Vacaciones México 2012/ Vacations Mexico 2012

Por fin fuimos los tres juntos a México. Pudimos ver a nuestra familia y amigos. Una semana la pasamos en la ciudad de México visitando gente querida y arreglando trámites burocráticas y la segunda semana fuimos de vacaciones a Chiapas con tío Car. Fuimos a la Reserva de la Biósfera Selva el Ocote en Chiapas. Está a una hora de la capital Tuxtla Gutierrez y es una área protegida poco conocido por lo que casino encontramos muchos turistas y pudimos disfrutar los lugares mucho más. Estuvimos acampando durante nuestro viaje. Primero visitamos la Sima de las Cotorras, pero lástima no era temporada de cotorras, para verlas hay que ir entre marzo y octubre. Aún así hicimos el recorrido perimentral en la sima. Ese mismo día nos escapamos al Cañón del Sumidero ya que el tío Car no conocía. Al otro día tuvimos una expedición a la Cascada de la Conchuda, para ello caminamos más de 6 km, bajamos por el Cañón del Río la Venta, tuvimos que hasta hacer rapel para descender, wow!, toda una aventura familiar. Llegamos un lugar hermoso y aislado de la civilización, nadamos en el río, en las cascadas y exploramos las cuevas. Fue un recorrido muy demandante para todos pero lo logramos y regresamos con bien. Después fuimos las las Cascadas El Aguacero, otro lugar muy bello y que pudimos disfrutar nosotros solitos. Finalmente hicimos un paseo en lancha en Puente Chiapas antes de iniciar nuestro regreso a la ciudad de México.

Finally, all three of us, could make it together to Mexico. We saw family and friends and did a bit of travelling. One week in Mexico City visiting our beloved ones and doing paper work, then a second week in Chiapas together with uncle Carlos. In Chiapas, we went to the Biosphere Reserve Selva el Ocote, one hour from Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital. This protected area is quite unknown among Mexicans, so we didn't encounter too many tourist making it all the more enjoyable. We camped at some pretty wild places. The first evening we had coyotes howling a just a couple of hundred meters from the tent. And that was a proper camp site. The other places we stayed at were not. Kosmos and his father spend quite some time running around at night with a UV-lamp, lifting rocks, searching for scorpions. The search continued until Kosmos lost the lamp. No scorpion was found. However, in terms of fancy arachnids, they found a golden orb weaver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_orb_spider) and a tarantula (http://www.tarantulasdemexico.com/en/tarantulasmex_en.htm). About the latter, all they can report is that it had black legs, they didn't see more. At the same location we also saw, and Kosmos caught, cane toads (Bufo Marinus), famous for their bufotoxins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xd9CnUK3jA), and having invaded Australia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mvV8OT-mmE). Anyhow, I'm digressing, so we left Mexico City, drove past the volcanoes, down the plateau and in to Veracruz, took a right and continued along the sea, took a slight right and entered Chiapas. After another slew of ups, downs, lefts and rights we arrived to la Sima de las Cotorras. It was a mighty nice place, a big hole in the ground after a caved in cave a long long time ago. Jungle at the bottom, and arid shrub forest at the rim. From there we ventured to Canyon de Sumidero (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumidero_Canyon), very accessible, loads of tourists, but inconceivably impressive. A 1000 m vertical rock face from the water up to the top of the canyon. After this soft start, things got a bit out of hand. On, what we thought was a 6 km walk to a pretty waterfall, we encountered another canyon wall we had to get down. Fortunately not 1000 m, but since Kosmos father is a bit of a whimp he can get seriously injured from just falling a couple meters. It was more than a couple of meters. We had to rappel down 15 meters (in addition to the hour or so of more "normal" walking/crawling/climbing). None of us had done anything like that, least of all Kosmos. He was lowered down in a harness hanging from the waist of the guide (who, besides having superhuman qualities also was very knowledgeable). There is no point in trying to describe the beauty of the underground river exiting from the rock in to a jungle, full of little orchid gardens attached to the branches of trees, falling in waterfall after waterfall down towards Rio la Venta. You all know how it is, "words can only express so much" (and not more). The day after we moved on to el Aguacero on the south side of the reserve. A much more accessible place, with stairs down the canyon wall to Rio la Venta (which runs straight through the reserve). We camped on a sand bar by the river, swam, played in waterfalls, and saw a peregrine falcon. The last night we stayed by Puente Chiapas, on the northern edge of the reserve. Kosmos father got fever and an upset belly that lasted all the way back to la Ciudad.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjolko/sets/72157629225101015/

Kosmos 6th Birthday

Kosmos celebró su sexto aniversario de nacimiento. Esta vez no hicimos fiesta porque no sentimos que tuvieramos un gran grupo de amigos y tampoco mucho tiempo y dinero para organizar. En su día fuimos a Princeton y primero celebramos con Phoenix su cumpleaños, después fuimos Butler y tuvimos un convivio con algunos de nuestros ex vecinos y amigos de Kosmos. El pastel estuvo increíble, yo había pedido que tema fuera reptiles y en la pastelería hicieron un trabajo estupendo para decorarlo. Luego el lunes, Kosmos celebró con sus amigos de la escuela. Papá hizo una casita de gengibre que el había prometido a sus compañeros de llevar a la escuela para que la comieran juntos y además mami llevó un pastel decorado con mi super héroe favorito: el hombre araña! La pasé muy bien y disfruté muchos mis celebraciones, gracias a todos los que mandaron regalos y tarjetas de felicitación o me llamaron por teléfono.

Kosmos celebrated his 6th birthday. This time we didn't make a party because we felt we didn't have a solid group of friends nor much time and money to organize it. On the day of his birthday, we went to Princeton and first we celebrated together with Phoenix which had a party on that day in the morning. Then we went to Butler to celebrate with former neighbours and Kosmos' friends.The cake was incredible, my mom asked to be decorated with a reptile theme and they did an amazing job. On the next day, Kosmos celebrated with his friends at school. Daddy made a gingerbread house because Kosmos had promised his classmate to bring one to school so that they could eat it altogether. Also my mom brought another cake that was decorated with my favorite super hero: Spideman! I enjoyed very much the celebrations, thank you to all the ones that sent presents and cards or call me. Love you!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjolko/sets/72157629412400053/

Celebraciones 2011/Holidays 2011

Otra vez ha pasado mucho tiempo sin actualizar este blog pero ahora me pondré al corriente. Las fiestas de fin de año las pasamos con los amigos. Festejamos el día de acción de gracias con nuestra amiga Zeynep, que cocinó su primer pavo, el cual le salió muy bueno. Para Navidad fuimos a Princeton a casa de Daiane y Daniel que nos agazajaron con un cena italiana y al otro día con un desayuno y comida brasileño. En Año Nuevo nos quedamos en casa y papá cocinó un exquisita langosta, estuvo tranquilo pero estuvimos muy contentos. Trabajamos durante el periodo vacacional para tomar un receso en su lugar en enero, pero aún así nos dimos tiempo para ver a nuestros amigos y disfrutar las fiestas.

Again I kind of forgot to update the blog but today I will update all at once. We spend the holidays in 2011 with friends. We spent Thanksgiving with our friend Zeynep, who cooked for the first time a turkey and actually it turned out very good. For Christmas, we went to Princeton with Daiane and Daniel, they put together with Marco an amazing Italian dinner, and the next day they treated us with Brazilian breakfast and lunch. For New Year's eve, we stayed home and daddy cooked an exquisite lobster, we have a very intimate, peaceful, and pleasant evening. We worked over the Christmas break so that we would be able to take off in January for our vacation in Mexico. We still took it easy and saw many of our friends.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjolko/sets/72157629225089203/