Isthmus photos - I know, creative title, right?

Alright, I've finally pulled my act together to get some pictures from the trip posted. Hope you enjoy the cross-cultural experience via photos :).
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Here is one of the roads we drove on to get to the remote villages we visited. We ended up getting back late that night, and at one point I hopped out of the van to take a picture, but I hopped right back in when I heard something moving in those bushes ;-).

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The municipal president (mayor) came to start off our time with a ceremonial speech. He came with body guards, because even in these small towns, he has had his life threatened.

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Every day on our drives we could see the ocean, but never quite made it there. At least standing on the edge of this lagoon, I could hear the waves crashing just over the rise of hills, along with the bleating of goats behind me...

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Here's the map of the first town - Concepcion Bamba. Each of those yellow spots are the houses in the villages. As you can see, it was a pretty small town. (That's the lagoon on the bottom, by the way).

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There were MANY kids to be seen. Most Mexicans are able to wait very patiently for an impressive amount of time, and these mothers did a pretty good job of it themselves.

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Well, let's just say we were thankful that this room at least had electricity. Another common trait of Mexicans: creativity with the resources they have.

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Generous families from the villages provided us with meals nearly every day. The first two days we had chicken soup with rice. It was very tasty, but those must've been some tough birds. On the plus side, they were pretty much the definition of 'free range.' :)

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Ok, I had to include a picture of this bathroom because of 'the incident'. This town had more than their fair share of wasps, and a wasp and I ran into each other when I tried to use the baño. I'm not sure what happened, but I was left with a stinging/numb spot on my face - and a sudden fear of the bathroom...

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We had lots of little heads peaking in to see what we were doing in each room (eye testing, hearing test, anemia test - that was an especially popular window).

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And here you have your basic health package, accompanied by lovely graphics :).

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Evening entertainment in Aguas Calientes, a town with little electricity.

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Did you know there are monkeys in Oaxaca? :) I actually ended up with about a dozen pictures of these girls as they followed me around. Cute, but rather demanding ;-).

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And there's the group from Kansas, plus a few members of a Covenant church in Salina Cruz. I think it's safe to say that it was a pretty good week for everyone. I know I enjoyed it :).