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.
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