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Shopping in Huatulco: Mazunte 

Natural Cosmetics

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Shop Local And Green At This Mazunte Cosmetics Boutique

Nestled in the quaint community known as Mazunte, this natural cosmetics shop offers a wide range of eco-friendly products. Established in the mid 90’s the boutique came to fruition after sea turtle hunting was banned in 1990, a ban that left nearly everyone in the area unemployed.

Luckily, in 1993 founder of The Body Shop Anita Roddick paid a visit to this small beachtown. Quickly falling in love with both the town and the people, the idea of a cosmetics shop was formed. 15 families from the community subsequently created the Cosméticos Naturales de Mazunte, S. de S.S.

A few years later, with the help of David Hitchen- a trained technician from The Body Shop – locals learned how to use the surrounding resources to their advantage. Learning how to mix, make, and mold organic ingredients into a variety of beauty products. It was this training that turned the Natural Cosmetics shop into the success it is today. The boutique sees each product from start to finish and truly defines the idea of sustainable tourism!

How to get there

Mazunte is located about 45 minutes west of Huatulco. A complete set of direction can be found via Google maps at the bottom of this post.

Below is an incomplete list of available products:

Shampoo

This product is available in a variety of sizes from 30ml to 250ml, prices range from about $1.50 USD to $8.00 USD depending on the size.

Main ingredient: Vitamin C

Conditioner

Ranging in size from 30ml to 250ml, this product is priced from approximately $1.50 USD to $7.00 USD.

Main ingredient: Avocado Oil

Soaps

Thanks to the guidance of The Body Shop, this boutique offers a wide range of scented soaps. They are priced at approximately $2.50 USD for an 85g bar. Available scents include; Lime, mint, coconut, mandarin, rose, and chamomile…to name a few.

Shower Gel

Available sizes are 30ml or 110ml and are priced at approximately $2.00 USD and $4.50 USD, respectively.

Main ingredient: Coconut Oil

Deodorant

This cream deodorant comes in a small 60g tub for about $4.50 USD.

Main ingredient: Coconut Oil

Sun Screen

Sun Screen comes in two sizes – 70ml and 170ml – and has an SPF of 20. The smaller size will cost you about $7.50 USD while the larger is about $18.00 USD.

Main ingredients:Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil and Vitamin E

Scented Body Oil

These scented body oils are offered in 4 different sizes from 30ml to 250ml and ranging in price from about $2.00 USD to $12.50 USD. Available scents include green apple, rose and cinnamon.

Main ingredients: Coconut Oil, Sesame Oil, Corn Oil and Vitamin E

Lip Balm

Lip Balm is available in coco and eucalyptus and costs about $4.00 USD per 14g tub. Not only do these lip balms sooth your lips, but they also provide protection from the sun!

Main ingredients: Castor Oil, Coconut Oil, and Beeswax with Coco butter in the first and Eucalyptus Oil.

Mosquito Repellant

Available in two sizes, this all-natural mosquito repellant costs about $5.50 USD for the smaller one and $10.00 USD for the larger.

Contact Information

Tel: 01 (958) 587 4860
Email: cosmenat@hotmail.com
www.cosmeticosmazunte.com

If you find yourself in Mazunte be sure to stop by Mazunte Natural Cosmetics, not only will you be helping the local economy but you’ll be walking away with some phenomenal products!

Mexico’s offbeat fairs and festivals Christine Delsol, Special to SFGate Updated 09:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Mexico’s offbeat fairs and festivals

Christine Delsol, Special to SFGate

Updated 09:00 p.m., Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Festival Internacional de rgano y Musica Antigua honors Oaxacan culture through its historic pipe organs.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

A closer look at the organ in Oaxaca's cathedral, one of the instruments honored by the Institute of Historic Oaxacan Organs.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

Thousands of people stream into Chichen Itza to witness the spring and fall equinox phenomenon when the angle of the sun as it sets creates a sinuous shadow (from hitting the pyramid's stepped terraces) that "slithers" down the pyramid's northern staircase to meet the gigantic stone serpents' heads at the bottom.

 Photo: Wikipedia / SF

Ferias Nacional del Mezcal in Oaxaca's Guelaguetza seeks to reposition mezcal as an important part of local and national culture.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

A producer demonstrates the processing of the agave plant during the Mezcal Fair.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

Agave mango cream is one of many mezcal products virtually unknown outside of Mexico. At the Mezcal Fair visitors learn about everything from the creation process to pairings with Oaxacan cuisine.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

Oaxaca's Noche de los R banos features elaborate sculptures created from huge (up to 6.5 pounds) radishes.

 Photo: Oaxaca Ministry Of Tourism / SF

Evening in Huatulco, Mexico Clear sky with the moon beaming down.

CATFISH KEITH - Slap a Suit on You - Guadua - Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico - Feb 4 2012 - HD

Published on Jul 22, 2012 by MsPillboxhat

CATFISH KEITH, playing 'Slap a Suit on You' at Guadua (on the beach), Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Feb. 4, 2012
Recorded & Edited by Penny Cahill, Pres.
Fish Tail Records
http://www.catfishkeith.com
CATFISH on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Catfish-Keith/162722132451
PENNY on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/penny.cahill.3
FISH TAIL RECORDS on FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fish-Tail-Records-Home-of-Catfish-Keith/183929...

surfers huatulco 20jul12 100_0352.MOV

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Slightly Stoopid – “Don’t Stop”

Slightly Stoopid – “Don’t Stop”

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Puerto Escondido

APR 23

Posted by TC

The sea looks deceptively calm from the concrete roof of my little hotel on the beach in Puerto Escondido. It’s hot, and the wind kicks up some dust from the street of sand below. I’m at the far end of Zicatela beach, a spot called La Punta (the point).

From this angle the straight blue line of ocean towers over the beach, where good waves come crashing in day and night. I see small concrete houses, including a pink castle, but no high-rise exclusive condos. I hear the ceaseless crash of the waves, but no beachside street traffic. The Oaxaca coast is a little far from everything, and the roads to get here are a little too curvy, but there is plenty of return for making the extra effort.

Puerto Escondido is right about in the middle of Mexico’s southern coast. Its main beach Zicatela is a surf beach. La Punta is the spot on the far end of the beach from Puerto Escondido. Called La Punta for its rocky point break, it’s full of surfers all day. The beach is wide and clean. Small houses and hotels are visible between lots of palms, all set back from the beach. As of now there is no hotel larger than a story or two, no pumping beach music, no hustlers. Only every third building in La Punta is made for tourists: small hotels/hostels, good restaurants, and at least one Spanish school. The rest is all for the locals: grocery stores, laundromats, private homes, a church.

I ruin my bodyboard in the heavy breakers my first day out. I keep thinking to rent a surfboard, but I’m not so good and am happy just swimming all afternoon. Plus, my legs are already sore from the several hour runs I do on the beach each morning. If you go around the rocks and cliffs past La Punta, you will find a near-virgin beach on the other side. There is only just a little development on the hills above, none on the wild beach.

8 Venado, my hotel/hostel, is family-run, clean, and convenient. I get a sizable room with balcony and private bath for 100 pesos, or about $8 US. They also have dorm rooms. The best feature for me is a sizable open-air kitchen. I can pay a little more for a hotel (you can go cheaper than 100 pesos in Oaxaca) and will more than make up for it by brewing my own coffee and making simple meals, like Mexican buns (teleras) with mango jam.

A sand-road block up from my hotel is a great four-way. On one corner is a falafel place, the other a burger place, and then next to the burgers is a pizza place. It’s all first rate: all-beef grilled burgers, thin crust pizza, and the first falafel I’ve found in Mexico. All have outdoor seating, and if they don’t serve beer then they don’t mind if you bring your own. Prices are low at less than $5 a meal.

I venture into Puerto Escondido proper for Mexican food in the market. First we go to a juice bar – I have an alfalfa mixture and my friend gets straight-up orange juice, each for about $1.50. Then at one of the little market restaurants I have mole negro and my friend gets a big seafood soup of fish, shrimp, clams, and octopus. Each meal is about $3 US, drink included. If you ever want authentic eats, go to the little restaurants in the market, and always choose the busiest one.

Then I go around to buy some essentials: a big bag of finely ground, rich local coffee, some almonds, some raisins, and a big 3-day papaya. This all costs me around $12 US. The larger, more enclosed part of Puerto Escondido’s market has the stuff for tourists: t-shirts, handicrafts, beach gear.

The walk along the beach from central Puerto Escondido back to La Punta takes about an hour. You pass through the more developed part of Zicatela with its little tourist strip of restaurants and souvenir shops. It’s set back from the beach and not too gaudy. Here I see some even cheaper hotel deals – as low as $4 US a night advertized. At night it’s a place to stroll with a big, sweating Michelada in hand.

Farther along are more hippy-like establishments. My friend and I stop at a bar/coffeeshop full of books and cool carved masks.

Puerto Escondido is a about half a day from Oaxaca City on a very twisty road. Be warned if you get carsick. Second class buses and combis are cheapest at about $5 for the trip. The place to go is the second class bus terminal by the Centro de Abastos, a big market in Oaxaca. On the way to Puerto Escondido you will pass San Jose del Pacifico, a mushroom town in the mountains; Pochutla, a good hub for all points on the Oaxaca coast; and low key beaches Zipolite and Mazunte. You can also get direct buses from Mexico City. Check out this post for tips on bus travel in Mexico.

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Toluca, Estado de Mexico, Mexico →

Working in Mexico – the FM3 Visa

AUG 17

Posted by TC

I went through the FM3 visa application process in 2010 in Toluca, the capital of Estado de Mexico. As a nationwide system, it shouldn’t be much different where you are, but you never know. Expect all of this information to change. Here is the website: www.inm.gob.mx

With the FM3 you will receive an official-looking letter stating which field you can work in. As a teacher my field is education. There are many fields, like engineering. This means you can have as many jobs as you want as long as they are in your field.

The FM3 visa is a card, not a little book like before. With it you are a non-immigrant temporary resident of Mexico. You can work anywhere in the country, not just the state you were originally hired in. It must be renewed every year for a maximum of five years.

First you need a letter from the company that wants to hire you. With the letter they must provide either a tax statement or some kind of permission from the government to hire foreign workers. Unless you will be their first foreign worker, they will know exactly what to give you.

Welcome to Mexico! (click any image for a larger size)

What you provide for the FM3 are:

1. Copies of every page of your passport and the original tourist paper from customs that was stamped when you arrived in Mexico. You don’t want to lose this anyway because you need it to leave the country, although once you get the FM3 you won’t need it anymore.

2. All the documents you brought from home that you needed to get your job – resume, original birth certificate, a rent receipt from your apartment in Mexico, and all your credentials (university degree, certificates, licenses)- in originals to show and copies for them to keep.

3. The letter and documents from your future company.

4. 5 photos (three front and two sides) – check the website for sizes, or get the form from the office. You will make many trips there anyway.

5. Two payments – 500 pesos with the application and 2,000 when it’s ready.

6. The application dated from only a day or two before. You type it on the website and then print it.  www.inm.gob.mx

Bring originals and copies of everything. Make sure you have backups at home, or better yet take digital photos or scans, in case something gets lost. They may ask for certified copies of your degrees – apostillados – which means some company will evaluate them for a fee. I was asked to do this and then got out of it by showing off the originals.

The most important thing of all is to just be patient. You will have to go way more times than you want. They will tell you different information each time. Just smile, write it down, and do what you can. If you can’t provide something, just come back without it and don’t mention it. In the friendliest way possible keep mentioning the letter from your future company. If you get angry and show it, you will get nowhere.

With the FM3 you can work. You will receive social insurance, including health care, and you need to go to another office to get the number. Also, you don’t have to pay to enter Mexico anymore, so when you buy plane tickets make sure they know, because an extra charge for foreigners is automatically put on the price.

If you would like more information, check out this series of blogs I wrote about teaching English in Mexico: http://www.ontesol.com/blog2/?cat=21

Top Ten Mexican Slang

MAY 20

Posted by TC

Top Ten Mexican Slang

The order of this list has absolutely no meaning other than which words and phrases I think are the most interesting, amusing, common, or unique. Please disagree with me, correct my spelling, or remind me of what I’ve left out.
WARNING: if you are a FRESA (stuck-up person) you might be offended by the use of some very vulgar language, but if you are a NACO (low-class, person with bad taste) you will overuse most of the words on this list.

10. You may have noticed NO HAY BRONCA is the name of my blog. It means “no problem.”

9. ¡A HUEVO! (vulgar) – Do you know what huevo means? It means egg, but HUEVOS are balls. There are many ways to use the word. When my Spanish was still at a pretty basic level I had astudent who said HUEVOS DIAS to me – not a very nice thing to say. ¡A HUEVO! means “of course!” – a very useful expression. Another variation is TENGO HUEVA, which means you are feeling lazy.

8. CHELA / CAGUAMA – CHELA means beer, and CAGUAMAS are the big returnable 40 ounce bottles, undoubtedly your best value on the street.

7. ¡ORALE! – Even after over a year in Mexico I still don’t think I can properly describe this word. It can be used for encouragement, like “go for it!” or “right on!” Or it can be use like “let’s do it!” or “let´s go!” It seems to be a second cousin of HIJOLE, which is like ¨wow¨ or “my goodness!”

6. ¿QUE ONDA? – Along with ¿QUE PASO?, ¿QUE TAL?, and the vulgar ¿QUE PEDO?, this is yet another way to say “what’s up?” ONDA literally means waves or, in this case, vibes.

5. PEDO (vulgar) – This word is as versatile as the tortilla, but, unlike the tortilla, very rarely appropriate. As a noun it usually means problem, or more literally, fart. NO HAY PEDO is a substitute for NO HAY BRONCA, no problem. CUAL ES TU PINCHE PEDO means “what’s your fucking problem?” As an adjective it means drunk. ESTOY BIEN PEDO, WEY. “I’m fucking drunk.” A drunken party or a binge is UNA PEDA. You can make great phrases with it too, such as the aforementioned ¿QUE PEDO?

4. CHIDO means cool. If you don’t hear this word 100 times a day, you aren’t off the tourist track yet. On a similar note, PADRE (father) means good or cool while MADRE (mother) usually means bad. No, it doesn’t make sense.

3. ¡NO MANCHES! – The literal meaning is ridiculous, but this is used like “no way!” or “come on!” Look out for ¡NO MAMES!, the vulgar equivalent.

2. CHINGAR (vulgar) – Much like English’s beloved f-word, CHINGAR has a wide range of uses – from describing something positively – CHINGON – to negatively – CHINGADA. Or, if there is a lot of something, traffic for example, you can say HAY UN CHINGO DE TRAFICO. It is also used to express the foulest, rudest, and most aggressive sentiments. This is a truly Mexican word, and to learn the origins and deep thoughts behind it check out The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz. For more everyday uses, do a quick Google search.

1 WEY / GUEY – I don’t really know how to spell it. WEY isn’t as famous as ORALE or versatile as CHINGAR, and it may not even be as common as CHIDO. You might even spend a month here without hearing it. But, once in the proper circles you will hear WEY used as every other word, how teenage American girls use ”like.”

“¡Simon wey, mira wey, chupamos veinte caguamas wey, no mames wey, estabamos bien pedos wey!”

WEY means “dude,” and if you haven’t heard something like the above already, I truly hope that when you do you will recall this example and laugh. SIMON in this case is a slang substitute for “si,” or yes.

HONORABLE MENTION(S): You can add “-on” or “-ona” to any body part to describe someone who has a prominent one. For example:

NARIZ – nose — NARIZON – guy with a big nose

CEJAS – eybrows — CEJON – guy with bushy eyebrows

FRENTE – foreheard – FRENTONA – girl with a big forehead

CULO – ass — CULONA – girl with a big ass, often complimentary (vulgar)

Also, you can do this with professions. “ero” or “era” makes a job title.

OBRA – work — OBRERO – worker

PALOMITA – popcorn — PALOMERO – popcorn seller

CULO – ass — CULERO – “ass seller,” but it is really used the way we use “asshole.”

Everyday Mexican Slang

FEB 18

Posted by TC

The most popular post on this blog is Top Ten Mexican Slang. For sure, as happy as I am with that list I know I left a lot out. Ten words and their derivatives aren’t nearly enough to even scratch the surface of slang in Mexico.

So here’s some slang I hear every day. Unlike my Top Ten Mexican Slang, which includes a lot of vulgar language, in this post everything has a PG rating. Later I will write a list of everyday bad language.

Mande

Mande is the Mexican way to ask “what” or “excuse me,” when you don’t understand what someone said. It can also be used like “tell me.”

Ahorita

Ahora means “now.” The “-ita” or “-ito” (female or male) stem is a diminutive, used to show that something is small or cute. So literally ahorita means “little now.”

Mexicans might tell you that ahorita means “right now,” but really it means “soon” or “eventually.” If you ask a Mexican to do something and they reply with ahorita, then you know it could happen in five minutes, five hours, or never.

“Puedes ayudarme con mi tarea?” “Ahorita.”

“Ya vamanos?” “Ahorita.”

Aguas

You may know that agua means water. But in slang Aguas means “be careful.” Don’t ask why. Like slang all over the world, it isn’t supposed to make sense.

Tocayo

A tocayo is someone with the same name. You can say, “Somos tocayos” or just call the person with the same name as you tocayo.

Tope

When you visit Mexico you will notice speedbumps everywhere. Aguas when you drive. They often aren’t marked. Hitting them hard at night makes everyone in the backseat bounce up and slam their heads into the ceiling. They are called topes.

Camion

A camion is a bus. In other parts of Latin America it is a truck. I kept telling people  in Guatemala that I arrived by camion until someone questioned me further. The other word for a bus in Mexico is autobus, not just plain “bus.”

Chamba

A chamba is a lousy job. You can say, “Tengo que regresar a mi chamba” or ask, “Que chamba tienes?”

Chafa

Chafa means something cheap or low quality. I’m not sure if it is an adjective, noun, or both. “Esta coche es chafa.”

Codo

Codo means elbow, but in slang it means cheap, as in a cheap person. The “real” word for this is Tacano. “No seas codo” – don’t be cheap.

Chavo/Chava

Continuing with the “ch” words, here are slang words for young people – teenagers on up. You can also call younger teenagers Chamacos. Remember the final “o” is for males and “a” for females.

Corrale / apurate / tengo prisa

The first two mean hurry up. I don’t know if they are actually slang. Tengo prisa means that you are in a hurry.

I hope these are helpful! Let me give you a link to a good blog for detailed explanations of Mexican slang:http://www.myspanishnotes.blogspot.com/

And this one is full of bad language:http://pelangoche.blogspot.com/

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