El Blogó

The Grand Finale

2010-01-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, so the last couple weeks were absolutely wild and afforded no time for blog writing, but now after having been home for 2 weeks and re-adjusting to life stateside I am ready to try and finish up El Blogó.

After having traveled for almost 3 straight weeks (the first 5 days with a group to a beach called Puerto Escondido and then a 15 day honeymoon with Dan), I could probably write something closely resembling a novel, but to save you the trouble (and me the carpal tunnel) I will try to keep it to a very cut and dry outline with plenty of pictures to tell the story. Your imagination can fill in the rest and by all means do the trip justice and let it run wild.

To start it off, the Saturday before we left for Puerto Escondido Cholula held its annual Campanas Concert. It is famous throughout Mexico since Cholula has 365 churches (1 for each day of the year and the most per capita in all Mexico) and people from all over Mexico (thousands) gather in the Zocalo around 8 at night (with lots of traditional dancing and music playing all day and evening leading up to it) and then every church in the city rings its bells in unison when it gets all quiet.

After the ringing, an orchestra plays. Can you guess which orchestra was chosen for this year? You got it, UDLA's very own featuring one of the most illustrious trombonists the Latin world has ever known (and no idea why the director felt it was necessary to bring in Ricardo, a professional trombonist, seen on the right, but fortunately I was able to walk him through the slide positions and teach him a thing or two.)

And of course a picture of my enormous fan club who came out.

And a group picture taken the next day as I was saying good bye after they played another concert in which to put it lightly, I was not invited to play. In case you can't spot me I am in the second row in the right half of the picture.

After the concert we headed to a small town called Puerto Escondido on Monday where Dan and I met a small group of other international students who were already there.

Puerto Escondido is known as a series of beautiful surfer's beaches which has managed to stay relatively secret and uncommercialized despite its beautiful sand, monster waves, and Pacific Ocean sunsets (and slightly strange locals such as Claire here who gave out beach massages and claimed to have descended from the clouds).

Before hand I had set up a scuba class and as a result for 3 of the mornings I went on a series of 6 dives to get my certification.

Once we got back to Cholula, there was some really intense studying, an exam or two, and a tour of the largest pyramid in the world which is located in Cholula (the base is 1 km wide). From there, Dan and I had about 3 final nights where we struggled through countless chicas telling us how badly we would be missed and begging us not to go...kind of.

There were also some very sad good byes with my Mexican family who will be dearly missed and a final meal at our all time favorite taqueria (nicknamed 2nd home). We have been checking the Dow since this fateful night and their stock has tumbled an appreciable amount.

From here things got really serious as most everyone else was going their separate ways and Dan and I headed out for a 15 day trip in which we planned to hit 7 different cities in the middle to west coast of Mexico before my December 23rd flight back home. The title of this trip, the honeymoon, was initially applied weeks before as a joke, but little did we know how frighteningly appropriate that title would become.

First stop was in Mexico City with all of our bags in tow for Cirque du Soleil Dralion. To eloquently sum it up...Awesome.

Not awesome was that despite repeated efforts to invite nearly every girl we knew in Cholula and Mexico City to come with us, we got pitched a shut out and thus began a recurring theme...Dan and I, just Dan and I.

From there we spent the night in Mexico City and headed out the next morning for a city called Morelia. After riding the sweetest bus in the world (internet, enormous reclining seats, sliding door to separate the bathroom and sink from passengers, etc.) we arrived.

Though initially a bit concerned with the taxi drive to the Zocalo, we soon were greeted with the most beautiful city we had seen yet.

After finding a hotel we went exploring and found the area from the Zocalo down to the famous Aqueduct of Morelia to be absolutely gorgeous architecturally and it seemed as if we were smack dab in the middle of Europe.

It also didn't hurt our impression of Morelia that we walked for over 4 hours without seeing an unattractive girl, but that is for another blog.

After the walk we went for a nice dinner in the Zocalo and then out for a relatively tranquil night since there was a big religious festival going on in the streets to celebrate the Virgin Guadalupe.

The next day we got a bit of a late start, but ended up making it out to a really cool waterfall which was about an hour long bus ride.

From there we headed to the Island of Janitzio in Patzcuaro which is an island of 400 inhabitants in the middle of the Patzcuaro Lagoon.

I have no idea why people live here, but they do. We talked to an 80 year old on the boat ride out there who had lived there his entire life, interesting, but not nearly enough libraries for my taste.

The coolest thing about the island was this enormous statue called the Statue of Morelos situated at the peak of the island. Inside is a spiral staircase with mural paintings on all the walls of the life of Morelos and at the very top of the fist is an observatory with awesome views of the lagoon.

After the sunset we headed back into Patzcuaro on the mainland where we met up with 2 girls I had met the night before (triggering extreme jealousy in Danny) and they took us back to Morelia.

That night we went out with them to Velvet, the single greatest bar in the world. It is indoor/outdoor with marble fire pits, an incredible mountain side view of the entire city, ridiculous females (if you are in to that type of thing), and on that given night unlimited free Torres 10 brandy and scarfs and hats due to a sweet promotion.

The next morning we bounced out of bed and hopped on a bus trying to go to Puerto Vallarta. To get there you have to connect in Guadalajara (the 2nd largest city in Mexico and supposedly the city in Mexico notorious for having the most beautiful girls). Needless to say we were expecting it to be the highlight of the honeymoon and decided to spend the afternoon there before catching an overnight bus to Puerto V. Unfortunately, Guadalajara did not even come close to the hype, but there will be more on that later.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at about 5 in the morning and after finding a hotel headed out for a meal and a day on the beach. After quite nearly stumbling onto a beach reserved for men who were legitimately on honeymoons together, we found another plot of sand and enjoyed a lovely afternoon of sodas and a great sunset.

The next day we decided to head out at 9 AM for a booze cruise. In theory it was the greatest thing in the world, unlimited drinks, a boat tour around the curving coastline, and three stops at different spots featuring waterfalls (though I did discover Dan wasn't kidding about his Equestrian allergy when he set a North American record for sneezes following the procession of horses that were optional in our trek up to the cascade) and snorkeling.

Due to some extremely fine fine print, the open bar wasn't exactly as promised, but regardless we had a great time.

At this point, I would like to introduce the photo shoot which was unintentionally going on for the newlyweds throughout 40 hours we were in Puerto Vallarta (and remember you can never be too careful in Mexico in case you were wondering about the life jacket).

Fortunately we were able to befriend a group of 3 girls from Guadalajara (the only good thing to come out of there) and their families right around our age on the boat who were nice enough to separate us for a picture.

After we returned to port, we headed out for an exciting night where we were fortunate enough to run into...

The boys:

Dad:

The girls:

and plenty of suerte (the backwards hand in Mexico actually means thank you and good luck):

The next day we packed up yet again for a return trip to Guadalajara. Now the initial trip had been less than exceptional with every restaurant and bar closed due to the Guadalupe festival, but we were hopeful that round two would be much more fruitful.

We were wrong... Now, I am not going to go into specific details, but it seemed that just about everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong (within reason, I understand we were in a large city in Mexico and things could have been much worse).

Examples would be empty bars, taxi drivers taking us to wrong locations, disappointing, attractions not living up to the hype, torrential rain during our open air tour bus ride (and when the bus driver tells all the people on the second deck to sit down because we are approaching a low hanging bridge in Spanish, LISTEN TO HIM, thank you Edgar my 14 year old guardian angel for saving my life), and a serious lack of co-eds(except for the fact that Dan managed to find the only natural red headed Mexican girl in the world).

Despite these crucial (or some might suppose trivial) shortcomings, we were able to have a bit of appreciation for some of Guadalajara's beautiful architecture.

Fortunately, the saving grace of this city happens to be its proximity to the town called Tequila which ironically is the tequila capital of the world.

We were fortunate enough to make it out to this absolute gold mine for an afternoon and received a wonderfully enlightening tour (which began in a tequila shaped bottle tour bus, easily should have been my 16th birthday present, thanks Dad) and tasting of the Cofradia tequila distillery from Elisa (who by the way loved us). Unfortunately tequila doesn't go down any easier in Tequila, or at least that is what Dan told me as I per the usual abstained.

We returned to Guadalajara that night and then the next morning shipped out for the smaller city of Guanajuato known for its art, culture, and underground roads (really cool, a bunch of tunnels with intersections, street signs and everything else you would expect on normal streets but underneath the city).

The first afternoon we took a group tour throughout the city hitting a couple churches, a torture and and separate mummy museum (apparently Guanajuato should be more famous for its morbid obsessions because these were weird and creepy), a mine that extended up to 600 meters into the Earth, and the highest point in town where the statue of El Pipila, a war hero stands and offers great view from the top of his head.

That night we went up to the top of another nearby hill where there was a large castle which now functions as a hotel and had a nice though empty restaurant. We acknowledged that with the two of us eating alone and facing each other in a castle with a window view of the lit up city at night the honeymoon was getting a bit out of hand, but we pushed through).

The next day I got up early and took a walk through town while Danny got his beauty sleep.

Upon returning, we grabbed our stuff and headed out for our next stop, San Miguel de Allende.

San Miguel is known for being a very upscale town due to a large percent of its inhabitants being wealthy retired foreigners (almost all the conversations we overheard were in English). It also has a rich history and it was cool to see the blending of the two in Mexico as you usually get the wealthy tourism sites with no history, or the historical sites with insufficient money to preserve the attractions.

Because it is such a small town we only stayed one night, but were able to visit the coolest cathedral I have ever seen located in the Zocalo and catch an awesome sunset.

The next morning we hopped on the bus for Mexico City (sadly, the last stop in Mexico for me as I would be flying out from there 2 days later) with the intentions of going to the weekly Sunday bull fights in the largest bull fighting stadium in the world with two good friends, Lucia and Miriam (and unfortunately only friends despite our best efforts during the semester). Unfortunately we got about a 4 hour late start, but after some carefully calculated lies to make sure the girls would not ditch us, we arrived just in time for the first of 6 fights.

It was an absolutely wild event with more blood than you can imagine, but after 6 bulls had been slain we went for dinner with the girls and then back to find a hotel. Most unfortunately, the price for a room with a king size bed was half the price of a room with 2 beds and in an act that really put an exclamation mark on the whole trip we decided to be economical.

The next day we went on another double decker open air tour bus with Lucia, her mother, and two of her mother's friends. We pretty much relaxed on here and cruised the 2nd largest city in the world (depending on how you measure it) all day with a stop at the end to walk through the Chapultepec Park.

From there we headed out for another tranquil night on the town with Miriam and another friend (Mexican soap opera actress).

The next and final day for me was spent doing a bit of Christmas shopping in the various markets, grabbing lunch with a friend, and switching hotels to one with four beds in a room in preparation for "the boys" (Dan's Australian friends Henry and Bender who were flying in that evening to travel with him through South America for the next two months).

At the very peak of rush hour we headed below ground to the dreaded Mexico City metro where it took every bit of our strength and big city cunning to navigate and muscle our way through 5 different absolutely packed trains to get to the airport.

After picking up the boys and their bags we wisely decided to take a taxi back to the hotel and after some quick showers and hydrating went to Condessa, one of the nicest areas of Mexico City for dinner at a delicious Argentinian steak house (10 oz filet 16$, going to miss the peso dearly).

From there we met up with two other good friends from UDLA, Paulina and Pame who had taken very good care of us throughout the semester and also live in Mexico City and went out to appropriately celebrate my last and the boys' first night in Mexico.

A quick bag pick up, sad good bye with my hubbie, and taxi ride later I was sitting in the Benito Juarez Airport awaiting my flight home with mixed emotions.

Though I am certainly glad to be back with all my family and friends, I miss Mexico and all the good times, memories, and amigos an awful lot and definitely hope I will get the opportunity to return one day.

As far as El Blogó goes, I am sure no one wants to read about life back at UNC (sleep, class, library, repeat can be pretty boring after all) so this is it. I have truly enjoyed writing and appreciate anyone who took the time to read. Adios!!!

Blue Water and Beautiful Ruins, Chiapas Part 2

2009-11-20T12:28:00.000-08:00

Following our monster day last Sunday, we decided we would be leaving Monday morning at around 6:45 for a day trip with one of the many local travel agencies that would take us to the Agua Azul (blue water) park, Misol-Ha waterfall, and Palenque Mayan ruins.

After hopping in an absolutely packed passenger van with an assorted group of Mexican couples and very interesting crowd of American grad students on Fulbright Grants who were working in Mexico City, we headed out for the day long trip.

The first drive to the Agua Azul was a bit interesting as the couple in row 2 proceeded to get motion sick and yak (first girlfriend then sympathetic boyfriend). Everyone else was very kind and offering to help except for some random Aussie in the back corner yelling "cut the weak links, let's run".

Nonetheless it was a beautiful drive through the mountains (but not as beautiful as Loftin Johnson), and though a bit behind schedule, we eventually made it.

The park has a nice wide path that runs along a river with a series of average size waterfalls and beautiful blue water due to a high mineral content.

Also lining the path are a variety of traditional and touristy Mexican clothing and food retailers set up in tents. After a very difficult decision, Dan and I settled on two shirts which officially represent our best Mexican purchases thus far.

We spent our 1.5 hours power walking along the river and then returned to the bus for the departure to our next destination Misol-Ha.

This was another waterfall and although we had thought we were all waterfalled out, this one was pretty cool since there was a smaller waterfall to the side that was fed by an underground stream housed within a cavern that you can walk/swim into.

After a brief stint here where we covered the entire area before team Fulbright had even gotten off the bus it seemed, we hopped back in bound for the grand finale, Palenque.

Palenque was a former Mayan city built in the 6th century deep within the jungle. It is regarded as one of the top two ruins sites along with Teotihuacan (previous trip with the huge pyramids) and while very different, was awesome.

It was awesome walking around since the entire park is within a mountainous jungle which created an incredible backdrop for the already impressive ruins. The whole time it seemed like the only noise was the howler monkeys screaming at the top of their lungs just beyond the border of the trees.

The central area which contains the royal palace and several enormous temples has been completely excavated from the jungle and is wide open, but there are also surrounding plazas that they have left more or less untouched which were also cool to see.

We stayed about 2 hours until the park closed and then grabbed a van down to the bus station in the actual town of Palenque. The park doesn't employ guides and instead people are welcome to come in and show people around. As a result all the guides are about 13 years old, but nonetheless know their stuff. We got to ride with Eduardo and Ricky on the way back and they were absolutely hilarious.

Once in the town we bought a bus ticket. We almost had a coronary when the woman told us the 10 hour drive would take 14 hours due to some stops, but were calmed down a bit when the driver said it would be 10.

12 hours later (got to love Mexico time) we arrived in Puebla well rested from another great night on the bus, absolutely in love with Chiapas, and ready for a big week of classes as everyone is piling on the work for the final stretch. Fortunately we are making some time for ourselves as tonight there will be another enormous party (and a good chance the Captain will be making an appearance) for the entire university at a new night club with a South African safari theme.

Taking it to the Limit in Chiapas Part 1

2009-11-17T15:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was a long weekend so believe it or not, Dan and I decided to take a trip.

Our destination this time was the highly recommended state of Chiapas, located a brief 11 hours from Puebla.

We decided to leave Friday night at 11:30 and make the trip overnight on an upgraded bus line for lots of leg room and comfortable seats. After a bit of an ordeal with Dan (ACDC concert the night before) arriving on a bus from Mexico City at 11:28 and me arriving at 11:29 (after breaking into his room and packing 3 of every clothing article he owns) we drastically shortened the trip with about 10.5 hours sleeping.

We arrived in San Cristóbal (a beautiful and historical town of about 200,000 residents) which was supposedly the best place to spend the nights for the trip.

After randomly meeting up with Tom's "girlfriend" Elena (planning to meet up with Tom who was also in Chiapas but with a different group) from Spain Dan and I found a nice hotel with sweet courtyard, queen size beds, and monster shower for less than 20$ a night (despite our best efforts Elena insisted she would not be staying with us for the weekend).

From here we grabbed lunch, did a little looking around San Cristóbal (including seeing the awesome Church of Santo Domingo and Cathedral) and headed out for a tiny and very indigenous town called Chamula (in a van carrying boxes of live and very angry chickens right behind my seat).

There was a decent sized food market here which featured a lot of stands with almost no customers leaving us to wonder how they ever made a profit selling all these perishable foods. In addition nearly every stand was worked by a young child and it was pretty clear they would never know anything outside of Chamula which put things in perspective for Dan and I as we had traveled nearly every one of the last 8 weekends and were studying abroad in the first place.

Chamula also has 2 churches, one being the ruins of the burned down Church of San Sebastián and the other being the Church of San Juan which features thousands of candles and incense which are put out and burned only to be swept and scraped up every day.

After Chamula we headed back to San Cristóbal and climbed a series of steps to the San Cristóbal church situated on a hill overlooking the entire town of San Cristóbal in the valley below.

We took in the view for a bit then went back down for margaritas at a restaurant on the Zocalo and proceeded to hand Elena off to Tom (though I am almost positive she was dying to stay with us studs) as he passed through on their way to a different destination.

Next we headed across town to another temple situated atop a large hill where a wedding was taking place. A beautiful sunset and discussion on the benefits of being single ensued.

From here the two of us grabbed dinner at yet another candle lit restaurant with live piano music and no other tables without a girl. Fortunately we made up for it by ordering a huge plate of assorted meats.

After some recommendations we made our way out to a couple of the local bars and stopped by a concert which was taking place in the Zocalo before heading back for bed.

Sunday morning came a bit early, but after having had 3 travel agencies tell us (despite some classic arguments in Spanish) the day before that it would be impossible to visit both the Chiflón waterfall and the Sumidero Canyon in the same day, we had planned our route and knew what we had to do.

After Dan had sufficiently frightened a variety of small children and mothers around town with his ghastly morning "shouldn't have gone for that last drink" appearance which he seems to have mastered we grabbed a 7 AM collectivo bus headed in the direction of the waterfall.

After a transfer and another ride we arrived to the park and as luck would have it, got to take a "took took" up to the trail.

We walked through the forest and along the river about 20 minutes which allowed a couple peaks of what was ahead before finally everything opened up onto the tallest most magnificent waterfall I have ever seen.

We had an unbelievable look around from the several observatories and got absolutely drenched from all the spray coming up despite being well above the river below which was actually more of a small canyon with us looking over from one side.

Next we noticed there was a zip line crossing both ways over the canyon. I had never done one before and figured there was no time like the present, though Dan had already cruised a "2k canyon" and felt it was a bit of child's play. Little did he know how interesting I would make it.

After climbing the tower the man started dressing me with the harnesses. Per the usual I was blabbering in Spanish so he decided to give me the instructions including the part about the wooden hand held brake in Spanish which didn't quite register. Nonetheless I figured it was a simple enough process and took the plunge.

After a rather slow descent I found myself stuck in the very center of the rope dangling over the canyon. I couldn't figure out what the heck was the problem and continued to hang there for quite a bit as various instructions were yelled to me in some language not resembling anything I speak from guys on the other tower.

Once I started registering some serious pain in the groin and surrounding regions I realized I needed to let go of the wooden break and after doing so slowly cruised down.

After walking from the landing tower to the other launch tower I was clipped back and ready to go. This time I caught the guy saying that to go faster I just needed to let go of the break...not quite. I jumped off again and did this and what do you know, I zoomed across the canyon.

Crossing over I got a great view of the waterfall and everything was great until I realized the landing tower was approaching way too fast. The man was waving his arms all over the place and yelling but when I reached for my brake it was dangling below me and useless so I had to take my leather gloved hand and grab the rope until I slowed just before crashing into the tower.

Having stared death in the face or so it seemed to me I descended back to my tierra firma on shaky legs as a decent sized group laughed and pointed at the dumb white guy.

After a thorough verbal lashing on my ineptitudes as an adventure sportsman from Dan we headed out bound for the canyon.

3 hours of van time later we were in Tuxtla Gutierrez the largest city in Chiapas and managed to catch the finale of one of the most beautiful games of football ever played as the Bengals, on the road toppled the defending champ Steelers in Pittsburgh.

From here we asked around and got a ride out to a beautiful small town outside Tuxtla called Chiapa de Corzo where there are several water front restaurants, live music, and boat companies on the river which eventually flows into the Sumidero Canyon.

We got tickets for the last boat ride of the day and then got a 2 hour tour through the canyon from end to end.

It felt absolutely surreal with how enormous the cliffs on either side were (at 1 point being 1 kilometer above the water) and to date was the coolest thing I have seen in Mexico.

Almost everyone on the boat was absolutely enraptured with the magnificence.

We got back just as the sunset was finishing up and headed back to San Cristóbal.

Though we had big plans, we didn't end up making it past the appetizers stage and after a quick walk around headed back to the hotel for the conclusion of the Colts Patriots game (sweet Bill Belichick) and then an early night to bed.

The next day (which will be the next blog) we had plans for taking a tour to the famous historical ruins of Palenque with stops at two more waterfalls along the way. With over half our trip down, we were worn out, blown away by what we had seen, thankful to still be alive (or at least I was), and very excited for what lay ahead.

Halloween and Day of the Dead in Oaxaca

2009-11-03T17:37:00.000-08:00

This year's Mexican Halloween got off to a bit of a strange start after some very questionable decision making last Thursday for the Interuniversity Party (sponsored by 4 of the biggest universities in Puebla at an enormous indoor/outdoor bar).

Whoops!

Anyways, Friday Dan and I decided to make the 5 hour trip to Oaxaca, the epicenter of cultural Mexican Halloween and Day of the Dead and where several other groups we knew would be going.

After some poor bus planning, we arrived at about 2 in the morning and after a quick walk around the Zocalo found a decent but cheap hotel.

Saturday morning we both got up early with Dan heading off to play rugby for the UDLA team in a tournament in Oaxaca and me planning to go for a tour of the town and surrounding sites with three Canadian girls who were in town that we knew.

They told me to be up by 8 so I was and while waiting for them decided to go for a little walk around town. 3 hours, 246 cobblestoned streets,

6 awesome churches (San Domingo for the first two incredible interior of gold and the monstrous Oaxaca cathedral second),

several beautiful ofrendas (altars to a dead family member, 1 is usually built at the grave and another in the house each year for this weekend),

and some strange skeleton sand sculptures later the girls called and were ready to go.

We met up and walked through a bustling crafts and food market to a tourism office where we hopped on a bus for our first stop, Monte Alban.

Monte Alban is an ancient city about 10 km outside the city of Oaxaca.

Founded around 500 B.C. it was the first urban center in the Americas and represented the hub of the Zapotec empire for over a thousand years.

It was built upon the top of a mountain so along with the ruins you get amazing views of all of the Oaxaca valley and also a very pleasant complete silence and solitude.

Fortunately this marked a very special day for me since it was the first weekend trip I had been on with Jess since Catemaco when as luck would have it, we had a small wedding. Never being one to shun tradition I ordained that we would have a repeat performance and might I say the ceremony, complete with my random best man was lovely.

From here we got back on the bus and went back to town with plans to visit Tule home of the world's largest tree next. On the way we had a typical Mexico taxi experience when one driver pulled up and offered us a ride there for 300 pesos, the next for 150 pesos, and the third for 40 pesos.

Arriving in Tule, we were all rather hungry and went to eat at this restaurant which officially serves my favorite dish, the enormous tortilla covered in beans, lettuce, aguacate, steak, cheese, onions, and salsa better known as the Tlauyuda.

After this feast we walked across the street to visit this little park area called Tule complete with a tiny church and an enormous tree.

The Tule Tree or Árbol de Tule is estimated to be between 1600 and 3000 years old and has a whopping 38.1 foot diameter. It weighs over 636 tons and was absolutely mind blowing to see and walk around.

After this behemoth we headed back to town for some strolling through the streets (packed with people in town for the weekend) and spent some time in the bustling markets which sell just about anything a person could ever want and quite a few things I can't imagine a person ever needing.

After a bit I broke off from the group to return to the hotel where Danny was napping after a rough day (nasty shoulder injury had left him in a sling for the second and third games of the tournament, but somehow the team found a way to win the whole tournament without the Sensation from Down Under).

We showered up and hit the town for some prosciutto and melons at an outdoor restaurant in the absolutely bustling Zocalo (activities ranging from ofrenda competitions to concerts to Day of the Dead skits to costume shows).

After this we went to a restaurant I had spotted earlier in the day. It was full at the time but we got an 11 o'clock reservation and caught a taxi out to the Pantheon Xoxo the largest and most festive of the local cemeteries.

In Mexican tradition, each day beginning the 27th I believe has special significance up until the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. On this particular night (Oct. 31st) all the families of the town go to the cemetery where their loved ones are buried and make incredibly ornate ofrendas on each tomb stone in anticipation of the next day which commemorates the deaths of the children.

They have a very different view of the death process and think of this night as a time to lure the dead back with a celebration and as a result music is played, special incense is burned, and food and drinks abound (including the locally produced mezcal which makes tequila taste like kool aid).

It was very different from anything I was used to and felt a bit strange to be walking through a cemetery on Halloween with thousands of others taking pictures, drinking, and enjoying the music, but alas "cuando en Mexico."

Getting home was an absolute circus and I ended up getting my first ride in this 3 wheeled golf cart on steroids which Dan referred to as a Took Took from his southeast Asia ventures.

Once back we made our reservation and found the restaurant to be a very dimly lit romantic feeling courtyard with low hanging star ornaments, a string quartet softly playing, and candles at our table for two. Needless to say we were the only table without a female member and got a couple interesting glances.

Regardless it was a lovely date and after some very good chicken and steak topped off with a sampling of Oaxaca's famous mole sauces we headed out for a bar where some ladies we had met earlier were going.

Apparently guys in costumes get in free at this establishment so after we convinced the bouncer that Dan was dressed as a Ship Captain and I was the first mate we headed in and found our group waiting for us.

We decided to get an early start on Sunday since we had a big day in front of us.

Since once can't go to Oaxaca without seeing the biggest tree in the world we went to Tule first so Dan could be another witness.

From there we got a taxi out to Mitla, another ruins site. Mitla was constructed around 200 AD and kind of took over for Monte Albán as a major city of the Zapotec Empire. It has been built on ever since including before and after the arrival of the Spanish and as a result there is a normal little town built up all around the ancient buildings.

It is especially famous for its wall mosaics within the palaces and each wall supposedly consists of over 100,000 pieces of stone.

After Mitla we managed to find a pick up truck converted to passenger van and after being offered a squeezed in spot in the trailer bed we somehow managed to secure a spot in the cab to the chagrine of the rest of the passengers.

25 pesos and an hour long beautiful ride up one side of the mountain, over the top, and down the other side (where we took about 50 turns on the needle thin road I thought for sure would be our last)we arrived at the Hierve el Agua.

The Hierve is actually an enormous rock structure formed by small pools of very salty water which bubble out of the ground, form in pools on top of the rock surface and then spill over the side depositing their salt and forming the "rock waterfalls".

This spot nestled in the middle of an enormous mountain range was absolutely beautiful with amazing views of the cloud blanketed mountains which stretched as far as we could see, an enormous cactus, and then 2 pools full of the water in which we could swim.

After a good look around we began the 1.5 hour trek back to Oaxaca and after a variety of transports (and another and treacherous drive through the mountains) arrived at the Zocalo and picked up our tickets from home.

After another miraculous Tlayuda in the Zocalo we raced to bus station and 5 hours later were back in Puebla.

It was another great weekend offering tastes of Mexico's beautiful landscapes, rich history, and diverse culture. This weekend I will be heading home for a presentation in Charleston Friday and then head up to Chapel Hill for homecoming weekend. While this time probably won't offer quite as much rich history or diverse culture, I am nonetheless very excited to get back for a bit and see everyone.

Batting Way out of our League in Playa del Carmen

2009-10-27T19:18:00.001-07:00

Playa del Carmen, long weekend with the family and Dan, all inclusive resort with unlimited food and drinks, good for the fun level, bad for the health.

This very promising weekend started last Thursday with Dan and I taking a 1 o'clock flight out of the bustling Puebla airport. My solo seating strategy paid off once again on the flight in the form of a wonderful chica named Lucia who informed me as the plane touched down at the Cancun airport she was a full 17 years old...whoops (unfortunately not pictured here).

After a car ride where our driver was able to recommend all the best museums, tea houses, and other historical and cultural centers of Playa del Carmen we arrived at the hotel and after a bit of a wild goose chase found our room complete with a great view and fully stocked fridge and bar.

We immediately headed out to the pool to survey the land and amazingly enough received a big wave from Dad and Andy (on crutches for the duration of the weekend due to a torn quad)who were comfortably situated at the pool side bar (bar stools surrounding the bar surrounded by about 8 tables and booths).

After quenching our thirst we went for a bite to eat at the outdoor restaurant called Chilis which as luck would have it offered a monstrous free buffet.

Following a swim we returned to the room to prepare for dinner. During this time I ordered some chicken nachos as a pre game snack and nearly fell over the balcony when the man asked if we would like a complimentary bottle of champagne to accompany it.

Dinner started out in the hotel's sports bar where we were being updated on the UNC thursday night football game. After getting a promising 13 to 3 score (or something like that) and feeling comfortable that everything would be taken care of (false) we headed down to the outdoor restaurant which was now a steakhouse for dinner.

Everyone was a bit indecisive until discovering the surf and turf lobster tail and steak option and then everything became much clearer (and even more so when we finished the first round and were able to order a second).

From there we retreated to an upscale bar and cabaret type of lounge where the hotel was putting on its nightly show for mojitos before mom and dad went to bed and the now legal but still crippled Andy received a brief tour of the night life scene (at a sort of club at another one of the 5 resorts that we had access to) with Dan and I.

Friday we jumped out of bed at the crack of dawn, kind of and headed down to the pool for a magnificent breakfast. From there Dad, Dan, and I went to the beach and signed up for an hour long pool scuba lesson and open ocean 10 meter reef dive.

After cruising around our pool with Gustav (very Reuben like from Along came Polly) completely decked out in our scuba gear we hopped out, grabbed a burger from the grill on the beach, and took a 10 minute boat ride to the reef for the dive.

The first 39 minutes and 30 seconds of our 40 minute dive were absolutely awesome with tons of fish, coral, vegetation, a moray eel, and white sands and crystal clear water. Unfortunately Dad apparently missed the relax and breath easily part of our lesson and decided to bring his water buffalo lungs down with him resulting in an oxygen depletion just before we were about to finish.

Fortunately Gustav was very calm and had instructed us well in how to cope with this emergency. Dad was able to get his spare oxygen tank and we all ascended to the surface with minimal stress (though Dad might dispute that right about the time he tried taking his last couple breaths from his empty tank though he was able to recuperate back at the beachside bar with his new best friend Marvin).

The rest of the afternoon was passed at our second home in one of the pool booths with piña coladas as we waited for the sun to go down.

Dinner that night was at a Brazilian steak house where we had 6 different types of delicious meats brought to our table on skewers.

Fortunately this restaurant had a dessert bar with self serve ice cream so that I could consume my 56th, 57th, and 58th scoops of the trip before another round of mojitos.

After dinner Mom begged us to go out for a big night to 5th Avenue in downtown Playa with her (Mexican equivalent of Bourbon St. with countless bars and restaurants that seemingly never close and packed streets everywhere you look) and then dragged Dan and I out there and made us stay up all night or something like that.

During this we spent quite a bit of time at one outdoor bar where Dan managed to find love with a Mexican actress while I managed to speak to literally every girl in the place without finding much of anything (despite the presence of 3 different bridal parties).

Saturday came rather early, but after another great breakfast at a different hotel restaurant we rallied and we all grabbed a taxi for a day trip to Fifth Avenue to do a little exploring.

We had ambitions of a ferry trip to neighboring Cozumel island, but they didn't quite pan out and after a very entertaining walk around town where some really thoughtful purchases were made, we wound up as luck would have it at Señor Frogs.

Here we were treated to quite the show as the place was empty and the wait staff had a field day with us including making Mom literally jump out of her seat with a long straw that they were pretending was a large rat and making me squeal like a girl when they brought us "complimentary nachos" which turned out to be a black wig which was thrown at me when the dish was removed from the plate.

From here we headed back for an afternoon of catamaran sailing and then wouldn't you know it, some time all together at the poolside bar (after a human bridge was constructed to keep the ever fragile mother dry).

From here a game of monkey in the middle with a volley ball ensued, but that was quickly terminated after an errant throw from some tall American kid with a funny name that starts with a G mis threw one right into one of the booths and in a brilliant stroke of misfortune hit an older lady in the head (she would be fine as the ball was very light, but stormed out of the pool.

After this Dad decided to get artsy with pictures and jumps from the infinity pool into the regular pool.

After the photo shoot I redonned my electric pants and we headed down for dinner this time at a Japanese restaurant with sushi and great entrees. After dinner I managed to convince the waiters of the Brazilian steak house they wanted to let me re-attack the ice cream bar and after stuffing myself we went for after dinner drinks complimented by a strange outdoor show including these guys replicating Mayan dance ceremonies.

After my 76 strike outs with girls the night before Dad decided to amend the situation with Darlene here who was mid 30's, traveling with her mother, and the self proclaimed most interesting girl in the world. Not sure she can rival my hero from the Dos Equis commercials but the 7 of us did have quite a conversation together.

From there Dan and I wished the family good bye and big thank yous for an awesome time as they would be leaving at the first rooster's crow the next day while we had a bit later of a flight.

We concluded the trip that night with a visit to Playa del Carmen's most famous establishment, Coco Bongo where there was an absolutely packed enormous bar and crazy show with dancers, singers, bands, people doing tricks from the ceiling, and much more. After covering every inch of the bar, and speaking to varying degrees of success with seemingly everyone we headed back content with a good night.

Sunday we got up and after our last breakfast took a walk down the beach to a secluded part beyond all the hotels where there was nothing but beaches, rocks, and a splendid forest.

After packing up we headed to the airport, realized in the car that neither one of us actually knew what time our flight was, discovered everything was okay, and grabbed a burger.

As we got back to Puebla that afternoon we were exhausted and sad that our tropical excursions were over for the time being, but content with two awesome weekends, and looking forward to a fun last 6 weeks of our semester (including Halloween and Day of the Dead, a huge deal in Mexico coming up this weekend).

Don't Be a Squid in Cabo

2009-10-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend kicked off a fairly stellar 10 day tour of Mexico's finest travel destinations with a weekend trip to Cabo San Lucas with Dan and family (to be followed up this Thursday with a trip to Playa del Carmen with mi familia).

Thursday afternoon around 5 I headed to the bus station and headed up to Mexico City where we would be staying for the night before our flight the next morning.

I was restricted from going to Mexico City any earlier because Dan actually refused me access to the city of 20 million on account of the fact that he had to have a day date with a girl he had met a couple weeks before (he lost a couple man points when I discovered that their "awesome day" consisted of a sushi lunch, a cup of tea, and a walk in a park but would redeem himself in Cabo).

After meeting up at the hotel we went to a very upscale area called Condesa for some drinks (at a beautiful rooftop bar overlooking all of Mexico City) and dinner (at a great restaurant with very tasty fried banana slices and large steaks).

Afterwards mom and dad took a cab home and Dan and I went to sample the local flavor. After an absolutely horrific band, way too many offers for cab rides to a gentleman's club, some co-eds with really phenomenal personalities, a suspect congregation of a motorcycle gang, and late night tacos we too headed back chomping at the bit to hit the beach.

We woke up Friday and had a very good breakfast (first time since arrival I had something other than scrambled eggs with various meats or quesadillas) and hopped on our plane.

The flight was a lot of fun as my plan to get a window seat by myself to get a head start on babe watch before arrival backfired a bit but landed me next to two older men who turned out to be interesting cardiovascular doctors.

Flying over Cabo was also very cool since the peninsula is made up of a beautiful coastline which immediately gives way to an enormous desert with tons of mountains.

Getting to the hotel was problem free and our arrival was quite grand. The hotel was beautiful and once we had worked out the extra cost per night for the ocean front and extra bed room upgrade Dan had negotiated earlier that week (all the while trying to distract Mr. Courtnall) we headed up to the suite.

It was absolutely gorgeous with a fourth floor view of the ocean, pool, and amazing rock structures that make up part of the coast line. Inside was beautiful as well and we were set for a weekend living as kings.

We passed the afternoon at the beach (crystal clear waters with white sands) and pool (pool side bar with the bar stools in the water, just what the doctor ordered).

That evening we had snacks and margaritas on the balcony (personally prepared by professionals in dashing attire) and then headed out for dinner.

We were supposed to go to a very nice lobster restaurant but instead decided to go with the taxi drivers recommendation ("best typical seafood in the area, can't beat it") and wound up at a bit of touristy joe's crab shack type of deal where the wine menu consisted of them bringing out their 2 bottles. Dan was a bit distraught with the entire situation but after eating a lobster and a half he seemed to recover just fine.

From there we strolled down for mojitos at a restaurant on the Cabo marina (there might have been a peso or two worth of boats moored, yikes).

Afterwards Dan and I went for an educational experience at the Cabo Tequila Museum which just happens to serve drinks (though the waitress in the kitty cat ears and bizarre pink mini skirt seemed to be a few tacos short of a full platter and we had a really interesting concoction or two).

We then checked out a bit of the night life including a trip to El Squid Roe Cabo's premier bar with three levels of madness, hundreds of tables and booths built to be danced upon, free popcorn (though the bouncers didn't exactly condone the ensuing popcorn battle), and some very enthusiastic clients.

Saturday started out much the same as Friday with lots of pool and beach time.

Dan and I also took a stroll down from our hotel to see some of the excitement that was going on closer to town.

There were some good beach competitions sponsored by the restaurants and way too many jet ski offers before we wandered in to The Hacienda resort complete with a beach side restaurant and ocean front row of 7 million dollar homes. Seeing as it was such a nice place I was absolutely shocked they were giving their food away at about 12 to 15 pesos a dish (about a dollar) before I realized we weren't in Cholula anymore and those were US dollars.

After having the best nachos in Mexico we headed back and met Mr. and Mrs. Courtnall for a water taxi ride out to see the rock formations. They were absolutely enormous and with our glass bottom boat and clear waters we were able to see tons of fishes and pelicans as we got closer to some of the submerged rocks.

Coming around the bend we found a rock full of seals and then the famous Arco de San Cabos surrounded by a bit of sand called Lover's Beach (though Dan and I were sure that name followed whatever beach we were frequenting).

After a good look around there we headed back for another balcony session, sampled some interesting wine, and then went to the adjoining resort for an scrumptious dinner of calamari soup and great steaks.

From there Dan and I headed out again for a fun night. Conversations ran a little long, but fortunately we were able to catch the sun rise on the way back which is always a plus.

After not quite making it to brunch with mom and dad at 10, we got up and said a very sad good bye to them. They were absolutely wonderful for the 2 weekends I was able to spend with them and I am very sad that we won't be spending time together again any time soon (but you have to love another reason to visit Sydney).

Dan and I weren't flying out until 5 so we got a chance to get back to the beach. Hurricane Rick was due to arrive the next day so the waves were enormous and by far the biggest I had ever experienced.

After requesting to share a taxi with other guests we were called while back in the room and told we had 5 minutes which resulted in the fastest shower pack job in the history of Cabo vacations. We hopped on the taxi van expecting to find an angry family who had to wait but instead had two "gnarly" Californian guys who didn't seem to mind especially when we told them we both studied in Australia.

At the airport we figured the adventure was over but after finding out the duty free shop gives free sips of all their liquors we had a huge party complete with some fancy salsa dancing with the entire store staff before hopping on the plane.

Still not done, we boarded the plane behind two younger ladies from Los Angeles who didn't strike us as the brightest bulbs in the bunch. They didn't understand the concept of assigned seating so when they turned to us to ask where they should sit I volunteeered the open seats 8A and 8B figuring it would be rather humorous to watch from our seats as the actual owners of the seats made them move. As luck would have it, as soon as they sat down I checked my ticket only to realize I had given away my own seat and Dan and I were relegated to the very last row of the plane.

Fortunately the stewardess crew was splendid and we had a ball turning the back of the plane into a circus of jokes, songs, and compliments in our practically fluent spanish.

After landing we cruised home in a bus to finish up what I would absolutely rank as my best weekend in Mexico so far. Fortunately with the departure for Playa del Carmen looming less than 4 days away, the transition from paradise to the real world (or as real as study abroad in Cholula gets) wasn't too bad at all.

Caves, Cascades, and Charades in the Big City of Cuetzalan

2009-10-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Tom, Dan, and I decided we would take a one night trip this past weekend and decided on Cuetzalan, a very small town that had been recommended to us by a lot of Mexicans. We were very excited to visit and especially to see the three things Cuetzalan is most famous for:

1. The Voladores, a talented group of 4 men that perform a daily show in Cuetzalan where they climb to the top of this very tall pole in the town center and gracefully slowly fly down with their feet attached to the top of the tower while another man plays indigenous music from the top. It began in Cuetzalan with a native Indian tribe long ago and has now spread to become an important aspect of the cultural in other parts of Mexico.

2. The Feria of Cuetzalan. Very well known as the perfect example of Mexican culture it features a multitude of traditional dances, markets, costumes and clothing, and various other traditions. We had been told it typically lasts the first 2 weeks of October.

3. The scenic view. Cuetzalan is located high in the mountains and the surrounding views are supposed to be breathtaking and the drive up is regarded as one of the best in Mexico.

Friday afternoon we headed to the bus station and began our journey.

Unfortunately we left a little late and for the mountain part of the drive it was dark outside and we could see almost nothing. That didn't matter though since we would surely be able to see it all on the way back Saturday with a 5 PM departure.

Arriving in Cuetzalan we strolled about 4 blocks down a very steep but nice cobblestone street (as all the streets in Cuetzalan are) to the Zocalo wanting to find a hotel near the action.

Though a bit concerned with how unbelievably quiet it was in town (you could use words like ghost town, completely deserted, etc.), we didn't worry too much and assumed everyone was just getting some rest for the big upcoming day.

After securing a 3 bedroom hotel right next to the Zocalo for 350 pesos from a younger guy who never spoke above a whisper we headed out for dinner. Little did we know we would be receiving some very troubling news for the appetizer.

Walking in to the Zocalo we were impressed with how beautiful and quiet it was. After living in a college town and having visited Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and other high energy places, it was nice to see a little tranquility.

Looking around for a restaurant we decided to ask for a recommendation from a sandwich vendor. After getting his suggestion (he actually just named the only 3 restaurants in Cuetzalan), we as an afterthought asked what time the Feria would get started tomorrow.

He answered it won't be starting at all tomorrow since it was last weekend. Confident that I had misinterpreted his Spanish I asked him to repeat and guess what...the answer hadn't changed, whoops.

We decided to head to the closest restaurant (very nice overlooking the Zocalo and all of its bustling activities or something like that) and consider these implications.

At this point, we still were going to have spectacular views the next day, get to see the voladores, and experience a neat place in Mexico (where without the Feria we were undoubtedly the only foreigners) and morale was relatively high.

Regardless, I turned to the ultimate cure for any type of stress, food, and went with quantity over quality in ordering 4 entrees for my dinner for under 10 dollars (though this picture does not include the desert portion which was a steak, 5 tortillas, and beans and veggies for $3.50).

After chowing down we had a nice chat and then went for a walk. While eating some ice cream on the other side of the Zocalo and looking out into the darkness beyond the building imagining the views we would have the next day an elderly man with a fabulous sombrero approached us with a gait that would suggest he had just celebrated his 21st birthday.

After trying to decipher some absolutely incoherent sentences complete with an array of hand gestures, we decided he must be playing a game of charades and began guessing movies. After winning with a guess of The Bourne Supremacy we wished him a good night and continued our walk.

After passing two western saloon double doors, I doubled back to find a bar which we entered. I am going to take a stab and say there is a good chance we were their first table of 2 Australians and an American, but I can't be positive.

Regardless, they had a full stock of a traditional liquor of Cuetzalan which the owner claimed was healthy for your stomach. A bit skeptical of this part, I tried it out and found the green liquid to have an interesting but pretty good taste. Dan and Tom were equally as adventurous and decided to try out something called a beer which they served in a glass bottle and amazingly they also were pleased with their purchase.

As we were finishing a downpour started outside so we walked as far under the awning of the buildings as we could and then were stuck. Fortunately we just so happened to be in the highest population density area of Cuetzalan and found ourselves amongst a group of about 30 high school kids hanging out. Some were out in the rain sitting on the steps that go down to the Zocalo (lowest part of the town so rivers of water are flowing in from every street) getting absolutely soaked.

They were very generous and decided to share some water with us by splashing. After some chants to come sit with them I ran out there for this picture, then Tom took his turn and upped the ante with a full blown lay down in the flooded street.

After returning to our awning they all came over for photo after photo. After about 10 minutes of this, we decided it was about time to head back and left to cries of "We love you forever!" and "Let's get married!" in broken English.

On the way back being the chief resident of Mexican climatology that I am I assured Dan and Tom that it despite the downpour that night it would be clear the next day because I had never seen it rain in the morning in Mexico.

Boy was I wrong.

I woke up at 7 with plans to go for a run to the Cuetzalan hospital which is well known for its traditional medicine department. Unfortunately it was absolutely pouring and a nice fog had rolled in to boot.

Figuring I wouldn't melt I headed out anyways and literally was almost run over by a Cumby transport van which I decided to hop in that took me right to the hospital.

Called the Hospital Integral de Cuetzalan it was an awesome place. Very small and certainly not new, the guards were nice and allowed me to go back to the traditional medicine wing to talk with a doctor.

In a 30 minute chat with Elroy (not sure what part of Mexico that is from) I learned among other things that the traditional center was opened in 2002 along with 5 others in Mexico, that all its services are free and patients are able to make a donation afterwards, that each patient comes in and can choose whether they want a natural treatment or to go to the regular part of the hospital, and I even got a tour to see the 3 rooms (sauna, doctor's office, and 4 bed infirmary), and the laboratory where they take the herbs and other treatments and process them for the patients. The doctors for this part all work as volunteer and are trained through a different procedure than the regular med school track.

After this I went back outside to find that the rain had lightened but the fog had gotten much worse.

Getting back to the Zocalo I found Dan and Tom and we decided we would go to see a local waterfall since the vistas and feria had been crossed off the list. Fortunately, we still had the pride and joy of Cuetzalan, the Voladores to look forward to that afternoon.

After being told it was a 15 minute walk to the water falls and receiving some very vague directions we headed off but ended up hopping in the back of a truck converted to limo (kind of) at a little station where the people told us we would be taken to the water fall.

After 20 minutes in the truck driving over some very interesting terrain we were told to get out here and pointed in a direction. Interestingly enough, here was this church and looked nothing like a waterfall.

We started walking up the street and after some more directions and streets which we were positive would be the last we would ever see we reached a small gate, a pathway into the forest, and the sound of a lot of water falling a long way.

After about 20 minutes we finally reached the cascade and boy was she a beauty!

Just kidding, the weekend was not that jinxed.

After 20 minutes of walking, we actually came to this water fall. Unfortunately it was really commercialized and we could hardly find a spot to put our stuff with all the other people there, but hey it was still pretty cool.

We were able to swim all the way around the shower of water and though being nearly crushed by the water pressure, tried to get as close as we could to the center of it.

After a long swim in the chilly water we got a self timer photo (Dad you would have been proud) and headed back.

Upon arrival in Cuetzalan the fog was nothing if not thicker. We found a small tourism office and were told that if the weather cleared the voladores would be going at five, right when our bus (and the last of the day was supposed to leave). Incredibly the lady was unwilling to have them move the show up for us (though she made a great point that there was no chance the weather would clear anyway) so we walked out a bit dejected have batted a big 0 for 3 on the Cuetzalan attractions but still pumped about the waterfall.

We decided to try out another natural attraction with the rest of our afternoon and jumped back in another transport vehicle for the Cuetzalan Grutas (caves) where fortunately I was able to make some new friends to account for my shut out on Friday's bus ride.

After purchasing a mandatory guide who like the majority of the Cuetzalan population seemed a bit eccentric, we headed in to the cave. It was an absolutely enormous underground cavern with huge stalactites and stalagmites.

Fortunately someone on some type of wild substance (maybe traditional medicine, maybe lots of my green drink from the night before) had gone through and chosen an animal or thing that every rock structure in there resembled including dinosaurs, whales, sombreros, and much more.

This was described as an ancient samurai warrior (or equally likely just a bad translation).

After an hour long tour through underground rivers, lots of steps, and some really dark areas we headed out and hopped back on a truck for Cuetzalan.

After picking up our bags we unsuccessfully attempted to change our 5 o'clock bus to the 4 o'clock with one of the rudest women in all of Mexico but after coming up with every reason for why we had to be back in Puebla an hour earlier except the truth we grabbed a bite to eat and waited.

After a 4 hour ride home (with the view, though light outside, completely obscured by the blanket of fog) where an epic draft with at least 20 rounds of selections of the most eligible bachelorettes of Cholula took place, we made it back in time for a very different type of night in Mexico than the one before.

Though our trip didn't quite go as planned, it still worked out quite well. We had a lot of fun and got to experience the small town Mexican life as well as some cool natural wonders.

This week will involve a lot of rest, trombone practice, and studying...that is until the Thursday departure for Cabo San Lucas with Dan and his parents rolls around.

Teotihuacán Home of Big Pyramids and Little Battle Axes

2009-10-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

Following a full night of salsa dancing Saturday (as terrifying a concept as that is for anyone who has seen me dance), I practically jumped out of bed for my 5 AM alarm clock in anticipation of an awesome day trip to Teotihuacán, located about 20 minutes outside of Mexico City.

After hopping on the bus around 6 AM I adopted my usual bus ride strategy of sitting in a seat by myself despite knowing a couple other Americans in order to meet someone new (and hopefully that could speak solid spanish with me).

Of course this strategy is always a gamble, but for about the 5th straight time it paid off AKA a Mexican girl between the ages of 18 and 29 sat down next to me. This time her name was Julieta and she was on the trip with two girls from France who also spoke perfect Spanish. I immediately declared they would be my inseparable friends for the day and off we went.

Following a good nap, we arrived to Teotihuacán and after meeting our guide, of Aztec ancestry, we received a great opening speech (in español) and started walking.

Teotihuacán is an ancient city that was at various times inhabited by different peoples. Its oldest building dates to about 200 BC, but its two pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun (3 tallest in the world) and Pyramid of the Moon were constructed around 100AD. At its pinnacle it was thought to have had up to 250,000 inhabitants making it one of the largest cities in the world at that time.

The area is set up so that an enormous path called the Avenue of the Dead runs from the entrance all the way down to the two huge pyramids on the other side. We started our tour from the entrance and headed down into a large sunken central area.

Surrounding us on 3 sides were huge walls each containing four sets of stairs to represent the seasons, the directions, and the elements earth, wind, fire (they should make that the name of a band), and water. The fourth side was what my young and naive self would have considered to be a fairly large pyramid.

This area was made for ceremonies and had great acoustics. Our guide did various traditional chants and claps and the different echoes he could produce were awesome.

From here we walked further along the Avenue of the Dead and then were able to go underneath one of the smaller pyramids. The entire area was built upon over and over again so in some places there are up to 7 layers worth of construction and they are continuously unearthing older and older buildings.

Within this pyramid we did another ceremony where we turned off the lights and some chanting was done. After this a volunteer was asked to step forward in the dark and after some prodding from my new friends I hopped up to receive a small traditional monkey engraved fire holder. The fire was lit and then I was asked to give thanks to the fire (a bit strange but I went with it) and then bestow a blessing upon the entire group (more beautiful words have never been spoken).

Next I along with my fire and bag of kindle had to lead the entire group out and then group leader (to spare myself the wrath of the Aztec gods I will not attempt his name) and I led the party down to the base of the big daddy Pyramid of the Sun.

We sat on a patch of grass in front of the pyramid for another ceremony where the fire man or hombre del fuego as group leader was now calling me led us in another ceremony where I had to hold the fire up to the gods as he did some more chanting. After nearly losing both my arms to fatigue (but knowing with the importance of my position that rest was not an option) he finished and we were turned loose to explore.

With my new friends we scampered/labored up the stairway to heaven as it seemed (260 steps I believe) and after a quick oxygen break took some awesome pictures.

Next we headed over to the Pyramid of the Moon and climbed that for some more great shots including this one of some idiotic American tourist posing like the Mexican soccer legend Blanco after he scores a goal.

From here we got to go inside a couple more of the pyramids to see some of the preserved art work and then it was time to go.

On the way out of the park I came to a final decision on something that had been troubling me all day and decided I absolutely had to have one of the traditionally decorated battle axes the vendors were selling. After some pathetic bartering (I offered 60 pesos (4.50 US) to one guy he accepted, then claimed he meant 60 US dollars and refused the sale) I finally scored a really sweet one (but per the usual a bit undersized) for 100 pesos and couldn't have been happier (not to mention it would come in very handy on the bus ride home).

Next our guide hopped on the bus with us and we went to a local store/restaurant where we received a lesson about all the things you can do with this big old cactus here (writing utensils, yarn, healing potions, torture devices, and oh yea I almost forgot an alcoholic beverage called Pulque which she claimed is also an aphrodisiac (as if that is not the most redundant thing you have ever heard)).

Fortunately they had prepared a sample for all of us and also included a tequila sample (thank goodness I finally got to try some of that stuff out). Since the pulque was supposedly an aphrodisiac I decided to take my shot near Marion my new French friend but as you can tell she was having nothing to do with it.

To put it lightly it tasted horrific and the tequila was a welcome chaser. With this on the breath we did a bit of shopping through the store and got back on the bus. As we were pulling out the guide called the Fire Man to the front and presented me with the fire holder as a gift for which I was very appreciative. He then hopped out and we drove over to Coyoacan a well preserved historical district of México City.

We did a tour through the Frida Kahlo art museum, ate a huge dinner, took a walk through the Zocalo, then hit up their enormous indoor/outdoor market, took a walk into a different park, got some ice cream (about 3 hours in all but not nearly as fun as the pyramids so I will spare you too many details), and headed back to the bus.

As you can see the aphrodesiac finally began kicking in.

The ride home was great except for the fact that Luna, the girl in the seat in front of me decided she was going recline into both of my surgically repaired knees. Fortunately my battle axe came in quite handy and after dealing with this slight inconvenience in a peaceful manner, all order was restored.

We got home around 11 exhausted but still amazed by all that had been seen. I said adios to my new friends and made the walk back home to conclude another awesome weekend in México.

Catcoons in Cantona

2009-10-04T21:49:00.000-07:00

Following a fairly big Friday night which included a great dinner at an Argentinian Steak House and getting turned down for the second straight night by the exact same waitress at the exact same very upscale and classy downtown Puebla bar, I needed a good day Saturday.

Unfortunately, the violinista in the orchestra who I was supposed to be going on a day trip to the local African Safari with had canceled on account of no transportation (I like to refer to this rather familiar state of affairs as down but not quite out) and I needed a plan B.

This came in the form of Dan and his two delightful parents (of English birth but have lived in Australia for quite a while making for some of the greatest accents you can imagine) who had treated me to lunch and dinner the day before and who had hired a driver and were planning a day trip to some town named Cantona.

I knew nothing about this place, but decided the best play was overstaying my welcome with the family via the old self invite and carried it out to a T.

After a 10 AM departure and about a 2 hour drive in a car Dan described as something out of Baby Gap we arrived to Cantona. Fortunately (though Dan was mortified), mom and dad had packed two of the greatest hats ever seen in Mexico and were kind enough to share for this picture.

This had come as a recommendation from a Cholula tour guide who said it was a great archaeological site to visit that still hadn't been discovered by the tourists.

Seeing as it was located in the absolute middle of nowhere Mexico, this was not hard to believe, but it definitely turned out to be quite a show.

Built about a 1000 years ago, it apparently was one of the most developed, largest, and productive cities of its time. Despite having large residential areas, a complex walled road system, athletic courts, and mutliple large temples it was constructed with no cement and as a result is completely made of stacked rock which is pretty cool to think about standing the test of time for that long.

Only about 1% of the city has been unearthed and restored, but it was still an enormous site and they have a great circular path set up that allows you to walk all of the roads and see all of the different buildings.

After touring through and seeing some cool things we got to the final edifice which was a ceremonial palace and had some great views of the surrounding area and even the snow capped mountain (hard to believe with the amount we were sweating) in the background.

After this we packed our way back into the car and got a great lunch on the way home. After having developed some recent confidence in my Spanish, all was lost when Dan and I tried to play pool in the restaurant where after a five minute conversation with an employee all I could gather was that him telling me the pool balls "se fue" or had left. Seeing as this was probably not possible I became very distressed and decided to rededicate myself to the language upon my return home.

Fortunately, while pulling out of the restaurant parking lot we spotted a cage containing two animals (unfortunately couldn't get the camera out in time) which I would be absolutely willing to bet my UDLA purchased trombone were hybrids between a cat and raccoon.

As a biology major I have absolutely no idea what species they could have been, but in any case, a raccat or catcoon, whichever you prefer, certainly trumps walking pool balls so I decided anything was possible when in Mexico and that maybe my Spanish deserves more credit than it was given. As a result I was able to peacefully nap sandwiched between Dan and his mother the entire ride home to conclude another great and enlightening trip in Mexico.

Día de Independencia

2009-09-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

This entry is a bit on the late side, but still very much worth mentioning.

Mexico celebrated its 199th Day of Independence 2 Wednesdays ago. Typically this is a very important holiday here, but since this one kicked off the 200th year of independence, it was to be even more celebrated than usual.

The weekend before the big day Dan, Tom, and I were faced with a very important decision about where to celebrate such a momentous occasion. Recognizing it as a potentially very dangerous time with many Mexicans very intoxicated and worked up into a national fervor we decided to lay low and have a quiet night...in the Zocalo of Mexico City.

With almost 19 million inhabitants, Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, by far the largest and most important in Mexico, and not to mention their capital. The Zocalo or city center is regarded as the place to be by the entire country so what you end up with is a city which is the equivalent of their Los Angeles, Washington DC, and NYC combined with the Zocalo being like Times Square for the New Year's ball drop on steroids.

On that Tuesday afternoon the three of us boarded a bus for Mexico City with three other girls, one of which was Paulina who lives in Mexico City and has a family which invited us to stay at their house overnight and also enjoy their unbelievable party they were throwing for their friends and family.

We showed up to the house around 6 just as the fiesta was getting started. I haven't seen a table that full of food nor that many bottles of tequila in quite a while, but let no time waste (after a quick change into some official Mexican attire) in partaking in the food portion of that offering.

The parents could not have been more hospitable and we had a great time with all the friends and family that poured into the house including my new best friend Carlos.

Around 9 we were met with a very pleasant surprise when a mariachi band showed up and graced us with an hour and a half of music and entertainment.

After a dance or two (if you can call what I was doing dancing) with Paulina's sister, mother, and grandmother (three generations is always a good stat), we rounded up our group of 6 (only took $4 worth of pesos and nothing else with me in the event that someone fancied the 6'3 white guy a prime target) and headed for the metro which would take us to the Zocalo.

Fortunately it started pouring rain just as we left the house, bad for the picture turnout, but did not deter the spirits of our crowd.

After taking the metro we had about 20 minute walk to the Zocalo. The brightness of the lights and fire works and the incredible amount of noise intensified with every step and by the time we got to the mass of humanity standing in and around the square, we were pumped.

The way it works is every zocalo in Mexico has the most prominent speaker they can get come and give a little speech called the grito around 11 PM the day before the Independence Day. That night everyone has a massive fiesta and then the next day no one has work or school and there is usually some type of parade.

After some less than reassuring metal detector and police searches we entered the Zocalo and after being completely surrounded by people for as far as the eye could see, heard Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico come out and give the grito.

Despite some horrific chants aimed at El Presidente (apparently not too popular for his efforts at combating the drug cartels as I was later informed), everyone went crazy for the speech and after about 3 minutes of it, an unbelievable fire work show ensued with traditional mariachi bands all over the place making quite a cacophony of Mexican music.

From that point the party apparently continues for quite a while, but after having received multiple pieces of advice that said clear out as soon as the fire works end, we bolted back for the subway.

Except for a few hate crimes with bottles of foam similar to silly string where Tom, Dan, and I were downright targeted by some locals (though we didn't seem to mind too much), we were fortunate enough to not run into any troubles.

We arrived home and spiced up a bit of the after party then hit the sack.

The next day we got back on the metro and headed down to Avenue Juarez for the annual Independence Day military parade. We saw a lot of soldiers with a lot of guns and a couple phenomenal trombone sections

Next, we cruised over to the Reforma Avenue which is the main stretch of Mexico City and houses some awesome fountains and statues.

Once we had a look around there it was back to Paulina's house for a quick bite to eat and then off to the bus station for the return trip.

It was another great experience in Mexico. Very cool to see so many people so infused with national pride and we were very lucky to have been able to get right to the very center of the entire country for such an important day.

The next couple days will hopefully be a little more on the calm side as Monday brings the first concert of the year for the orchestra in which, as I was informed by the director Thursday, despite my inability to get through the entirety of any one of our 7 songs, I will be playing. God bless the audience...

Turtles and Tall Jumps

2009-09-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the annual Acapulco trip for the international students. Unfortunately this entry may be a little bland as most of the time was occupied by unbloggable things, oh wait that was the 21st birthday Thursday (just joshing mom).

Sorry that was a tangent, back to Acapulco.

After boarding a midnight bus we arrived to the hotel at around 8 in the morning a bit on the tired side but ready to go.

After a day at the beach and pool we headed to some restaurant next door to our hotel which had lots of waitresses dressed like this

Can't say much for the service but the buffalo wings were phenomenal.

Afterwards everyone showered up and we all hopped in the bus.

The first stop was the La Quebrada cliff diver show which was pretty cool. The divers are a group of professionals that have been doing shows since 1934. They take off from a platform that is 148 feet (child's play as we will soon see) above the water. Unbeknownst to us at the time jumping off really tall things would become a very prevalent theme throughout the weekend.

After the show the bus took us to a bar called Paradise. Right on the beach, two outdoor levels with a huge swimming pool, various spring break-esque activities (where some people just flat out dispose of all their dignity), and wouldn't you know it, a bungy tower.

Though it would seem logical to have done the bungy at this point, I was talked out of it by Dan and instead watched as 2 of my other friends went and both survived while I met a 27 year old friend named Claudia (after years of searching finally found a woman who could relate to me on a maturity level).

Though we had fun, the decision not to bungy jump would bother me for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday started off with a great walk down the waterfront of Acapulco. The city is pretty cool in that it is built around a large bay with the mountains less than half a mile from the water. You wind up with a big circle of blue water, good beach, huge hotels, and then beautiful mountains.

Around mid afternoon I was hit with some troubling information. The place we were planning to go to that night called Palladium (apparently a world famous night club) had a no short no tennis shoe policy. Fortunately coming from Chapel Hill and Charleston where I have been taught you can go anywhere and do anything in khaki shorts and a button down I had only packed shorts and tennis shoes for that night.

Refusing to let this get me down I cruised across the street to Wal Mart Supercenter for an early birthday present, 8 dollar George jeans (actually pretty decent looking), and a slick pair of white Miami Vice loafers.

After a beautiful sunset on the beach we got ready and headed out to Palladium.

We arrived about 30 minutes before the doors opened but were delighted to find one of my absolute favorite establishments in the whole world, Señor Frogs, was located next door.

Both Señor Frogs and Palladium are situated on the side of one of the mountains so they overlook the entire Bay of Acapulco which made for an incredible view the whole night.

A great time was had by all and as I laid down that night I thought I was satisfied with the weekend and could go home in peace...wrong.

I woke up Sunday with an ardent desire to bungy jump (at less than 30$ I didn't think I would find a better deal in the world nor a safer set up than Acapulco Mexico) before I left. After grabbing Dominique from Germany as my photographer we hopped in a cab at 12:30 knowing that we needed to be back on the bus for departure by 1:30.

We pulled up at the Paradise bar just in time for the 1:00 opening which fortunately from a time stand point allowed me to go first (I am fairly confident they had been testing the ropes out all morning and being the guinea pig first jumper for the day was a good idea).

After a brief glance at best over the policies and precautions I signed the line that said I assume responsibility for all the horrible things that could happen to me and put down the home address and phone number in the box that read "In the event of an accident who should be contacted" and hopped on the elevator.

At the top I was strapped in and somehow managed to form the sentence "How high am I right now?" despite my clattering teeth. The answer of 161 feet did nothing to help the nerves but time was of the essence so I hopped up out of my seat, hobbled over to the edge with my feet all wrapped up, told the guy to tell the fam I love them, looked over the edge, muttered some choice words, and took the plunge.

Holy mackerel I got from the top of the tower to the end of the bungy cord really really fast.

It was all over in what seemed like a split second, but was awesome feeling both during and after. After being hauled down onto firm ground we got this picture, cleaned out my shorts, and hopped back in a taxi to get on the bus.

After checking the Bengals score in Hooters and consequently wondering why I had ever developed such an unhealthy obsession with such a horrific excuse for a team we drove over to a different beach which was a turtle preservation site.

We spent a relaxing afternoon at the beach and at the end all got to release one of the little guy's into the water. After having read that 1 in 1,000 of them would survive (what an inefficient species that is, what the heck Darwin?), I was a bit discouraged to let mine go, but much like bungy jumping, decided the matter was best left to chance.

After watching them scurry off into the water in what became a very intense race for the observers, we all scurried back on the bus and headed home with another great weekend logged in the books.

Rooting for the Home Team

2009-09-10T15:41:00.001-07:00

105,000 people is a lot, especially when every one of them is a screaming, blood thirsty (for Honduran blood this time thank goodness), maniacal (yes this is a word, I looked it up) Mexican soccer fan crammed into Estadio Azteca, Mexico's largest stadium.

Last Wednesday at 1:00 Dan, Tom (Australians), and I headed to Mexico City with another group from school to attend the Mexico vs. Honduras World Cup qualifying game. With only 3 games left (only top three teams advance) and Mexico in 3rd place but only 1 point behind Honduras and the US, it was showtime.

We arrived outside the stadium around 4 and due to Tom's pathetic bladder, the 3 of us hopped out of the bus early. The quarter mile or so to the stadium looked eerily reminiscent of a war zone with more police than I thought possible (just the tip of the ice berg in this shot).

After picking up some sweet jerseys for $8 (holy peso) to compliment our fantastic head bands we were looking sufficiently Mexican (or at least were making a heck of an effort) and were ready to grab the tickets.

After a bit of a dicey walk around the entire perimeter of the complex (policemen every 25 feet on the side walk) we arrived at the barb wire lined with shoulder to shoulder police with really big guns, fenced in, bullet proof glass, cement bomb shelter that was will call.

As soon as we grabbed the tickets a torrential down pour started so with 3 hours until game time we took off down the side walk and darted into the nearest building which just so happened to be the nicest building in Mexico City replete with a gorgeous new bowling alley, arcade, restaurant, and lazer tag arena.

After a meal and a good chat, we strapped on our Kevlar vests and headed back to Estadio Azteca for prime time. After being interviewed by a camera crew and this chica (desperately tried to translate our conversation into Spanish to no avail except for repeated screams of MÉXICO MÉXICO) we headed for the seats.

Getting there an hour early we figured we would get a half way decent spot despite being in the general seating section. Wrong, it seemed like we were about the very last people to arrive and as a result sat in the very top row.

The noise level was absolutely incredible from the time we arrived throughout the game due to the generous free distribution of horns and thunder sticks. The chants were unbelievable and included everyone in the stadium screaming the Spanish equivalent of bi#*% everytime the Honduran goalie punted the ball.

The first half was exciting with Mexico threatening to score on multiple opportunities but the Hondurans held them off much to the chagrin of all our good friends in the stands for a 0 to 0 tie at the half.

In the second half, the story was the same with Honduras packing it back and playing for what looked like a tie until a Mexican player got through the defense and was tripped in the box.

On the ensuing PK, Cuauhtémoc Blanco (my brother will probably name his first son that) netted it and the place absolutely erupted. Anything people were holding in their hand (beer, food, cameras, small children, etc.) was thrown as far as possible and mayhem ensued for about 5 minutes.

Afterwards, Mexico calmly protected the lead and went on to a 1 to 0 win which really really pleased a lot of people.

After the marathon that was getting out of the stadium we hopped back in our short bus, cruised down to the Zocalo to see the Mexican 200th birthday celebrations (stay tuned for that blog), and returned home.

All in all a great trip. Though I enjoyed watching both games here, I would definitely recommend a #17 Giovanni Dos Santos Mexican jersey to the Capitan America flag cape for all your Mexican soccer viewing needs.

Mud and Monkeys

2009-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, a group of 6 of us boarded a bus Saturday afternoon in Vera Cruz with Catemaco, famous for its witches and monkeys as our destination.

We arrived in town at about 10:00 PM and after securing a hotel room (I got my own bed this time) headed out for a quick bite to eat. After dinner, we took a walk down by the Catemaco Lagoon (too dark to see much of anything) and then decided to return to the hotel to get an early night's sleep/there was a James Bond Marathon in English showing.

The next day we got up around 9 and headed through the Zocalo and down to the water in hopes of taking a boat tour around the lagoon.

We were able to find a guide and hopped in a boat with another family (turned out to be the Mexican Power Couple with dad as a lawyer, mom as a doctor, and I assume little Santiago seen here being groomed for a presidential run).

I have a ton of great pictures I want to show so I will try and stick to them and cut down on the yap this time. The lagoon is about 28 square miles with islands dispersed throughout and then completely surrounded by a ring of small mountains all covered in tropical vegetation.

Everything started off fairly normal. We visited a small shrine that was erected when the city was founded, got some background info on the history of Catemaco (translated compliments of one of our girls named Malin), and did some bird watching.

After this, things got crazy and our boat was boarded by a girl who wanted to sell us some therapeutic mud. Using our favorite slogan "Cuando en México" (When in Mexico) we all decided to give it a whirl.

Next up, a strange object from one of the island trees was placed in my hand (Dragon Fruit I believe) and we gave that a shot, not bad, a lot like a big white kiwi.

After snack time we spotted a crocodile cruising in the water and then stopped here where apparently the movie Curandero starring Sean Connery was filmed (has anyone heard of this movie?).

It turned out to be a rain forest and for a couple dollars we hopped out of the boat and were taken along a walking path by a guide. There were an assortment of things along said path
including this sauna where volcanic rocks are cooked in an oven and then placed in this hut and people sit for an hour or two to sweat it out (or at least that is what I think he said, Malin took a break from translating).

Overall I was a bit confused (but very impressed with the beauty and coolness) by this odd conglomeration of things. There were small huts and statues such as this jaguar god of fertility who supposedly was married to a beautiful princess (in this case I was the fertile/constipated jaguar and Malin the beautiful princess) all over the place as well as various other things to see and do.

Unable to wrap my mind around it, I decided it had to serve some bigger purpose and chose that purpose to be a wedding. As a result, I had a quick chat with the guide and he felt the best place to do that would be the theater area so upon arriving there I grabbed the closest human being (not picky based on the sleeping arrangements two nights prior) who happened to be Canada Jess and the group performed a beautiful ceremony.

After the vows, another strange statue was found which called for a macho shot

Then to cap it all off we took a shot out of the mineral water well in a palm frond which the guide guaranteed would offer us health and well being (combined with our newly mud moisturized faces we were just about ready to conquer the world at this point).

We hopped back on the boat for a trip to Monkey Island. This pretty much blew me away because as the Biology major and resident expert on all things scientific in a group of business students I had insisted there were no monkeys in Mexico but apparently a local university had done an experiment years before and they now inhabited two of the lagoon's islands. These creatures were fairly amazing, I mean talk about camouflage this photo appears to be of the monkey's sleeping face but actually is his dairy air (imagine the confusion for the predator).

These guys also had some extraordinary fruit catching abilities including this guy who made a full extension snow cone grab for this piece and still managed not to fall in the drink.

After monkey time we headed back to town for our meeting with professional nature tour man Felix.

He presented us with a menu of nature tours and after selecting the water fall circuit we piled into his jeep cherokee and rocked out to Led Zeppelin during the 30 minute drive.

On the way we picked up Royer and Juan Pablo from Guadalajara and together the 9 of us drove down an unbelievable dirt road into the mountains.

We arrived at our first waterfall and after a quick hike came upon this scene (a bit more charming if you can look beyond Juan Pablo in his skin tight boxer briefs).

There were two pools with the waterfall coming down into the top one then spilling over a series of rocks into a calmer pool. We were able to climb the rocks and swim as close to the cascade as possible, it was unbelievable the water pressure coming down from this thing.

After thoroughly exhausting ourselves (3 minutes of swimming and 15 of sitting and looking around, unbelievably beautiful, looked like something out of Jurassic Park with all the vegetation minus the velociraptors) we got out and headed for our next water fall.

This one was not nearly as impressive but did have a large rock formation with a deep pool below it which allowed for some incredibly coordinated jumps. It was tons of fun and again very beautiful and the perfect recap to an awesome day.

After this swim we hopped back in Felix's truck and headed back to town.

After a few minor/6 hours worth of set backs in the bus travel system we made it home. I was dropped off about 5 minutes from my house and went walking up the street just as my home stay mother was pulling out for work that morning at 7 AM. Though exhausted, I gave her a big smile and a thumbs up to conclude one of the best weekends of my life.

18 Hours in Vera Cruz

2009-09-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Lo siento, it has been a while but with 3 tests and 2 papers due up for next week things have been a bit hectic this week in the classroom and library (actual building with books, not Franklin St. bar) but a little slow on the bloggable activities front.

Fortunately, last weekend included two incredible trips to Vera Cruz and Catemaco and I will again be splitting it up into two entries.

Friday morning a group of about 20 of my friends headed off for Vera Cruz by way of a 3 hour bus ride. I being the responsible student stayed behind to attend my physics lab and then headed to the Puebla bus station for the 3:30 bus.

At 10:00 (remember this should have been a 3 hour trip) after a missed bus (incredibly not my fault but rather that of my traveling partner and his girlfriend), a lengthy talk with a 19 year old cosmetology student who promised to cut my hair when the time comes (and first under 25 year old I have talked to here that could not speak English), a 2.5 hour detour, and a sweet ride through the mountains we arrived in VC.

Figuring the night would be a little slow as we got our bearings around us, I met up with a part of the larger group to discover this weekend was Vera Cruz’s annual music festival and it would be taking place 3 blocks from our hotel.

I quickly got ready and headed out and after devouring 8 tacos from the street vendor (questionable decision making) we made it to the festival. The set up was amazing with a enormous stage (can be seen in the far background) and tower situated right on the edge of the big Vera Cruz harbor and there were people everywhere.

The music was decent but indecipherable to me, but I was certainly in the minority in this thought train because people really got into it. As soon as the first band started playing these weird weird circles formed and about 20 people at a time would rip off their shirts and begin running through and pushing each other as hard as possible.

This was not an isolated thing and they sprung up all over the place. Not wanting to miss a moment of the experience I hopped right in the middle of a couple and after multiple guys were generous enough to donate their sweat and god only knows what else to me, I retired.

I next was introduced to my sleeping companion for that evening (don’t get your hopes up, she wasn’t tall, thin, olive skinned, and beautiful, in fact she was a male French exchange student named Suweihl who I was to share a bed with that evening in our hotel room, relax Momma).

After this Dan (Australian amigo) and I received flyers for an after party for the concert. Again subscribing to “not wanting to miss anything” philosophy we hopped in a taxi with 3 other extremely excited but very nice Vera Cruzian strangers and rode over.

It turned out to be someone’s garage/yard and after some interesting looks and a few recreational dance moves, we headed out to explore the rest of the city.

We wound up after another taxi ride in the commercial district and were actually turned down at a bar for not wearing pants amazingly enough. After a thorough search of the building to ensure there were no other access points we checked out some other locations, got some more tacos and an ice cream bar (I have developed a real addiction to the Magnum Ice Cream bars they have here) and headed back to the hotel.

The next morning another friend and I went for the historical tour (Vera Cruz constitutional building and Cathedral pictures) and after checking out the Zocalo (town center) we had breakfast at a quaint café.

Following this, we went for a little stroll. It is a cool city (reminded me of Baltimore being on the water but a lot older), but very centralized so you can hit most everything in about 2 hours as we found.

Originally we had assumed that the beaches of Vera Cruz would be great (I had always thought that name sounded very beachy), but apparently after talking to multiple locals we found that was wrong. At some point, the decision was made to drive to Catemaco (3 more hours further away from Puebla) for an evening there and then a Sunday of fun.

From an efficiency standpoint I was furious with this decision but again referred to the “not wanting to miss anything” philosophy and agreed to go. In order to make the most of the sunlight a group of 4 of us (including these two girls, the middle one from Canada, and far right from England and notice the flags on the building behind us) decided to hit a beach on the way which wasn’t supposed to be too nice but still was a beach.

After getting over the fact that the black sand (from the volcanic activity in the area) made it look like we were in a plowed cornfield next to the ocean, we hopped in the water.

I quickly noticed a group of about 20 Mexican guys playing a game with a small soccer ball in the ocean between two circular nets attached to poles which were stuck in the ground. It looked a lot like a golden snitchless game of Quidditch to me so I hopped in and played for a bit. Until Tom a former semi-professional Australian Rules football player joined in I was pretty much dominant as the only player over 5’10” and made some quick friends.

Afterwards hopped in a taxi and headed to the bus stop for the 3 hour trip to Catemaco. Quite an eventful 24 hours with not near enough sleep, but after discovering that Catemaco is famous for its witches and monkeys (I foolishly believed it was only a rumor and neither one existed, but still thinking that it was a cool concept) I found a second wind and was pumped for what lay beyond…

A Walk in the Park

2009-08-28T07:40:00.001-07:00

I mentioned last entry what a wild weekend it was, and without further ado I give you the Sunday half.

Following a huge day at Huamantlada we got back around 7 PM and decided to go out since it was a Saturday and fatigue is weakness leaving the body or something like that.

Before heading back to mi casa for a shower a friend of mine named Tom (another Australian, always been my weakness) mentioned a group was going to hike a mountain the next day and asked if I wanted to go. I said absolutely (figuring we were talking casual afternoon walk up a gentle hill).

Later that night at some ungodly hour Tom mentioned we might want to head back since we needed to be on the bus at 6:30 AM for the mountain. After spitting my apple juice all over the place at this unexpected news I agreed we probably needed to get some sleep and headed home.

After somehow making the bus a few hours later a group of 13 representing Denmark, France, Mexico, Australia, Germany, and the Stars and Bars were cruising towards La Malinche mountain.

Along the way, some time around the point when I was informed La Malinche was the 5^th highest peak in Mexico and we were going to the top, I began to notice I had a bit of a cough and sore throat going, nothing major, but something to remember.

We arrived at the base of the mountain (elevation 3100 m with the top being 4462 m/14640 ft) at about 10:30 AM and started our trek.

The first hour and a half or so wasn’t too bad, a couple steep parts but nothing to write home about. When we got to this landing I looked down and was in high spirits figuring that if I could see this much area below we must be close….false.

Another hour and a half later I was absolutely miserable. My cough had turned into a full blown hack, I was freezing cold, and I could barely drink water my throat hurt so bad. Also I was as physically worn out as I had ever been (including that woeful semester of crew) and still had the steepest part to go.

Looking up at the top I was having some serious doubts when Big Tom grabbed me by the collar pointed to 3 of the French guys (earlier in the day one had mentioned that their national bird was a cockatoo, kind of like a bald eagle but different) who were ahead of us and said I don’t care, they can’t beat us up there. Assuming the fatigue was due to 5 months of relative inactivity I pressed on, sort of.

Having lost the ability to keep myself vertical I began a strange crawling motion that involved all four of my limbs and must have looked just downright pathetic. It didn’t matter, I was finally covering some ground again.

After what seemed like forever of this, I finally made it to the top (3.5 hours of non stop work) with the group which was now down to 8. Despite feeling like I had been slapped in the face by death I was able to look around and appreciate the unbelievable view. It was probably breath taking, but since I had none of that to spare I have no idea.

I took a seat and we hung out up here and had a bit of lunch (yummy gluten free Bumble Bar).

After about 30 minutes and a desperate search for a chair lift, tram, helicopter pad, elevator, or parachute, we decided to head back. Upon standing up it took me exactly 1 step to realize I was in trouble. My knee which had been pain free coming up was not a happy camper for the descent and nor were my lungs, calves, quads, hammies, shoulders, head, or neck for that matter. It was very steep and the ground was mostly rocks going down so it was very slow going.

I will spare you the monologue I was having in my head for the next two hours as I creeped down (for the good of your innocent souls) the mountain.

After a solid 2 hours of sliding, I still hadn’t hit the halfway point but had met up with Morgan, a first class Frenchie. He was struggling mightily as well and we got into a nice rhythm of 5 minutes walking 10 minutes of break. Eventually that got to be too much and with about 2 hours of descent left we were in a bit of a quandary when our saviors arrived.

After passing over a cross road and down a steep slope someone whistled to us. He yelled something in Spanish and not caring what it translated to (in hindsight a questionable decision), we sprinted back up the hill with a new found second wind/pathetic breeze.

Upon arriving at the road two angels riding glowing horse drawn chariots/12 year old boys on mopeds came around the corner and offered us a ride. Having lost the ability to speak hours ago I indicated an affirmative by jumping on the back of the closest one and practically strangling the driver. Apparently this was bad form as the other boy began laughing and I backed off a bit and found a nice handle under my seat.

After a 25 minute drive down where all I could mutter was gracias, muchas gracias over and over again we made it to the bottom. After this picture of me and my heroes and a well earned tip (they didn’t want to take it but I told them this is the going rate for saving my life right now you must) we relaxed at a picnic table until boarding the bus to take us from the mountain to Puebla.

The ride back was crazy with our driver breaking land speed records on the back dirt roads and a lady hopping on with 20 bales of pine straw out of absolutely no where. Upon being dropped off in Puebla I knew I was in bad shape as I was feeling slightly worse than horrible.

I got home and went right to bed with all the wrong symptoms. Monday morning I woke up, coughed up some phlegm (sorry kind of gross I know) and spit it out to find a good percent of it was blood. After assessing my other symptoms and skyping with Mom we diagnosed it as the swine flu so I headed for the clinic.

La doctora told me she didn’t think I had pig flu, but rather a respiratory infection and gave me a broad range of treatments that probably could have knocked out anything. I returned home, let the homestay mom know and then we headed off to the pharmacy.

On the way she hit me with a real slap to the face and pretty much put me on house arrest until I get better. In a joking manner (kind of) I was informed the late night door was locked. As I write this I am still serving out my sentence but about to go have a chat with the madre to see what we can do about tonight. If she says no I have already scoped out my escape route through my window, but based on my mountain climbing skills let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Anyways, I think that is plenty of writing for this entry. Again, another great experience I am not dying to repeat (for fear of dying). This weekend should be a lot of fun as a group of about 20 of us are headed to Vera Cruz….

Running with the Bulls

2009-08-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Whew, what a weekend it was. Both Saturday and Sunday provided lots of fun, great experiences, and cool pictures so I will split them up into two different entries.

As I mentioned in my last entry, I went with a large group of both international and Mexican students to the Huamantlada festival on Saturday. Except for my homestay mother and oracle of all things Mexican telling me people die every year running with the bulls so don’t you dare go out there in that street, I really had no idea what to expect when we arrived at around 9AM.

Please excuse the glasses, it was a ridiculous festival and called for ridiculous eye wear and the cup with my morning coffee in it of course.

The bulls didn’t get released until noon so we had a look around. Still not having run or climbed much of anything since March with the bad knee, I had made up my mind, but my friends were on the fence about whether to do the once in the life time thing and run with the bulls for a bit or to stay safely (or so we were told) behind the walls. The consensus really shifted to the latter when we came upon our first “box”

A quick calculation for the American readers: 490 kgs x 2.205 lbs/kg = 1078 lbs

After seeing that we decided we had better secure a safe place from which to watch. The city sections its center off into 6 zones with 4 “boxes” per section. A wall is built on either side of every street and then each building (house, store, bar, restaurant) can build bleachers between their building and the wall or sell space on their roof. We decided on a very tall building that was offering their roof and a seat on their bleachers (behind a wall) for about 8$.

After hanging out up there for about an hour and watching people pack into every available nook and cranny on our street, a buzz started and then a chant of mueran gringo (die American but from what I was told, not because they wanted to see a dead American as much as because they wanted to see some action a la Gladiator style) ensued and I looked down to see two of my friends (1 Australian and 1 American) on the streets ready to run. My other Australian friend, Dan and a guy from Canada then took off and next thing you know there are 4 white guys in the street. The place went absolutely nuts and then after a series of 3 fire works went off, the box doors were lifted and out charged the bulls.

They were released at different locations on the street so initially there was a bit of a crossfire but then they found each other and started charging up and down together.

People of varying degrees of braveness were out there with them (initially about 40) and some acted like matadors, some would run right in front, some would kneel as they charged until the last second, and some would clear out whenever they got in the same zip code. Regardless, every time they looked at a person and started moving, no matter how valiant they were, that person sprinted for the wall and climbed as high as they could.

It was crazy because some would climb to the top of the wall where the bull couldn’t get them but as more and more people entered the street there was no more space when they made a pass so people would just move to the side and pray. Unfortunately it becomes a game of chance at this point and the bulls were neither intelligent nor happy creatures so some people got pummeled while clinging to the lower part of the wall (for the entire festival 1 died and 12 were taken to the hospital with serious injuries).

After about 30 minutes I deemed the bulls tired enough and there to be enough other people in the street that my chances of death or severe maiming were below the acceptable level so I ventured out there. I was able to get a friend to take a couple pictures and also got some of the bulls from ground level. Fortunately I had chosen that morning to wear red shorts, always thinking ahead.

When I got out there they were at the other end of the street, but wouldn’t you know it they found a second wind and came zooming past. I started running up the street then hopped on a fence with a bunch of other people. Unfortunately this was not the wall of the people I had paid earlier so there was a lot of pinching and pushing of my ankles, but it was going to take a lot more than that to get me off of there.

Talk about an adrenaline rush. I stayed out for a couple more passes and each time was just as exhilarating because you know it is not likely, but there is absolutely no telling what those animals and their 1,000 pound bodies will do and where they will charge.

After about 10 minutes I returned to the bleachers and watched the rest of the show from about as close as a safe distance can be. After 2 hours the bulls were rounded up and everyone piled into the streets.

We started walking to a restaurant as a group when all of a sudden there was a swarm of people who wanted a picture with me and Dan. It was pretty crazy, but apparently we looked very foreign and in outfits like these I can’t imagine why. Apparently they don’t see much of that in Huamantla and it created quite the attraction. In addition several of the girls wanted kisses and the like and it just got to be a bit embarrassing.

After lunner (lunch + dinner which is called the comida down here), we headed to a fair which was in town, then took a walk around to see the rest of the city. Very nice and very similar in layout to the others we have seen with the Zocalo in the center including a park surrounded by churches and shops. My friend Dan and I managed to pick up a red bandana and a red shirt for under 4$ to complete my walking tomato look then got someone to snap this gem.

At 7 PM we hopped back on the bus and I managed to convince a girl named Elsa that goes to UDLA to sit with me and give me a Spanish lesson for the 2 hour ride home. She innocently agreed and I now feel much more confident in my language skills.

All in all it was one of the wildest things I have ever seen or done. It is not necessarily an experience I am dying to repeat, but certainly one I can tell to Elsa's and my grandchildren.

WWF Mexican Style

2009-08-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

It has been quite an exciting week including a university sponsored 3,000 student party last night at a huge bar. There was music and drinks both inside in a very nice ballroom and outside beneath huge tents and lots of tiki torches.

It was a great event and something I could never see an American university hosting (after watching other more reckless students, I observed beer was only served in 32 ounce glasses and you could not buy only 1 liter bottle of liquor but instead had to get two at a time), but something UNC should definitely consider.

Fortunately though, that was not the most fun or exciting event I attended this week. That title belongs to Monday night. I think we all know about the World Wrestling Federation in the US, but much less well known yet much wilder is the Mexican version called LUCHA LIBRE.

On Monday evening, 6 of us crowded into a compact car and drove to Puebla. I really had no idea what to expect, but we arrived and parked in a large garage. Upon walking down to the street we found a full blown market complete with tons of incredibly unhealthy but tasty looking food and street vendors selling insane amounts of t-shirts with all the wrestlers and tons of masks (more to come on that). We bought our tickets (50 pesos a piece = 4$) and headed inside with the crowds.

We were sitting in the top section and what I saw below me was insane. The actual building looked exactly like the Flint Michigan Tropics Arena in Semi-Pro except that instead of a court you had a wrestling ring with hundreds of seats surrounding it. Beyond those seats was a huge cage which extended from the ground to the ceiling (audience protection from the dangerous blood sport which was about to take place) and hundreds more seats and bleachers behind it.

As we sat down the first fight was just starting. I sat next to a Mexican friend who absolutely loved it and had attended many a time. He explained that there would be 4 rounds of fights with each consecutive one featuring more and more famous fighters.

As the action began the place went absolutely crazy. Cow bells, drums, whistles, and thousands of jumping screaming people with huge banners, large inflatable pool toys, and many wearing masks. The fights were equally as nuts since apparently Lucha Libre is not subjected to any regulations and featured some ridiculous moves including my personal favorite, the 3 man sprinting and diving through the ropes to spear the 3 wrestlers on the other team standing on the ground and then go somersaulting into the audience maneuver as people scrambled for cover.

After the second fight, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and had to pick up a mask so I headed out to the streets and after an incredible amount of deliberation selected this bad boy.

After returning, we got to see the last 2 battles which really got the crowd going especially when 1 rather rounded wrestler did a full blown strip tease. He then proceeded to get destroyed by the other team and the show was over. We headed back blown away by what we had seen and anxious to return.

Lucha Libre was certainly a glance into 1 aspect of Mexican culture, but tomorrow will be a different one when 2 bus fulls of UDLA students head to Huamantlada for their annual fair complete with the main spectacle, Mexico's very own Running of the Bulls which is supposed to rival that of Pamplona. It is supposed to draw huge crowds and though I don't anticipate running, it should be quite a spectacle to watch.

Capitan America

2009-08-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

This entry is a bit over due, but it was quite the experience so I wanted to include it. Last Wednesday August 12, the country of Mexico stopped everything it was doing and converged on the nearest bar or TV set to watch the Mexico vs. US soccer qualifier for the world cup.

With the US in second place in our division and Mexico in 4th with only the top 3 teams advancing at the end to South Africa, this was a huge game and Mexico came out in full force.

In America, I am pretty sure ESPN included a 30 second segment in that morning's show and may have televised it because it was a Wednesday at 3:00 but not sure. Had I been in the states, it is possible I wouldn't have known the game took place.

Fortunately though I was in Mexico and there was no way every Mexican I knew was going to let the Gringo forget. Since this was their Super Bowl and everyone hated America for that day (and maybe beyond as I later found out), I decided I would make sure and lay low by acquiring a large American flag, hanging it around my shoulders and going to a local bar called Mamitas with a bunch of friends from around the world to watch the game.

The game itself was pretty interesting, but it was the action in the outdoor bar that really got my attention. The place was incredibly packed, but fortunately I had gotten there early enough to secure a seat right smack dab in the middle.

Things started off fairly calm with some giggles from the Americans about my cape and some joking and not so joking gesticulations from the locals.

All that changed very quickly though when the US scored the first goal of the game. The place was completely silent except for one person clapping, me. Imagine that awkward scene you see in the movies some times where something happens and only one person is clapping, then they gradually realize they are the only person clapping, but as they do so, they don't stop clapping, but only clap slower and slower until they stop. That is pretty much how it went with every head in the place glaring in my direction.

After that, the flag on my back became somewhat of a target for all the pent up anger everyone in this bar was feeling. They take this more serious than anything you can imagine. My homestay mother, one of the sweetest people in the world had already sworn to me at breakfast that day that she wouldn't speak to me for a week if we won. Things got a bit ugly and the neck went on a constant swivel for flying beer bottles (and we aren't talking 12 ouncers, this bar only sells liter bottles making for some heavy duty artillery).

Fortunately, or so I thought, Mexico soon scored the tying goal and everyone was jubilant and forgot about me for about thirty seconds. Then they remembered.

I thought having the lead was bad, but give these people something to talk trash about and they go crazy. With their new found energy the chants started flying in and after getting some translations, I can do nothing but apologize to my poor mother and her cursed name.

After the go ahead goal for Mexico in the second half, I was incredibly relieved and finally felt assured that I probably would survive this ordeal since it would be pretty bad form to kill in a time of celebration.

Nonetheless, that relief vanished when the game ended and every single Mexican in the entire bar began singing songs and chanting in unison. Fortunately, they were able to coordinate and focus every bit of it on me (this picture doesn't quite do it justice, but it was the best I could find, I am standing just to the right of the picture).

The surprising part was that most of the songs were about how much they dislike America. I have talked to some people since hearing these in trying to figure out what the source of the animosity is and from what I gather, it stems from our efforts to halt illegal immigration into the US which they have found highly insulting. I found this thought process a bit on the interesting side, but that's for another discussion.

After about 10 minutes of all the screaming and yelling, the strangest thing happened. It all stopped and all of a sudden, everyone, and I mean everyone in the bar wanted to take a picture with the flag (including this guy who desperately wanted my to kiss his Mexico arm band). The entire time I had been smiling and laughing and giving some thumbs up but I sure didn't see this coming.

People literally lined up and and a group of about 20 cameras started snapping pictures. Everybody was yelling Capitan America I want a picture, or Superman over here. I felt like Santa Claus for a bit, but never having been one to avoid a bit of attention, I consented. It took over half an hour until everyone seemed satisfied and by the end everyone was joking and offering me drinks (this first one is the same group from two pictures ago).

I was standing there a bit dazed by it all, but thought overall and in hindsight it was quite the experience. Not necessarily one I would choose to repeat, but still a lot of fun. Though the US lost, every body in Mexico was jubilant the rest of that day and night and for that it was definitely worth it. Capitan America probably won't be making a Mexican return any time soon, but I will always enjoy looking at these pictures.

The UDLA Orchestra's Newest Member

2009-08-15T10:15:00.001-07:00

And now, a series of questions and answers to describe my latest predicament:

Do I need a course in the fine arts as part of my Spanish major? Yes

Can I use an art class or am I able to fit a drama class into my schedule? No

Is Musica de Camara II AKA Chamber Music which includes a spot in the university orchestra the only option? Si

Does anyone else in this course speak any type of understandable English? Not to my knowledge

Have I at any point been able to play an instrument suitable for an orchestra? Yes, 4 years of the trombone in 5^th through 8^th grades

Am I still able to play that instrument? Absolutely not

Do I remember a majority of the notes I will need to know? Not a chance

Am I incredibly rusty on the few notes I do know? Without a doubt

Has the entire rest of the orchestra been playing together their entire college careers including playing and practicing all of our songs all summer so that they sound beautiful when playing without their trombone? Easily

Were we able to finish any song in which I played at my first 2 practices? Nope

Is the violin section pretty? Thank goodness

Are there any other brass instruments in the orchestra so you can hide behind their noise? Nope nay a trumpet, tuba, trombone, or French horn to be found. Just a bunch of string and percussions so every single noise I make is blatantly obvious.

Do we have more than 7 concerts this fall? You bet (8)

Was I ever able to play the difficulty level of the music I now need to play? Never ever

Will I be ready for our concert in 12 days? Ha

Can I understand a word my conductor says or does he speak at the speed of light? The latter

What am I going to do? Still working on that one, but the class is a lot of fun and everyone is very nice so I guess I will be practicing the trombone quite a bit…in Spanish of course.

A Tour Through Puebla

2009-08-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a ton of fun including lots of new people, bars, and activities. The highlight was absolutely our trip on Saturday to Puebla. Puebla is world renowned for its many churches and colonial architecture and it sure didn’t disappoint.

After a 30 minute bus ride at the crack of dawn (9 AM feels like that when your late night food stop is a 4 AM feast at the taqueria on Camino Real, but like they always say, when in Mexico…) we arrived at the Zocalo (town center and beautiful little park) in down town Puebla.

From there we split up into groups and headed to the Puebla Cathedral and wow, this thing was not small!

Construction was started on it in 1575 and construction continued on and off until 1649 (Pillars of the Earth anyone?). Its front two towers are the tallest in all of Mexico.

That was about the extent of what I was able to gather from our tour guide (one of the amigos internacionales who are UDLA students and in charge of taking care of us aliens for the first couple weeks) despite the incredible amount of knowledge he shared with us on the history of Puebla. It was simply too bad he felt the need to address us in Spanish, but the wonder of how this behemoth was built without any type of electricity or power machinery was mind blowing.

From there we headed to an art museum. Admission is free if you have your UDLA student ID (I was the only one in the 22 person group who had failed to pick that bad boy up), but sometimes we were informed they let foreigners in for free. As a result I was told to make sure I appeared as an American and not a native Mexican and believe it or not, I pulled off the charade and we were admitted. Unfortunately no pictures allowed, but still some cool stuff. Instead of featuring art works, the artists actually just painted their works on the wall which made for some really cool rooms.

After this we walked down a beautiful street with trees down the middle of it and people playing instruments and selling huge bouquets of balloons.

At the end of this we got to another large church called the Iglesia de Santo Domingo which didn’t look like much from the outside but holy moly the inside was something to write home about. It had an entire chapel called Capilla del Rosario which was completely decorated in gold (walls, ceiling, and the enormous structure in the middle).

Pretty awesome, I would love to be the appraiser when that bad boy goes up for sale.

After this stop we cruised through some markets and ate a café for lunch. Despite the deliciousness of the chalupas, I went for a second entrée of tostadas and the bill still was only 8 American dollars (gotta love the exchange rate, I will probably name my first son Peso).

Lunch was followed up with some more market hopping including this picture of an eclectic group that was gathered together.

Following the picture we took a different route back to the Zocalo which we found had completely transformed in our absence into a full blown fiesta. There was an entire orchestra playing with a lovely trombone section (see next entry which will detail my first day of the orchestra class I am going to take this semester), huge banners, vendors, and tons of people.

I was able to have an hour long walk with a different amiga internacional named Hilda with whom I had a great conversation with (AKA I smiled and nodded while she spoke about a trip to Alaska including bears, eagles, and killer whales). Fortunately I came away from the conversation feeling great after contributing that I have a dog named Shamu.

After getting back on the bus and returning to Cholula, I was conned into going to a bar called La Playa for a drink. Imagine two of your favorite things possible.

If you came up with drinks and hammocks then this is your Mecca. Every seat in the place is made out of rope, the drinks are fruity and completely unacceptable to be had in a fraternal environment, the pool table is horribly slanted, and it was awesome!

That about sums up the day, it was great getting to explore such a historical area. As I alluded to before, the next entry will switch gears a bit away from trips and discuss what I am confident will be my most interesting and comical class this semester Musica de La Camara (CHAMBER MUSIC)!!!

Cholula and a Great View

2009-08-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy week between trying to register for classes, get the credits approved back home, sort out visa approval, and some other less than glorious tasks, but thank goodness I have also been able to find some time to make a friend or two and do some exploring.

I am going to try and keep this one short and sweet with a quick discussion of a recent local expedition.

For some quick background on my geographical situation, Mexico is split up much the same way as the US. You have the mother country, within that the individual states (mine is Puebla which also has a capital city called Puebla), and within the state you have cities (I live in Cholula which is near the city of Puebla and is where my university is located).

Cholula is a great area that is built around the university. You have a happening street called Camino Real (think Franklin Street on steroids), a bit of a historic district, and then outside of this area there seems to be a sprawling amount of humanity. They call it a small town, but after having spent 9 years in Ahoskie, I know a small town when I see one and this sure is not it.

On Thursday, the international student office offered a walking tour of the historic part of Cholula so myself and about 7 other international students went. I would like to dress it up a bit and tell some story about a daring escape from some wild Mexican beast or something of the sort, but this trip simply included a 15 minute walk down Camino Real and a heck of a view from a pretty cool platform.

To sum things up, there is an enormous Aztec pyramid that has been partially restored along Camino Real and on top of it, a church called La Iglesia de Los Remedios which was built in the 16th century. If you go to the top of the pyramid you get to see the church which is beautiful and an unbelievable view of the surrounding country (Cholula, then Puebla, then the ring of mountains that surrounds which includes the active volcano called Popocatepetl seen in the background of this photo from someone with a much better lens than mine). It was a beautiful day and I hope that the pictures will be able to do it some justice.

After taking it all in up top, we walked back down and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a festival for San Cristobal complete with bands, fireworks, balloons, banners, and large statues that people felt compelled to carry up the ramp to the top of the pyramid.

We finished the trip off with a lunch in the Zocalo (town center) of Cholula which has a lovely park and open square for their markets. All in all, it was a great afternoon and an excellent introduction to the local area. Next stop, colonial downtown Puebla.

A view of the church from Camino Real. They do an incredible job lighting it up at night so it appears to just be hovering over the city and is visible from just about anywhere.

Small town my foot

A close up of the brilliantly adorned church

A picture of yours truly and Marie Eva, a delightful Canadian student who knows much more Spanish and has come to my rescue on multiple occasions earning her the nickname "Madre"

Culture Shock

2009-08-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

Buenos Dias!

With day 2 winding down, I thought it was time to write again. I have been having an awesome time and am very excited about the coming semester. Everyone here including the Mexican students, the international students, and the locals could not be any nicer and more helpful.

After a long but pleasantly uneventful trip I left behind the water works formerly known as my mother and arrived at my homestay families house at the ripe hour of 1:30 in the morning. Despite my tardiness my family welcomed me with open arms, including my new madre who was awoken by my arrival and came out for a kiss on the cheek (more on that to come). I considered writing a blogó about the trip but think it suffices to summarize it with 4 points:

1. Drivers in Mexico City are absolute lunatics, never seen so many close calls, honking horns, and evasive and illegal maneuvers.

2. Mexico City is really really big. Driving through it at night was very interesting because with the elevation changes and the number of people, you get rolling hills absolutely covered in lights with large black holes which are the mountains which rise up in the middle of the city. Very cool to fly over and very interesting to see from the ground.

3. Ana Maria y Alejandro Guajardo, my seat mates for the flight to Mexico City who happened to be dentists in Puebla are absolute angels. There is a very small chance I would have made it to my house from Mexico City without all their help.

4. The official photographer for the Portland Trail Blazers hates basketball and is going on a three week road trip with a Mexican "friend"with only the outfit he was wearing. In comparison to my baggage, this was nothing short of mind blowing.

With that said, I can now comment on what I have found most interesting so far, the differences between here and the US. Most of these are fairly unimportant in the long run and make me seem a bit naive, but I still think they are interesting when you first learn of it.

1. Cheek kisses, everyone does it and it can catch you off guard if you are not careful. I have found this to be a wonderful habit when greeting European co-eds and a bit more laborious when saying good bye to grandma.

2. The Mexican sewage can't handle toilet paper. This means...get ready for it....you throw away and don't flush. Enough said.

3. Perhaps my favorite difference so far has been the difference in what 4 dollars can buy you. For instance, in the US 4$ can buy you 3 socks or a cool pair of multi colored shoe laces at Finish Line or 1 battery. In Mexico, 4$ (50 pesos) can buy you admittance to a bar called Kurandera and unlimited drinks for the entire night (including water, lemonade, and diet cokes thank goodness!) Even more unbelievably the girls get the same deal but have no cover. Oh the injustice.

4. They speak spanish here. I guess I saw this one coming and it is one of the big reasons for choosing Puebla, but it is still quite a shock and quite humbling. Just when I start building some confidence by stringing together a couple sentences a native speaker start speaking at the speed of light and all is lost. My favorite phrases (with translations for those who only speak Swahili and English) are lo siento (means I am sorry, but when said with the proper pathetic facial expression and shoulder shrug actually means my Spanish stinks, please slow down), mas despacio (more slowly), and no entiendo (i don't understand). In addition, having to think in another language when you speak and listen all the time is exhausting and I occasionally need to seek out my Australian friends for a quickie in English.

5. I ate a cactus today.

6. Spanish is tough to understand, tack a Japanese accent on it and it becomes darn near impossible. They are so nice and smiley, but I can't understand a word the four exchange students from Kyoto are saying. When approached I defer to my favorite strategy, big smile and lots of nodding.

7. My host family is awesome. I am very glad to be staying here because of the glimpse into the Mexican culture it provides and the opportunity to practice spanish at any of the three meals (yummy) they provide every day and other times I spend at home. Not to mention Teo, the housekeeper is my girl and Cosmo the dog has a sweet mohawk (Thurstyn desperately needs this hair cut).

8. I hate ending on odd numbers.

Anyways, hope that was a bit of insight into the experience so far. Everything is going great and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Below is a picture I took on my way to campus this morning.

Ready to go...

2009-08-02T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone and welcome (bienvenidos) to my blogó.

I will be spending the semester in Puebla Mexico as part of a study abroad program at the Universidad de Las Americas (UDLA) after being inspired by the Most Interesting Man in the World. Tonight is my last night in the states before spending the next 4.5 months south of the border.

At this point I am a bit nervous and very excited. I will be missing many things including family, friends, dogs, the English language, a majority of the Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl season (less than impressive recent history), a portion of UNC's basketball season (very impressive recent history), exchange students, outdoor cocktail, ice cubes, and buffalo wings just to name a few.

At the same time, I am very excited for what lies ahead including getting to know my host family, beginning classes, and exploring Puebla and beyond. Please stay in contact via comments to this blog, skype (giffindaughtridge), or e-mails (gdaug88@email.unc.edu) Hasta luego, I will be writing soon....