So Many Bikes

The house that we are staying at in Tulum came with some bikes so we have been biking around a lot. Most of the locals we have seen, and some tourists, ride bikes around. Some of the bikes have a big cart on the front and some people ride in it. Today we saw two little kids in a cart and an older kid (probably like 11) riding the bike. Some of the food vendors use the big work bikes to carry their things.

Tulum is a really nice place to bike because it is super flat and there are really nice bike paths. We have ridden to the beach a lot on the bike paths and it is really fun. I have seen two people on a bike at the same time riding down the street and it looks really uncomfortable. At night there are food vendors riding around by our house, honking a horn and it gets really annoying when you are trying to sleep.

When I was biking back from the beach today I took some pictures of the bikes we saw.

On The Road Again

Hola.

My family and I are on a trip in Mexico and will be travelling around the Yucatan and Chiapas for five weeks. I am really excited to be on another trip with my family. We arrived in Cancun on Monday 1/25/16 and stayed there for two nights. We ate most of our meals in Parque de las Palapas. The plaza had a ton of food vendors and a place where you could eat, there would also be a man or woman playing music. The last night we were there a lot of people started dancing. The food there was really good and some of the vendors sold delicious drinks like licuados (blended fruit, milk and ice) and agua frescas, including horchata and pina. Some of the foods I ate were enchiladas, quesadillas, soup, and burritos. My favorite was the quesadilla with papas, chorizo and queso on a homemade tortilla.

The delicious quesadillas

CHINESE NEW YEAR

my family.

On Saturday we went to the Chinese New Year parade in downtown San Francisco with our cousins and aunt. There were a lot of schools, bands, and dragons in the parade. I liked the dragons but it was kind of annoying when they would get really close to you and knock your hat off. A Chinese dragon usually means good luck and the longer it is the more luck it gives to the community.

It is now the year of the ram so there were some ram costumes in the bands and schools. I also liked the lion costumes and some of the dancers. It was a really long parade and we didn't get to watch it all because we got hungry.

The parade originally started in San Francisco in 1860. It was started by some Chinese immigrants who felt like they wanted some of their culture from their old home to be in there new home.

SF ART SHOW AT THE ASIAN ART MUESEUM

this is a really cool staff.

On Thursday we arrived in San Francisco and went to the Asian Art Museum for a student art show. We went there with our cousins and aunt and saw my little cousin's art piece. My little cousin Elsie did a Papel Picado.

There were really cool pieces of art mostly done by high school students. My favorites were Digital Medusa, an Anime picture, and a staff drawing. The art was presented by the Visual and Preforming Arts Department of the San Francisco Unified School District and the Asian Art Museum.

GRAND CANYON

Today my family and I went to the Grand Canyon and it was really snowy and cold. At the visitor center there was a lot of snow on the roofs of the buildings and it would occasionally  fall off. While we were there we walked along the rim of the canyon and it was scary because it was slippery. We were at 6860 feet and the bottom of the canyon was around 2500 feet, so that's a pretty far drop.

If we had been here around six million years ago we could have walked from rim to rim. The reason why you cant walk rim to rim anymore is because the Colorado river eroded it into a canyon. Each year the canyon continues to erode about the thickness of a piece of paper.

Since there is so much elevation change there are a lot of different habitats. The main habitats are forest on the rim, desert in the canyon, and river at the bottom. We were at the forest on the rim and while walking there we saw some birds, deer, and Ponderosa pine. Down in the desert you would probably find rattle snakes, lizards, and prickly pear cactus. In the river at the bottom you would see humpback chub, beavers, and great blue herons.

SINAGUA INDIANS!

The Sinagua are Indians who used to live in Verde Valley. Verde Valley is a place in Arizona near Sedona. They lived in Verde Valley during around 500 AD and 1425 AD. We visited Verde Valley and saw Montezuma castle which was one of many castles that the Sinagua people lived. The castle was built strategically so that they could have shade in the summer and so that they wouldn’t get flooded by Beaver creek. They built the castle on a cliff side that used to be a river but then eroded a big hole and turned into a creek. They would farm and hunt deer next to Beaver creek, the kind of things they would farm were cotton, corn, yucca, and agave. They used yucca and agave to make sandals, rope, and rugs.

BIKING IS FUN!!!!!!!!!!

My family and I are in Sedona. We are going to be here for five days and there are lots of mountain bike trails that we are excited to explore.

Today we went on a really fun mountain biking trail around Mescal mountain. I thought the trail was really fun because there were a lot of rocks on the trail and some fun down hill. There were also a few challenging parts where we all walked our bikes. The rocks around here are really red and the soil is too. Yesterday we tried out a trail that was near  where we are staying but it was pretty hard for us.

Riding here is really different from riding on the coast where we live. On the coast there aren't as many big rocks and the trails are smooth. Here in Sedona there are a lot of trails that start in town, but on the coast there aren't as many trails. Sometimes my dad and I go to Annandale in Santa Rosa for a mountain biking trip.In Annandale the trails are a lot like this but a little less crazy.

I am really looking forward to doing more biking here.

I'M BACK:)OMG

Hello everybody!

I haven't posted for a while because I have been busy, but now my family and I are on a road trip through the California desert and Arizona and I thought that I would start writing again. We recently spent several days in Death Valley. Death Valley is the hottest place on earth. We went during the winter so it was only in the eighties, but that was plenty hot for me. In the early 1900's it was recorded to be 134 degrees. During the summer the ground can get to 200 degrees.

A dust storm that happened our last night.

Home Sweet Home

We're home. YAY. We arrived in San Francisco after a really long airplane ride. When we got home I thought it was a lot different than I remembered. It seemed like we had a bunch of stuff since we had traveled so lightly. Also, some of the places we went to were not as wealthy as the Estados Unidos (United States) so people didn't have as many things as we do. Most of the time the places we stayed had a small kitchen but at home we have a big kitchen. The food was also different. There wasn't any Mexican food and if you ordered a plain hot dog they would think you are a crazy person because usually you would get it with tomatoes and avocado. They also had a lot of stands where you could buy just french fries and a topping.

I am glad to be back home and reunited with my LEGOS and friends. Some of our land has changed and here are some pictures.

Pop Art

When we were at a supermercado I saw some cereal boxes with pictures that I liked. I took some photos and then I drew them into pop art.

Fun at the Husky Farm

For the last few weeks of our trip we decided to go on a two week road trip in southern Chile. We went to Caburgua, Entre Lagos, and Villarica. It was a fun trip where we got to go swimming, go to waterfalls, and see Volcanoes. When we were in Villarica we went to a Husky Farm where we rented a cabin.

When we arrived at the Husky Farm all 51 dogs started barking and howling at us. We stayed at the farm for four days and on the first day we went on the adventure trail which was quite an adventure as we accidentally stepped on a wasp's nest. My brother and I ran ahead on the trail and hid from our parents but then they discovered the nest. They started running and my brother and I thought they were running from us but they weren’t. When we were chasing them we finally figured out that there were wasps. 

Slingshot Science

My brother and I got some slingshots from a small booth at these waterfalls called Salto del Lajo.  When we first got the slingshots we were okay at shooting them but we’ve gotten better. We have practiced our sling shots by shooting fence posts and trees. One time a woman asked us if we were going to shoot birds and I said “yes” because I didn’t quite understand what she was asking. Then she talked to my mom and we realized that she was asking if we were going to shoot birds, when we said “no” she was glad to hear that. Today we decided to do some science by shooting our slingshots using different materials.

I like Volcanoes

Volcan Villarica

We are currently traveling in the lakes district of Chile and there are a lot of volcanoes. We stayed in a cabana in the town of Caburgua and had a great view of Volcan Villarica. Volcan Villarica is 2847 meters above sea level and is one of only four volcanoes in the world with an active lava lake. In the Region de la Araucania there are seven major volcanoes. Most of these volcanoes are still active. In 2009 Volcan Llaima erupted for three months. While Volcan Llaima was still erupting, its lava flow melted a giant glacier on its west slope. We saw evacuation routes in case Volcan Villarica erupts.

Ojos del Caburgua

the waterfall

When we were in the town Caburgua we went swimming in the lake and one time we went to some waterfalls which was fun. We were hoping to swim but you weren't allowed to and the water was too cold. The color of the water was crazy because it was so blue. There was even one pool called Laguna Azul and it was literally a blue lagoon.

I also took some pictures, thinking of texture line and pattern. My picture of the waterfall is capturing motion. Here are the photos.

Our Travels by Bus

We have traveled in buses almost everywhere we’ve gone and some were long and some were short. The longest bus ride was twenty hours and the shortest was two hours. 

We have been on some very nice buses with bed chairs and only three seats per row, and we have also been on a bad bus that smelled, was hot, really crowded, the bathroom was horrible, and when we stopped for a rest stop the “toilets” were a hole in the ground and there were no doors.

Plazas, Plazas Everywhere!!

All of the towns and cities we have visited have had a Plaza de Armas, which I looked up and found out that it means "weapons square". They are named this because it is where the Spaniards  would hold refuge in case of an attack and they would be given arms (weapons). We like relaxing in the plazas because we think that they are nice places to sit around and eat ice cream but they were actually built for protecting yourself with guns not eating ice cream. Almost every plaza has had churches and government buildings surrounding it.

Textiles in Peru and Maximo Laura

While we have been traveling in Peru we have seen a lot of textiles and weaving because its a big thing in Peru. We have seen this art in Cuzco, Pisac, and Puno. For example, a lot of women have been weaving in markets, on sidewalks, and everywhere. We also went on an island tour on Lake Titicaca and mostly men were weaving there. The boys on the island were selling hand woven bracelets. We also went to gallery in Cuzco about a Peruvian textile artist named  Maximo Laura.

Maximo Laura was born in Peru in 1959. He is one of the best textile artists in Peru, and his art is very interesting. The way he makes his art is: first he sketches what he wants to make, they use a computer to make a pattern, then his team and him go to their warehouse of yarn, and then they start weaving on a big loom. A lot of the textiles that are big take months to finish.

My Family’s Incan Jungle Trek

A few days after Christmas my family and I went on an Incan Jungle Trek for four days and three nights. We started in Cusco and ended in Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. It was very hard to do but it was still fun. We got to meet a lot of new people on the trek.

Day 1:
The first day we had to wake up really early and head down to where we met the mini bus to take us to where we were going to the highest point of the trip (over 4,000 meters or 12,000 feet). We got out of the bus and got on bikes to ride down the mountain but the bikes weren’t in very good shape. When we started to bike it was raining. There was a lot of rain water on the road that was spraying in our eyes which was not good because the road was really windy and the cars were driving like they were in a race, so that added another scary thing to the ride. When we were going down my brother started going too fast on a turn and hit a pole and flipped over and now he has a bunch of bruises on his leg where he hit the ground and his handle bars. After he crashed we waited for the van to pick us up and take us the rest of the way down.

Reading on the Road

One of the nice things about taking trips is that you get to read a lot of books. At home I don't get as much time to read because I have to go to school, do my homework, eat dinner, do my chores, and all of a sudden it's time to go to bed. I have read five books on this trip, including: City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende, My Big Fat Zombie Gold Fish by Mo O'Hara ( which I read four times), Nikolas and Company number one by Kevin McGill, Nikolas and Company number two also by Kevin McGill, and The Last Super Hero by Stephen Altrogge.

I have really liked all of these books. I would recommend these books to all my friends. I have two favorite books. They are the Nikolas and Company books and the Last Super Hero.

Invaders of Peru

We're in Cusco, Peru, which was the capital of the Incan Empire. We have been walking around Cusco a lot, and have seen a lot of Incan ruins, including temples and a big fortress. The Incan Empire was the biggest and most powerful Empire in the new world. It included Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Colombia, and there were millions of people who lived there. Until 1532, when a group of 160 Spanish conquistadors came and took over the Incan Empire. 

The way the Spanish defeated the Incans was that they had steel armor, swords, guns, and horses and the Incans had wooden clubs, slings, and spears and their armor wasn't strong enough against the Spanish weapons. What did the most damage were the cavalry charges, there weren't any horses in the Americas. I can imagine that the Incans were terrified by the horses if they were new to their culture. The first time the Incans and the Spaniards battled, the Spanish captured the Incan Emperor and defeated an army with 80,000 people and the Spaniards had 160 people. Not a single Spaniard died but over 5,000 Incans died that day. The Spaniards would have kept going if it didn't turn night because they couldn't see in the dark with out any lights. Even though the Incans were defeated they still held the longest stand against the Spanish.  

CHOCOLATE IS GOOD!!

The Mayans were the first to use coca beans for money, they would use four coca beans to buy a guinea pig and one hundred coca beans to buy a slave. Cacao trees are found in  South America and Africa. The cacao trees grow up to 12 to 15 meters( 36 to 45 feet tall). The fruit looks kind of like a giant avocado, the inside smells like a coconut, they grow on the trunk of there trees and monkeys like to open them up and eat the inside but not the seeds. The Mayans used to make a sacred drink with coca ground up with  human blood. Today my mom, my brother, and I went out because the night before we made reservations for a chocolate making class at the Choco Museo in Cusco.