Mexico -- OCAMPO (continued)

I realize that all of these "OCAMPO (continued)" posts are not as aesthetically appealing as one long post containing all of the photos would be, but . . . DEAL WITH IT. I have my reasons. The photos continue:



Nina and I relax on our broken, dirty sofa. If you look at all of the pictures I've posted so far, you can sort of put together a picture of our house.



Adriana climbs up La Roña, our old, creaky, homicidal ladder, to inspect the water tank. See, now you can see that the outside of the house is painted pink! Actually, it was mostly red.



The marching band passes by during the November 20 parade. The drummer closest to me is Jacob, whom you will see again in another photo (not today, though).



Notice the name of the store in the background. APPROPRIATE? Quite.



"You can stand under my umbrella, ella, ella, eh eh eh"
"Te puedes parar debajo de mi sombrilla, illa, illa, eh eh eh"
Adriana has been asked to translate this song and it sounds unbelievably stupid in Spanish. But I would stand under these little kiddies' umbrellas, ellas, ellas . . .

That's all for now. Coming soon: human pyramids, UFO clouds, a large artificial Christmas tree, and stunning views of Ocampo and the surrounding countryside. Then: photos of Angangueo! Photos of Morelia! Photos of pyramids at three different sites! Photos of churches and ex-haciendas! Photos of mountains and lakes! Lots of photos.

Mexico -- OCAMPO (continued)

Adriana stands proud by our indoor clothesline, where we hung clothes up to dry on rainy days.



From left to right: Adriana, Fierros, Eduardo, and Freddy. One of my goals in life is to look as gentle as Eduardo does.



A rainbow in Ocampo!



Anaisa in her kitchen.



Nina the Lopsided Kitten. Notice that her left leg sticks out -- it's "bionic" (says Adriana).



Nina stares down a bug from the windowsill. Adriana's red car, Baby Boy, does its best to make a snazzy background.



Ricardo and Gabriel came with Adriana and me to a bar and club in Zitacuaro, the closest city to Ocampo. Don't they look thrilled to be there?



Adriana and I sure are thrilled. (I'm glad I don't pick up on the more subtle social situations, like people running away from me in horror when I flash them an enthusiastic smile, because my self-esteem would probably plummet.)



This is Ocampo's Rio Puerco. It is one of two rivers that run through Ocampo. The other is just called the Rio. One of them is dirtier than the other. Can you guess which one?!



Nina's bionic leg sometimes made her look like a bunny.

Mexico -- OCAMPO (continued)

At Adriana's school's anniversary celebration, children make giant balloons out of crepe paper, fill them with gas, light a wick and let them fly (or burn, as the case may be)! Don't you wish children at U.S. public schools got to do this, too?

Mexico -- OCAMPO

I'm cheating a bit -- technically, some of these photos weren't taken in Ocampo, but, since they feature Ocampo residents and the setting is not important, I'm including them in this category. In the same vein: Adriana and I didn't live in Ocampo. In fact, we lived much closer to Angangueo, in a neighborhood called La Junta. However, we consider ourselves Ocampenses, and so I'm putting the pictures taken in our house here, too.


Adriana shows off our homemade tamales.




Adriana attempts to teach me how to smear tamal filling in the corn husk. Instead, I break the corn husk. (You're looking at our dining room!)




The tree in Ocampo's plaza, dubbed "Ramon" by Adriana (because, you know, it has a big rama).




Ocampo from afar.




The September 16th parade! The very first thing I saw in Ocampo.



Okay, that's the teaser. I'm not going to post any more pictures tonight because I have ambitious plans for tomorrow (which include waking up at the ungodly hour of 8:00 am -- that's pre-dawn!) and need to sleep in order to carry them out. I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow.

If you're reading this, let me know and you'll get a special prize.

Mexico -- BUTTERFLIES (continued)

Here are more pictures of the butterflies. Pictures of human beings and places forthcoming.

Mexico -- BUTTERFLIES

I'm finally posting pictures from Mexico! I'll do it by categories, the first of which is: BUTTERFLIES. If I am feeling extremely ambitious, I will even post a few videos (can't be too hard for a computer whiz like me) (JOKE). Actually, I'll try to post a video right now:



I hope that you are thoroughly impressed. Each of the butterflies fluttering about in that video traveled to Mexico all the way from Canada -- by wing.

No photos until December

This poor blog! It thought it would be great one day, full of pictures of neato things, and look -- I have completely abandoned it. I won`t be able to post any new pictures of Spain or Mexico until I am in Norway (where I think that I will have wifi . . . but might not), and I will make an announcement in my regular blog when I finally update this one.

I hope that you are well! Love life! Be excited!