Some Kind of World Traveler: Leading up to the Winter Solstice 2014

First full day of winter from my balcony, Arocutin, Mexico, December 22, 2014

I'm finally going to get this blog up to date, on this first full day of winter. As you can see from the above photo, I don't believe I'll be having a white Christmas.

A constant visitor ever since I moved into the casita has been this handsome MacGillivray's warbler, which has been repeatedly fluttering up against my bathroom window. (Actually, he's there right now!) I think he sees his reflection and is chasing away the "intruder".

One thing I'm enjoying here is the length of daylight compared to Vermont's. The sun rose this morning at 7:16 and will set this evening at 6:14. And now with arrival of the winter solstice yesterday the days will start getting longer.

The morning of 12/17 I took a
leisurely stroll through my village -
and was surprised to come across
Mary riding on a donkey, looking
for a place to spend the night
I heard that the inn was full. Hope she found a place - her baby is due any day now.

That afternoon I got to take a walk in Mal Pais with my next door neighbor Frances, who knows the area well. She had promised to take a young couple on a hike and invited me to join them. Frances & I met Sofia & Julian at the foot of the driveway and walked up to the wilderness area, taking a trail I hadn't yet explored. We made our way in to a natural rock tower on a hill, which Julian proceeded to climb:


Julian above, Sofia below.

The rest of us chose to stay below - the view was quite good enough from there, thank you very much!

We continued on a loop that brought us back to the trail I had gone in on my first time. Now if only I can remember my way next time..............

I've already posted pics of the inside of my casita and the views from the balcony. Finally, here are a couple pics of the outside:

Side view of the casita, with stairs that go up to the workshop under the upper terrace.


My outdoor dining area

The other day as I was eating lunch here, this big ol' bug (about 2 inches long) was trying to get under the door and into the house:

It's a Jerusalem Cricket and pretty harmless - unless you try to pick it up, in which case it can give you a painful bite.

And here's the main house - the casita is down below on the right:

The afternoon of the 18th I took a 4-hour walk up the valley southwest of the nearby village of San Francisco Uricho - along a dirt road that became a cow path. When that petered out I bushwhacked to the railroad tracks I knew passed in front of the mountain to the west. I followed them to a another dirt road that looped back around to the 1st one. I didn't get lost!