Advent

The first week of Advent just started.  Last year we had a white Advent celebration in Wareham it was magical.

https://picasaweb.google.com/113316577483860278533/AdventDec2nd

This year the morning was cold and the frost bit our garden plants and grass, later on the day was nice and warm, there's no snow in this corner of Mexico.

My day started with a nice present: a "home made" Advent's calendar  (again, not a tradition in Mexico)  I decided to make a few changes because it looked  a bit boring:

Before.

....and after.   Much better now!

I also made some yummi "biqiuis" to share with my friends and yes, I saved a few for Mickey and me.

Hope this season brings  lots of love and peace to you and your families.

Animals from the jungles of Chiapas.

• At school we're working in a project about the different ecosystems of our planet.  My homework is learning about the animals living in the jungles of Mexico.  My dad decided to take me to the zoo at Tuxtla, they got lots of animals from the jungles of Chiapas including jaguars!

Spider monkey

Crocodile

The spider monkey again

Iguana

Ant eater

Chachalaca

The sneaky jaguar

Coralsnake, bites can be fatal!

Terciopelo snake, quite venomous

Coati

We spotted an interesting  Ceiba tree growing there, they can grow up to 200 feet:

Hope my classmates like the pictures we took.

Martinmas.

Martintag or  Martinmas is not celebrated in Mexico.  But since my friends of Lady St. Mary are travelling around the world we decided to have a look in Germany and  enjoy a little bit of their traditional culture.

The meaning of St. Martin's day is wonderful and this special day marks the beginning of the Advent season. In Germany (and other countries too)  they have a lantern parade in the evening and kids sing beautiful songs, sometimes there's a bonfire and the families share food and drinks.


We found this version of the legend beautifully "retold":

http://www.communigate.co.uk/wilts/stmartinslanternwalk/page4.phtml


Martinmas is all about sharing and being kind to other people!

Our lantern and our Weckman

By the way, the Weckman  is the traditional sweet yeast-bread man they made for this occasion, It looks like a 3D ginger bread man with a clay pipe in his mouth:

Love the feeling of dough!

Hope you had a magical day!

Day of the dead.

The 2nd. of November is a very special date for the Mexicans: it's a celebration dedicated to the Dead.  

This day and night Mexicans remember all the members of the family who had died.  Families go to the cemetery and bring flowers, candles, food and even music to remember their beloved ones. It is a very impressive spectacle at night, with thousands of candles everywhere. This celebration sounds quite spooky but it is quite cheerful and colourful indeed.

This time of the year the markets fill up with the smell of flowers, copal (aburning resin), pumpkin sweets, and candles. The bakers shops start selling the delicious "pan de muerto".   The funny shapes on top of the bread are supposed to be bones!

It is believed that in this special day the souls of the dead come back and visit their relatives. For this reason a shrine ("altar" in Spanish) is mounted in many houses.  The shrine is an old tradition from the time of the aztecs and other ancient cultures that has mixed with elements from the religion that the Spanish brought to Mexico with the "conquistadores".

An "altar" has to contain different elements to attract the souls.  Mexican marigolds (they are quite smelly), a photo or photographs, food and drinks, personal or favourite items of the dead, a mirror, candles, salt, water, seeds or fruit and the traditional sugar skulls decorated with flowers.

Dia de Muertos is a strange way to come into terms with death.

We made this "altar" at the school with recyclables.

Mums and dads had a go too.

Mickey, mum and I mounted this shrine at home to honour and remember my Grandpa.   We'll miss you Grandpa!

My 6th Birthday

I'm 6! I'm a very big girl now.

The day before my birthday we had a little celebration at school.

My mum joined us, she brought 6 candles and some chocolates to share (she can't bake cakes).
All my classmates sang "Las Mananitas" which is the Mexican birthday song.

Everyone made a wish for me!

 

My birthday was full of surprises.  My brother Mickey and my mum woke me up with lots of hugs and kisses. Then I got some little presents.

I had a party at home with some of my favourite friends,  and a very special guest: Bismillah the horse, she took all my friends for a ride and then we all fed her with nice juicy carrots!

There was a ghost hunt and lots of games. The party finished with a "cat" pinata, it was full of little presents and sweets.
 

  Another surprise came when I cut the cake:

I heard the "happy birthday song", but there was something special about it:  My friends from Lady St. Mary were singing it! They sent me a video, they all looked happy and smiley.

I just burst into tears!!  It was such a fantastic surprise, I was absolutely happy, at the same time a little sad because I realized that I really miss them all.  My tears were the result of a mixture of feelings.

Mum just gave me a big big hug and I remembered that I will be back soon, and probably I will start missing  my new Mexican friends.

One last surprise came at the end of the day:

It was a wonderful day!                  THANK YOU ALL!

A little bit of sunshine!

After nearly one, two, three, four,.....weeks of rain, the sun decided to shine a little bit for us. Hopefully the wet season is getting to the end.

When we arrived, the weather in San Cristobal was:

 And so was the weather yesterday:

Grey skies all the time.  Anyway, after doing lots, lots of homework I decided to put my Wellies on and enjoy the wet garden:

Tortillas, the Mexican bread.

Tortillas seem to be present in every Mexican meal.  In the U.K. you can get some  in the supermarket (made in the Netherlands by the way) but the taste is absolutely different.

Tortillas have a very mild flavour and you can put nearly anything inside, cheese, meat, veggies, they had become my lunch time favourite.  You can find tortilla shops nearly in every street in this town.   I ask my mum to explain me how to make them, of course she had no clue, so we visited one of these "tortillerias" and found it out.

They had big mixing machines to make the dough basically with maize flour and water, and another machine to cut and roll the dough out into circles and "cook" them. All in one:

But that is the industrial way to make tortillas, here is a version to make them at home, you can always get the flour on line and use a rolling pin instead of a tortilla machine:

Buen provecho!!

Love horses.

Today I started my riding lessons.  Bismillah (not sure about the spelling) is a calm friendly horse.  First thing I had to brush her mane and stroke her.  It was great, there was a connection immediately, she's soft and has a soft personality as well.

Today was a rainy afternoon but still we enjoyed it and had time to look around for some beautiful plants and flowers growing in the area while we were with the horses.

I'm very lucky that my tutor Tess, is a Brit-French girl who spent most of her life in the South of England.  There was another immediate connection.  She's great and fun and .... I can understand what she says, yay!!!, but she says she will teach me to give instructions in Spanish too.  Bismillah turned to be a bilingual horse!!  or tri??

Horses are wonderful!! even my brother Mickey had a go.