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An article in the newspaper is predicting that this will year will be the hottest ever recorded in the Istmo because of the El Niño effect (with high humidty and temperatures above 40C…)

During the winter here the highs seldom went above 30C–and if a Norte was blowing, the temperate at night dropped down to as low as 16C (not quite “cold” but a big drop from the constant mid-30s that we had until November.)

However, during the past few weeks the temperature has creeped up to the mid-30s again, the Norte has pretty much disappeared, and the weather forecasts are getting pretty boring again….

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Sunday was a hot/lazy day, so Danielle and I decided to take a walk to explore an area of the Salina Cruz that we hadn’t been to before.  To the south-west of us is a hill with with a light-house on top that we can see from our apartment.  I had checked out the area using Google Earth and it looked like there might be a way to get there by foot (it is close to the Pemex docks so I wasn’t sure if we could get through.) 

The route to the lighthouse was fairly interesting as it took us through centre, past the area where fisherman sell their catch (not so pleasant in 33C weather) past the naval base and then on a road between the Pemex docks and a Pemex storage facility and then a hike up the hill to where the lighthouse was (only to discover that it was a naval facility and we couldn’t get too close.)  The picture below is off the harbour/dock area from the hill–it took about an hour to get here (5km from our place.)

We then proceeded over the top of the hill and saw Salina Marques along the coast ahead of us–so we decided to hike down to it.  (Salina Marques is a small beach community on the other side of the hill from Salina Cruz.  The main industries there are fishing, restaurants for people at the beach and harvesting salt from the salt flats that are between it and the coastal highway.)

The picture below is from the top of the hill looking down at the three bays that are along this section of the coast.  The first bay is Salina Marques, the second is where Playa Brazil and Playa Azul are, and the third bay is where Playa Chipehua is located.

After coming down the hill, we hiked along the beach to the end of Salina Marques and then caught a bus back into Salina Cruz (after hiking for two hours/10km in 33-35C heat we were hot and tired.) 

When we got home it was time to relax in the lawn-chairs and enjoy a pineapple slushie….

Danielle has already posted about our trip to the “Ojos de Agua” on Saturday–but there are also some things that she forgot.

1)  When we stopped in Juchitan to pick up our steaks on also bought a scale and blender.  We bought the scale because we have a challenge on to lose some weight before we head back to Canada.  If we meet our target, we are stopping off in Copper Canyon on the way home and spending some time there (it’s in northern Mexico and is larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon and is really interesting.)  So far I’m making decent progress–I’ve lost 25lbs since August and have about 15lbs to go–it helps that I do a lot of walking here (to the market, etc.) and the abundance of fresh fruit and veggies makes life a lot healthier.  The blender is a different story–and probably isn’t going to help a lot on the weight loss front–as we’re planning on using it to make smoothies/frozen blender drinks (especially now that mangos are in season!!!) 

2)  Although our main meal of the day is in the afternoon, we occasionally need/want a snack in the evening.  When this happens, we pop down to Lupita’s and order garnachas or pozole or tacos, etc.  Saturday night was one of those “I need a snack” nights–but instead of going to Lupita’s we went to a great “tacos al pastor” place that we tend to forget about (and it’s only a block from us.)  Of course they were great–but the funny thing that we noticed is that they’ll sell up to 45 to you at a time–that’s a lot of tacos!!! 

3)  MANGOS.  Fresh mangos are pretty plentiful in the market right now–but based on the mango trees we saw Saturday–there’s going to be a whole lot more ready very soon (the trees were just loaded with fruit that should be ripe in about two weeks.)

I had some Microsoft exams to write this month–and the nearest testing centre is in Coatzacoalcos (300km from Salina Cruz across the Isthmus.)   So I booked them for a Monday morning so that Danielle and I could enjoy a week-end there and then I could write my exams, hop on a bus and be back in Salina Cruz for Monday night (even though it’s only 300km away–it’s a 5-6 hour drive/bus ride.)

On Saturday we stayed at the TerraNova hotel–but unfortunately the weather was wet and overcast so we didn’t get to enjoy the pool or the kayaks that they have by the river.  Sunday was similar weather so we handed downtown to the beach/malecon and walked out on a very long pier (picture to the right) that protects the shipping channel/mouth of the river.

Other than the river for which it was named, Coatzacoalcos is really only know for two things: multiple PEMEX refineries (which we have here in Salina Cruz) and being the birthplace of Salma Hayek (who we don’t have here in Salina Cruz.)

Although Coatzacoalcos and Salina Cruz are both are geographically part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec–they are most definitely not the same Istmo.  The Caribbean side of the Istmo gets a lot more rain (making it very green/tropical where Salina Cruz is much browner/drier.)  Coatzacoalcos is also a little bigger/wealthier than Salina Cruz, so it has a lot more stores for shopping and even all the big fast food chains (DQ, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC, etc.) so we also did a little shopping–and even enjoyed a DQ Blizzard.

My exams on Monday went really well–983/1000 and 972/1000–and I was done early so I hopped onto an earlier bus back to Salina Cruz.  I also learned one a very valuable lesson on Monday…”Don’t bring a coffee along when traveling by taxi in Mexico” (even having a lid on the cup doesn’t help!!!)

Today is both St. Valentine’s day and Danielle’s birthday so of course I had to do something special for her.  So of course I made her the lunch that she requested (Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches) and then topped it of with a tasty Valentines/Birthday cake (there should be a picture in her blog here.)

…and to top it off, I’ll be taking her on a short vacation to the Caribbean this week-end (more specifically Coatzacoalcos, Ver.–approx. 300km from us on the other side of the Isthmus.)

Some thoughts from the Economist about St. Valentines Day…

Sunday was another Rotary event–this time in Juchitan (about 60km for Salina Cruz) where we were doing a solar cooker demonstration at one of the schools (it was part of an community program they run called “Learning to Learn.”)  We left at 7:30am and Danielle and I somehow ended with someone’s kids in the back of the car (we originally thought that they were part of the Rotaract/Interact group–but then discovered that their father was a teacher at the school where we were doing the demonstration–and they thought it would be more interesting to travel with us than with their parents!)

One of the teachers played music on the harp for us, while the food was prepared and the solar cookers were un-packed and setup.  Then there was an explanation of the solar cookers and how they worked (ie.  pots should be black and in a sealed bag so that heat isn’t lost to the air, things take longer than other ways of cooking–but don’t dry out near as much, etc.)

Solar ovens make a lot of sense here–as there’s a lot of poor people for whom wood/charcoal is a significant expense and there’s plenty of sunlight to power the solar cookers.

After the explanation and demonstration, there was an opportunity for people to make their own solar cooker (using cardboard and aluminum foil and glue.)

After that, there was some time to kill before lunch would be ready (solar cooking takes time.)  So the teacher with the harp played and sang some more (he was really good and both the kids and mothers enjoyed it a lot.) 

Finally all the food was ready and it was time to eat (we had 11 solar cookers going and made fish, chicken, pork, eggs, vegetables and rice pudding.)

And all the participants got to leave with a solar cooker of their own….

Sidenote:  Sunday was also the first day I experienced a sunburn here in Mexico (fortunately a mild one.)  You would think that at sometime during the day I would have made the connection between “cooking with the sun” and “sunburn”–but nope.

Sheila Copps and I don’t always agree on things, but I definitely agree with her most recent Toronto Sun column.  From the perspective of someone living in Mexico who reads Canadian newspapers on a regular basis, there appears to be a lot of people jumping onto the “Mexico is a bad/dangerous place” bandwagon. 

However the reality of Mexico is that tourists/foreigners are not normally the target of serious crimes (theft/petty crime is more of an risk–but my experience has been that it’s not as bad as many would have you believe.)  Although there are issues with some of the police here–they are not all bad, and the current government is working very hard at cleaning things up (unfortunately there’s a lot of ingrained habits that will take some effort to break.)

So yes…Mexico is more dangerous than Canada–but things are improving.  Although the Department of Foreign Affairs doesn’t track these statistics, I am confident that far more Canadians suffer from “self inflicted” alcohol related injuries or problems while they are here than are hurt or robbed by the locals.