summary of 2005

Mexico City, February 39th, 2006
[click aquí para español]

Dear family and friends:

It is said that we should thank whomever it was who invented the concept of the year. The year is the perfect excuse to forget misfortunes, relive successes, and start all over again. To this, I would add that the year also gives us the excuse to tell you how we lived it, and lets us reflect over it. Since we are still in February, here's the story.

Brazil

Perhaps the most significant event for us this year is that we lived in Brazil for its latter half. Some changes in Ricardo's workplace put the opportunity before us, and we decided to accept it. Though far from an easy situation, it was a good chance to learn up close about a region of the world that was already in our hearts due to its music and its unique fusion. And of course, there was the opportunity to visit places whose natural beauty is legendary.

São Paulo, though (slightly) smaller than Mexico City, is much more cosmopolitan and vibrant. Also as opposed to Mexico City, Sampa does not appear to show much interest in its past. But the present and future grow to take its place -- and how. We thought we saw that future on the streets and in the faces of paulistanos; and if that is the future, then it is more dyanmic, fast-paced, and open to constant reinvention. Cecilia got to see much more of the city than Ricardo, since she made good use of her free time to visit some of the city's seventy museums and its cultural centers. And Sampa is also a magnet for immigrants: Japanese, German, Italian, Lebanese, Swiss... we're all here. The gastronomical variety in this city is superb -- far and away the most exciting in all of Latin America.

"No mar estava escrita uma cidade, no campo ela crescia..." ("In the sea a city was written, in the fields it grew...") wrote the carioca (Rio de Janeiro dweller) poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade, in 1945. Rio de Janeiro is still written there, and indeed it has grown! Between its rolling stanzas and spaces lacking any distinguishable punctuation, in between its hills and lagoons, among its natural beauty and the poverty of its favelas, we found a city laughing at the pace of bossa nova -- unknowing or perhaps unaware of the magic it wields upon those of us who come to visit her. Erstwhile capital of Brazil, its imperial splendor has been restored and is still surrounded by beaches and mountains fragrant with forests. I don't recall having visited many cities as photogenic, au naturel from so many angles, as Rio; with its Lagoa, its beaches, the historic center, colonial neighborhoods such as Santa Teresa, the Lapa aqueduct, the neighborhood of Urca, eagle-eye views over the city from Corcovado and Pão de Açúcar. Across the bay, in Niterói, the new MAC, a spectacular modernist structure resembling a spaceship, accentuates the coast's natural beauty. An hour outside of Rio, we visited Petrópolis, a long-time hill station of the Portuguese aristocracy.

The closest you can be to Africa and still be in the Americas, is the city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia. I think Salvador was the most interesting place we visited -- it is a capital with strong West African influence; it is the home of capoeira (a kind of dance that is also martial art), candomblé ceremonies, the writer Jorge Amado, Gilberto Gil, the samba rhythm, of axé, and of the Orishas. As Salvador was also once capital of Brazil, it is a pleasure to walk the cobblestone streets of Pelourinho, the historic center, which has been recently restored. It is worth getting to know this exciting cultural center and sample some spicy acarajé ("doughball of fire") or a moqueca de siri. Several hours out of Salvador but still in Bahia, lies the Chapada Diamantina national park --formerly a diamond-mining region-- where we took a few long walks.

Far from the cities, the Pantanal ("large swamp"), despite its name, is not a swamp. It is a small part of the Amazon plain, standing exactly in the center of the South American continent. For six months every year it is completely flooded, because the enormous amount of Amazon rainfall is very slowly drained by the flat and clayish land. This sub-sub-region of Brazil ("larger than Portugal", as Brazilian nationalist humor reminds me) is an excellent place to find birds and other animals close-up. Along with our guide Raúl and a fun couple from Spain (Luis and Isabel), we spent several days exploring the area in canoes, motorboats, on horse, or just walking, to see animals such as herons, capybaras (largest rodent in the world), anteaters, jacarés (South American alligator), piranhas, anacondas, assassin trees, etc. Above it all (literally), the amount of sky hanging above brought us much peace.

Brazilians make new friends very quickly, which made us feel right at home despite having to learn the language. We were impressed by Brazil's cultural, geographical, and bio- diversity, and we hope to return some day. There is much left to see of that enormous country!

The outdoors

Ricardo returned to mountaineering, this time urged on by Thomas. In March we climbed the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, which towers over the valley of Mexico City, just a couple of hours drive away. The climb was long -- over 7 hours on the way up, and another 4 hours down. But the views Izta (the "Sleeping Princess") afforded us from 5am all the way to 17,200 feet altitude, were well worth the exhaustion and the cold that are often part of mountaineering expeditions. Photos here.

We also found good areas for walking just outside Mexico City: Dos Cabezas, Ajusco, Cerrito San Miguel, etc. Similarly, we found good new routes for biking, some in the south of the city.

California

It had been a long time since we last visited California, but in June we took revenge. It was a short action-packed trip, but we got to see lots of our friends - though unfortunately we missed many more! We stayed with Erika and Eduardo and their children Sofia and Marco; we visited Avanish, Faye and their children; Howard; Peter, Patricia and their daughters; Sona and Sarasija; Guille, Juan and their newborn Carolina; Tomás, Cecile and Carlita.

For Ricardo it was Priority Zero to sample authentic Thai and Indian restaurants, such as are absent in Mexico City! Eduardo and then Sona took us to some excellent ones. Ricardo even tried to bring back some product to Mexico. The Mother's Extra Hot Lime Pickle (South Indian style, of course) got through Mexico Customs and Agricultural Control, and landed straight in our cupboard (and soonafter, in our stomachs); no such luck for the 20-pound bag of Tilda Basmati rice, which, Ricardo was notified in Form 23A, was to suffer a horrible death by incineration. (And we thought the Inquisition was over.) Ricardo did give some serious thought to mounting a resuce operation, but in the end, good manners prevailed over obsession.

visiting in Mexico

In February, we visited the Catholic Franciscan missions of the Sierra Gorda of Queretaro, and the town of Xilitla, San Luis Potosi. Xilitla is not really that attractive, but we used it as a base to visit the strange citadel of Las Pozas, the surreal dream of an eccentric American millionaire, hidden amongst the trees, creeks and waterpools in the region's exuberant forests.

We also visited Malinalco, a traditional colonial town in the state of Mexico, where you can also find pre-Columbian ruins. On the way to Malinalco, we crossed a large group of pilgrims, including lots of women with crowns of flowers on their heads. We realized we had just reached the town of Chalma, where hundreds of pilgrims come daily to worship the Señor de Chalma.

We spent a great weekend in Acapulco resting, talking with friends, playing soccer on the beach, and reading next to the sea.

Friends

Thomas and Ursula are some new friends -- a German couple who arrived in Mexico during the year, and whom we met via mutual friends living in Malaysia. With them, we explored a few Mexican towns and hiked around hills and mountains near Mexico City.

In Brazil, Mário and Cris were very gracious by opening their house and family to us and guiding us to one facet of Brazilian culture. In Mexico, we enjoyed the time we spent with Jordi, an old friend met in the Annapurnas, and we hope to spend more time with him this coming year.

At work...

For Ricardo, this year became somewhat complicated because September brought the news that the company he works for (Siebel Systems) was being acquired by Oracle Corporation. This understandably frazzled many of his co-workers. But annual results turned out to be very good, and things have been falling into place with time. The integration with Oracle has started and will last for a few months, and it initially appears to be working out better than many of us thought.

Cecilia's atelier, CEPI, grew thanks to the fact that friends Lili, Estrellita, Claudio and Claudia joined the enterprise. It was a very fun year with two large projects -- one involving negatives from Cuba and another involving albumens (a type of photograph made with egg-white, popular in the late 19th century).

Turning forward now...

We wish you the best in this coming year, and we hope we get the opportunity to see each other. If you haven't written to us in a while, please update us about your life. Any plans to visit?

Cecilia + Ricky