La Granada, the pomegranate

Yesterday Luix drove myself & his friend Patricia, an architect, out to his ranch in the hills, some 30 kilometres outside of San Cristobal, in the direction of Comitan. It is called La Granada, named after the fruit pomegranate. We took a long hike. Almost at the top of the hill we got to a rushing waterway, cutting through limestone to descend the mountain. On the way back to Luix's ranch house we walked through milpa, cornfields. The corn has been picked already & the rest of the plant is still standing, drying in place, to be cut down for animal feed soon. Amongst the corn were many flowers growing, much yellow, red & purple.

I have been going wild with my new camera. I would share the pictures with you right now if only I knew how. Maybe soon. Still, I will have these photos to show you some time in the future. I like the pictures my camera takes & there is so much here to photograph.

The sun was setting a deep orange as we finished our hike & we built a fire, ate chicken & chorizo & drove back to San Cristobal de las Casas. Ale picked me up at Luix's & we went home. When I walked up into my room & opened the door I was met with something akin to a biblical plague. There were wasps all over the floor, bed, window sills, bathroom, & the shower floor alone must have had about 50 wasps lying there. When they are inside like that they get kind of drowsy, but can still sting wickedly.

Ale had told me the night before to make sure to close all the windows when we leave in the morning, because there is a worldwide overpopulation of the wasp, due to a lack of natural predators. She said that once it gets warm outside they come indoors. I had showered & opened one of the bathroom windows a crack to let the steam escape & stupidly, forgotten to close it.

Alejandra & I spent an hour squishing wasps, chasing wasps, spraying wasps & praying not to get bitten in the process. I did get one bite on my thight, but that was the extent of the damage. I think Ale & I now qualify as natural predators to the wasp, as we must have killed about 100 of them at least. Good for taking out any agression or frustration. Still this morning I found a few more, but I made sure every window was tight before we left this morning & I hope for a different reception when I return home tonight.

Now I am going to begin phoning people I know here & see if I can make some appointments & book some workshops. I hope you all are doing well. I shall blog in again in a few days to keep you posted as to my activities here in southern Mexico. Much love to you.