from chiapas to oaxaca to mexico

oh me oh my. i feel i am so behind on this whole process...and i will try to keep this short.

a whole lot has been happening. we finally landed, as planned, in ejutla, oaxaca at a farm called the instituto tonantzin tlalli. this is located about an hour and a half south of oaxaca city, and is in an awesome little puebla. the farm is owned by a mexican non-profit called GRUPEDSAC, which i am sure stands for something very informative, and is about 3 miles (?) outside ejutla.

the farm was an absolute dream. as we rolled in, we realized what we were missing at the other farm. it helps that it is a very well-funded desert permaculture paradise nestled in the mountains just far enough away from civilization. the places best features include that it is entirely off the grid - runs on solar power and well water (run by a solar pump), a very advanced composting toilet system and, best of all, an incredible staff. itt specializes in cutting edge sustainable farming, gardening, building and composting techniques. we settled into the dormitory, but shortly moved into a treehouse which was constructed by volunteers a few years ago.

the whole place ran very smoothly and professionally. we were surprised to be treated as honored guests with something to actually share (little did they know we had nothing to bring), and as partners in the venture of building the itt farm for the time we were there. our time was dotted by a series of workshops where we learned, for example, erosion prevention techniques, how to plant pine trees with diapers, and how to triple excavate soil as a biointensive procedure. in between these, we were given opportunities to work with the amazing staff people in the garden or on sustainable building projects. our friend from the last farm, pete stewart, happened to head with us over to this farm, as well, and he and i worked on a project building some cabinents for about a week (we got really tired of this project, actually...but did complete it finally) in addition to the rest of what we were doing.

the staff were a real treat. my favorite among them was felix, a 30 something year old campesino. he had worked on the project at itt for pretty much the duration of it, and had lived near the piece of property all his life. he had only had about a week of formal education, and despite - or perhaps because of - that, he is an absolute genius. he knows just about everything there is to know about arid permaculture gardening, and worldwide environmentalism. perhaps the most amazing thing is his comprehensive knowledge of plants, all of which he knows the names of in at least three languages. he is very capable of reading and writing. in fact, he has pretty much taught himself the whole english language, but is shaky on pronunciation. that said, he can read anything written in english.
other highlights were the fantastic cook, dona soledad, who taught us how to make tortillas, fed us mole, and brought us amazing juice every day around noon (life, obviously, was pretty tough); javier, the jeffe - boss - who was the head of the professionalism, and an incredibly nice guy - he is also the one who thought of the idea to use the diapers with the pine trees; don tino, the watchman, who spent every night with his gun on a couch outside the dormitory, surrounded by watchdogs, awaiting intruders (who i doubt they get much of); jorge, who invited us to his house for mole, and taught us how to build part of the dormitory with mud and paint made with a base of prickley pear cactus; and pedro. oh, pedro. i think of pedro as the archetypal mexican good ol´boy, a fact which i based on his many sexist comments and the fact that he pretty much only talked to pete. that said, he drove a little purple vw bug from which he regularly blasted mexican banda music from the stereo. he doesn`t eat tuna because it is being overfarmed, but he also cannot wrap his mind around why we don`t eat steak.

anyway, that is a brief update on our stay in the state of oaxaca. there is too much to say about the WHOLE experience, especially as we spent most weekends away from the farm touring around the state, making friends (although the main friend turned out to be kind of creepy), walking around, and enjoying tasty snacks on the streets of beautiful oaxaca city - perhaps my favorite place on earth. needless to say, we are happy and healthy and having a wonderful time, still! it is hard to believe it is winding down.

we are currently in the state of mexico working at a place called earthsoundz where they make musical instruments. most of our time here has been spent working on a sweat lodge made out of mud and straw - very hard work - but today, for example, we began to make digeridoos out of bamboo. it has been very calm compared to the last farm. i was sick last week, so i worked part time and slept a lot. pete has left us for a few weeks, so it is cari and i alone, which means we eat a lot of ice cream and make bad jokes which we laugh at a lot. actually, we did that a lot when pete was around, too.

the update on my return travels: i will be bussing up to the states with pete from the farms, which should be good fun. we are not entirely sure of our route yet, so if anyone has suggestions, we are open. we have plans to make it up to tucson by the 8th of may via nogales. i will fly up to spokane on the 11th, then, where i should be for a week or so, probably watching a lot of arrested development and eating indian food and having a good laugh with my favorite mates.

much love.