Flowers in Dry Season

There's a similar tree to this, with magenta pink flowers, in front of the church in Jalatlaco. This one with white flowers struck me as so unusual.

Un Mil Palabras

Eventually I will have time to write about our trip last weekend to go hiking in the Sierra Norte mountains. In 50-odd hours, we had enough crazy adventures to write many blog posts about. In the meantime, this photo will have to suffice.

Flowers Everywhere

I don't think it was the few drops of rain, but with the arrival of February, more and more trees are blooming. Not only are the purple, white, yellow and pink displays beautiful on their own, but the hummingbirds are having a feast.

I watch this one from where I work during the day, and it often has 10 to 15 hummingbirds at a time dipping into the flowers for nectar. It's quite a show.

Smells of Oaxaca

Elliott is very attuned to his sense of smell. He asks what odors are a lot (and there are a lot of them in Mexico), and he says aloud if something smells good or bad. He'll often say "I smell [insert person's name]" when he passes by their house or a place that has a fragrance he associates with them.

When we arrived in Hierve El Agua on Sunday, we stepped off the flatbed truck, walked a hundred feet on the dirt, and started down the path to the springs. Elliott cried out, "Mommy, what is that smell? It smells so good here. I like it!"

I knew the aroma - from my youth. It's probably been three decades since I smelled it. It was the unmistakable olfactory experience of the high Sierras - air so fresh that it carries the faintest whiff of pine resin from a single tree a hundred feet away and the rising warmth from the sun-baked earth.

"That's the smell of nature, my love. And I'm sorry you've never smelled it before."

[Insert onslaught of modern, hippy parental guilt here.]

The Pyramid Next Door

Last weekend, we traveled to El Mogote, because we thought E would enjoy an archeological site. At first it seemed the little community museum would disappoint, but we surveyed the 3-d map of the area and determined that the mount, ie pyramid, was just behind the building we were in. We walked past the church, guys playing on the basketball court, up a dirt alley, past the elementary school, said hi to some chickens and a horse, and climbed up a 2,000 year old mound. It had a stunning view of the valley, and E was exhilarated, running around shouting that he was "king of the world." It is the only one of the 8 mounds that has been restored, but that doesn't seem to stop it from being pasture for various animals. It was covered with all variety of manure.

A Bugs Life

For a few days last week, this guy was living on a plant just outside our apartment door. We just noticed him one evening and he didn't seem to move at all for several days. But then he disappeared as quickly as he showed up.

La Montaña

Every street you look down, you see a pristine beautiful mountain. This is the northern mountain from the zocalo, framed by the cathedral.

Poinsettias everywhere

I knew these plants were native to Mexico, and they are decorating everything from the zocalo to the churches to the lampposts. Here are the poinsettia trees in the garden of our apartment - as tall as the buildings!

First Morning in Oaxaca

After a brutal trip from DF, we arrived late at night. All we wanted was sleep, but it was hard not to feel that our traditional Mexican apartment looked terrible under harsh neon.

The next morning, I opened the curtains to see these flowers, tops of trees, and a mountain beyond. A hummingbird flitted in, and I knew it would all be okay. They visit these flowers all day long.