Home Grown

It was so great to spend almost a month during the holiday season with my family. It had been a really long time since I had been with them for that long. Also, it's always nice to stuff myself with some home cooked comfort foods. At the beginning of January my family drove me to the airport in Salt Lake to see me off on my next big adventure... South America. I had to make a stop or two on the way though.

First was the biggest city in the world, the chief, Mexico City. When I got there Arturo was there waiting for me. We caught the metro to a cheap hotel where we always stay near the center and ate some - can you guess? - tacos! Always a favorite. Our flight to Peru was scheduled to leave a couple days later, and with the money Arturo had made selling for the Christmas season we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves for a couple of days. We also went to some of the markets and stocked up on materials for our jewelry to take with us to the south. Mostly stones that can't be found outside of Mexico. Our flight was scheduled for 6 am, so we packed up and caught a taxi very early in the morning to the airport. When we tried to check in we were told that Mexican citizens require a visa to enter Peru and that we both require proof of onward travel to even get on the plane and that no amount of begging would change their minds - of course, being the oh-so-prepared traveler that we are, we did not have the visa or the required proof of onward travel. Luckily the airline was pretty great about getting us on a flight two days later to give us some time to straighten things out. So, many many hours of bus and metro rides, and many hours of standing in line and going from one building to another and another, and desk to desk, and changing our flight two more times and paying lots of fees, were put into our efforts to get out of the country. And we finally made it - it just wasn't all that easy.

We got to Peru in the middle of the summer. The first day we stayed in a hostel near the main square of Lima and coming from Mexico everything seemed sooooo cheap! We each got a three course meal, and it was a GOOD meal, with juice for the equivalent of about $1.50. The day we got to Lima there was a huge celebration for the city anniversary in the center with a lot of music and traditional dances from the region. After spending about a week trying to sell in the center of Lima, and finding it very difficult, we found out where many tourists go and we moved to a neighborhood about an hour's bus ride from the center called Barranco. Barranco is right next to the ocean and is a cute little touristy neighborhood. It is also very close to Mira Flores, which is another touristic and ritzy area of Lima. Since it was summertime there, and we were allowed to sell in the evenings, we did pretty well. We also met a lot of really nice people. The other artisans, local and travelers, were very kind and welcoming and incredibly willing to teach us new techniques, which is not always common. We found a cheap, clean room at a hotel nearby - the only downside was that on the weekends we had to move our things to a storage room and stay out of the hotel until midnight because they had to use the rooms during the day to rent by the hour. We got pretty comfortable though in our daily routine and we fell in love with the food - so cheap and so tasty. About three weeks after we had been in Lima I got in touch with a couple friends of mine who I had met in Colorado when I went to snowboard for a week the previous winter. They live in Lima, and one of them, Joaquin, came to see me and he took us out to lunch. It was great to see him, but unfortunately the ceviche we ate didn't sit well with me. Ok, so that's an understatement... I got so sick. For four days I couldn't leave the bathroom and couldn't even keep a sip of water down. I finally went to the pharmacy and got several pills, I even had to get pills that would keep me from throwing up the other pills. And the women at the hotel felt so bad for me that when the weekend came they didn't kick me out of the room.

When I was finally able to keep down a few salt crackers I told Arturo it was time to leave Lima and see another part of Peru. I was still incredibly weak, so we headed south but only an hour away to Punta Hermosa - a beach where many Limeños go on the weekends. We stayed the weekend with a very nice woman who invited us into her home when she saw us walking in the street. We got some sun - I got too much sun - but the police didn't let us sell there and we had to leave quickly.

Side note: The sunset in Peru is gorgeous. Really.

From the beach we continued south to the desert and stayed at the Huacachina, a desert oasis, outside of Ica. The desert there was amazing. Before I got there I thought you could only find deserts like that in the Middle East. We found a cheap room to rent and although we didn't sell a lot, we sold enough. There are mountains of sand here as far as the eye can see. And then some. We tried sandboarding, which I thought I would enjoy... turns out that dragging a heavy plank of wood up a hot mountain of sand for 45 minutes just to throw myself down it for thirty seconds and land in a heap - is not my idea of a great time. That said, we had some laughs and got a good workout. It did take several days however before I got rid of the headache I got from the double-flip crash landing on my last run. We made friends with a family of artisans who work with and sell shark fossils that they find in the desert near their home. One of the sons, Andres, invited us to stay with them for a night a look for fossils. We got to the tiny desert pueblo of Ocucaje just after sunrise, but despite the early hour Senora Mari and her entire family were already hard at work with the chores. They were all so excited to have visitors and very generous. The Senora told us about how her husband left her when their seven children were very young; she told us of times when there wasn't even enough bread to give to all of them and the older children often went without eating and all of them slept on the dirt floors of their tiny house in the middle of the hot desert. They still have that home but are fortunate now, thanks to the fossils, to have another home right next to it with a television and refrigerator. However, running water and indoor plumbing are still a luxury unheard of there. We spent the whole day playing with the kids and helping the family with the laundry. Water only comes once a month, so when it does it's a big deal and any washing has to be done on that day. The next morning, Andres and his brother took Arturo and I out on the motorbikes two hours into the desert. We spent many hours looking for shark teeth fossils and riding around the desert. At one point, I wandered away from the group and found a HUGE fossil! As big as my hand and fully intact. Andres and his family told me it was a gift from the Pachamama (mother earth) and that I should walk out in the desert and leave her a loaf of bread as thanks. In this small desert pueblo, most of the people use donkeys to transport their goods because very few have vehicles. They even took me for a ride on one of them... the kids ran after me bring me grapes and figs from their fields. It was a great experience. I will never forget the feeling of being in the middle of the desert like that. Nor will I forget the kindness shown to us by this humble family.

Meet the Parents

Still playing catch up...

Back in San Cristobal for the fourth time I still wasn't sick of it... and every time it was so great to see all the friends I left behind there. We stayed long enough to celebrate Arturo's birthday on the 29th of August. We also ran into some friends we had met in Guatamala and one of Arturo's best friends, Ulises, who he had grown up with and originally started traveling with many months previous. Ulises and his girlfriend Anne, and Arturo and I all hitched together to Tuxtla and spent a couple days camped in the center of the city next to a huge Catholic church.

From there, Arturo and I headed toward the Pacific coast and the beaches of Oaxaca. Due to the many political problems in Oaxaca and a recent hitchhiking scare (taxi driver killed by hitchhikers), it was much more difficult to get a ride that usual. It took us several days walking and camping in the rain and the middle of nowhere before we finally got close. We could finally smell the ocean but we weren't quite there yet and the sun was setting quickly. Luckily, our angel of the day pulled over in his BMW and told us he could take us to Puerto Angel. This kind soul, was a tall, red-headed Frenchman who spoke perfect Spanish and had LOTS of money. We came upon a military checkpoint in the road, and unsure if we were carrying drugs he asked us to get out and walk... luckily he waited for us on the other side and after we passed the soldiers he took us to one of his homes/hotels on the hillside in Puerto Angel. He let us shower in one of the many guest rooms, he offered us drinks and appetizers and we sat watching the sunset, conversing with him and his girlfriend for hours on his huge balcony overlooking the ocean. When it started to get late, he bought several pieces of jewelry for his girlfriend/housekeeper and then we all piled into his Hummer and he gave us a ride to a cheap campground in Zipolite.

The beach in Zipolite was really calm and pretty, but being low tourist season it was difficult to sell and we had to move on quickly. We tried hitchhiking to Mazunte but the roads were so empty that we ended up walking the entire way with our four backpacks, the guitar and the drum, in the million degree weather. We finally arrived and asked around for the hostel that was owned by the Frenchman's girlfriend. It was easy to find and she welcomed us cheerfully and gave us a great deal on a room. She and her 5 year old son live there and run the bar and restaurant in front of their house. We stayed for a few days and enjoyed the beach and danced salsa at the bar. One night, our friend the Frenchman even showed up to party - he brought his American wife.

From Mazunte we hitchhiked to Oaxaca City. It took us a little while to find a cheap place to stay but finally found a small hotel room fairly close to the city center. Oaxaca quickly became my second favorite city in Mexico. We planned on only staying one night and stayed two weeks. The plaza in the center was always full of people and different performers. Even though we weren't allowed to sell there - it was a great place to do hair wraps and when we were able to dodge the police we sold really well. The food in Oaxaca was better than anywhere else in Mexico, and the market in the center is huge. We had so much fun trying all the different local dishes.

Outside of the city we waited on the toll road for a ride to Mexico City. A pickup truck overflowing with a family and their friends finally stopped. They were headed all the way to the DF (Mexico City) and took us the whole way. Unfortunately the sun disappeared and we spent most of the 10 hour trip huddled under a plastic tarp fighting the rain. The family was very kind and made us a place to sleep on their living room floor that night. In the morning they made us breakfast and we left early to hitchhike to Morelia, Michoacan.

In Morelia we surprised Arturo's family - his mom and sisters were really excited to see him and it was great to meet them. We helped clean out their spare room and they let us stay there as long as we needed. We stayed for a month while Arturo got his documents and passport worked out. I met a lot of his old friends and we were in town for two big festivals where we were able to sell a lot. For my birthday we went to a small pueblo an hour from Morelia called Patzcuaro. Staying in one place for a month gave a nice break from the constant traveling, but after a month I was ready to get on the road and see something else.

We headed north and stayed a few days in Guadalajara - a really beautiful city. From there we followed the coast going as quickly as possible. We generally got rides with semi trucks and trailers. The only hard part about heading north through Mexico is the closer you get to the states, the more military checkpoints there are on the road. We got stuck several times in the middle of the desert waiting as long as 11 hours so the soldiers could poke their heads in the back of the semi and wave us along. The fun part was that the drivers were always more than happy to give me a driving lesson, I even took over for a while when one of them needed a nap and drove the 18-wheeler.

Around the end of November we made it to Tijuana. At first we stayed in a cheap hotel in the center but when I woke up one morning to the sound of people yelling that they had found a dead body behind the hotel, we decided it was time to find a new place to stay. We rented an apartment for the month and I crossed the border every few days to work. My boss at The Tractor Room where I worked last in San Diego was so nice, and put me on the schedule so I could make a little extra cash. I also was able to get a small spot at the farmer's market selling my jewelry. I didn't quite stay the whole month because I got sick and after a hellish trip to the emergency room I rented a car and drove to Idaho to stay with my family. In the mean time, Arturo took a bus to Barra de Navidad to sell and spend Christmas there.