Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is one of our favorite Méxican holidays. While losing a loved one is difficult, this day is for celebrating the memories of the deceased and reconnecting with those who have passed. November 1st is the day for honoring children and infants, while November 2nd is for honoring adults.

Altars are lovingly and carefully built in homes and businesses to honor the lives of family and friends who have passed. They are traditionally draped with papel picado, filled with photos of the deceased and surrounded by ofrendas (offerings) or items that the spirits will enjoy when they come to visit. These are things that the deceased loved during life and are typically food, drinks, games, etc. The altars also include candles to welcome the spirits, marigolds and incense to guide the spirits by scent, salt to represent the continuance of life and pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and sugar skulls which are symbols of the departed and death.

Gravesite cleaning and decorating is also a major part of the holiday. Families gather at the graves of their loved ones, clean the area and decorate the graves with marigolds, candles, photos, mementos, gifts and incense. This component of the holiday is also happy and festive and becomes a social gathering as family and friends tell stories of the loved ones who have passed and welcome their spirits back.

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish! Today we hit the México City fish market, Mercado La Viga, which is the second largest in the world behind the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. There are hundreds of options sure to satisfy every seafood lover. The market is set up in long rows lined with bins, filled with ice and topped with fish. Half of the space is dedicated to whole sellers while the other half sells direct to lucky people like you and me.

Our visit was focused on finding a whole fish for a family celebration. Marco settled on this 3.5 kilo mahi mahi that he will surely work his magic on tomorrow.

If you're in town, want to see the market, but don't have a place to cook, no worries. Scattered throughout the market and along the parking lot are tons of small kitchens and restaurants with fried and grilled seafood treats for tasting. Traveling to the market is relatively easy. Hop on the metro to the Aculco station on line 8 (5 pesos), leave the station and take a mini bus marked Central de Abastos and ask the driver for Mercado La Viga (5-10 pesos). 

Wear shoes that are okay getting wet and enjoy! 

At 7am on August 31, 2014 a steady cold rain was falling in Mexico City and 20,000 runners were stacked and ready behind the Mexico City Marathon's starting line. Surrounded by the architectural beauty of the city's historic downtown, these athletes were prepared and pumped to cover the 42 kilometers that would lead them through DF to the Olympic Stadium.

While we were not running, we were ready to cheer. In a lucky break, the runners came down Avenida Insurgentes just in front of our building. We grabbed some essentials . . . coffee, water, seats, dogs, blankets . . . and headed down to find a building overhang close to the street. We fell in with a pack of race volunteers and anxiously awaited the runners. For the next few hours we cheered, laughed, smiled and clapped for the determined marathoners as they moved past us at roughly the 30K mark. It was our first time to support from the sidelines and we loved it!

We learned later from the race website that Peruvian runner Raul Pacheco Mendoza won with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes and 26 seconds and the women's category was won by Shewarge Amare from Ethiopia with a time of 2 hours, 41 minutes and 21 seconds.

Congrats to all of the 2014 marathoners!

Macau is situated across the harbor from Hong Kong, both designated as Special Administrative Regions of China. Waiting at baggage pick up, we eventually realized that our backpacks didn’t make it with us from México City. We spent one extra day in our well worn travel clothes, but luckily had the essentials in our day packs and easily made it the extra night.

We jumped right in, taking the local bus from the airport to the city center, about a 30 minute drive. Of course we got on going in the wrong direction our first try, but the helpful bus driver kicked us off 2 stops later, told us to wait there, and about 20 minutes later picked us back up going in the right direction.

We braved our first hostel/guesthouse, SanVa Hotel, and for $18 a night we had a “private” room with a double bed, sink, mirror and ceiling fan in the heart of the city. The bathrooms and showers were down the hall and shared by all guests. I say “private” because the walls didn’t quite reach the ceiling and we could hear all of our neighbors as they could us. We had a particularly chatty and LOUD woman in the room right next to us and heard her give an ear full in Chinese to a lucky soul on the the other end of her cell.

If you can get past the fact you’re not staying in one of the beautiful casino hotels, all things considered SanVa was a good place to stay – inexpensive for the backpacker’s budget, clean, great location, safe and delivered exactly what it promised on the website.

We spent the past few days in Valle de Bravo with Marco's uncle, two cousins and their families. The town is absolutely beautiful, built into the mountains on the edge of Lake Avandaro.

This place has everything – fantastic restaurants with amazing views, mountain biking, hiking, paragliding, boating, waterfalls, historical landmarks and a close knit community. The list goes on and on.

Marco’s cousin Hector is a paraglide instructor and took us out for a jump off the side of a mountain and fly like a bird adventure. It was AMAZING. The pictures highlight our time in this magical place.

Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves and our kigo drives and flits were the perfect adventure and lifestyle shoes. We send a special thank you to Tio Mac, Tia Maria, Pedro, Cynthia, Hector & Elsa for making our visit so much fun.

And on a random note....

It’s official. 
We have our visas for China!

We look forward to visiting the facility of kigo's manufacturing partner, PLUS Compound Technologies, and bringing the story of kigo production to the company's customers.