Growing out of a small tree branch. We hiked 2 km out and 900 m up to see this. It was worth it, even for a smoker.

A blooming bromelia.

Worth the long drive

Arrived last night in San Cristobal de Las Casas, which is finally exotic and remote enough to make it feel worth all the long driving. Wow, Mexico is HUGE! Can't believe how many hours of driving it has taken to get across it. All fascinating hours with ever-changing landscape: from empty desert to highland plains to volcanos to dense jungle valleys to big, crowded cities. To get here, we drove from Veracruz through the most beautiful jungle I've ever seen - gigantic mountains covered in lush lush lush green, occasional rivers, waterfalls, pineapple farms, sideways corn fields, wetland birds, indigenous villages. I only saw the jungle in rapid glances as it was my shift to drive and that particular road was a minefield of gigantic potholes. Passed through Tuxtla Gutierrez, a big city and the capital of the state of Chiapas, then finally San Cristobal which is a beautiful mix of colonial architecture, indigenous culture, and lots of young people who look like either travelers, bohemians or political revolutionaries (or wannabes). San Cristobal is near the Laconcon Jungle, the center of the Zapatista movement, so there are politics all around though I'm sure we most of them sitting here sipping our cafe con leche and speaking so little Spanish. Beautiful textiles and jewelry ... I think I'll finally do some shopping today. The people are very very friendly.

Next, Guatemala, if we can figure out which border we can bring our car through. The closest one to the amazing Tikal ruins, where we'd like to go next, is Frontera Corozal. With all our reference materials we haven't been able to ascertain if we can cross there - maybe only by boat, which leaves the Subaru behind. So we may have to drive south quite a bit to get to a land crossing.

Sorry no picture this time. Indigenous folks are totally freaked by pictures - a tourist was killed a while back for taking someone's picture. So, yeah, the camera stays in the bag.

Hasta luego ...

Finally found a beach... and a pinacolada. Veracruz es muy bonita.

Our little hostel in the big city of Puebla. Feels like a Mexican Chicago. Just an overnight stop on the way to Veracruz.

More Guanajato - hillsides of colorful houses.

They have big theaters in Guanajato!

Feliz neuvo ano from Gunajato

Further south into Mexico, about four hours from Mexico City. Large town, once a booming silver town, nestled in the hills, gorgeously colorful houses stacked up on the hillsides. Lots of colonial architecture, and three gigantic theaters! All the streets go one-way east. To go west you have to go through freaky claustrophic tunnels. I guess a town full of miners made tunneling seem logical. We spent an hour and half driving in Mister Toad's Wild Ride trying to find anything we could recognize from our map or our travel book. Spent new year's eve here and like it so much, we'll do one more night. Tomorrow, on to more of Mexico, probably the Veracruz coast on our way to Guatemala.

Real de Catorce

Sorry didn't get a picture, so busy looking at things and tasting things and smelling things, and butchering the Spanish language. Real de Catorce is a very magical feeling city. I think some of the magical quality comes from how hard you have to work to get there. Long drive through a desolate desert, then up into huge mountains, then more desert, then a 10-mile cobble stone road - not exaggerating, ten miles - then a tunnel that looks like it was built by hand by miners, (think Disneyland-quality imitation) so narrow cars can fit only one-wide (so you have to wait for a guy on a radio to tell you it's OK to go), then you're there. Windy cobble stone streets and sleeping placess stacked high. It's like Mont St. Michel, but Mexican. High in the mountains, completely isolated, filled with artisans, and the light is unwordly.

Alan is climbing that gigantic rock in the background. I'm here at our camp drinking a Tecate and eating a guava I got at a farmers market down the road. It's 75 degrees. Lots of freaky extreme sports people here. Very friendly locals - I got offered rides many times on the long walk back from town. Lots of roosters everywhere. Sorry the picture is sideways - tricky sending messages and pictures from the cell phone.

over the border and on to crazy shit

Austin was all kinds of fun and a perfect place to hide out from the holidays. Tomorrow, early, we head south for Monterrey. Just outside of Monterrey is Potrero Chico, one of the top ten places to rock-climb. Due to the holidays, not much demand for rock-climbing lessons, so Alan was able to arrange one-on-one instruction. He'll spend the day hanging from rocks while I'll walk all around the beginner trails. My back is well and I want to keep it that way for the whole vacation. I'll try to catch a good action-shot of him doing something crazy for the Blog. Happy new year everyone!

Everything is bigger in Texas, even the Playwright Center's cat. For anyone who remembers readings at the PWC before they remodeled, you probably wondered what ever happened to that adorable cat Tigger. He used to wander around the room during readings, often hopping onto an actor's lap during the most dramatic moments of the play. Well, here he is living with playwright Colin Denby Swanson in Austin, TX. He's grown Texas-sized, and now his hame is Orson Welles.

I wonder if he misses all that drama.

just exactly what we were hoping for

Wow, this is a big country, especially when you try to leave it heading south from Minnesota. We're still in the U.S., now hiding out from the holidays with friend Colin in Austin, Texas.

Last night she showed us a bit of the town, starting with delicious Tex Mex food. Two kinds of tamales and tacos al pastor ... mmmm.

Then we went to a club expecting to hear Omar and the Wailers. Before the pleasure of Omar, a big man with a very deep voice who works a big Fender like it's an amazing little toy, the stage was taken over by a bunch of locals and visitors, all musician friends of Terry Allen. I don't know all of their names, but I think I probably should have, judging by their talent and the crowd's reverence. We did recognize Joe Ely. Yeah, really. And a Dixie Chick was spotted in the crowd.

Favorite song by Joe Ely was "Deportee" and favorite song of the night was when they all got on stage for "Not Fade Away" which transitioned to "Who Do You Love?" and back again to that great Buddy Holly tune. And Omar was great too. Finally I realized I was kinda sleeping while still bouncing my head to the Wailers' beat, and we called it a night.

Wow, that was so exactly what we were hoping Austin would be like, but how often does it actually work that way? Happy holidays everyone.

Crawfish massacre on the banks of the Bayou Teche.