Hello Everybody,

Finally a newsletter from Ania about Mexico.

I hope you will still read it, despite the fact that the congress was in October last year. It was wonderful experience. My entire lab took part in it. Puerto Vallarta, the place of congress ,is right on the Pacific coast, north of Acapulco. I met many important people working on E.coli. The meeting was filled with interesting talks and discussions, but we also had fun together. Just see the pictures from our farewell dinner, which took place at the beach. It looked sooo unrealistic. We danced Salsa on the sand and later moved with a small group to the real Salsa club in the city. Mexican are such fantastic dancers! It was a perfect end of the Mexican meeting.

I am also absolutely amazed by Mexico itself. We stayed a few days extra after the congress. For sure nobody missed rain in England. I hope to go back there for the real holidays with Kees and see all other parts of the country. Puerto Vallarta is a very tourist place and probably different, than the rest of Mexico. It became famous after "The Night of Iguana" was shot there. You will not find any Mayas pyramids there, not really any history at all. But it is beautifully placed upon the bay of Pacific. Thanks to this it has perfect swimming conditions, while on the open Ocean the currents are usually too strong and swimming is often forbidden. People are so friendly and outgoing! There were several restaurants in the center, with big terraces or huge opened windows. You could just relax there for the whole warm and humid evening, drinking Margaritas and look at passers-by. And listen to the music. At least I hope it is still like that, because a few days after we left Mexico, Puerto Vallarta was hit by the hurricane. Most of the ocean-side hotels (including the one we stayed in) and restaurants were devastated, as well as the main boulevard with beautiful modern art. Just washed away. So several of my pictures are already historical, like the one with the "arch". We were very sad and moved when we heard about such disaster. It was not any more the far end of the world for us.

On one of the last days we went for the Sierra Madre expedition, organised by one of the tourist agencies. We travelled into the country in special truck, with a very funny and talkative guide. We visited several colourful little towns and villages. We made a walk in "semi-dry rain forest". It is called semi-dry because there are no cactuses growing in the real rain forest. At the end we had a barbecue on the beach! I also had to try Tequila, brrrr. Fortunately there was no worm in it.....

Now we back at work. Since then me and Kees had lovely Christmas in Holland. We had seen all Dutch family and many friends. We even managed to take a walk in Amsterdam again. Now I hope to go to Poland soon.