Feliz Natal!

To all near and far, friends and family, we wish a very happy Christmas full of love! 

Insanity at Burning Man

I'm almost finished editing our Burning Man photo album and thought I might share some Insanity with you. This was taken during one of the amazing sunsets. 

Angel's Landing

There is a place on Earth where angels land. That place could only be in Utah where strong religious beliefs pair up with breathtaking natural landscapes. Everything in Zion National Park is named after figures from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. A couple of weeks back we visited Zion. Deciding that the first thing we would do was hike the ubber famous Angel's Landing was easy! The hard part was finishing the hike! Angel's Landing is a strenuous uphill hike on a well maintained path carved and sculpted out on the sides of a massive monolith about a mile high. 

This part was easy! The hard part was when you sight the very steep cliffs and very narrow path that leads you to the trail's end. Once you start needing anchored chains to hold on to, that's when I decided to sit still and wish Pedro a safe trip up the trail and hope he wouldn't be part of the list of people who have fallen off the cliffs! 

The top of Angel's Landing

I still can't believe that such a dangerous hike is opened to the public! It's "hike at your own risk"!

Special request!

Pedro, my darling, when will you return to being a blogger again?! I miss reading your long, descriptive, carefully laid out and curated blog posts about the amazing things you've done. 

Dahon

Pedro has just got home with this:

This is what happens when you let your husband go to yard sales by himself: he come home with 2 Dahon bikes! 

Drying for freedom

There are many things about living in the US that I enjoy: second hand stores and unlimited access to torilla chips! Then there are other, more structural aspects, that make me want scream (or do other less lawful things, but Pedro doesn't let me). We live in an apartment complex in Atlanta where one of the many rules is that we can't put our clothes out to dry in our patios. Nope! You can't reduce you carbon footprint because it doesn't look nice. Patios are for chairs. If you put clothes out to dry, your nice friendly neighbors tell on you! Don't forget, America is the land of the free: where you are free if you have a good lawyer!

Drying For Freedom - Official Trailer from White Lantern Film on Vimeo.

What is Burning Man? (part 3)

It's a "watermelon fairy" in the desert...

"In dust we trust"

It's what "happens in Bathrooms, stays in Bathrooms".

It's an unexpected wedding at the Chrurch-trap

It's Insanity.

It's a space shuttle and an alien.

It's a burning man.

It's a lot of heat.

It's where shoes go to die.

It's where Barbies go to die.

It's where RVs go to die.

It's what your house looks like after you get home. Not funny. But I hope next year we can go again!

What is Burning Man? (part 2)

It's not taking a shower for 1 week. Thank the heavens for wet wipes! I had a hard time running my fingers through my hair even though I did wash it with no rinse shampoo. The dust is everywhere!

It's writing love notes on tree trunks.

It's goggles, scarves, hats and sunsets.

It's baking flat bread in a fire oven with our neighbors of Bread Camp! How cool is that!

It's where you build stuff and then blow it up!

It's a Temple of Whollyness...

...where you take a break and grieve, contemplate, remember or just relax.

It's where we found Dr. Suess!

What is Burning Man? (part 1)

After an amazing week at Burning Man, I now understand why this question is a bit hard to answer. So here is my attempt to do so.

 It's when you shave your hair into a mohawk and drive a 1976 Dodge RV into the desert.

It's where you wait for 7 hours in line to get through the gates.

It's the places you'll go...

...to get a better view...

...and be kissed after climbing a scaffold.

It's swinging around on gymnastic rings wearing a pink tutu. 

It's dancing like crazy at sunset. 

It's happy hour everyday! 

It's riding big bikes. 

back in the day...

...water from the rivers powered mills to grind corn and wheat. People came long distances to grind a week supply of flour to make their bread.

Tommy Martin, the miller

And so history repeats itself. But this time we drove our car, paid with a credit card and bought 15kg of corn flour to make corn bread and grits in our electric stove! 

This is Nora Mills, probably the only functioning water mill in all of Georgia, powered by the Chattahoochee river. What a great discovery!