All Signs to Saltillo

There's something funny about driving in Guadalajara; or driving in Mexico in general. Most days I want to drive to a restaurant, a bank, or on the weekend a nearby town. I back out of the drive with a clear vision of a map that I've studied. I know exactly where I want to go.

And then the inevitable happens... I get lost amongst the winding and free-form streets of Mexico and resort to looking for signs. I look up and the only signs available are for places far away, like Nogales (Arizona), Mexico City, or Colima (250 km south). And then there's always the sign for a city I've never wanted to go to, Saltillo. There are so many signs for Saltillo that I've had to look it up. It's the capital city of the state of Coahuila nearly 700 km away. I curse to myself and remember what I'm looking for. I just want to go to the bank, or that new pastor taco joint, or I just want to El Diente and climb. My eyes search for street signs while dodging countless potholes and elote carts. You can go for blocks without seeing a street sign, but in those same blocks you may see three signs for Saltillo.

So I'm convinced there must be something absolutely amazing in Saltillo. A fountain of youth, clean streets paved in gold, and free beer. Why else would there be this many signs?

On Monday I started my Masters in International Education at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. My first online course is Creative Teaching Techniques & Utilization of Multimedia. One of the first assignments was to create a mock teacher website on Shutterfly.com, so here it is. There's a good photo graphical description of what we've done so far with the fish pharaoh project if you're interested.

Mr. Sam's 6th Grade Science Shutterfly Homepage

Here are just a couple photos from my trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca over Christmas break:















Teotihuacan Ruins







Frida Kahlo's Blue House










Oaxaca City

Feliz Navidad!

Photos from Paracho, Michoacan. A locally famous town for buying hand-made classical guitars. Bought a new hand-made steel string for my b-day/Christmas present.





































Finally it's Christmas break! A mere four days prior to the big holiday. Because it is going to be such a short time (I have to be back teaching on the 3rd of January) I decided it would make the most sense to stay in Mexico. I have been to about 13 of the 32 Mexican states and decided it's about time I knew something about Mexico City (or D.F. as everyone calls it here). So tomorrow I leave for the metropolis of over 20 million people. I've heard people in Mexico City drive with less regard for human life than they do here in Guadalajara, which I'm still not convinced is possible.

The kids have been wild for the past couple weeks and it was a relief for everyone when the final school bell rang today. I have enough chocolates, cookies, and junk food from the students to last me the next ten years (or at least for the D.F. road trip) and it was great to see how much they get into the season. There has been a posada (a Christmas party) during or after school nearly everyday for the past week! It's hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit when I can still ride my bike around at night in shorts and a T-shirt. It's so hot here! Last weekend I was at the beach surfing in some 7-foot break in Ticla and Maruata, Michoacan.


One project we started at school was the mummification of a fish pharaoh. The social studies teacher and I got together to dissect and properly mummify a fish. A few weeks ago I had all 105 6th graders file through the lab to dissect a 'Lisa' fish and remove all the organs except the heart. Then in social studies they're creating sarcophagi and names for the pharaohs while learning about ancient Egypt. So now there's two crates of fish bodies buried in salt in the classroom waiting for all the water to be sucked out of them. Hopefully we don't return to a classroom that smells like a fish market mixed with a sewage plant.

Feliz Navidad and Feliz Ano Nuevo!

To the Top of Mexico

Summited the highest point in Mexico on November 23rd, 2011. At 18,491 feet Pico de Orizaba lies on the border of Puebla and Veracruz. Orizaba (or Citlaltepetl) is the third highest mountian in North America, registering just below Denali (Alaska) and Mt. Logan (Yukon).

Two teachers from ASFG attempted the mountain with me and made it most of the way up the mountain. Scott, a second grade teacher, will most likely never climb another mountain. Too much bad food, altitude and cold and not enough sleep for him. Chris, a sixth grade social studies teacher, enjoyed the experience and pushed through a bad cold that he wasn't able to shake.

Click here to watch the video for the full story of the climb.

On the drive back we stopped off in Pachuca, the capital of Hidalgo. We did our best to celebrate Thanksgiving, but somehow fajitas de pollo don't quite give the right feeling even though they were delicious. We all agreed Pachuca was incredibly beautiful city full of monuments, street signs and modern buildings.

During the 12 hour drive back we needed one more stop to break up the time spent in a cramped VW Beetle. We pulled off in Morelia, the capital of Michuacan and had a late lunch and wandered around the colonial streets and massive cathedrals.


We got back into Guadalajara late Friday night and I've been doing laundry since...

The Long Drive South

Picture of me and my new surf kayak (Fluid Element) in San Carlos, Sonora.

Picture of Mom on the Colorado National Monument at home.

Driving some nearly 2,000 miles in the American Southwest and down Western Mexico all in the name of having the freedom of a car, bike and a kayak. Lot's of military checkpoints and roadside tacos. I also learned I have no desire to return to Mazatlan even though I broke in my new surf kayak at Playa Brujas there- a day I will never forget. There were about 30 or 40 surfers out there. I was nervous knowing that surfers guard their waves jealously and have bad tempers. But upon thinking about I realized I have a paddle and am sitting up. Even if they had something to say about it there wouldn't be much they could do. So I headed out into the olas and mostly I just got confused looks. Then looks of astonishment as I caught wave and began gliding down the face throwing spins left and right.

Back to school today after a two week break for the PanAmerican games. It was great to see the kids and friends at school. Feels like the first day of school; nervous and exciting all over again. And in a couple weeks it will be Thanksgiving week and I'm headed off to climb Orizaba near Puebla. At 18,500 ft tall it's the third tallest mountain in N. America and it's in Mexico! Can't wait!

Click here to see a 1 minute time travel video of a little of the scenery from the drive.

Pan Ams

The Pan American Games are coming up, and Guadalajara is sprucing up it's streets. I've heard the city has extra police and federales from Mexico City to make sure there's no trouble from the cartels during the next couple weeks. All around the city streets have been repaved, outdoor artwork has gone up and advertisements like this one are everywhere.

The rumor is as soon as the games are over the zetas (a split off from the Gulf cartel) may try to take Guadalajara as their territory. We'll see. School is out for the next two weeks mostly because traffic will be so bad the kids won't be able to get to school. The Pan Am's will have all sorts of events, much like the Olympics but only for the Americas. To bad it's also a great time to travel, so I won't get a chance to see any of the events.

Field Trip Chaos

I thought I was getting pretty good at taking students on trips. Taking a group of 10 to 20 college aged students into the wild outdoors is like going on an all-inclusive cruise compared to taking 106 sixth graders on a field trip. Field trips with that many middle schoolers is like hiking into present-day Iran and narrowly escaping with your life. This last Friday myself and my fellow 6th grade educators took our class to Hacienda El Carmen about an hour west of Guadalajara. I had organized the trip about 3 weeks ago when a generous parent invited us to see greenhouses where they grow bell peppers for export and then have lunch and play.

The greenhouses were great- the hacienda employees took control of the kids and took them around and discussed nutrients, plant life cycles, disease and how they care for the plants. The kids loved it and asked all kinds of questions. The best part was the caps and face masks we all had to wear to go into the greenhouses. It looks more like a group of 12-year old doctors. I had no idea it would take 30 minutes to get 106 kids off the bus, 30 minutes to get them back on the bus, 30 minutes to separate them into groups, etc. Trips with that many kids take a lot of time!

Next month we are headed to Guanajuato to stay at the Vicente Fox center for a week. This trip was kind of a test-run for the students. During that week we should get to go to a science center in Monterrey (with an IMAX on surfing) and then hopefully we will meet the ex-president Vicente Fox. I think I'm more excited than the students!

A couple of weekends ago I tried my feet at surfing in Ticla, Michuacan. Here's a couple photos of one of the best beaches I've been to so far:

Running...

Why do people run marathons? I've always thought people who ran just for the sake of running without a ball to chase were crazy. But you can't say you don't like something until you've tried it. That's why I decided to sign up for the 22 degree Atlas (one of Guadalajara's soccer teams) half marathon (13 miles or 21 km).
I was convinced to sign up by a fellow teacher and started running short 5k to 16k loops at Colomos park. Bosque los Colomos is a 92 hectare park in the north-eastern section of Guadalajara. Miles of concrete and dirt paths wind their way up and down hills through pine forests and manicured gardens. I immediately fell in love with the park and running seemed like a good excuse to go.
I'm painting the picture that I trained a lot for this race. In fact, I only ran 16k the weekend before and then trained through soccer, climbing at Ameyalli (a rock-climbing gym), playing volleyball and surfing at San Blas. Not exactly the recommended marathon runner's training program.
Most of running marathons is mental from what I've been told, so I decided not to be to worried about being in proper shape.
The race began at 7 in the morning with hundreds of people crowded around Avenida Patria for the start. Music blared and crowds cheered as we passed through the starting gate. We passed huge blow-up Corona and Coca-Cola bottles on our way to 2 hours of non-stop running. The energy of the crowds actually made the experience more enjoyable and fun. I ran with a fellow middle school teacher up to kilometer 16 and then decided I could finish in less than 2 hours. 2 hours is the magical half marathon number to beat. Once I hit kilometer 19 I knew I could run 2 km as fast as I could so I went for it. I sprinted with everything I had left and crossed the finish line at 3 minutes over the 2 hour mark. Darn, well I guess I'll have to run another half marathon before I leave Mexico!