I had a great trip to the middle of Mexico at the end of January. I spent 8 days living in the middle of nowhere, Mexico. It was a great experience where I got to see people really live off the land. Take no more than they need and waste nothing. Nearly everything was re-used and recycled. Nothing was thrown away. Nobody used plastic. It was a amazing. I took a billion pictures and I thought I'd share a few of them here. Ok... this is more than a few!
The rest (if you can imagine) are HERE.
The chickens were let out during the day and went back into their pen happily on their own at night.
As I was walking past this hen's nest one day I saw her off looking for food so I thought I'd grab
a couple of pictures of the nest. That didn't last long. As soon as she saw someone near her nest
she ran straight for it and covered it back on. I got exactly ONE photo of the uncovered eggs!
These two had full reign of the house. They were often seen in the kitchen. We had chicken for dinner
(store bought, not one from the yard) exactly once. My sister couldn't bear to eat her friends after that!
This is corn that the family grew that has dried. This corn is taken off of the husk and fed to the
chickens. We also took a bucket of this corn down to the mill lady who charged the equivillent of
70c to mill the corn to meal that was used to make the day's tortillas.
Even Rebecca got in on the act of husking the corn.
This is the machine that milled the corn.
These are the honey bee hives that are used to keep the bees/collect the honey. Our first day we
got there late so all the bees were asleep, but it was too dark to get much of the scenery (great
because this was on top of the mountain so you got to see all of the surrounding villages).
These were taken the second day we climbed the mountain. Since it was day time the bees were VERY
active and we couldn't get near the hives.
This was the river we walked across to get to the milpa (Field) where the corn is grown.
This wood and metal hoe was attached to the horse and used to plow the field.
In order to water the field they would divert river water and control it with dams to make sure
that the entire field was properly watered.
This is a picture of a restaurant in the city of Putla. We had tacos for breakfast/lunch while
we were in town shopping for groceries.
This look exemplified the look we got ALL THE TIME when people saw us. One little girl actually
hid in the woods watching us from behind a tree as we passed. White people in the heart of Mexico
are quite the rarity.
This is the meat market. The thing that really struck me here is that all the meat sits out on
the counter. None of it is refrigerated. And there are a LOT of flies in Mexico.
The food is all cooked over a wood fire on the stove. To make a second "burner" coals are raked
out from the heart of the fire to the edge of the 3 bricks that are used as a "burner" to rest the pot.
I loved their kitchen. I took MANY pictures of it. It was the primary place that we spent our time
when we were "inside", though much of our time at home was spent on the front porch.
The sink you see here is used to wash the dishes as well as the clothes. They had a washer machine
for the clothes, but Mama always washed them by hand before she used it. She said it didn't get the
clothes clean enough. I can say with all certainty that my clothes have never been so clean!
The curtain on the right is for the toilet and the curtain on the left was for the shower. There was
running water, but it was well and all cold. If we needed hot water it was heated and used from a pot.
The rest (if you can imagine) are HERE.
The chickens were let out during the day and went back into their pen happily on their own at night.
As I was walking past this hen's nest one day I saw her off looking for food so I thought I'd grab
a couple of pictures of the nest. That didn't last long. As soon as she saw someone near her nest
she ran straight for it and covered it back on. I got exactly ONE photo of the uncovered eggs!
These two had full reign of the house. They were often seen in the kitchen. We had chicken for dinner
(store bought, not one from the yard) exactly once. My sister couldn't bear to eat her friends after that!
This is corn that the family grew that has dried. This corn is taken off of the husk and fed to the
chickens. We also took a bucket of this corn down to the mill lady who charged the equivillent of
70c to mill the corn to meal that was used to make the day's tortillas.
Even Rebecca got in on the act of husking the corn.
This is the machine that milled the corn.
These are the honey bee hives that are used to keep the bees/collect the honey. Our first day we
got there late so all the bees were asleep, but it was too dark to get much of the scenery (great
because this was on top of the mountain so you got to see all of the surrounding villages).
These were taken the second day we climbed the mountain. Since it was day time the bees were VERY
active and we couldn't get near the hives.
This was the river we walked across to get to the milpa (Field) where the corn is grown.
This wood and metal hoe was attached to the horse and used to plow the field.
In order to water the field they would divert river water and control it with dams to make sure
that the entire field was properly watered.
This is a picture of a restaurant in the city of Putla. We had tacos for breakfast/lunch while
we were in town shopping for groceries.
This look exemplified the look we got ALL THE TIME when people saw us. One little girl actually
hid in the woods watching us from behind a tree as we passed. White people in the heart of Mexico
are quite the rarity.
This is the meat market. The thing that really struck me here is that all the meat sits out on
the counter. None of it is refrigerated. And there are a LOT of flies in Mexico.
The food is all cooked over a wood fire on the stove. To make a second "burner" coals are raked
out from the heart of the fire to the edge of the 3 bricks that are used as a "burner" to rest the pot.
I loved their kitchen. I took MANY pictures of it. It was the primary place that we spent our time
when we were "inside", though much of our time at home was spent on the front porch.
The sink you see here is used to wash the dishes as well as the clothes. They had a washer machine
for the clothes, but Mama always washed them by hand before she used it. She said it didn't get the
clothes clean enough. I can say with all certainty that my clothes have never been so clean!
The curtain on the right is for the toilet and the curtain on the left was for the shower. There was
running water, but it was well and all cold. If we needed hot water it was heated and used from a pot.
But I could take you North or to the farm and you would see the same as you saw in Mexico!
