Who says "agua"?     Son: Mom!
• Me: Who says "water"?   Son: Dad!
• Me: What does mom say?    Son: Agua.
• Me: What does dad say?    Son: Water.
• Me: So, what did you want?  Son: Water.

 I don't do this too often, since translating word for word is also a bad habit.  Sometimes he makes a game of it, giving the wrong answer, and getting a mischievous smile on his face.

He knows that when a question is in English, he answers "yeah" and when it's in Spanish he answers "si" (without hesitation or cues.) Little by little, he's getting the difference.  He has also started a bilingual pre-school which seems to be helping.  I suppose I should read more about this.

If you've got any suggestions, feel free to share.

2nd Generation Canadians born abroad are no longer officially Canadians

For any Canadians not living in Canada, this is important, if you have children in that other country; you will easily be able to obtain Canadian citizenship for your child.  However, if they have children down the road in another country, those grandchildren of yours will not automatically be Canadian citizens, like your children; they will have to go through the immigration process pretty much like any foreigner.

This may seem like a small, far-away issue now, but it's really important to keep this in mind, and tell your children when they are older, so they can at least make an informed decision about where to have their kids.

I've been living in Mexico for 4 years now, and I have 2 year old son who was born here, and another on the way.  Since the law was just changed recently, and people are already complaining about it, I hope that by the time my grand kids come around, someone will have changed it back to where 2nd generation Canadians born abroad will automatically be Canadian citizens.  But if not, I just hope I remember to tell my kids about it before they run into surprises 25 years from now.

Here's a story of someone who discovered this recently changed law, unfortunately the hard way.  He was born in Scotland, to Canadian parents, and lived most of his life in Canada, only to discover that his son recently born in Peru is not a Canadian citizen:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100926/national/canadian_son_citizenship_woes