We've been together as partners since July 2001 but have been friends since college. We currently live in Shakopee, MN, but are looking for a way out of the state and especially the suburbs. We have two cats (Izzy and Colito) who run the household while we work to keep them in food and litter. Kristin is a freelance writer and editor, and Jim is a mechanical engineer for a large corporation. We love to travel, and plan on using the homes of people we met on this trip as hostels as much as possible.

Kristin has a website at www.kristinthiel.com and is always looking for new projects. In his spare time, Jim offers computer technical support and designs websites (like this site and Kristin's, completely written in a text editor, he adds). Let Jim know if you have pictures of the trip that you would like to include on this site, and he might be able to find room.

Our apartment in Oaxaca was located in Colonia Reforma, which is a bit north of the school and downtown. There were four furnished apartments around a small courtyard, set well away from the street. It was small and had brown water on occassion, but it was also beautiful, secure, shaded, and best of all . . . quiet. It was also across the street from "Misc. Elvis," which is a small convenience store that we can imagine The King picking up lunch at (since all it really had were Ho-hos and pop).

And, of course, here is what you really want to see. Izizwe (Izzy) is a five-year-old tortoise-shell tabby who was found under a bush in suburban Chicago, and Colito is a one-year-old, part-wildcat, part-dog (mentally only), with a foot that clicks on hard floors and a naturally short tail who came from a shelter in Minnesota.