Eco Tianguis

A few months ago, I read the tiniest blurb in the newspaper about an "eco-tianguis", taking place that Saturday.  Tianguis is a Nahuatl (language of the Aztecs) word for market, and the "eco" added to the front implied that they would be selling all things local and organic.  I was intrigued, so when I found out where it was and that is was to be an ongoing event, I had to check it out!

They do have any number of local craft people, jewelers (of the hippie style, of course!), baked goods, natural cleaning/pest remidies, honey suppliers, etc.  But only ONE produce stand.  A bit disappointed.  And, when I asked it seems that their produce mostly comes from Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, just like the Central de Abastos, where every other independent fruit/vegetable seller in town gets their vegetables from. 

However, they do sell mamey.  And starfruit.  And lychees.  And guanabana.  (Not all the same week.)  We have never seen these fruits in this part of the country!  So I can even talk Mario into going to the big hippie market, just so he can get his mamey fix.  Furthermore, their prices are very competitive with conventionally grown produce sold anywhere in town.  Considering that these fruits and veggies are supposed to be organic, I'm sold. 

The Eco-Tianguis is held every Saturday between 10-6 right in front of Avemed, just behind the Chrysler dealership on the north side of the Periferico Luis Echevarria.

IT'S RAINING!

Hearing the noise on the roof, I paused for a moment and asked myself, "What is that noise?" 

Yeah, baby--it's RAIN! 

While it rained with surprising frequency all winter and spring, lately it's been clear that we're still deep into the worst drought in 70 years.  We held our breath when we heard that there was a storm going through the Gulf--would it come here?

After a few days (and just a little spitting yesterday), I gave up hoping we'd see rain and just hoped that somewhere else, also desperately in need of rain, would get it.

But it looks like we're getting lucky today.

And I'm taking it as a good omen.  (Which, I realize, is probably grasping at straws.)  Today is Election Day in Mexico. They're electing a new president.  Like most elections anywhere, this one is a matter of choosing between the lesser of four evils (Four candidates.)  And let me tell you, I'm glad I can't vote here, because after months of campaigning and listening to three debates, I still have no idea who the lesser of these evils would be.  They're all scary in their own way.

But I'll take this rain as a sign that the "best" candidate will win.

Or maybe I'm just happy we have rain.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.   

Ruta Recreativa

On Sunday morning when Joey crashed after mass and Mario immersed himself in the newspaper, I thought to myself, "what will Clara and I do for the two hours that the boys are lost to us?"

Solution:  Ruta Recreativa!

What is the Ruta Recreativa?  About two years ago, the mayor blocked off some of the major streets of Saltillo on Sundays between 8am and 1pm.  Saltillenses can take their bikes and ride up though town, fear-free.  Or, of course, we can walk our dogs, skateboard, train for the half-marathon (which also took place yesterday) or just walk down the middle of the city's major streets, traffic-free.

When he introduced this idea, I didn't think it was going to last.  Or take off.  But it has!

Now, Clara and I did go downtown between the hours of 11 and 1 . . . not my best idea on a June day in Saltillo.  But it wasn't too bad.

And much to Clara's delight, the city provided free brincolines at both the Alameda and the Plaza de Tres Culturas (on the other end of Guadalupe Victoria). Ever since Children's Day (April 30th) when our chuch rented bounce houses, she's been asking almost incessantly to find more brincolines.  I'm thrilled that we now have a weekly outlet to enhance her need to jump. 

And if that's not enough, DIF had some face-painting stations and a few Twister games set up for people to play.

It was quieter than I expected, but we had a good time.  We'll be back.

At 10:30 on Sundays there's a Zumba class right in front of the library in the Alameda!

They close off Venustiano Carranza all the way to the Plaza de Armas (and the street is then named Allende).  Guadalupe Victoria is also closed off). So one could bike from Liverpool to the Alameda every Sunday morning without fighting traffic!

Guadalupe Victoria, looking towards the Alameda. 

It is kind of fun to strut down the middle of the street.

My non-jardin garden

My house, like most houses in Mexico (except in rural areas, of course) has a distinct lack of green space.  We know that we are very blessed to have both a patio and cochera (roofless garage) of fairly ample size.  But we do need some green in our life.  And since I like growing plants and Mario likes to buy them, we've had some very pleasant container gardens over the last 5 years. 

And this is the first time that I've documented one! 

My calla lily (or alcatraz), given to us by friends of Patty's.

My pot of Jojutla--menthol and wandering jew that I stole from my mother-in-law's garden.

My gardenia--I bought it at the fair for San Jose Day, and I'm shocked that it's not only surviving, but thriving.  Everything that we put in the cochera usually dies.

My veteran bouganvillea.  Again, everything that we put in the cochera has never lasted more than a season.  Except for this guy!  You go, bouganvillea!

My awesome tomato plant--first time growing tomatoes!  Plus a volunteer moss rose and another calla lily in the background. That lily is a lot happier, as this is the patio garden, which gets a lot less sun and is easier to remember to water them. 

We'll see what's still alive at the end of the summer. ;)

Where did THAT come from?

During our day of wandering Cholula and reminiscing, we (or maybe I) kept pretending that we were thinking seriously about moving back there.  Truth be told, if Volkswagen were to call Mario and offer him even a moderately interesting job, I'm quite sure he'd jump at the opportunity.  After working elsewhere, we're realizing that VW was a marvelous company to work for. 

Anyway, while I was doing all my pretending about moving back, I was mid-thought, thinking how nice it would be to be near the zocalo, as they now have a (very) small playground when a voice in my head interrupted me out of nowhere, saying, "but Cholula is so far from Texas." 

Where did THAT come from? 

For almost as long as I can remember, or was aware of the Great State of Texas, I have nursed a huge grudge against the entire state.  Why?  That's a little vague.  Maybe because it's so stinkin' big.  And Texans are famous for being very proud of their very big state.  I think in my mind I equated Texan pride with arrogance (despite not knowing any Texans) and I just wanted to avoid the entire state like the plague. 

Then I moved to Coahuila, which shares a pretty extensive border with Texas.  In fact, once upon a time (during the colonial era, I believe) Texas and Coahuila were one enormous state called, rather uncreatively, Texas-Coahuila.  And slowly but surely, Texas grew on me.  Like the suave southerner it is, it wooed me oh-so-gently.  Now, after just three years in close proximity, I can honestly say that I like Texas. 

I never thought those words would pass my lips. 

But do I like it so much that the thought of being 10 hours away from the border would give me pause to consider moving back to central Mexico?  Apparently so. 

Who'd have thought? 

Destination: Cholula

Thirteen years later, still taking the same pictures in the same places.

 A few weeks ago, we took the fastest visit ever to Mexico City took a side trip to Cholula, just outside of Puebla (2-3 hours from Mexico City).  Way back in 1999, when I came to Mexico for the very first time, Cholula was home for 4 months.  When I spent two years in Morelos, I came to Cholula every other weekend to visit Mario, making it home again.  This town has a very special place in my heart, and walking around made me feel like I was home again.

The view from the zocalo.

As we drove into town, we drove behind the University de las Americas (where Mario studied and I spent my study-abroad semester).  Our mouths hung open as we drove past bar after swanky club after posh bar--it was like the strip at Acapulco without the beach!  Mercifully, once we got out of spitting range of the UDLA, it became evident that Cholula was still sleepy, loveable Cholula.

The Capilla Real--49 domes!  One of my favorite churches in Mexico.

Mario lived for 11 years, two blocks from the zocalo and that was just about where we parked.  We had tacos arabes at Tacos Robert (I was also craving a cemita and contemplating getting both a cemita AND the tacos, but they were out of cheese.  What's a cemita without cheese?  OK, it'd be a big, huge drippy sandwich--without cheese.  No thanks).  After that we wandered the zocalo, and visited our favorite chapel Cholula is said to boast 365 churches (as the Spanish built a church over Aztec pyramids and Cholula was a huge center of worship for the Aztecs).  In reality, there are something like 200+ churches in little Cholula.

Front door to the main church.

Popo (the volcano) was putting on a good show!

Love the contrasts!

My boys in front of the Capilla Real (please correct me if I've got the name wrong!)

We had ice cream and people-watched on a bench in the zocalo.  Then we noticed that they were setting up for a concert in the kiosko in the center of the zocalo, so we stayed to listen (Mario will do ANYTHING to drive into Mexico City as late as possible to avoid the traffic--the concert was a great excuse).  And a highlight was that they played the William Tell Overture, so I could bounce Joey on my knee with accompaniment other than my own humming.  I think I enjoyed it more than he did.

There are three huge, enormously old trees in the courtyard.  Waaaay back in the day, the Indians weren't allowed inside the churches, so mass was held outside for them  Passing these trees I always think about the countless people who spent hours sitting under these trees, nearly 500 years ago.  Oh, the stories the trees could tell!

I had always wanted to hear a concert in the bandstand. This visit, dreams came true!

What a great day!  We felt that we were literally walking down memory lane.       

All About Diapers (Really. Sorry about that.)

Earlier this year, we found our new favorite store.  OK, that's an exaggeration, but I'm so excited that they opened up shop.  And the proprietors are pretty excited that we're regular customers.

It is . . . (dum, dum, dum) . . . a store that sells nothing but diapers and toilet paper, mostly in BULK!  Yes, this really does top the list of excitement when you've got two kids in diapers.  So the other day, I stocked up again on 10 kilos of diapers (5 kilos for each kid).  Let me tell you, that's a lot of diapers. I've got half of them put away and the other half . . . well, we just don't have room for them!  Currently, they're sitting behind the door in the kids' room, where they'll likely stay until Mario gets tired of seeing them there and finds a creative solution for the storage problem.  I can always count on him for that.

Clara with a mere 3 kilos of diapers

To prove how awesome the Diaper Distributor is, let me spell out the savings.  I counted out the huge bag of diapers, and 5 kilos of size 5 diapers is 138 diapers.  I paid 315 pesos for those diapers.  A conventional bag of diapers contains 38 diapers and costs, on a good day, 115 pesos.

         38 diapers = $115
       138 diapers = $315

When doing some rounding in my head, I figured that that's like getting 3 packages for the price of 2 (a deal that Soriana used to do fairly frequently, but it's been awhile since I've seen that advertised).

And using the calculator for exact figures, one conventionally packaged diaper costs almost exactly 3       pesos.  One diaper bought in bulk costs 2 pesos.  (OK, it's not as dramatic a discount as I was hoping.)  But, over the course of hundreds of diapers, that adds up.

Plus, it's pretty sweet to only have to buy diapers once every couple of months instead of once every two weeks.

It turned out to be a good idea to individually count out the diapers, as they come all smashed up and folded funny.  Mario used to work in a diaper factory and 30% of the diapers made there were unfit to be sold and had to be thrown out.

No kidding.  30% straight to the trash.

There is a debate that rages whether cloth diapers really are better for the environment than disposable.  To my way of thinking, it's a no-brainer that cloth diapers are better.  However, it turns out that in comparison to the total amount of trash that chokes up landfills, disposable diapers are a very small percentage of the total trash generated.  And, disposable diaper champions also claim that the water used in washing diapers at home is wasteful in itself.   

However these arguments fail to consider the industrial costs of producing each diaper.  There is a certain amount of water necessary to produce each disposable diaper (putting it close to on par with washing cloth diapers?).  And then fact that one out of every three diapers has to be thrown out!  Yikes!

Wow, that was quite the tangent that I didn't mean to go down!

Anyway, I'm guessing that my cheaper, smashed up and funnily-folded diapers are the irregular ones that they couldn't sell at full price but are salvageable for selling in bulk.  In our last 5 kilo bag for Joe, there were about 30 that were missing the fastening tabs.  Fortunately, those who run the diaper store want to keep their customers and therefore are happy to exchange those 30 for diapers with tabs.  And, if Joe grows out of his size 3s before we run out of diapers, they're also happy to exchange whatever we would have left over for the next size.  Awesome.  

But do you know what the really, really cool part of the Diaper Distributor is?

It's right next to a bulk candy store.  And they sell dehydrated strawberries.

Such a shame that we buy so many diapers in one shot that we only go there every 3 months or so.

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Where is the Diaper Distributor?

In Saltillo, on the south side of the Periferico, almost directly across the street from Soriana Lourdes.