Now a scholarship recipient.

 Grades
 A, A , A , A-, A-, B+, B+.

Some comments.
Sharp and reflective.
Edgy in all regards.
Clever investigative skills.
A coy sense of humor.
Fun to be around - but we all new that ah.

She'll go all funny about me putting this on , but in my eyes she has worked so hard and has come up with great work .
I'm so proud of her .

Return to Mexico

We just cant help going back to Oaxaca. Winter temperatures mean , skirts t shirts and flip flops and cool evenings. We had thought about checking out some other towns , but hay we were on holiday and Oaxaca is the spot for taking it easy.

We  now have a guest house to recommend. Hotel Azucenas . Just a stroll into the city center great resturants , galleries, bus stations to outer villages , markets and our favourite morning cafe Nuevo Mondo. Also right next door under the blue canopy , Carmen makes great fresh Quesodilla with frijoles, Oaxaca cheese , shredded chicken , if you need a snack before retiring to the roof garden of the hotel to drink beer and read.

Our first food stop is now the smokey Meat Alley at the 20th of November Market

First you choose your cut of meat

 Sweet Onions and chilies

Char grilled

Choose salsa, guacamole, fresh radish , sliced cucumber with lime , fresh tortilla , grab a seat and a coke , roll up your sleeves and dig in . Delish

Squash soup with red and green salsa on tiny tortillas topped with Oaxaca cheese , piquante and limes.

At the market I found a squash soup mix , just add chicken stock to squash , flowers, leaves , corn and season, I would also add some spuds.

When roasted cocoa beans are stone ground the cocoa comes out like a velvety chocolate sauce.

Sugar is the added

The mix is then re-ground along with cinnamon sticks and almonds using the customers prefered recipe for quantities  , then popped in to molds to make blocks of the best darn drinking chocolate in the world.

Christmas Day

                               Christmas dinner at the 'Camelia Diner'  in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Christmas Eve

We headed out of New Orleans on the 23 rd  on our road trip west making our way to Austin , passing through Southern Louisiana  - plantation mansion country - pretty impressive mansions they where too, oaks dripping with Spanish moss and 'gators in the bayou's,  along the route of the  Mississippi dotted with sugar refineries , belching out all kinds of unpleasantries into the still winter air.
Word soon reached us that there were bonfires lit along the levees to show the way for "Papa Noel"
Towards the late afternoon we found our selves in a small town - Gramercy, the crowds had already started gathering so we parked up and joined in the excitement , 120 bonfires stretching for about 3 miles paving  the way for Papa , what a blast , after previous mishaps with tumbling logs there is now a  height restriction of about 5 meters for each fire , pretty impressive constructions , jammed packed with crackers each fire team trying to out do the next , with deafening cracker displays and massive crackling fires , the sky was permanently filled with beautiful fire works and the community had an open home policy for the evening , so we feasted on uncle Bob's gumbo , ham sandwiches and plenty of beer , real southern hospitality.   

Bonfire draped in packets of double happy crackers and rolls of them ready to light to ignite the bonfire