Celebrate The Beat

Celebrate The Beat came to the area again this year and Alex was finally old enough to participate.  What is Celebrate The Beat(CTB)?  You can read all about this great not-for-profit program by clicking the link above.  Briefly, in there own words:

Our Mission is to teach inspirational music and dance classes that help children discover their potential by motivating them to believe in themselves, to value artistic expression, and to develop a personal standard of excellence.

There is a lot more to it than this and you really have to see a performance to understand the results.  We were encouraged to attend one of these performances a couple years ago and immediately became one of our favorite events.  The staff from CTB goes to local schools and gathers kids of a certain age who are interested in participating in the program.  It does not matter if the school is a one room classroom or a larger school in a bigger town.  The kids are assembled and during the course of a few weeks they are taught some basic dance moves, choreography and then they join other kids from other schools for a large performance.  The kids perform identifying their school associating by wearing a colored T-shirt.

This is NOT some polished dance recital.  Some kids can really move and dance, some kids really can't but that's not the point of the program.  These kids are out there giving it all they have with only a T-shirt, a smile on their faces, the skills they have and the coaching they have received in the previous weeks.  The smiles and energy are contagious and the kids walk away from the experience for the better and so do those in attendance.

Alex watched from the sidelines the past two years until she was welcome to attend a dance class last spring given by the fantastic "Maestra de Dance", Colleen and her staff.  When CTB came around again this year, Escuela Del Mundo did not have a group of their own so based on Alex' participation last year in Colleen's class she was welcome to join a group called "Grupo de Excellencia" represented in orange.  She was the youngest participant in her group. This is where Ashley and I play the proud(and amazed parents) since Alex has not really had any dance experience.  She does not even turn on music and dance in front of the mirror or see dance on television.  How she understands movement, beat, rhythm, coordination and stay cool on stage performing is beyond us.  Ashley danced when she was young and I've always been active and fairly athletic.  I guess some of those genes have passed down to our daughter in some way because it has been amazing to watch her just go do it and do it well.  She loves it and that's what matters.  You will see in the video Alex' "wardrobe malfunction" when someone stepped on her shoe and she tries like crazy to keep going and pull her shoe back on.  Got to love live performances.  Can't wait until next year.  

There is more to the performance than this but these videos highlight most of the action that Alex' group was in.  If you are not into the Spanish introductions, you can forward past the first two minutes or so of Part 1.  Perhaps videos only grandparents will love but fun to say the least.

Part 1

...and part 2

...and part 3

...and part 4

San Sebastian del Oeste

Last weekend we had yet another five day weekend so I thought it would be fun to get out of town, in Mexico, with my family.  On the pacific side of Mexico the mountains come right to the sea, so even though we live on the beach every time we drive to Puerto Vallarta we see beautiful huge mountains  which always remind me of Utah.  We have been wanting to explore those mountains but we were either lazy, didn't have enough time or we had Dillon to think of.  As much as we miss Dillon and wish he were here we do have a bit more freedom these days.

 I met a Delta pilot in line at customs here in Puerto Vallarta about 2 years ago who owns a casita in San Sebastian that he rents out and after a quick email learned that the casita was available.  Yeah, we are finally going to the mountains!  And it is only a two hour drive from here.

Casita Alicia

San Sebastian used to be a thriving mining town in the 1800's  with a population of 20,000.  Today, there is no more mining and the population is about 600.  The town itself is small, we wondered how 20,000 people actually fit in it.  All of the streets are cobble stone and most are super skinny.  The houses and structures are right on the street.  Very European and actually the town adopted the Spanish style in that its colors are basic white and red with tile roofs.

As in every town, San Sebastian had its plaza and local church.  We picked a great weekend as they were having their annual Racilla and Cafe' celebration in the plaza.  Racilla is tequila's lesser known sibling and is often called "Mexican moonshine".  It is also made from the agave plant as tequila but real "Tequila" has to also be made in the town of Tequilla to take on it's name.  There was also free local food and Mexican entertainment and an orchestra on Saturday night.

The local church

Inside the church.  Alex was a bit frieked out and would only stand at the entrance.

Tourist season had pretty much ended so we found that we were the only Gringos in town.  We also learned the true meaning of "siesta".  Being from the States and Sayulita, both of which do not have time for siestas, we ventured out at around 4:00 to look around and get an early dinner.  HAHA.  It was as if the evacuation horns had gone off but we didn't hear them.   Ah, so this is "siesta".  Virtually all the windows and doors were closed in town so we went home and ventured out later.

 We also learned that theft is a non issue there considering the one key we used to lock our casita.  Unlike Sayulita, almost no homes had bars on the windows.

We figured that if we got mugged we could beat them with our key.

We loved waking up in the morning and sitting on the porch with a beautiful view, crisp air,  listening to the leaves clapp and wearing our fleece.  It was so quiet without the ocean waves in the background.

Our beautiful view

Ozzy enjoying the peace and quiet in the sun with his morning coffee

Everybody's day is better when Trace wakes up on the right side of the bed

We took a couple hours and drove down the road, through and old gate and found Hacienda Jalisco.  The structure was originally built by the Spanish 200+ years ago as a secure place for ore transfers but is now a B&B of sorts.  The remains of the ore smelters, stables and grounds can be toured as well.  We had a private tour with the son of the caretaker who was on a school holiday.  Worth the 40 pesos.

Hacienda Jalisco

On Sunday we drove 40 minutes up to La Bufa, a local mountain peak, and hiked to the summit which sits at about 7000 feet above sea level.  It felt like hiking in our neighborhood in Park City with the coolness, air and smell of evergreens until you came upon a huge agave plant and we were reminded that we were not in Utah anymore.  I couldn't help but think how much Dillon would have loved it up there. 

Giant agave

The view from La Bufa.  San Sebastian is in the lower right corner.

San Sebastian from above

I am so happy to be back in the mountains but I wonder if there are any waves back home.

This trip marks our first real Mexico adventure that was not surf or friends related.  It was close and easy to get to.  For a short weekend it was totally worth the effort to explore a very, very small part of this area of Mexico's history.  Hopefully, this is just the beginning of our trips here in Mexico.

Anthony Bourdain says...

A brief article from Anthony Bourdain about Mexico.  For some reason Anthony Bourdain, in some small part, helped light the fire that pushed me towards considering this adventure...and eat of course.  

http://anthonybourdain.tumblr.com/post/84641290831/under-the-volcano