along the trail

As you take a walk in our shoes, you might be taken along the trail. While Dallas and I have both always like doing things outside, Dallas has been the one to more so enjoy the hiking aspect of the outdoors. The further into the wilderness...the better. The harder the incline...the better.

Driving down from the US border into Mexico we follow the Sierra Madre Mountains. Here in Delicias, we are not right in the mountains but we can see them in the distance and when we visit neighbouring towns we drive closer to them. We've been told that there are some nice picnic areas and trails in the Mountains close by, also with a river, and we hope to visit there soon.

Now to get to the point of this along the trail title. This is a new series we wanted to start on this blog... as you follow us and step into our shoes as you read, we would like to point out various aspects of our life in Mexico. As you walk along a trail in a Provincial Park, for example, you'll find points of interest to stop and take a look at. Here, it may be culture...food...people...the way things look....things that might be different than the way we lived before we moved here.

The purpose of this is not to just point out the differences but to allow you to see a bit of what our life is like here in Mexico. To show a glimpse into how things look from where we are at.

So to launch this series... :-) let's start with something basic. Our house. I don't have pictures or video of our house yet, but there are a few items in our house that might look different than our house in Canada did. Things that are common in Delicias, and many other parts of Mexico.

This is our upstairs bathroom. Bathtubs are very uncommon here, so we have a nice big shower (the shower head is to the left behind the curtain). The blue tub is for the boys...although Carter likes showering sometimes too. They do fit in there together! also to note in this picture...no toilet paper goes in the toilet, all in the garbage can because of the way the sewer is set up. don't ask me to explain that one.

This is our backyard...it's a little bigger than this but as you can see it's a cement patio. Also very common here. You won't find a lot of grassy yards, although here in Delicias there are a lot of nice parks with grass, benches, etc. We saw one too with slides and swings so we'll have to check it out. We hang our laundry to dry b/c it dries REALLY fast here! That blue thing to the left is Carter's pool. The neighbour girls came over this morning and swam with Carter, it was the first time we met them. ONe is 7 and the other is 1 1/2. He loved having kids to play with.

In our backyard we also have our propane tank, which is used for our hot water tank and for our stove. When it's empty we call someone to come and give us a replacement one.

hmmm...so what's different about Dallas?

ok so nothing. At least that I can tell here. Look BEHIND. All windows and doors are barred for safety. Except our upstairs windows but they're harder to get at. This door by the way is from our backyard leading into our dining room.

This is our stove. It is fueled by propane so to light the stove we use a match. To light the elements we turn the gas on and hit the switch that sparks it. Between the elements you see the tortilla warmer! Under it is just a long element. Tortilla's are eaten a lot here and we really like them. A nice quick meal is tortilla's filled with beans, cheese, and tomato, melted together on the frying pan (or you can use this warmer but it's not non stick so we wrecked it a little already...). Then add your salsa, avocado.... mmm

We also use the tortilla warmer to make our toast every morning. Works great. Under the oven is not a drawer, it's where you put things to broil them. That way the flame is on top of the food.

and thus concludes this episode. Tune in next time....