You can come too!!!

So its been a while since we have updated this blog. We have been busy busy people. Our friend Ethan showed up for a visit so we took him to as many places as we could squeeze into 3 weeks. We are resourceful people so that was alot!

San Christobal de Las Cases - always great for the photos!

This picture is so uniquely Mexican. The beautiful, ornate church in the background and the beat-up VW bug in the front. Smoking the Hookah at the hostel in San Christy
found this guy INSIDE our house. He was escorted out very quickly.

Enjoying cuba libres on the beach at Barra Zacapulco

Liberating turtles under the cover of darkness Tasty, tasty Sol - ruining Ethan with handmade tortillas and giant plates of shrimp

I voted to leave him there but he escaped

Trav and Ethan rockin out as usual... Trav looking goofy with big hair
See all the fun we had?? You can come visit too!!

Has it really been a year?!

Well, it has been one year since we were officially married (we had 6 years practice before that) and alot of kick ass stuff has happened in that time. Different climate, different country, different language, different everything, except we are still rockin' together better than ever! I wonder what the next year will bring?, whatever it is we're up for it!

Top: 1 year on, Barra Zacapulco, MX

Bottom: Wedding Day, Blue Muscle Cabin, AK

Puerto Arista and Campamento Tortugera

Well, this last weekend saw us heading north up the coast a couple of hours to the town of Puerto Arista, Chiapas with a couple of friends. Our destination was the tortugera or turtle sanctuary there. We really didn't know what to expect, but we were in for an adventure. The The months of September, October and November is when the Olive Ridley turtles, or in spanish the Golfina sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. These beauties are about a meter to a meter and a half long and weigh about 60-80 pounds. They lay about 85 to 110 eggs in a small hole or nest they dig in the sand with their back flippers.

We cruised the beach with our friend Victor looking for their tracks up the beach. We counldn't mess with them while they dug this nest, but once they begin to actually lay the eggs they go into a bit of a trance and we were able to touch and measure them. Once done, we would take them off the nest, no small feet due to the fact that once you pick them up they begin to flap those big ol' flippers everywhere, and collect the eggs to be taken back to the tortugera and re-buried in a safe enclosure. The Tortugera keeps data on location, nests, amount of eggs and physical characteristics of the turtles and nests.

They have a huge poaching problem for the eggs (which are considered aphrodiasics - even through research shows that 1 turtle egg has the same cholestrol of 5 chicken eggs) , and we found several nests which had been robbed while we were out collecting. Also, while the turtles are in their egg-laying trance they are succeptible to maurading dogs and can be injured as we saw when we had to help patch one girl up on Sunday morning who had a rather large hole torn in her shoulder. Pinche Perros! She was able to be mended and released that day.

On Saturday we were able to help release the baby turtle that had hatched in the tortugera the night before. Hundreds of little baby turtles heading out to sea for the first time. It was incredibly nerve-wracking watching them descend down the beach and get swept up by the waves. They are just tiny, baby turtles and the waves are so big! In the water you could see their tiny heads poking up.

What an amazing expereince, some might even say magical.

releasing baby turtles

"be free - go to your home!"

5 beauties on the beach

oh and the sunset was pretty good too...

they are soo tiny and the waves are so big!

laying eggs

You can pet them while they are in the trance




Collecting eggs

Oh and there is an awsome beach there also

beach handstands

Our campsite in front of the Tortugero

Travis - Defender of Turtle Babies

Barra Zacapulco

We found a gem of a place. A stretch of endless beach sandwiched between a river and the Pacific ocean, seemingly undiscovered by the rest of the world. Barra Zacapulco is just a hop, skip and a jump from our front door. Actually it a collective ride and a lancha trip but its all the same in southern Mexico.

To ge to Barra Zacapulco take a lancha through the mangroves and down the river. this is barra Zacapulco from the river side.

The beach
Barra Zacapulco has cabanas, places to camp and spots just to sling a hammock for the night. There is one restaurant that serves fresh seafood, beers and handmade tortillas for cheap!

Where are YOU at????

Palmarcito, Chiapas

We went to Palmarcito to explore the mangroves, examine the shrimping industry there and look at the tourism potential. It was a beautiful day for a lancha trip and I thought you all would like some pictures ....

Them main dock in Palmarcito. Trav got pinched by a crab while noodlin' for some pupo - a local fish...

Cormorants taking to flight
Shrimp trap and a garza (stork)

Mangroves- the roots keep the main trunk out of the water. Provide lots of habitat for baby fish and shrimp. And tons of crabs.

Settlin' in

Whew! Its been a busy month. Between trying to find a place to live and my dance with Dengue Fever its been a bit of a wild ride. For those of you who didn't hear I have taken this Peace Corps expereince to a bit of the extreme. I contracted the tropical disease Dengue Fever from a mosquito bite. My fever spiked up to 105. It laid me out in a hospital bed for 4 days and I spent another 10 days recovering in a hotel room, with lingering stiff joints and a rash. There was a lot of TV watching and boredom. The disease makes you very restless but too sick to do anything. I was given the all clear by the doctors in Tuxtla and am back to normal. My experience in the Mexican hospital was great. It was very clean and the doctors and nurses were very nice, even with our limited spanish. Although like most hospitals the food left something to be desired.

But we have some really good news. Weare moved into a house in Acapetahua, Chiapas. Here is a map...

Our office

Acapetahua is a small town. About 10 square blocks and is considered pretty poor by Mexican standards. There is no grocery store, but a local mercado (market), there are 6 tortillarias (small tortilla factories), and a funeral/sports store combination. We have found people in town to be very nice and welcoming to us gringos.

Especially this guy...this is a pretty common site to see people on horseback in town. This picture is looking out our office at the main drag in town.

Here is a picture of the inside of our house. Before we painted. This is the "kitchen". This part used to be outside, they added a roof and 2 walls (using the outside wall of the house next door). And yes our walls are lime green.

Painting the kitchen, nice sturdy sink- good for standing on for those hard to reach places...

Our kitchen, with our new stove. The large blue tub is our kitchen sink. The stove was christened with her first pot of beans this weekend. They taste better cooked on our own stove and in our own house.

The sink works like this: you fill up the tub with water (non potable- you can't drink it) then using a bowl you scoop the water from the large tub to the basin on the side to wash your dishes.

Our potable (drinkable water) the blue jug on the top is for drinking and the jug on the bottom is for cooking. The jugs are 8 pesos ($0.80) each and are delivered to our door.

The view from the front of our house. We bought a slightly damaged futon for 1000 pesos ($100) but she sits nice and folds into a bed. (HINT HINT)...

The view from the back of the house.

After four months living in other people's houses and using other people stuff and living out of a suticase. Its nice to be able to cook for ourselves and walk around neked.