Visiting my brother Edgardo and his family in Ixtepec!

Now it was time to visit Edgardo's family! We headed to Ixtepec to stay with his parents. His sister and her family were also staying there since Christmas. The next day they took us to visit a nice pool, Ojo de Agua.

After a nice and relaxing time at the pool Edgardo and I were invited to a wedding. I would get to experience some nice mexican traditions :)

Like dancing with the bottle!

I got to see a lot of nice traditional costumes.

And I even got to try a mexican dance with the bride.

After the wedding the party continued in Edgardo's house where his niece was celebrating her birthday!

The next day we went to Juchitan de Zaragoza to visit the market. This was a big market with two floors inside, and much more outside! Here they were selling lots of traditional costumes, shoes and foods.

On our way back we stopped by a pottery in Ixtaltepec.

This man had been working with pottery since he was a young boy. He explained the art and he even let me try ;) It was not as easy as he made it look!

The next morning we got up before 6 am to start preparing the dinner for New Years Eve. 

This pig became one of the best dinners I have ever tasted! It was prepared in this horno de leña for several hours, and the smell when we took it out was heavenly!

Everyone coming to the party brought a case of beer, and of course I wouldn't be any less mexican ;)

A tradition in Mexico for New Years is to make Viejo's. They make these dummies looking like old people and fill them with fireworks. At midnight they light them up to represent the end of the old year.

Of course we had some piñatas to try to hit! The kids get to start :)

After all the kids have tried it's the grown-up's turn!

The rest of the night was a lot of dancing and fun in the street :D

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! ¡Muchas gracias a todos!

MEXICO!! First stop Oaxaca de Juarez ;)

I am so lucky to have good friends in Mexico! It was so easy to arrive. I was meet at the airport by Rosmy and Marox who I will be helping teaching gymnastics in Condado Fam-Gym in January. First I was going to meet up with Edgardo and spend New Years with him and his family! Edgardo met me in Oaxaca de Juarez where we would spend some time as tourists. Our first trip went to Monte Alban, an old Zapotecan pyramid village.

After walking around in Monte Alban for a while we got hungry and decided to go back downtown and find the market. People say you have not been in Oaxaca before you have eaten in this market! It was a great experience. The market was packed with people eating, preparing food, selling drinks or just walking through to get a look at the culture. We decided to try 3 different meats, and my favorite was the chorizzo!

In addition to the meat we ordered I got to try something new. An old lady came over to us with a basket full of chapulines! Of course I had to try fried grashoppers :D Here is my taco with chapulines, onions and chile.

The next day we decided to take a tour where we would be driven in a van to five different places. Our first stop was at El Árbol del Tule. This is a huge tree in the church grounds in the town center of Santa Maria del Tule. It was 58 meters around the trunk!

We moved on to a little village called Teotitlan del Valle where we got to se the prosess of making rugs. From spinning the wool, natural coloring and to woving the rug.

Some of the rugs they use several weeks making. I also got to try weaving ;)

Our next stop was a little farm where they produce Mezcal, a typical alcoholic beverage in Oaxaca. It is made from maguey plant native to Mexico. When it is ready to get prosessed it looks like a giant pineapple.

Of course I was chosen for some traditional mezcal testing. Here I am ready for a shot of mezcal which is normally finished off with a bite of orange with sal de gusano and a whole gusano! Gusano is a larvae!

We moved on to another archeological site, Mitla, which supposedly was the most important village to the Zapotecs.

After Mitla we grabbed some lunch at a typical mexican buffet before we moved on to our last stop. We spent the rest of the day at Hieve el Agua where we enjoyed the view from the top of two cliffs that look like waterfalls. These cliffs are made over several years of fresh water springs containing calcium carbonate running down the cliffs leaving excess minerals to the cliff.

Of course there was some time to practice gymnastics on the edge of the cliffs :)

Here is a view from above. You can see two fresh water pools where it is possible to go for a little swim.

It was a long but great day! ¡Mucas gracias Edgardo!