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We finally got a plumber hired and he started doing the work to install the pipes, the water tank and the shower.  We were up at the cabin on the weekend and it looks so good!

We have almost all the flagstone on the building, the water tank is installed (on the roof in the left of the building).  We have a door (even though Don says the view is amazing, I still like some privacy) and the sink is installed.  The plumber will be back this weekend to install the toilet and the shower taps and then we will be ready to use it!  I never thought I would be this excited about a bathroom before, but when your other option is saddling up to a cactus to do your business, this is very exciting! Not to mention that it is a really beautiful bathroom. 

Here is a picture of the sink we had installed.  It’s hand painted Talavera and we picked it up for a mere $20 just two hours down the road. 

In my dream house I’ve always wanted to have Talavera sinks and tiles.  Of course I never thought that my dream house would be on the side of a mountain in Mexico and have an outhouse (OK, not exactly because it has running water, but it is not attached to the rest of the house), but hey, it’s very comfortable and exactly what we want.  Just a few more touches and we’ll be ready for the House Warming Party/Don’s Birthday Party on November 5th. 

Our neighbours down to the north of us were out that day and they were kind enough to let me take a picture:

So the final stages of our cabin are in the works.  We have our cabin, Don has his BBQ and we’re just waiting on a few minor things –like the bathroom!  I know that the bathroom really isn’t that exciting but that is what is stopping us from using the cabin right now.  Our good friends of course have told us that we can use their bathroom whenever we want but it’s a few hundred metres away so you want to plan your trips strategically. 

We went to the cabin last weekend to check on the progress.  We have a building and a good chunk of the weeping bed done.  It’s coming together!  This week, I’m bringing up a plumber so he can install the toilet, sink (Talavera!) and shower parts.  Of course we’ll also need a door for privacy too.  You get a great view of the surrounding hills from the bathroom so Don has hinted that maybe a door isn’t necessary, but for me, no matter how awesome the view is, there are certain things that should remain private.

Here is a photo of the start of our bathroom.  There will be a toilet and shower inside and we’ll have the sink/hand washing station outside the building. 

There will also be a tank on the top of the roof to supply water (and water pressure) to the toilet and shower.  It’s going to be finished with the same  flagstone as we have on the cabin so it will look much better soon.  Stay tuned for more Castillo de los Castores progress!

Although we live in Mexico, we don’t eat Mexican food a lot.  I rarely cook it unless it’s cochinita pibil or mole.  The biggest reason why is that there are so many great, cheap places to eat Mexican food, it’s usually not worth my effort to make it at home.  Like in Canada we eat a little bit of everything.

I have two standbys that I make once or twice a month.  They are quick and easy and of course tasty.

The first, is a take on a dish that we used to order at our favourite restaurant in Salina Cruz. Of course this restaurant is closed now but they served up some of the best food in town while they were open.  I don’t have a name for it, but we just call ït the chicken and broccoli pasta. 

Of course there are no measurements here, it’s all about eyeballing it and loading up on the stuff you like. 

Cook up some pasta (ziti, penne, fusilli, whatever you’ve got on hand).  While you are doing that, steam up some broccoli florets cut into bit size pieces (I suppose you could use the trunks, but I only like the tops).  Cut up some cooked BBQ’d chicken, cut up some good kalamata olives (seriously, don’t even waste your time with the canned ones).  Peel & crush some garlic and nuke the chicken so it’s warm.  Once the pasta is ready, drain it and put the garlic and some olive oil into pot and let it warm up until your house gets nice and stinky.  Then, dump in the hot pasta, chicken, broccoli, olives and some feta cheese.  You can adjust the olive oil and the garlic if you think you need more.  Serve it.  I always add some salt and pepper to my plate, but that’s just me.  It’s really quick and easy to whip up and the leftovers taste just as good.

The second pasta dish takes more time, but maybe 10 minutes more.  Again, this doesn’t have a name, but we call it the mushroom bacon stuff. 

Slice up some bacon and put it in a large non-stick frying pan and fry it up (until it’s well cooked, not crispy) Slice up some mushrooms (wild ones are best, portobello and cremini next favourite, but sometimes I take button mushrooms and mix them up with some dried wild mushrooms that I have rehydrated).  Once you have them sliced, drop them  into the cooked bacon (you can drain some grease if you want).  Add in some crushed garlic (again, to your taste) and then let the mushrooms cook down.  While the mushrooms are cooking, cook up some pasta (again, any kind works).  Once the mushroom mixture is cooked, throw in some sour cream (fat free if you like) and let it mix in with the mushrooms.  If you used dried mushrooms throw in some of the water you used to rehydrate into the mix as well.  Let it simmer for a bit until it’s saucy.   Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and throw it into the frying pan until all the pasta is coated with the sauce.  Serve.  Again, I’m a salt and pepper girl so I add some onto my plate, do whatever you like.  Because it’s a creamy pasta, the leftovers aren’t as great at the broccoli stuff, but it’s still good eating the next day. 

There hasn’t been much development on the cabin lately.  We’re just working on getting the septic system in and then the bathroom will be built and we’ll be ready to spend the day there without having to bother the neighbours to use their bathroom. 

This weekend we went to Queretaro (Kay-REH-ta-ro) which is about 2 hours from SLP.  The funny thing is, we have lived in SLP for more than 3 years and we have never been there.  We’ve been around it on both sides and spent a lot of time in the bus station there, but never been downtown. 

To be  honest, Queretaro really isn’t a particularly interesting city –and it’s even less interesting if you know nothing about Mexican history.  The most famous things that happened there are that it was the temporary capital of Mexico for one year during the US invasion, the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo was signed there in 1848 and Maximiliano was executed at Cerro de las Campanas in 1867. 

On Saturday morning we took the Turimex bus around the downtown and saw the different plazas, Cerro de las Campanas and the Aqueduct.  Cerro de las Campanas (Hill of the Bells) is called this because there are rocks that have a high content of iron in them and when you hit them with another rock they sound just like a bell.  It’s pretty cool.  The other fun fact about Cerro de la Campanas  is that there is a small chapel dedicated to Maximiliano, the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.  He was executed on this hill and the order of execution was given by my hero, the most famous Zapotec in history, Benito Juarez.

Now this chapel is relatively small and it sits on the exact site where Maximilano was executed.  The chapel was built by his family and right around when Austria was no longer a super power, Mexico decided that although they could not tear down the chapel, the could build a giant Benito Juarez on the top of the hill overlooking the chapel.  It’s the BIGGEST Benito I have seen in my life.  Here I am at the base of the statue just to give you an idea of the size:

Trust me, it makes the chapel seem like a dollhouse. 

After our tour, we grabbed some lunch downtown and then spent the rest of the day relaxing.  On the whole, Queretaro isn’t exactly a tourism magnet, but if know your Mexican history it’s worth a weekend. 

At the beginning of this year, we bought some land about 40km outside of SLP in Sierra de Alvarez.  It’s in the mountains and it’s some of the most gorgeous scenery around.  Normally it’s rather difficult to buy property in this area because there aren’t many places available and you have to know someone who knows someone.  Fortunately for us, we knew someone who had a family member that was interested in selling.  It was really all about being at the right place at the right time and asking the right question. 

We started building our cabin there in May and we are almost finished.  We just need to finish Don’s BBQ, build the bathroom and the septic system and then we can spend the night there!  We don’t have any running water in the cabin and the bathroom detached from the rest of the structure.  We’ll have a tank on the roof of the bathroom so that we can flush the toilet and maybe have a shower (although we won’t have a hot water heater) and there is no electricity.  The reason we have no electricity is because we will have to pay to connect up to the nearest pole and run wire down to our place.  It’s rather expensive so far we don’t think we will need it.  We will have a gas stove, solar lighting, LED lighting and a BBQ.  If our needs change in the future, we’ll connect up.  It’s amazing how with a little research and some shopping on Amazon you can live off the grid. 

Ever since Don and I went to Argentina, Don has wanted an Argentinean asador.  We had an amazing BBQ with a former exchange student and when Don saw the grill, it was just a matter of finding the right place and time to build one for us.  Here is Don’s BBQ, it’s still under construction as the builder hasn’t finished the flagstone and we still have to put in the grilling parts.  I can’t wait to have Don cook me up some steaks!

As you can see Don will have an amazing view and will definitely be inspired to cook up some delicious creations!!

Our cabin is built mostly with cement, cinder blocks and flagstone.  The roof has metal trusses with a plywood roof.  Construction is definitely different here and so it’s been a learning experience for Don who is used to Canadian construction methods and rules.  Fortunately we have a builder with a lot of experience and that we trust a lot.  I’m not a very particular person when it comes to design and finishes and I really only cared about one thing:  my kitchen.  Of course to say it’s a kitchen is using the word loosely.  I don’t have a sink, there will be no other appliances (who needs them with  no electricity?) and for the moment I have no cupboards or drawers.  The latter I will have put in once I send time working in the kitchen and get a feel for where I need to have things.  The only thing I really wanted in my kitchen was a countertop made with Talavera tiles.  Talavera is a traditional style of tile that you will see in many homes in Mexico, they also make dishes, vases, teapots, flower pots and pretty much anything else ceramic that you can think of.  We drove to Dolores Hidalgo (best place to buy Talavera for selection and price) and we picked up my tiles for the countertop.  We also picked up a sink for the bathroom too.  The builder installed my countertop while we were in Canada and I couldn’t be happier with it!  This is picture of my “kitchen” countertop:

I don’t have many pictures of the outside the cabin (they are all on Facebook!) but we plan to spend either Saturday or Sunday up there this weekend so I will take pictures and post them later.

During my last visit to Canada, my father-in-law was asking questions about things that I was posting on Facebook.  Of course because doesn’t use Facebook, he hadn’t seen all the photos and gotten all the updates that everyone else did.  So, for him and a few other people that are not connected to Facebook, I have decided to resurrect the blog.  Here’s hoping that I can keep up with it and not get lazy.  I’m certain that Facebook caused my blog to go dormant and I’m sure I’m not alone.  So less Facebook, more blogging.  I won’t bore people with long updates of what we have been doing, I’ll do my best to fill in the blanks as I go.  

The guero’s parents came for a visit at the beginning of February (yay!! We love visitors!!).  They decided to drive down so that they could bring back more treasures than if they flew.  It was their first time driving in Mexico so I took the bus up to San Antonio and met them there.  The next day we headed back down south.  We made arrived in good time and had no problems crossing the border and getting the temporary import permit for the truck.  The permit is probably the most stressful part of the trip.  Any foreign plated vehicle entering Mexico (if you are traveling beyond the border cities) needs to have this temporary importation permit.  You need a whole whack of documents proving title, insurance etc and I always get a little nervous because for us, we are smack in the middle of nowhere.  If there is a document missing, it’s not like we can just pop back home and get it.  Of course we always double check the Customs Website just to reconfirm that we have everything and so far, everything has gone smoothly.  Unfortunately it’s not the same for everyone and there is always someone in the office waiting for a document or telling horror stories about the last time they tried to get their import sticker.  It took about 45 minutes to get the sticker and most of that was spent waiting in line. 

After we got their visas and import sticker we were good to go and arrived in SLP by around 6PM.  Don and I have a pretty aggressive schedule when it comes to driving back and forth between Canada and Mexico.  We only stop for food, gas and a bathroom break and we try to combine all three whenever possible.  We also take a break after about 14 hours for a sleep.  It’s not a fun drive and definitely have respect for long-haul truck drivers. 

Anyway, after we arrived at Casa Bork, we spent a few days touring around the city and then headed to Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende and Leon.  San Miguel is a great stop for arts and crafts.  They sell everything from mirrors to metal works and it is all quite beautiful.  Guanajuato is a gorgeous city and is so far my favourite of the colonial cities near us.  Leon is famous for leather goods and I picked up a pair of cowboy boots there.  I know it sounds very strange but cowboy boots are actually worn quite frequently here and I will put them to good use. 

After the weekend, we returned to SLP, did a bit of laundry and spent the next few days getting some stuff done around the house –my father-in-law is extremely handy and it was great to get stuff done!  

On the Wednesday night we loaded up our bags and took the overnight bus to Mexico City where we caught a flight to Los Mochis.  It was our first time taking Interjet which is one of the lower cost airlines in Mexico.  We were pleasantly surprised to find very comfortable seats and excellent service on our short flight.  We will definitely take Interjet in the future! 

We  planned to travel from Los Mochis to El Fuerte to catch the CHEPE train into Copper Canyon for a couple of reasons:  we knew that if we caught the train in Los Mochis we’d have to be on the train at 6AM and also the scenery from Los Mochis to El Fuerte is mostly farmland which gets boring really quickly.  So, when we arrived at the airport, we ended up hiring a Suburban to take us from Los Mochis to El Fuerte.  It was a bit more expensive than taking the bus, but logistically it was a whole lot nicer and faster.  Our driver was pretty awesome too, we stopped outside of the city and bought some delicious bread and cookies that were baked in a wood fired oven.  The cookies were OK but the bread was filled with pumpkin and it was tasty! 

Part 2: El Fuerte to follow

OK, so I got stalled with the whitewater rafting Huasteca posting.  I’m not sure why, but it was just case of writer’s block.  So, we are moving on to different subjects now. 

Many Canadians have the idea that Mexico is this beautiful sunny warm country of beaches and all-inclusive resorts and that living here must be like being on a holiday 24/7.  Sadly, none of this is true.  Just like in Canada there are lots of different climates from the hot sunny places where it really is 33C and sunny almost every day to the places of the country where it actually SNOWS.  We live somewhere between the two.  During the summer months (April to about October-ish) the weather is quite nice.  I would hazard to say, perfect.  We have beautiful days where it’s sunny and 28-32C every day and then it cools down to 10C at night.  It’s wonderful because you don’t need air conditioning, you just open up the windows once the sun goes down and our house cools off.  The reason it gets so cold at night is because we live at just over 6,000 feet altitude.  Once the sun goes down, the temperature quickly drops.  There are areas of the country at higher altitude that face these similar temperature swings.  The other thing to note is that although it will be 32C during the day here, the morning will start cool and it will be a gradual increase with the temperature peaking at 32C around 4 PM.  It’s never 32C at 10AM here. 

During the winter months the average temperature is right around 20C but again, it’s a gradual peak throughout the day and the night time temperatures hover around 0C.  I know this isn’t Canadian winter cold, but here’s the catch:  we have no central heating.  That means that you rely on small, relatively ineffective space heaters to heat a single room.  All houses here are made of brick/cement block with cement over top—once they get cold, it’s almost impossible to heat them up during the winter.  So, while in Canada it might be –20C outside, the inside of your house is a balmy 18-20C.  However, when you’re where we live in Mexico, it might be 0C outside at night and it’ll be 12C INSIDE the house.  I’m not kidding. 

This winter was an unusually cold here.  There was actually snow in the foothills about 30 minutes outside the city.  Highways were closed just north of us because of the snow.  It was cold.  It was 12C in my office cold.  The worst part for me was that I spend all my day home and you can only put on so many layers and you still can’t get warm.  Some days I had so many layers on I felt like that kid in A Christmas Story.  I drank lots of tea to keep my insides warm.  Imagine stepping out of a hot shower into a bathroom that cold.  It was miserable.  The only opportunity to take the chill off the house was when it would warm up and get sunny in the afternoon and I could open the doors and let a bit of heat it.  Fortunately the cold doesn’t last too long but there were definitely times I just wanted to say forget it and check myself into the local hotel to get warm. 

Luckily, it’s been warm for about 5 weeks now and I’m really enjoying the sunny weather.  It feels so good not freezing my butt off.  I can go outside and lay in the hammock and enjoy the afternoon sun.  I’m spending my days soaking up this wonderful weather but in the back of my mind, I know that it’ll get cold again.  So yes folks, when I complain about how cold it is here, don’t get bitter and tell me how it’s –20C outside because at least you can go inside, take off your coat and be comfortable.  Think of me, while I’m sitting in my office with 4 different layers on practically perched on a space heater praying for March to come. 

The blog has been dormant—to say the least, and it’s about time to dust off the old laptop and start blogging again.  The good news is that things have been very busy here at Casa Bork.   Here is a summary of our activity since the last post:

We went rafting in the Huasteca and visited a few waterfalls for the long weekend in November.  This requires a full posting so I’ll just mention it and post about it later.

I took a Christmas Cookie baking class.  We made lots of sugar cookies and even a Christmas tree made of sugar cookies.  They were tasty and lasted about 3 days before they were devoured (I’m sure we have sugar cookie mice as it couldn’t possibly have been us).  I learned lots of new vocabulary including that a snowman in Spanish is called a “mono de nieve” which translates directly to “snow monkey”.  Of course my snow monkey didn’t make it into the picture as his head fell off shortly after decorating him. 

After cookie class came Christmas cake class where we made a chocolate mint cake, a fruit cake, a banana cheesecake and an orange poppy seed cake.  They were all decorated up and we got to take our 3rd of each cake home to share with our loved ones.  Again, I’ll blame the mice for devouring these cakes too. 

We went to Don’s staff Christmas party which was  held in the courtyard of the Westin Hotel and had a great time.  The courtyard is gorgeous and a wonderful venue for a party but it was during a cold snap here and we were questioning the sanity of holding the event there.   Luckily for everyone it was held in a tent and there were propane heaters going to keep us warm and toasty—the brandy and coffee also helped!

We headed back to Canada for Christmas and spent a wonderful time visiting with friends and family.  It’s always nice to be back, but for some reason there is never enough time to see everyone.  To those of you we saw: it was great to see you and we can’t wait to visit again!  To those of you we missed:  we’re sorry that we couldn’t find the time, but you’ll be on the top of our list the next time we’re back. 

We froze our behinds off in January due to an unusual cold snap.  It was 12C inside the house and there was no escaping the cold.  My only reprieve was to go to the gym, work out and take a steam shower.  For those of you who believe that Mexico is this place where it’s always hot and sunny:  I’ll be posting the horrible truth soon. 

We had visitors in February (Yay!! We love visitors!!!).  This again is a full post or two which will follow.

So yes, we have been very busy here but I’m happy to be back blogging about our live way down south.  I promise to keep everyone updated more often.  

Last Saturday morning we saddled up Mr. Bork and headed out to Bernal, about 2.5 hours from SLP.  Bernal is a tiny little town in the altiplano with one big thing going for it:  La Peña de Bernal.  Depending on where you do your research, La Peña is the 3 or 4th largest monolith in the world.  The really cool thing is that you can climb within 50m of the top.

We arrived a La Peña de Bernal around 11:30 AM, which we thought was quite late but there weren’t too many people there yet.  It was a hot sunny day so we wanted to hike up to top before it got too hot out.  It took us about 45 minutes to get to the top but it was a bit confusing because we arrived at a platform which we assumed was the top but we saw two people further up the mountain so we decided to see if we could get up there too.  This last part of the hike is a bit difficult and we were definitely thankful for our hiking boots and rock climbing classes we took oh so many years ago.  Getting to the top was definitely worth the effort as the view was absolutely breathtaking.  We got to the top just in time as while we were hiking down, lots and lots of people were just starting to hike up. 

After climbing up La Peña de Bernal we decided to have lunch at an Italian restaurant in Bernal.  I had read some good things about it and thought it was worth a try.  We took a mototaxi into town and we dropped off at La Piave which is on Zaragoza and had a delicious meal of home made pasta and tasty salads.  There were cute things on the menu (rabbit), which in my world means the restaurant has potential.  I was tempted to try the rabbit, but I hadn’t had good ravioli in a long time so I settled on that.  The food was amazing and we’ll definitely return the next time we’re in Bernal. 

After lunch we headed down the road to the Freixenet Winery and did a winery tour.  It was an interesting introductory tour, but let’s just say that we’ve been spoiled by winery tours in the Niagara peninsula.  The Freixenet Winery is quite the destination for tourists.  You can come do a winery tour, then buy a bottle of wine and some lunch and sit out on the patio and enjoy your afternoon.  There were a few people there that looked like they had spent a lovely afternoon sharing a bottle of wine or two with their loved ones so we decided to try a glass of wine and then head out to hotel in San Juan del Rio. 

The next morning we visited an opal mine near Tequisquiapan (Te-kees-kee-a-pan).  We arrived at the mine owner’s house just behind a large group of people so the owner first checked to make sure we had a “high vehicle” and then drew us a map to get to the mine and meet up with the rest of the group.  I was really thankful we had Mr Bork on our way up to the mine and even more thankful that Don was driving.  This is one section of the road, there are better parts, but there are worse parts:

Fortunately with Mr. Bork’s big knobby tires and Don at the wheel we made it there and back with only a small scrape in the paint—no biggie, it just blends in with the other “beauty marks” Mr. Bork has.   The great thing about the mine tour was that we were given hammers and we were allowed to look for opals.  Most of the opals were cracked and useless for polishing, but it was great fun to play miner for a day. After the mine tour, we were brought back to the mine owner’s shop/house where we saw some amazing jewellery and carvings. 

…and of course I had to bring home a stone turtle with opals on his back. 

After the mine tour we hit the artesian market near Tequisquiapan and then headed back to San Luis.  On the whole it was a great weekend getaway and we plan to return because we want to do some via ferrata, check out the centre of Tequisquiapan and also visit Queretaro.