I blame it all on Prarie Home Companion

The kids never had much of an interest in catsup until they started listening to Prarie Home Companion. In every show, there is usually a PSA for catsup, provided by the Catsup Advisory Board. When we were in Texas, I actually purchased organic catsup for the kids. What this has to do with ANYTHING, I’m not sure. Just felt like sharing.

Jamie and I are about to go out of our minds with our lethargic children. I think we’re totally wasting our opportunity here, so close to the Huasteca; we have a wonderful base for exploring the Huasteca, but day after seemingly mind-numbing with boredom day, we sit in and about the trailer. It has been gloomy but there are days of part sun. I thought the Media Luna lake near Rio Verde, where you can obtain scuba certification in a laguna of 85F water would be a great trip. The dirt road follows alongside thermal canals that feed the lake but I don’t think we’ll ever SEE the canals or lake as the kids are loathe to leave the comfort and security of the trailer.

I wanted to see the Cascadas de Tamul; what looks to be the Mother of all Waterfalls. It is a bit of an adventurous trek; two hours in boat after the end of the road to get to the top of the falls, but after an hour with Ellen on the Colorado River (Fall 2005) and an hour touching and getting up-close and personal with whales (February 2005), I’ve come to realize that Ellen is not yet ready to handle 2 hours in a boat.

We did manage to visit Las Pozas in Xilitla, up in the Sierra Gorda. There may be another definition for Sierra Gorda, but for me, it will always mean “town so full of coffee that you can pick it along the street going to your hotel”. Xilitla is better known as the location of Sir Edward James’ surrealistic gardens but for Jamie and I, it is better known as the beginning of Coffee In Mexico. We decided to stay in a hotel in town as we had expected to spend a long day at Las Pozas. We walked All Over Town looking for an economical hotel and finally found Hotel Dolores in a residential area (as opposed to the noisy centro) built on the side of a cliff, as is much of the town (except the centro) affording The Most Amazing Views. We had a hard time deciding between the room with 3 double beds (enough for everyone) for MN$500 and no view and the room with two double beds and The Amazing View for MN$650. I left Jamie at the hotel with the kids to make the decision while I manuvered the gigantic van down through the impossibly narrow roads of town. I’ve never seen such a presence of police in any town before and can only imagine it was due to the incredible traffic snarls due to roads constructed for two way travel of two horses but not two cars.

We dragged the kids out of the hotel under extreme duress as they had plans to spend the entire stay jumping on the beds, playing in the wonderful shower, watching TV and fighting. The day was growing more and more gloomy so we decided to walk about the exterior grounds of Las Pozas rather than purchase entrance passes for two days. This turned out to be a mistake as we never came back the next day. But we did get to see a lot of the OUTSIDE of the gated area.

We have been in a lot of little Mexican towns but I’ve never felt so out of place in any town as I did in Xilitla. I don’t know if it is due to the high indigenous population or what, but any time you can walk through the central plaza of any Mexican town and still hear yourself think, you know something is off. It was uncomfortably quiet as we walked about town; it seemed like Everyone came out to stare at the weird Güeros infiltrating their town. Maybe too many missionaries come to Xilitla; most people assume we’re missionaries with 4 kids. But we LOVE LOVE LOVED the Hotel Dolores and found a wonderfully cheap (but good) place to eat. The boys and I found a lovely panaderia with pan dulce (but not so dulce) just out of the oven; warm pan dulce while we ran around the raindrops.

Jamie and I had spotted a couple coffee stores in town but were unable to get anything other than a medium roast so, due to lack of fiercely strong (roast) coffee, heavy rain and COLD, we left Las Pozas for another day and headed back to the trailer. Pike was so happy to be back in familiar territory, he kissed the filthy floor of the trailer upon return. I really need to wash the floor.

So, back to the list of places I want to visit… OH! When we were in Xilitla, I had hoped to visit, by myself, as I’m sure the kids would be just as interested as these kids, some incredibly ornate Missions in the Sierra Gorda.

I think the kids might be more interested in waterfalls and magnificient tourquoise pools of water for swimming if the weather were something a bit warmer, or at the very least, if the sun decided to make an appearance. It has been gloomy and overcast pretty much since we got here but I suppose I shouldn’t complain as we’re not under ice. Or snow.

I’m sure there is more, but I’ve completely depressed myself AGAIN, thinking about the overcast and gloom and kids who never want to leave the trailer and all the places in the Huasteca I want to go and can’t motivate myself to keep babbling on. Jamie and I are thinking of leaving tomorrow but I really did want to get to the missions. At the least. I think we need a good long infusion of SUN.