Oh Mexico....I've never really been but I'd sure like to go

On Tuesday I flew down to Mexico with Mom and Dad. We're here for my brother Mathew's wedding on Saturday and, as always, it has been an adventure. We arrived in Guadalajara in the afternoon and got to meet Mathew's fiance Meredith for the first time. Mom has spoken with her on the phone, but none of the rest of us are confident enough in our Spanish to even give that a try. It's funny, but I don't recall ever being so excited to see someone I have never even met or spoken too. But, Medi is a very special person in our family, I don't know precisely why - maybe just because we are all so happy to see Mathew so happy. Like me, we kind of all thought he would never get married.

Mark, Myshel and Max arrived Tuesday night and we had another giant renunion. No one in the family gets to see Max as much as we would like and of course, he's always the center of our universe.

Mathew arranged for us to stay in this old converted hacienda in the old colonial section of Guadalajara. Our room had 20 foot ceilings, beautiful Mexican tiles and a giant private veranda overlooking the hotel courtyard. The city is cool and reminds me a lot of Havana except that there are cars and you can actually buy things if you want to.





We spent just one day in Guadalara, then made a 2 hour trek to Colima where we had rented a house for the whole gang. Max loves Mexico and picks up Spanish so easily.


























Last night Mathew and I headed up to Troces, the tiny village where Meri lives to take care of a few last minute wedding arrangements. The village is up in the hills south of Colima not more than 70 or 80 kilometers, but a good part of it is dirt road which would be reasonably passable except that some American mining company trucks abused it during the rainy season and left giant ruts and holes everywhere. You can't drive much more than about 5 miles per hour on the dirt portion. The village is well worth the trip though. This morning for breakfast we had Starbucks on the range....the men get out and milk the cows...a little for the bucket, a little for their glass that has been prepared with a bit of sugar and sugar cane alcohol (to keep the unpasturized milk from upsetting the stomach ;-). Just the right amount of foam on top and surprising hot for having just come out of the cow! After a fresh glass of hot milk, the girls let me help with the tortilla making....big mistake of course, mine looked pitiful. But, it was great fun and corn tortillas with fresh home made queso makes a spectacularly fattening breakfast!

Here are two famous Mexican volcanos (can't remember their names). One is the most active volcano in Mexico. The cactus in the foreground are they ones the make tequila from. Did I mention, I'm the Madrina of tequila for the wedding ;-)