Taxco (Tass-Ko), Guerrero

During Christmas we were given some time off since he office was closed during the holidays. Well we are not ones to skip an opportunity, to we headed out to some of the places we wanted to see or had been recommended to us by friends.

Taxco is about 3 hours from Mexico City in the State of Guerrero. Its a very charming colonial city, and like many colonial cities they paint all the buildings the same colors. Taxco is famous for its silver and there are lots of artists that live there and make silver jewlery.

The big church in town, where all the action is.

The interior of the church had walls covered in statues and gold leaf. Speaking personally, I think the baby faces are a little creepy...

We hiked up to an overlook ofthe city and got lost in its small passageways and tiny streets. We found several shrines along the way...

Trav overlooking Taxco

Taxco from above.

The Jesus statue that looks over the town

A couple of pictures from home

Our kitchen
Travis and our sassy kitty Lola. this is what he does when he thinks no one is looking....

El Platanal

Mountains ofthe Sierra Gorda Guanajuato

Further into the reserve is the community of El Platanal, recognized as one of the most marginalized community in Mexico. They have only had electricty for 3 years! To get to El Platanal we had go up and over these mountains on the dirt road in the top righthand corner of this picture.

We then had to drive several more hours along a river bed to reach El Platanal ecotourism site. Just as we were beginning to think "Is this worth it...?" We arrived.

And it was totally worth it. The Community of El Platanal has a large cabin available for rent and are building two smaller cabins. They also offer camping on the beach of the river. To get to El Platanal you can hire a guide and a burro to hike your stuff into the canyon.

Here I am with Chava, cool guy and all around good friend, we work with him. He is known as "Lenny Kravitz of the Sierra". Must be the hair.

Making friends with the locals.

Vergel

Vergel
Razorbacks in the Sierra Gorda Guanajuato (Gwan-na-hwa-toe). Can't you just picture Clint Eastwood cruising down one of these?

Wow It has been a while since we posted anything. We have been settled in to our new place for 3 months and things couln't be better. We work for the coolest office in CONANP and for the coolest boss, probably coolest in the world. We are having a great time out here in cowboy country and working on some really great projects.
One of our main projects is working with the monitoring department to create habitat for and protect a species of Axolotls (Ah-ho-lo-til) which is a special species of salamander. we are currently in the process of identifying the species. Once identified, we will rebuild its habitat and create an informal education program on site to teach people aboutthe importance of conserving species.
Another project we are working on is helping the small, marginalized communities promote and enhance their ecotourism activities. Many of the peopel who have tourism operations ahve never left their area. We have one project in a community of about 200 peopel called Vergel (Ver-hell). Which is lead by a very charasmatic Dona Lupe. Who is actually divorced and living with her new boyfriend (divorce in small-town Mexico is virtually unheard of and a good way to become a pariah - and her ex-husband has to get food from her store - the only one in town!)
Here we are following Harold on one of the guided hikes offered by the community. He pointed out several medicinal plants all of which are good for your kidneys. Actually almost every medicinal plant I have found, when made into a tea is good for your kidneys. My theory is that when you drink a lot of tea, its the water that benefits you more than the tea actually does.
We wound our way through the forest and came up into a passageway in the rocks onto a rock outcropping called "La Ventana" (the window).

Another guded hike offered by Vergel is to the "Puente de Dios" (The Bridge of God). a really spectactular rock formation.

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

Union Juarez and the Pico de Loro

We finally got a chance to get out of the steam bath that is Acapetahua and headed up to the Sonusco range. This area is famous because it is where Starbucks and the other coffee conglomerates grow their coffee. The thing about coffee counrty is that it is higher in atlitude and there are tons of plants so it makes for somereally nice hiking.
Towering above the Sonusco range is Volcan Tacana and the Pico de Loro (the Parrots beak). We hiked up to the Pico de Loro (about 5 k from the road.

Enjoying the view and the sun at the top of the Pico de Loro

The Pico de Loro

Looking back toward Volcan Tacana

The villiage of Monteperla, we trekked through it on our way to the Pico de Loro. Just a valley over is the border between Mexico and Guatemala.

Volcan Tacana

Coffee on the tree not quite ready to be picked.

We make every effort to try regional dishes and local food when we are in a new place so we couldn't pass up the Parrillada. A gut busting, heart stopping plate of sizzling meat served on its very own grill. Plus all of the sides, tortillas, beans, chees, sour cream, salsa and jalapenos. We know there are a few of you out there that would appreciate a fine dish such as this one.

I could still see and breathe at this point.

She took me down the Parrillada. She took me down. But worth all of the pain.