Up in the North Country!

Well, due to some dodgy circumstances and our proximity to the border, we decided to head north for security reasons. It was a bit of an upheaval, but really it went smoother than we thought. Of course everything happened in about 4 days time, the selling of some of our stuff, shipping of the rest and finishing up at work, but our neighbors helped us out and all was accomplished.

We took Lola with us of course, which proved to be a lot easier than we thought. Here I am taking her for a walk before we boarded our flight in Tapachula, we got a few strange looks as you can imagine. She went into the cargo hold and was riding around in circles on the baggage carousel when we arrived in Mexico City, looking a little freaked out I might add. Then it was under the bus for a three hour to Queretaro. All in all, se did really well, she could have been a lot worse.

So we are now located in the State of Guanajuato in central Mexico, in the towm of San Luis de la Paz. It is quite a bit bigger, about 60,000 people, than Acapetahua and much nicer. The people are friendly, the weather is cooler and the terrain and plant life sem-desert and dry. We are working with the newest Reserve in Mexico, La Reserva de la Biosfera Sierra Gorda de Guanajato, which is only one year old. Not to be confused with the Sierra Gorda Reserve on the Queretaro side, which is not as good as ours (what do you think of that Ben & Buffy, haha)

It is a great place and the staff are as nice and helpful as they come, plus they are local guys, so they really care about the reserve.

Jackie in our new office, notice she is not surronded by gas cans, bikes, or old tires...and there are enough chairs for both of us! The town is nice, with palzas and a large park used for exercising and making out.

Jackie out in the park, a place called Charco Azul. We are still exploring the park and the town, we will post more photos of all the cool places as we get them. Until next time. Jackie and Travis

Our best bro Joel!!!

Well it has been a little while and lots have happened. One great thing was the visit of our best mate Joel. It is always a great time when we get together and this trip was no different.

It started out in typical style when Joel's flight down to Chiapas was cancelled, actually I think they told him it never existed! So he had to wait 8 hours in the Mexico City airport while we waited in the Tapachula bus terminal. We decided to just head straight down to Guatemala that night and as our departure time neared and we still had not seen Joel, we began to get worried, luckily he showed just as we were starting to get harrassed by a crazy at the terminal and just before the bus left.

We rocked the overnight bus down to Guatemala City and were in Antigua for breakfast. We headed up to our favorite haunt, The Earth Lodge to hang out, eat, drink and be merry, which we did with ease. We got into some illegal mezcal, played with the donkey, ran a muck and met the biggest Canadian liar ever.(By the way, we don't believe a fucking word you said Jeff)

Here Jackie and Joel enjoy the view from the Earth Lodge

We did lots of swinging on this baby, often later in the evening when we really shouldn't have been, if you catch my drift. Good stuff.

We also made it up to San Cristobal, when we got back to Chiapas. As usual we got into plenty of good times there, like closing down the bar Los Amigos (a must visit in San Cristobal), Joel dancing with the surgeon, mariachi tunes, tequila boom-booms, digaridoo music in Mexico (Joel's favorite, haha) and the soon to be divorced Austrian who hooked us up, thanks bro. Not to mention the greatest sunset and beach fire ever at Barra Zacapulco.

Anyway, it was a great time and the good thing is we get to do it again soon in Cozumel. Just before Christmas if anyone is keen.

I leave you with a gratuitous butt scoot from Whitey, top dog!

Abrazos de Jackie and Travis