On our day off last weekend Annette and I, tired of 16 hour workdays stuck behind the computer, decided to go on a little adventure. We headed toward Taxidho, a natural hot-spring in a canyon in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico. We'd been taken there 5 years ago by a neighbor who hoped the waters there would cure his diabetes-caused loss of eyesight.

The lady who took our money for this toll road said they had done a lot of "improvements" on it recently. As you can see in the photo (click for larger version) it was cut out of the side of the canyon, sinuous and sans any form of guardrail, and only slightly wider than our car. We met a van coming up on our way down, and a large truck (where was it going!?) going down on our way out... that was quite thrilling.

It took us about 3 hours to get to Taxidho (pronounced: Tah-SHE-do) and the last 15 miles was on cobblestone paved roads seen in this photo. As you can see we passed though classic Mexican countryside... arid, full of cactus, and absolutely beautiful. 

Arriving at the hot springs, we noticed that it had been built up considerably. There was now a 25 pesos fee to drive down into the canyon (see photo of that trecherous road below) and about 4 times more people in the water. Instead of 5 to 8 people like we'd encountered other times we'd made this trip, now there were around 30 -- it was like Ibiza or the Hamptons in August!

Apparently weekends are the hip time to do wash in Taxidho and some do it clothed and other... not so clothed. We hung out in the volcanic-heated waters for about 2 hours. From the constant stares, we deduced that Taxidho is pretty much a "locals only" spot. I'm thinking that my rapidly-burning, scottish-inherited, white-as-a-baby's-bottom skin gave me away as a non-local.

How a hungry girl from Mexico came to feed Georgia

"One day a little Mexican girl named Yolanda rode into the United States in style, in a green Chevy Monte Carlo. The driver stopped at a restaurant near Los Angeles for what would be the girl's first taste of America: fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

For a child who had survived most of her eight years on beans, hand-ground tortillas and the occasional nibble of heaven she called huevos - eggs - eating in an honest-to-goodness restaurant was more magical than the borrowed birth certificate that delivered her across the border." (click here to read more)

This is a wonderfully written - and classic american rags-to-riches story - but with a little salsa added.

Considering the subject of our note (below) about clowns in Mexico, I thought you would like this photo that we took from our car window. It's common to see clowns at stoplights entertaining drivers and trying to make a bit of money before the light changes. This photo catches Se�or Clown between shows reading the newspaper. I whipped out the camera and took this shot because, to me, it was so incongruous to see this clown sitting out in public reading the paper as if... well, as if he weren't dressed up like a clown!

Clowning around here is no laughing matter

Last sunday some friends invited us to lunch after church. It was an upscale restaurant with fancy waiters, tablecloths, winelist and.... a clown! A girl clown with 2-inch long metallic red eyelashes that made me think she was winking at me every time to light twinkled off them. She greated kids as they came in and didn't seem to be there for any particular party but rather seemed to be one of the regular staff. I had no idea why until i read this article.

Like much of what we experience here in Mexico, it's wacky yet fascinating... maybe that's why we like living here :-)

Today in the shower i noticed that the drain cover (metal grate thing to keep the soap or jewelry from going down the hole) had come loose, no longer held in place by the caulking. I lifted it up and - ugh - found tons of goopy hair gunk sticking to the underside. I cleaned it out, replaced the drain cover and left the little hair wad piled near the edge of the shower planning on throwing it into the trash once i was done cleaning my dirty little body.

But my nice warm shower plans were dashed when Annette came in, spied the offending hair mush pile, and cried "Yuck! What is that?! Throw it away, pleeeeeeaaase."

I told her i would as soon as i got out of the shower, but she said, "Can't you just throw it in the trash now? It looks like poo... it's so gross." I oh-so-dilicately suggested that she could just not look at it. But she responded, "But even if i don't see it, i'll know it's there... just like if there's a brownie in the house... it calls out to me even if i'm not looking at it!"

It was a hilarious response and good enough to get me out of the shower to throw away the wad of hair goop that instant. After all, I wouldn't want it haunting Annette :-)

Doubting the Doomsayers

Granted, most people would say I lean toward the optimistic end of the spectrum, so this article resonates with my natural leanings, but the truth is things really aren't as bad as they say (whoever "they" are). For example, according to best estimates, 25 percent�not 80�of the world's population live in substandard housing. Thirty years ago the global literacy rate was 53 percent; now only 20 percent of adults cannot read. The percentage of people suffering from malnutrition has dropped by more than half, to 20 percent. Three of four people used to have no access to clean water; now three of four people have it. And in the last decade, abortions declined by almost half.

Click here to take a look at the rest of this realistically optimistic article Philip Yancey.