Day of the Dead

Last night Ivan, Carolina, Wolfgang and I went to see the Day of the Dead exhibit en the Zocalo. It was super cool and below are many photos.

Clausurado Por Violar La Ley

If a business here violates the law and is shut down either for a short period of time or permanently, the government makes sure everyone knows by plastering signs all over the building. I think it is pretty funny.

Parres to Tepoztlan

This past Sunday Lenny and I decided that having a lot of friends that mtn bike is never a bad thing. So, we headed out for our first group ride. It is a point to point ride starting in Parres, a small mountain time just on the outskirts of Mexico City, to Tepoztlan, a lush beautiful town in a valley south of Mexico City. Miguel, the head of the Mexico City mountain bike league, invited Lenny and I. His email said that we would meet at 8:30am and he would not wait for more than 30 minutes before leaving. Being the on time gringos we are, Lenny and I arrived just before 8:30 at Parres, changed into our biking gear, and headed to the meeting point . . . but no one from our group was there. And they weren't there at 9am either. Finally, at 9:30am they show up. We should have know this would happen because in Mexico being on time means being an hour late. Once all 20 of us got organized and I could no longer feel my feet nor fingers and was shivering like crazy from waiting for over an hour in 40 degree fog, we started riding. The first part of the ride was through an ecological reserve. We couldn't exactly see where we were going because of the fog, but it was still beautiful. We rode through some serious black mud.Lenny.
Me.
The second part of the ride was through some beautiful fields and
forests.

The last part was a 20 km descent on an EXTREMELY rocky road. My forearms are hurting from breaking. I don't have any pictures of the end of the ride unfortunately. The Tepoztlan valley is just beautiful. The total distance of the ride was 47 km but it took us probably 5 hours to ride it. Just think of doing a large group ride in the US and then adding in the Mexican cultural factor.

During the ride Lenny and I learned that there was no way to get back to Parres using public transportation. We had already been gone for over 8 hours and poor Endo was home alone, stuck in my apartment. We hired a taxi and paid him 400 pesos (about $32) to drive us an hour back to Parres (I guess we paid him way too much money, but I thought it was well worth it). We grabbed a quick sandwich to hold us over and headed home. Things we learned: never believe that people will actually show up on time, group rides take a lot of time, there is some great mtn biking that we have yet to explore, I need to visit Tepoztlan not in my chamois, and Endo doesn't like it when he is left home alone for 10 hours. Overall, a fun adventure and it was so nice to spend a day not in the city.

Campeón Metropolitano

A couple weekends ago was the final race in the Mexico City metropolitan mtn bike league. The course was by far the most difficult and the decent was insane. Nonetheless I ended up getting second place for the day and winning the league for my category. I must admit, the racing is not nearly the level of Colorado mtn biking, but its pretty darn cool to say that I am champion of the Mexico City metropolitan mtn bike league. Thanks to Sue for taking the photos below. I believe at some point I might even get a video of pre- and post-race interview she did. I'll post the interviews when I get them.
For second place I won a medal and a very pretty bouquet of flowers and
1,000 pesos, about $100!!!
I won this really cool jersey for winning the league.

VOTE!!!

To all my blog readers, VOTE. I just sent in my write-in ballot today because my official ballot never arrived. My philosophy is that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about anything related to politics, which is everything. I will also let all my fellow blog readers know that I endorse Barack Obama (and my endorsement should have a VERY LARGE influence on my blog readers!) If there is one apparent executive decision the candidates have already made, its choosing their VP. For someone who strongly believes that climate change is man made and has been an advocate in the senate to support policies related to climate change, it is unthinkable to pick a running mate that doesn't believe that climate change in man made. Climate change is not just an environmental issue, its a national security issue, its an immigration issue, its an energy issue, its an education issue, and its a human rights issue. I am sorry McCain, but when you address "My friends," I know you are no longer speaking to me. My friend would not have picked a VP that does not believe in my friend's core values.

Playing International Monopoly

Way back in August when the world was in a different economic situation, I blogged about how the dollar kept dropping in value to the Mexican peso. I believe at the time it was 9.97 pesos to the dollar. Well, since the economic fall out, I have become rich! A few days ago, the exchange rate was almost 15 pesos to the dollar! The exchange rate has settled a little bit and today its 12 something pesos to the dollar. The ups and downs of playing international monopoly (or the US stock market).

Vamos a Votar Por Obama

Makin' Tamales

This past Saturday, it was all about makin' tamales. We started the project at 10am buying all the necessary ingredients at the market. The next couple hours were spent braising chicken and pork, making two types of mole (green and poblano), and mixing the masa (cornmeal and lard).
Here is Hector workin' the 3.5 lbs of lard. You have to get the lard to a certain consistency before adding the cornmeal.
Daniel was at the stove the entire morning braising the meat, whippin' up the moles, and making atole.
Barby and Daniela testing the masa. The masa was divided into two part, one for sweet tamales and one for salted tamales.The next step was stuffing the dried corn husk with the masa and what ever else you wanted to add, i.e. meet, mole, peppers and cheese, chocolate chips, dried fruit, carmel, etc.. Tania and I learning the tricks of the trade.
Preparing the pot to steam the tamales.
Ofelia and Armando testing to see if the tamales are done after they had been steaming over a charcoal fire for more than 3 hours.
Finally at 9:30 pm the tamales were ready for us to enjoy and hmm they were good.

Indian Summer

I have been spending my evenings hanging out on my roof deck because the weather in Mexico City has been beautiful the past few days. I believe the rainy season has come to an end and fall is in the air. Its chilly in the morning, about 50˚, but warms up nicely to just around 70˚ during the day. The sky is cloudless and blue, minus the pollution haze that is.
But I say cheers to the sun returning. It sure puts me in a good mood to see the sun. I guess I am a Colorado girl at heart and require many days of sun a year to function well.

CHUPA CABRAS!!!

Hector, Barby, Daniel, and I hit up Chupa Cabras for some yummy tacos on Saturday night. I can't believe it took me almost 8 months to try one of these tacos, they are so yummy!!