Hittin' the beach and Dia de los Muertos

Hi all, we figured "hey, we took off a few weeks, why not give you all a twofer this Sunday?"

Josh returned to Mexico in fine form and got right back into the swing of his tutoring schedule. He likes the students well and does a stellar job of schooling them in math and science (glad that I stick to Social Studies and Language!)

We couldn't resist another beach getaway, so last week we ventured to Pie de la Cuesta with friends again (unfortunately we forgot the camera so we won't be enlightening you with photos of paradise). Anyhow, we stayed at the same laid-back beach resort and spent the weekend sunning, swimming, reading, relaxing and noshing on seafood. This time, we tried a regional specialty called Huanchinango en ajo. I think it will definitely be a new beach favorite for us!

This weekend we started early with our celebration of Dia de los Muertos, which is tomorrow. I whipped up some Margarita flavored Jell-O shots and we headed to a school staff costume party. Josh masqueraded as a devil and I put on my best impersonation of a giraffe.

Tomorrow I hope to visit Ciudad Universtario where the city's most famous Dia de los Muertos altar will be on display. Every year organizers pick a famous person's life to celebrate and this year Mexico will pay tribute to Edgar Alan Poe. It's been neat to watch Mexico prepare for the holiday with flowers and ornaments.

We booked Thanksgiving plans today and it looks like we'll be celebrating with fish instead of turkey this year. We have the entire week of so we'll bus to Oaxaca City for a couple of days and then on to a couple of Oaxaca beach towns, including Huatulco and Mazunte. Saying that we're "pumped" is an understatement!

We hope each of you has a great week and thanks for keeping up with us in Mexico. We miss you mucho and think of you all often!

Paz,
Olivia

And...We're Back!

Wow! Apologies for abandoning our blog for a few weeks while we traveled to the U.S. and around Mexico. Thanks so much for checking back in with us!

We had a wonderful time in the U.S. where we celebrated the marriage of Josh's mom Donna and her husband Randy. It was a lovely wedding and we were thrilled to see family while we were home. It was a short three-day trip for me, though Josh was able to stay for 10 days and made it to Des Moines to visit friends. A HUGE thank you to our families for making our trip home so special. It was a whirlwind for me, but I don't remember ever being so happy to be home! We were also beyond excited to see the few friends that we could meet up with while we were back.



While Josh was gone, I took off for a weekend trip with a friend, Tina, to visit Malinalco, a small colonial village about two or three hours from the city. We arrived and settled into a little hotel and headed for Tina's favorite restaurant, which was serving a seasonal and regional specialty called Chile en Nogada -- a beef and dried fruit stuffed green chile smothered in a ground walnut cream sauce topped with pomegranate seeds (the colors of la bandera de Mexico - que rico!). The Chile in Nogada was all that Tina said it would be! We had a great evening of visiting outside in the lush courtyard in the ambiance of candle light, since we were without power for the night!

We spent Saturday venturing up the mountains to visit Aztec ruins and then passed through another nearby village that is known for its automobile blessing ceremonies (yep, car blessings -- who knew?!) complete with flower wreaths, buckets of holy water to wash the cars, dancing and music. We walked terrific markets and filled up on our fair share of Micheladas. Yum!



It was an awesome road trip, but nevertheless, I was extremely glad to have Josh home the next week after flying solo in Mexico!

Check our next post to read about our celebration of Dia de Los Muertos and our excitement about looking forward to Thanksgiving plans!

Again, sorry to leave you all (er, I mean our three readers) hanging for a few weeks. Hope you're all well and had a super Halloween!