Hotel Mision Xalapa Jalapa

Moved into an Ashram today - only 60 pesos a night including chanting, tai chi, meditation & yoga - first lesson 5.20am! - thought I might hang out a few days if I can stand the heat - no fans! - but more importantly no beer and no coffee!!!! It's only 15 mins walk to the town of Coatepec, the coffee capital of Veracruz, so I can get my daily fix! Day one & already met the guru & done 1 hour of yoga with him. Reduced program of ...

... m going to keep surfing and possibly host some day. I was hosted by a girl and her family and they accepted me like family. They only let people stay for a day so she said I could stay at her friends house the next day. Her friends house was nice and it had a pool. They ended up taking me out on the town and we had a good time.

Xalapa, od** auch Jalapa, ist das Zuhause d** b**uehmten Chilischoten. Genau, die Jalapenos. Wir sind ab** aus einem and**en Grund hi**, denn wir wollen mal kurz uns**e normale Museumsscheue v**gessen und in das anthropologische Museum d** Stadt gehen, angeblich das zweitbeste des Landes (nach dem anthropologischen Museum in Mexiko Stadt, wo wir noch hin wollen). Mit dem Bus sind wir nach 2 Stunden auch schon da, nisten uns schnell in einem kleinen Hotel in Zentrumsnaehe ein und ...

Written from Jalcomulco, Mexico: A phone call was just received directly from Jordan at 19:35 our time. Joel is awake and recognizes his brother as well as other friends and family. He has little memory of the incident but is making jokes and talking about kayaking. One lung continues to labour but the doctors plan to take him out of the ICU tomorrow. The family will be sending us further updates as they come along.

... sedated he has fine motor skills which indicate brain function.... but it is too early to tell exactly where that stands until he is free of sedation. This morning Joel was taken off the respirator and was breathing on his own with a non-rebreather mask. He was briefly taken off the sedation where he proved his ability to move and how strong he currently is. He was then sedated again for transport from Xalapa to the airport in Veracruz where he was met by a ...

... in Xalapa."<br><br><br><br>Since then we have been staying in Jalcomulco trying to keep ourselves occupied. Yesterday we went on a hike to the spot where it happened with flowers and candles, and last night we went to the hospital to support Joel´s family before he flew back to Canada. We are currently getting ready to go to Huatulco and finish the trip.<br><br><br><br>Our thoughts are with Joel and his family."

... came across a party in a corn field, so Jim said "Anyone want to say hi?" and we stopped and went over. Of course, we got invited in to listen to the music (we went over to listen to them play and sing with guitars) and then they gave us tequila and roasted sweetcorn with mayonaise, chilli and lime. Stef got up and played The Gambler and some others and we listened to them play. It was an amazing end to an amazing weekend.

... thatr was in town and found out that there was going to be a bull fight on cinco de mayo, se thats obviously what we did for cinco de mayo. We arrived early bc we thought it would be difficult to get tickets, but found out later that there was no high demmand for tix. But nyway so we spent the day in Coatopec again, got some lunch, couple beers and a couple hours before the torro, we decided to go check ...

... greatly. Here is Pablo at the bottom of one of the steep hills. and here is a pic of this young girl probably around 10 or 12 that rode a low rider cruzer the whole way, man was she a trooper and she refused to quit, or walk her bike even after she took a spill coming into Xico it was really cool. The most exciting part of the trip came on a small trail through coffee plantations, I was second in line behind Raul ...

... them a bit... Though I tried to keep to my work schedule and not seem too integrated with this group for fear the Murrains might confuse me as a missionary (against PC protocol) and that I had tons of stuff to give away, it was really nice to be around English speakers. More than that, they were very nice and really made me feel like family. They invited me to eat dinner with them every night, though I only took them up a few times. I did spend most nights talking with them ...