Fabrica de Vidrio, Mexico City

This past Thursday I had a really great opportunity to go to the local glass blowing workshop. This wasn’t your, wow look at all this really fine, delicate, expensive art, no. This was a workshop where a group of men worked incredibly hard and efficient to create a large volume of recycled glass products. The…

Oaxaca, Mexico

  Location: Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-ha-ka) is located in the Southwestern part of Mexico about 6 hours via car or 1 hour via plane from Mexico City.   How to get there: To get to Oaxaca (the city) from Mexico City you have a couple of options. By bus: The bus ride from Mexico City to…

Photo of the Day

A man labors over a horse saddle in progress in the back yard workshop, Esteli, Nicaragua. 2016

Homestay, Esteli Nicaragua

As I have mentioned before I had a wonderful time staying at Doña Victoria’s house while in Esteli. As a grandma, many of the members of her family live on the block and her house is full of laugher and love. She and her family treated me as an extension of the family. We danced, celebrated…

Leather Workshop, Esteli Nicaragua

While walking to Las Mujeres Ambientalistas we stopped at a local leather working shop. This shop in the front was a store selling saddles, rope, and more, and in the back held a workshop where young men, most working to pay for school, manipulated, cut, and stapled leather; making items for the store front.  

Horseshoe Making workshop, Esteli Nicaragua

After our stop at the leather workshop we made a quick detour to a horseshoe making workshop. In the back of a house, just after the kitchen, two men worked in a rhythm heating, pounding, and cooling the metal until it was ready. Once ready it was placed in a large canvas bag, already bursting…

Off-The-Beaten-Trail Guide to Nicaragua

I always try to find the most possible information whenever I plan to visit a new location. Where should I stay? What should I do? What shouldn’t I do? Unfortunately, very often I am either unable to find enough information, or the information I do find keeps me on the beaten “back packer trail”. Occasionally,…

Love letter, Nicaragua

Dear Nicaragua, Words cannot express the sadness that has descended into my heart since entering the airport. I have but a handful of minutes until I must leave your embrace. I wish I could stay. From the very first moment my feet touched your ground I have felt an attachment. This attachment has grown from…

Oyii Cartagena

I could not have ended my trip in a place better than Cartagena. Although my visit started off on a precarious foot (bus driver took me to get off on the wrong stop and I ended up walking 1 hour with all my bags in 90+ degree weather). I ended up having a fabulous time….

Medellin

Medellin has my salsa heart. In this beautiful city I took Spanish classes by day and Salsa lessons by night. Eerily similar to Seattle I felt at home between the invasive dampness and hipster inhabitants

Galapagos Summary

It is becoming more and apparent that I will not have enough time as a first year teacher to regularly update my blog with detailed stories and pictures. Instead I am going to upload the rest of my picture for each location and then some day in the far off distance when I’m not drowning…