Nopal

A nopal leaf, trimmed and ready to be chopped for Pico de Gallo










To be honest, I´m not sure if you can buy nopal in Toronto, or anywhere in Canada. Could someone let me know?
Anyway, here is a recipe, for the food adventurers:

Cooking Nopal

Nopal is a type of cactus that is one of the culinary specialties here.
You can buy it in supermarkets or markets, in it’s natural leaf form or already chopped.
To make Pico de Gallo (nopal mixture which is then used in quesadillas):

2 cups chopped fresh nopal
boiling water

½ onion finely chopped
1-2 tomatoes chopped
1 tsp of vegetable oil
Pinch or two of dried oregano
2Tbsp. Fresh chopped cilantro
Salt to taste


Boil the nopal in water until soft and dark green, about 15 minutes.
Drain and rinse well. (you’ll want to rinse off the boba de nopal, the sticky goo)
Lightly sauté the onion
Add the tomatoes, oregano and nopal and heat through.
Remove from heat and add the cilantro, and salt to taste.

The entire mixture can then be placed between two small corn (or corn) tortillas along with some grated cheese and lightly fried until hot. Ya! Una quesadilla!
(It also works well in an omelette)

Templo y Jardin El Encino

The church and garden are what Johnny likes to refer to as
"in our backyard". It's a great place to play, hang out and people-watch, or mark exam papers late at night while listening to live mariachi music.

















Templo El Encino also known as "The church of the Expanding Christ".
The figure of Christ inside the church is said to have a left arm that is growing. When the hand touches a nearby column a world catastrophe is supposed to occur.
















Some of the surrounding garden.















The church as seen from our roof at night.

The Weather

Typical daily forecast and 3-day forecasts


Some of you up there in the Great White North (sorry if I’m perpetuating the myth) have asked “Hey Sabine, what’s the weather like down there in Aguascalientes?" So here is my report on the local weather, after some careful research of course.
Unlike in Canada it is unusual to hear someone speak about the weather. I have yet to hear a weather report on the radio. This may be due to the fact that I don't understand much Spanish or due to the fact that the weather just doesn't change much, so there's nothing to report.
A couple of the local newspapers do give a brief account of the expected weather for the day. One newspaper, the one we buy called El Aguas, gives the days expected weather as well as a 3-day forecast! Needless to say I was both relieved and elated when we discovered this gem of a paper. I may not be able to read much else in it, but I can decipher the little pictures showing the day’s pronóstico, which quite frankly always depicts the tormentas as occurring at the same time of day. Both at 1:00 pm and at 9:00 pm. I’m not sure they have ever occurred at either of those exact times. And as you may be able to see from the three-day forecasts there aren´t many decipherable differences. Tormentas, todos los dias.

The months of July, August, and September are the rainy season. This means that the day usually begins sunny, with mid-day temperatures reaching 22-27 degrees Celsius, with no humidity. By late in the afternoon or evening clouds have gathered and result in a thunderstorm and varying amounts of rain. The nighttime temperature hovers around 14 comfortable degrees.
During the fall there is less and less rain until, apparently, all rainful suddenly ceases and won’t begin again until May or so. If you read the general info about Aguas in the second post, you’ll remember I mentioned that large amounts of rain can fall in a short period of time, flooding roads here and there. Just recently we read in the newspaper about an intersection located a little to the south and west of us as having been under 1 meter of water after a brief downpour.
Fall also brings slightly cooler daytime highs and slightly cooler temperatures at night.
During late December and around Christmas the temperature during the day reaches 15-20 degrees. Nights can be cool, but usually no less than 5 degrees.
Most Hidrocalidos (this is what people of Aguas are called), will agree that for the last 10 years the weather has been increasingly unusual. More rains, sometimes cooler temps and they even had snow once about 5 years ago! (Yikes, I hope there’s no snow this year. I don’t think we’ll miss it much.)
January is cool like Decemeber and then in February temperatures start to rise again and peak in May, just in time for the big Feria, a big month-long fair featuring music and bullfighting, agricultural exhibits, and more.

Independence Day

To the left: Outside our apartment (that's our balcony)Lucinda on her way to the Independence Day parade.

Lucinda's class

performing the poem ¡Vive México!
México de los esfuerzos
De calidas noches de arrula....



Independence Day on September 16th is a big deal in México. Celebrations begin in the evening of September 15th in the main square of most towns and cities and involve copious amounts of food, music and fireworks. At 11:00 pm there's a short re-enactment by a government official of the Grito, the call to arms, by Miguel Hidalgo in 1810. The grito officially began the 14-year war of independence.
Lucinda's school celebrated Independence Day with a presentation of dances, poems, and skits.
Above left is a photo of some of the grade ones dressed as mariachi players. On the right they're performing the Mexican Hat Dance.

Our trip through northern Mexico

Drivin´through the Chihuahuan desert

Our first stop was in Ahumada, Chihuahua State at Oscar´s restaurant

Speaking of Oscar......

A few more photos

R&R at Riverbend Hot Springs next to the Rio Grande, New Mexico

Road trip photos

Here are some photos of our trip through the States.

Somewhere in Colorado

Lucinda in our loaded van

Oz Museum photos

Dorothy, the Scarecrow and Glinda at the OZ Museum.

About Aguas

What follows is some gerneral info about the city of Aguas, our home for the next 10 months.

Aguasacalientes is the capital city of the state by the same name. The state, one of Mexico’s smallest, is said to be in the geographical centre of Mexico.
Aguas is a sprawling city of about 600, 000 people. Johnny says it’s about the size of Ottawa. There are no giant office towers like in Toronto, and in fact there few high rises. The tallest building I’ve seen so far, is about 14 stories high.
It takes approximately 20-30 minutes to drive from the northern perimeter of the city to the southern.
Generally traffic moves well. Rarely have we been caught in a traffic jam. The traffic police do a good job. Driving is a little crazy though, drivers have little patience, (quick to honk their horn) and you always have to be ready for the unexpected person doing a U-turn or turning left along-side you even though they’re not in the left-hand turn lane.
The city itself is quite flat but in the west there’s a rather scenic view of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains. Aguas itself is situated in what’s known as the northern altiplano. Yes, it’s in the highlands region, with the city’s altitude at 1800 metres.
The entire city is made up of fraccionamientos or neighbourhoods. There are about 400 of these fraccionamientos.
The heart and centre of the city is the Plaza de la Patria. About half of this main square is a large and open area. This is bounded by the beautiful 18th century cathedral and by a large column sprouting the symbol of Mexico, an eagle eating a snake. Behind the column and still part of the square are several fountains and the quintessential Mexican jardin.
The square is usually busy with small vendors selling pieces of fruit in cups, some potato chips and popcorn topped with chile sauce, toys, balloons, and lots of colourful plastic items which provide a fantastic contrast with the old grey walls and solemnity surrounding the cathedral.
Also on the main square is the Palacio de Gobierno. It has an immense courtyard surrounded by arches and stairways. On both the ground floor and the first floor there are several large murals to admire. The murals depict the history of Aguascalientes and of Mexico in general.

From this main square there are several pedestrian streets and markets within walking distance.

The whole city is surrounded by two main ring roads, these being the best way to travel any distance to the north, south, east, or west of the city centre.

The roads are fairly well kept, but pot holes do seem to sprout up especially after a heavy rain. It’s not unusual for large puddles to obliterate entire roads after a rainfall. Cars become amphibious through intersections all over the city.

Both to the north and south of the city are what are known as industrial areas. Most notably the Nissan plant, here since the early 80’s, is in the south of the city. It could be said to be the city’s largest employer mainly because so many other companies are providing parts for it.

The east of the city, known as “Ojocaliente” is home of two public hot springs. Aguascalientes of course means hot waters.

The city is dotted with several large parks. In fact Aguas is well known in Mexico for it’s abundance of green space. Two of these parks are Parque Mexico with its jogging/cycling trails and many playgrounds all surrounding a small lake and Parque Heroes Mexicanos with it attractions for children including a tribute to Cri Cri*.

The indigenous tribes in the region before the arrival of the Spanish in the early 1500’s, were known as the Chichimecs. They built extensive catacombs beneath the city which the Spanish nick-named the perforated city. At present the series of elaborate tunnels are (unfortunately) off-limits to visitors.

First post

Well, we've been in Aguascalientes for two months now and I've finally got it together to start our blog. (thanks MJ)
We (John, Sabine, Lucinda, and Oscar) began our adventure way back on July 15, 2006. We left Toronto on around 11:00 am after packing and repacking our overstuffed van several times. A few hours later we crossed the border at Sarnia and were detained only for about two minutes for a friendly meet and greet with the border guard. Did he notice Oscar (our dog) in the back? NO! Did he notice our cooler full of food or our van overloaded with our "necessities"? NO!
Our trip through the United States, specifically these states: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and briefly Texas, was largely uneventful. I hesitate to say it was boring because I think my brain activity was slightly hindered by the 104 + degree Fahernheit temperatures.
Most days our 8-10 hoours on the road were punctuated by a stay at a motel with a pool so we could all frolic and cool off.
The highlight of our trip was a stop at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas. Lucinda says it´s the best museum in the world! (I´ll post some OZ Museum photos and others soon)
In general Lucinda liked Kansas best of all. And she was pretty sad and upset when we left the state and entered Colorado. When we tried to tell her how nice Colorado is she said, "don´t try to improve Colorado to me!"
Once we crossed the border into Mexico on July 22, we drove for 2 more days, mostly through desert, before arriving in Aguas. Our journey took us 9 days and nearly 5000 km (yes, our van made it without any problems).
Thanks to all who helped us survive the trip with your excellant musical selections.
Some favorites were Neil Young´s Living With War, The Doors, Philedelphia Chickens, several versions of Over the Rainbow, and Johnny Cash´s childrens album.

Here are some signs we saw on our trip through the states:
"Prison area, do not pick up hitchikers"
"Injure and kill a worker, $7500 fine + years in jail"
In a motel, "In effort to keep our towel supply looking its best, we have placed these pieces of stained, but laundry clean toweling here for your use in cleaning guns, fishing equipment, boats, autos, or any others use needed."
Outside a public park in Missouri "Guns or other weapons strictly prohibited"

A word about Oscar: Our pupster was a real trooper on this trip. With his failing hind legs, and sometimes front legs as well, he rarely complained. His persistent woofs from the back, usually around 6:00 every evening, helped to remind us to get on with looking for a motel and stopping for the night.
Oscar lived for another 10 days after our arrival in Aguas, but will always be with us (to quote Lucinda)
Oscar Etobicoke
November 29, 1989 - August 3, 2006

After living in north Aguascalientes for about a month (think Markham, not that there´s anything wrong with Markham), we secured a 2-bedroom apartment in El Encino, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city.
Oh and, if you´re trying to find Aguas on a map of Mexico, look in the very centre. It´s to the north and a little west of Mexico City.
Anyway, here are some of the things we love about living in our new place:
*It´s a seven minute walk to the city's main square, a large open public space with a park and fountain on one end and the cathedral on the other.
*There's an 18th century cathedral literally in our backyard whose bells serenade us many times daily. The church is home to the infamous expanding Christ. His left arm is growing! And when it touches a nearby column, some say a world calamity will occur.
*The jardin, or church garden with its central fountain, palm trees, and tropical flowers is truly breathtaking. It´s gorgeous by day and stunning at night.
*Great restaurants along our pedestrian-only street, Abasolo, including our "own" little Café con Sentido which happens to be directly below our apartment.
* Our rooftop patio with a view to the jardin as well as downtown. (just last night we had the best seats in the house for the Dia de Independencia fireworks)

Just to briefly summarize what we're up to here. John works long days teaching at Kiosk, a language school mainly for adults, in the north of the city. For those of you who know it, it´s very similar to the Spanish Centre in Toronto. On weekends he does a couple of street shows in Expo Plaza, near the bullring (which is appropriate). He appears to be the only juggler-unicyclist in town.
Lucinda started school on August 22 at Jean Piaget, a public school also in the north of the city, about a 20 minute drive from our house. She seems to managing ok despite it being extreme spanish immersion.
I take spanish classes, volunteer at Lucinda's school one day a week helping the english teachers, help shuttle Lucinda to a from school, and keep house.

I'll be posting some photos soon of our road trip and some of Aguas as well.
Future posts will include some general info about Aguas. Other topics I plan to write about: cooking with nopal, just what are churros?, one of the best inventions ever - the lime press, and so on.