The blog is everywhere now, in all the topics!

I have just updated over 500 pages I have written since 2004…

In the Most Recent Articles list just to your left of here, you can see (duh) the articles I have most recently put into this format. Right now those are whatever I happen to be working on, but when the conversion of the site is complete, that list will serve as a blog list for what is newest. You can also use the Archives, further down the page on the left side.

Why am I doing this webiste revision? To make the information more accessible. To offer my own perceptions and stories of Mexico in a time when it is receiving so much bad press — some of it deserved but certainly not all.

Basically, I am revising the site as a thank-you to the many Mexican people who have been so kind to my husband Kelly and to me. There is so much that is wonderful here in Mexico.

Rosana Hart, San Juan Cosala, June 2009

WHERE’S THE BLOG? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

We went back to Colorado for the summer in 2009, and ended up buying a cute little house from a long-time friend. We came back to Mexico and took lots of time to consider whether to keep our Mexican house as well. But ultimately, we both felt that a bi-locational lifestyle of half Mexico and half the US was not for us. We have 2 dogs and 2 cats, and we are very much into simple, sustainable living (link to my website on the topic).

So, with some considerable sadness but also with a sense that we’d made the best decision, we sold the Mexican house. We listed it with local realtors, showed it, took an offer, and closed on it, all in about three months! The new owner wasn’t coming to Lake Chapala right away, and by arrangement with her, we lived in the house for several months, till spring 2010. Then we made the long trek back to Colorado with our pets. I’m writing this now from Colorado.

Mexico in our Future

We both still love Mexico and the Mexican people, and we expect to continue our ties. We are thinking that we could have petsitters for a couple of months in the chilly deep winter in Colorado, fly down to Lake Chapala, and rent a place in Ajijic. We could explore other parts of Mexico too. We’ll see!

There’s a poem by Robert Frost we’ve thought of a lot. It begins,

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim…

Why Did We Sell Our Mexican House? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Arturo Garcia Bustos’s Murals Adorn the Walls of the Presidential Palace, Oaxaca, Mexico

Photographic Print

Gordon, Russell

Buy at AllPosters.com

Framed Mounted

A Mural by Arturo Garcia Busto is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

I recognize just about all the spots where they are singing.

Want more? Go to Youtube and type in Tallboys.

Somewhere in Mexico, a Fun Video is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Susana Valadez is an anthropologist who went to the Huichol region to do fieldwork. She ended up falling in love with one of the Huichol men she met. They married in 1978 and have three children.

As Susana discovered over time, the traditional ways were being encroached on. A fiesty, energetic, deeply caring woman, Susana founded the Huichol Center — that link takes you to its website. It is devoted to cultural preservation in many ways, but Susana also explores integrating non-traditional culture into the Huichol life as appropriate. For example, she has introduced the making of soymilk as an eco-friendly source of badly needed protein.

On her site is a really well-made program about the Center. It runs about 12 minutes. You will enjoy it the most if you press play, then pause and wait two minutes. This will allow the video to load and be played without any breaks or buffering.

We had time to chat a bit. I told her about the earthbag building that my husband Kelly and other local Americans and Canadians are doing at a school right near where we live, where a number of Huichol students are in residence. I also told her that I got a BA in Anthropology from Stanford and started my PhD at Berkeley, also in Anthropology, before the 60s overcame me and I said goodbye to academia.

Talking with her was kind of like talking with someone I could have become. I could imagine my life taking her path!

A funny thing about this blog post: I meant to write it for this blog but had it almost finished at my blog called Simple Green Living before I noticed where I was. (Both blogs are on the Wordpress platform and look virtually identical to work in. That’s my excuse.) Anyway, since that was such an out-of-character “error” for me to make, Iwent ahead and put it up there. And it got some good publicity! Ah, serendipity…

This project of hers does an incredible amount on not that much money. On Susana’s beautifully done website, there is a Paypal button. I clicked and made a small donation, and I encourage you to do the same. (Or a large donation!)

A Huichol Encounter is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

A couple of days ago, I just happened to have an experience that will probably remain a high point for me of this sort of thing. It didn’t even happen on a beach, but in our own yard, here by Lake Chapala. The weather lately has been heavenly. We are nearing the end of the rainy season, and we’ve been experiencing a delicious blend of cloudy, cool, or even rainy days and sunny days with the highs in the low 80s or so. Often Kelly checks the weather for where we came from in Colorado, and reports on how cold it will be that night. It’s been below freezing a lot there already. Gloat.

We usually enjoy a dip in our pool in the late afternoon. A couple of days ago, Kelly went back inside after his swim. I wasn’t ready to get out yet — I wanted to do more water aerobics, so I waved my limbs around energetically for a good while longer. What a perfect day it was. The water was 84 degrees, and I wondered how much longer our solar water heater on the roof of our house would boost the natural heating of the sun on the water. Usually there are several months during the winter when the water gets downright brisk, and we don’t swim. So I was grateful that it was still so nice. The sun was shining on the pool, and the air was warm too.

Reluctant to go inside, I stood up in the shallow kiddie part of the pool and began doing my Wild Goose Qigong, ancient Chinese movements not unlike the better know Tai Chi. Gradually there came over me a sense of tranquility, of being connected with everything around me. My stretches done, I slipped back into the water and decided to do a sort of meditation. I closed my eyes, let my breathing get slower, and enjoyed looking at the turquoises and golden tones I was seeing through my eyelids. I became quieter and quieter but not sleepy at all. Briefly I had a moment when “I” didn’t even seem to be there. If you have ever had this experience, you know how sweet this can be.

Eventually, I toweled off and went inside. The peacefulness lingered.

Late Afternoon Tropical Bliss is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Bernal, Queretaro, is a charming, upscale Mexican town about an hour from the lovely colonial city of Queretaro. A few foreigners live there, and we were among them for several months in 2005. But of the 5,000 or so inhabitants, fewer than two dozen were foreign… and we never met many of those! Our Spanish improved a lot while we were there.

Bernal is clean. It has a distinctly New Age flavor, which seems to have its roots also in the pre-Hispanic culture which is still strong in Mexico. For example, see my story of first going there and meeting Anna, in my page, The Magic of Bernal.

What makes Bernal so special is the mountain above it:

This mountain attracts rock climbers from all over the world, and is also the focal point of many tales about UFOs, crystals inside it, and more. Actually, my husband saw a UFO there, after attending an all-night temescal, or sweat lodge. See Kelly’s Hot Night Out.

Everyone told us we had to be there for the spring equinox, and we were once. We joined the pilgrimage up the mountain:

And we took part in the festivities and ceremonies on the plaza:

To find out more about this wonderful little town, just choose Bernal from the category list on the sidebar. It’s under PLACES > Queretaro > Bernal.

Bernal, Queretaro: Does This Fit Your Stereotypes of Mexico? is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Over several  months, my husband Kelly has been working with students at the nearby Ninos y Jovenes boarding school and with members of the Chapala Green group, along with other people who have turned up at times.

They’ve been creating a demonstration project for earthbag building, a method that Kelly used to build the house we had in Colorado. He and a friend of ours have a comprehensive website at: earthbagbuilding.com

Most of the students at this school are Huicholes, from poor rural areas, and the priest who runs this school was enthusiastic about the boys learning the method. The swine flu scare shut schools for weeks, and there have been some other events competing for the kids’ attention, but bit by bit the building is coming along:

To see all the pictures Kelly has put on flickr, go to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyhart/sets/72157617260502049/

There may well be photos there showing the project further along, as Kelly keeps updating that set.

The project has received good newspaper coverage. People are quite interested!

Kelly’s Earthbag Project Here is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

Problems with the Mail in Mexico

There are three main problems with having things mailed to you here: it can be very slow, things may disappear en route, and you might get charged duty which can be quite high.

Now some expats  have had pretty good luck with the Mexican mail system, but I don’t happen to be one of them. One example: a Christmas card from our daughter reached us just after Easter the first year we were here!

We eventually gave up our post office box in Ajijic.

One reason the mail can be so difficult is that Mexicans don’t use it much. Ordinary Mexicans in our town typically seem to go years between pieces of mail. Cellphones are ubiquitous, they pay their electric bills at the grocery store on the highway, their water bill once a year at City Hall, and I don’t know how they pay their phone bills, since we have never managed to get a regular phone ourselves.

I have heard from some other foreigners here that the mails are improving noticeably.

Fedex and other Delivery Systems

These are here, quite reliable, and priced high enough that you don’t want to order a ton of books from Amazon this way. We have sent and received important papers with Fedex just fine… we didn’t try to have them come to our hard-to-find house, so I don’t know if they do. We used a local Fedex office.

Mailboxes in Texas

Here in the Lake Chapala area, there are some choices that aren’t available in places with few expats. I’m sure this is true in San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, and other expat favorite spots. Various companies in our area have arrangements with companies in Texas — I don’t know if they use Mailboxes Etc. or what — and the mail is brought down regularly. I’ve certainly heard complaints about this but by and large it seems to work pretty well.

A Word About Customs

Until the presidential term of Vicente Fox a few years ago, books could come into Mexico duty-free. Then his administration put duty charges on books, but whether or not it will be charged is variable. It’s supposed to be a fairly low rate but I do know someone who absolutely needed a professional book for her online business and she got socked with customs roughly equal to the hundred bucks or so that the book cost.

Most medicines are here and cheap but sometimes people need meds from north of the border and if they come by mail or courier, there may be some customs. I don’t know how much.

So What Do We Do?

Living in an area with thousands of expats and snowbirds really helps. We bring things down for each other, and  we take tax forms, birthday presents, and other things to be mailed up north when we go.

I for one have been surprised at how easily I have adapted to not having the mails in my everyday life. I *do* miss easy access to Amazon.com and my favorite vitamins and supplements. But with Mexico’s second-largest city nearby, over time we have found sources for many things here.

The Mail in Mexico is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico

One day, as a friend and I were walking to Viva Mexico, she said she didn’t exactly care what else she had to eat — everything on the menu is good — but she did have a craving for guacamole. So when we got there, she made sure she had some, and she was a happy camper. I had some as part of my fajitas plate, and it was great.

I often make guacamole at home. I am a casual cook, and here is how I do it. As you will see, measuring does not come naturally to me.

1. Grab all the avacados in the fridge or on the shelf that are getting soft. (We planted an avacado tree two years ago, so pretty soon I can amend that to include checking the tree… and under it!)

2. Pull out some garlic, at least one tomato, a lemon or lime, and some salt. If you have cilantro, that’s really good too. If you don’t have a lemon or lime, some nice vinegar could be used. Salsa, cayenne powder, or a hot pepper could be used too.

3. Peel  and pit the avacados and put them in a bowl. I like to use a relatively shallow one, as it’s easier to mash the avacado. Mash it. Lumps are fine; this is not a cake.

4. Cut up the fresh garlic into tiny pieces. Decide how much tomato you want to add, and cut that up fine as well. Add these things to the bowl. Add a LITTLE lemon or lime juice (or vinegar), and a pinch of salt. If you have cilantro, pull leaves off the stems directly into the bowl. Add some heat (if you like it) one way or another — Kelly makes homemade salsa in our bread machine, so I usually use a tad of that.

5. Mix it all up and taste. More lime juice etc. can be added, or more salt.

6. When it’s perfect, you can chill it in the refrigerator for a little while, but usually I make it just before dinner or just before guests arrive.

7. Americans seem to be used to eating it with chips, but it is also good as a small dollop on a plate. It’s commonly served that way in restaurants here, often with a small chip sticking out of it. At home, I like to use carrot sticks, bell peppers, or other veggies to scoop with.

Readers, how do you make guacamole?

Making Guacamole is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico