Hacienda Mixiuhca Update, plus Hurbanaventuras

First, the bad news. Then, the good news.

It's been a fungal massacre, with all this damn rain. I lost ALL of my basil plants.

There has also been a chicken massacre, and in this way I lost ALL of my salad greens.

Regardless, I still have a bunch of okra, all my tomatos, two of my cukes, and some marigolds (though I did have to sacrifice some of them for reasons of exaggerated competition). I'm trying out this upside-down hanging planter idea that NPR told my mom about. Furthermore I have abandoned the idea of organic ag in the city. It's not space efficient. Ergo, slow-release granular fert from Mercado de Jamaica. Tomorrow: photos.

Now, Hurbanaventuras:

I helped one friend give a basic bike-repair workshop downtown today, near the Monument to the Revolution, and brought Marcos' grandpappy's bike to fix that sucker up a bit. The plan was then to quickly drop it off at home, then go meet my other friend in the Coyoacan metro station. However, the plan was somewhat derailed when we took too long on the bike, so I had to go straight to Coyoacan, bike and all. Which practically isn't a problem, since on Sundays they let you take your bike on the Metro. Regardless, the problems came after I decided the metro was lame and rolled the whole way there on two wheels (which felt SO GOOD after three and a half months of total bikelessness!!). The guy just didn't show. I however took the opportunity to chitchat with an old man selling tiny pueblan pies and then the Metro police (who are less trigger-happy, fortunately, than BART police...) and suddenly this guy with a funny accent shows up and asks where the center of coyoacan is. I tell him I can help him get there, since I am at this point TOTALLY done with waiting for my no-show buddy. So I give him the mini walking tour of the joint, and he invites me to eat, to which proposal I wholeheartedly agree. He then picks this hella trendy spot right on the Coyoacán plaza, all typical Mexican colors and dishes, all girls with scarves and hip boots and guys with intellectual glasses and stylized hairdos, and we order some of the best chilanga tlayudas I have ever eaten, a glass of pulque (which he found disgusting, though I like it), and a couple caballitos of strong-as-hell mezcal. It turned out he's a Colombian lawyer, and he was leaving for his home turf this very night. The point is, it was this sort of Universe-speaking-to-me kind of moment and it was kind of fun to share some of the Mexico I've discovered with a lost foreigner. It was this weird consolidation exercise... okay. to bed. tomorrow i'll post hacienda pictures... buenas noxes.