Mexico is a country that offers a wide variety of dishes and drinks, a country that has contributed to the culinary world in so many different ways, colors and flavors, and one of those flavors is Horchata water; If you have visited Mexico im pretty sure you have tried it, picture it like a mix between a milkshake and fruit water, pretty good sp@mex123

pecially for those incredibly hot days!

And for all of you who miss it, well here is the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked white long-grain rice
• 5 cups water
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 2/3 cup white sugar

Directions

1. Pour the rice and water into the bowl of a blender; blend until the rice just begins to break up, about 1 minute. Let rice and water stand at room temperature for a minimum of 3 hours.
2. Strain the rice water into a pitcher and discard the rice. Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and sugar into the rice water. Chill and stir before serving over ice.
3. Serve it with a lot of ice and enjoy! If possible, it goes better with some tacos.

All our volunteers arriving here in Mexico always face a new challenge or adventure, from diving into a totally different new culture, the language, food, etc but one thing that always seems to confuse them a bit (at least at the beginning of their trip) is riding a mexican bus; and I have got to say here that I totally understand it, cause it can be a bit tricky.

It all starts with identifying a proper bus stop; an official bus stop would be on a corner, a sign and a metal bench that indicates: this is an official bus stop therefore buses should stop here. But unofficial bus stops also exist, and that would be any regular corner, but it's not just any regular corner, cause here you have to use your sixth sense and guess which regular corners become official bus stops, tricky right?

And then comes another questions: where do buses stop when i want to get off? well now we go back to the normal rules: official corners, they stop here. But they also stop at regular corners and sometimes even in middle of the block! getting trickier right!?

And apart from that, just riding the bus is like riding a rollercoaster sometimes: bumpy streets, loud and fast traffic and a totally packed bus where you have to find a way to find equilibrium so you dont fall! (that if you were not lucky enough to get a seat) or dealing with the ladies with the big old grocery bags or the kids coming back from school with their giant backpacks.

It is quite an adventure I've got to say, not a dangerous one, but a funny one that most volunteers, if not all of them.

Please note on the picture below that this is a totally civilized bus ride, it wasn't rush hour so things were totally calmed and quiet and I managed to get a seat! 

p.s. get an mp3 player, it will make your ride easier :)

Today we'll share a very mexican recipe here on our blog; Pico de gallo sauce! it's one of those sauces that always makes a special appearance at every mexican table, deliciously awesome for tacos or steaks.

and lets start:

First we will need some fresh tomatoes, peppers and cilantro are the key to the best salsa--grab from the garden or check our your farmer's market.

• 5 roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chopped green onions
• 4 sprigs cilantro, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, minced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Combine tomatoes, green onions, cilantro, garlic and jalapenos in a bowl. Add lemon juice, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper, then stir well. Chill at least one hour before serving.

Notes: To cut down on heat, you can remove some of the seeds from the jalapeno peppers before chopping.

Number of Servings: 8

Enjoy! (buen provecho)

Last week I had the chance to go visit our Animal Care project in Guadalajara, definitely one of those places where there's always something or someone new, and by someone i mean an animal, may it be a strange rarely seen bird or a wild wounded feline, falcons, owls, many many spiders and or snakes, that sometimes just pay a visit for a few days or weeks before being released back into the wild again.

This time they had quite a few new animals, like a new big lizard, owls, birds, snakes and even a horse and donkey who got there by themselves, they just found them strolling down the street.

Work here is not an easy thing, actually its everything but easy, its a 9-well see when we finish today-work that includes the cool and adventurous things like training falcons or releasing wild animals, as well as the not so glamorous duties such as washing the cages,feeding grumpy animals,cleaning the centre,etc.

But its definitely one great job that always pays off! building character through hard work and experiencing situations with animals that sometimes we only get to see through a fence at the zoo or on the discovery channel.

This month in Mexico we celebrate our constitution, approved by the National Congress on the 5th of February of 1917.

The actual Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was originally drafted by a Constitutional Convention in Santiago de Queretaro in the year of 1917 during the prime time of the Mexican Revolution, being Venustiano Carranza the first president to serve under its terms. 

The Constitution of 1917 was the first one in history to include the social rights, two years before the Weimar Constitution in 1919. Two important changes were made to this second Constitution (the first one was in 1857) no presidency re-election and no vice president position were permitted anymore.

Most of the important points were taken from the 1857 Constitution, it was actually considered as the main base to create the one in 1917.

And this was our short history lesson for today, have a great day!