A Cuernavaca, la ciudad de la eterna primavera

What a fun week of school. Monday, I went to my second class and SURPRISE, we had a test. I’m about 98% sure that this test was only a surprise to me, as no one complained or acted surprised. We didn’t have the class last Wednesday, and I haven’t missed a class in a while…but all of the students have most of their classes together, so a lot of times things are mentioned in other classes, and I think that's how everyone knew…not so convenient for the foreigner.
Tuesday, we were given the class period to read something and then write a paragraph integrating it with what we had previously read and talked about in class. I was a little nervous, as I didn’t know if the class period would be enough time to finish the reading, as reading a text in Spanish takes a bit of time. Well, to my surprise, the reading was in English. Yay for me. I asked one of the girls if everyone spoke English, then, since the reading was in English. She said no, but that the professor believes that to be in the university, you need to have a basic level of English. Personally I think a “basic level of English” is different than being able to read a text in English.
Also on Tuesday, Manuel (the guy that took Ricardo’s old room) moved out. I guess he was just here working on a project for a month.
Tuesday night, a group of friends went out to a restaurant/bar for one of our friend’s birthdays. It was birthday night, so there were quite a few people there. The waiters were all dressed like clowns, which I wasn’t a big fan of, but we had fun once they started playing music we could dance to.
Wednesday I went to the bus terminal to buy my ticket for the next day. On the way there, my foot started aching. By the time I got to the terminal, I was limping, and it went downhill from there. Mi padre looked at it when I got home (he used to be a doctor) and gave me a nice little foot rub and everything, but it continued to hurt.
Thursday I had to take the bus to and from school, and even the walk home from the bus stop was torture. I got home from school, packed, ate, and was off to Cuernavaca, where Katharine is studying for the semester. The bus ride was 5 hours, which was only a little more than the scheduled time, and we made two stops in Mexico City. Katharine picked me up from the station and we walked to the downtown area and took a bus back to her house, where I met her roommate and her host family. They were all really nice people.
Friday I went to Katharine’s school with her. Since it was Friday, so she only had to take a test. Her teacher told her she didn’t have to go to the second class since I was here visiting. Later we went down to el centro and saw the Cuauhnahuac Museum, which is the Palace where Cortés used to live. We didn’t spend that much time in the museum, we really went to see the Diego Rivera mural, which depicts the Conquest of Mexico, the War of Independence, and the Revolution.

Then we went up to see the Asuncion Cathedral, which is actually located in a courtyard type thing with three churches. We ate lunch at a restaurant across the street, which was on the second floor and had a nice view of the churches.

Next we were off to Borda Gardens, which are part of the mansion of some French guy who came to Mexico and made a fortune in mining.

There’s a tiny manmade lake too, and we rented a rowboat and went out for bit.

Then we went to the Robert Brady museum, which was the house of a guy who traveled a ton and has over 1,200 artifacts in his house. There was a painting that he did of his favorite cook, and a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo.
We went back to the zocalo to people watch. My favorite thing about the men in Cuernavaca was that instead of telling you that you have beautiful eyes or anything, they just walk by staring and say “wow.”
We then headed back to the house where we watched the news, showered, relaxed, and ate dinner. I haven’t really watched the news here (not that I watch the news in the US either) but my goodness it’s pretty graphic.
My foot had hurt most of the day on Friday, but it was bearable. By Saturday, thank God, my foot had stopped hurting.
Saturday we woke up, ate breakfast, and went to the bus terminal to go to Cacahuamilpa Caves National Park. (They’re located in the state of Guerrero, whereas Cuernavaca is in Morelos, so I made it to two states this weekend!) This was a bit of an adventure, as the bus to the caves themselves was full, so we had to go to a different town and get a taxi to the caves. This probably took over an hour. I had absolutely no idea what to expect for the caves, but my host dad had told me about them, so we went. They were amazing. The tour lasts about 1 ½ hours, and the tour guide points out different formations. The tours only go 1.25 miles in, but spelunkers (possibly my new favorite word) have gone more than 8 miles and still haven’t found the end. There are different chambers, but each are about 100 feet high, 200 feet long, and 200 feet wide.

One of the most famous formations, shaped like a champagne bottle:

There was one formation shaped like Michigan, but it wasn’t lit up enough to get a decent picture.
After the caves, we took a taxi to Taxco, which was about a half hour away. Taxco is one of the oldest silver mining places in America. The whole city is on a hill, so there is a great view from just about anywhere.

We grabbed some lunch, saw the church and zocalo, and were off to the silver market. I wasn’t in much of a buying mood, but that’s ok. We took a bus back to Cuernavaca, which was probably and hour and a half, ate, and went to bed.
Sunset on the way back:

Sunday we went to Tepoztlán, which is about an hour away from Cuernavaca. We started off by climbing the mountain to the pyramid. The hike to the pyramid is a mile away from the center of town, and the mountain is 400 meters tall.
You can see the pyramid up at the top, more to the left:

The sign said it should take an hour to climb, but we did it in 45 (with a few quick breaks and lots of sweat). This was definitely the most difficult climb I’ve done yet; props to Katharine for doing it twice.
Climbing up:

At the top:

The view was amazing.

The pyramid:

We enjoyed the scenery for a bit and then climbed back down and went to the market to find some food. On the way back to the bus station, we stopped at Tepoznieves. Nieve is kind of like ice cream but mostly made with water instead of milk, so it's more icy and less creamy. There are over 70 flavors, some normal and some very strange. I tried a few different ones (eclipse (something with oreos), strawberry, and something else, but ended up getting mango, kiwi, and watermelon. Delicious. Katharine got corn, which was interesting but good, and chamoy, which was listed under the spicy nieves. (It wasn’t really spicy, but I didn’t care for it.) We returned to Cuernavaca, gathered my things, and I took the 5 hour bus ride back to Querétaro.
New Foods: Alegrias – this is the Spanish world for happiness. It’s made from amaranth seeds and supposedly really healthy, but mi madre put chocolate and cajeta on top…so I don’t know about that. Mi padre said that it’s the food the astronauts took to the moon.
Horchata – a drink made from water or milk, and has rice, cinnamon, and sometimes vanilla. It was delicious.
Photo albums: Cuernavaca
The Caves, Taxco, and Tepoztlán

¿Quién necesita dormir?

Ah, back to the school routine. Well, mostly. Monday my second class was cancelled and Tuesday my only class was cancelled (of course I had to walk to school to find this out).
Thursday we went out to eat with a group of classmates to a chinese restaurant. I haven’t really eaten a lot of Chinese food in my life, but I liked it.
This week, the cactus that we have outside flowered. It flowers once a year, and the flower opens around 8 at night and closes the next morning.

Also, there are a lot of purple trees right now, that all flower around semana santa (holy week):

Friday we went out to Barra Habana to celebrate my birthday. Yes, it was a month late, and yes, we had already celebrated my birthday multiple times (birthday dinner when my parents were here, a cake at school, and going out to a restaurant). However, Laurel (the other girl from Michigan) was not satisfied with this, so we got a group together to go out to a salsa club. It was a lot of fun. I was exhausted before even leaving, as I hadn’t caught up on sleep from spring break and had stayed up almost all night writing a paper one night during the week. Eight of us met up at Laurel’s to eat cake (my third birthday cake…). We were supposed to meet at 8:30, but I think we were all finally there at 10.

We met up with more friends at the club. As if I don’t have enough trouble with Spanish, but then you throw in trying to understand people shouting over the loud music and it’s almost impossible. Luckily, everyone is super patient. They are also patient with my basic salsa knowledge (aka I can do the basic step, and try to follow along with the rest, but certainly not well). I got home around 4. Saturday Kelsey, Laurel, Laurel’s friend, and I all went to a soccer game for the team here in Querétaro. We were in the cheapest section, which is apparently where the true fans sit, as everyone not only stood the whole time (that was to be expected) but also sang the entire game.

On top of singing, they used their arms the whole time, so I imagine that by the end their arms were sore and they lost their voices.
Sorry for the bad quality of the video:

Anyway, the gallos blancos (Querétaro’s team…they’re in the first division of mexico’s soccer league, or something like that) won, 1-0, so that was exciting. I got home and planned to go to bed early, but some of mis padres’ family was over playing games (they do this almost every Saturday, but I had forgotten that it was Saturday), so I sat downstairs with them. I started almost falling asleep at the table, so I felt that it was time to go to bed. Sunday was a sleep in and homework day, and it was beautiful out, so I did some homework on the roof.
New food: puchero, which is a soup with all sorts of vegetables and stuff. It has camote (a potato like thing), lettuce, cucumber, meat, and corn. Instead of pieces of corn, though, they just cut the ear the short way and you have to pick up the piece and eat the corn off of it. Good stuff.
A few new pics: Querétaro

volver a la rutina

I'm sure you all feel as though you've read enough from me lately, so I promise that this will be short!
Most people say that traveling is tiring. Honestly, I was quite refreshed by it. Seeing all of the new things gave me energy. I was also quite ready for a break from school, and the people here certainly know how to do a break! One week, like we're used to in the US, always goes by so fast, but two weeks is a wonderful amount of time. I mean, I could have spent a few more weeks traveling, but I'm certainly thankful that there were two weeks.
Traveling, however, did make me realize a few things I miss in the US:
One shower knob to adjust the water temperature. The whole adjusting-the-two-knobs-to-try-and-find-the-right-temperature thing, especially when you don’t know if there’s any hot water anyway, isn’t my favorite. This may not seem like a huge deal, but after looking forward to a shower all day because of how gross and sweaty you are…it is.
Being able to order water in restaurants. It isn’t a huge problem when I’m in Querétaro, because I barely eat out. On the trip, I feel like I spent a fortune just on beverages because you can’t just get water. Also free refills are unheard of.
Related to the last point, I also miss drinking fountains. Seriously, free water in public places? What an amazing idea.


A quick fact summary of my trip:
-17 days
-7 cities
-6 tours involving 12 other cities/places
-42 ½ hours on busses (many more in taxis and tour vans)
-over 1,500 miles (not including extra tours)
-2774 pictures (not including the ones that I deleted before they made it to my computer)


And the rest of my weekend:
Saturday I caught up with mis padres and then my parents.
Sunday, I went to the opening of mi padre’s daughter’s restaurant. I was told we were going there to eat breakfast, which we did. I didn’t know we would be there for 4 ½ hours. I had fun, talking with other family members, but I also had a lot of homework to catch up on. Also on Sunday, my ‘aunt,’ ‘uncle,’ and ‘cousin’ came over. The cousin, Karla (the one who got married a month or so ago,) had a baby last Thursday, so he was here too, and I got to hold him. He was so adorable. It really rounded out vacations too, as I had seen so many cute babies! I’m sure Katharine got sick of hearing “look at that baby!” every other minute. Seriously though, I feel like I see a lot more babies here, and they are all so so so cute.
New Foods: I had a Nona omelet at the new restaurant. It was an egg, obviously, with cheese, apples, cinnamon, honey, and pecans. It was such a weird combination that I had to try it, and it was pretty good. On Sunday, I tried some buñuelos de molde that mi madre had made. It’s some dough that was fried in a mold, and then covered in cinnamon sugar. Yum.

Villahermosa, Tabasco

Our last city.
The ride from Palenque was a little over 2 hours. On the way, we were stopped and a guy got on the bus to make sure that none of us were illegally coming from Guatemala. They asked Katharine and I where we were from and asked to see our passports…apparently we look pretty Guatemalan. When we got to Villahermosa, it was already 9:30 or so. We shared a cab with another lady. The taxi driver spoke super fast but he was really funny. He gave us suggestions for places to go, and would start backing up to show us different things, like the cathedral, and a museum.
Cathedral:

The hotel was nice, and the air conditioning was again appreciated.
Thursday we slept in a bit, got some breakfast, and went to La Venta museum. We took a taxi there. I liked the taxi system here because you share taxis with other people, which is more economical and environmentally friendly, and to go pretty much anywhere in the city costs 20 pesos. What a deal.
Anyway, La Venta park/museum has 30 Olmec monuments that were found in La Venta (archeological site close to the Veracruz border), but were moved here because of petroleum or something. It's most famous for the Olmec heads, which way about a bajillion tons.


It was kind of something I figured we should do, but I ended up loving it. To our surprise, it was a zoo too! The first thing we saw after walking in was monkeys, so we were pretty content.






The “museum” is all outside along a nice little pathway through nature.
this little critter was all over the place:

We spent a few hours there and then continued outside, to walk along the lagoon.
One couple pointed out a baby crocodile to us. There was a tower, so we climbed up that too.
This picture has the tower:

You can see the massive cathedral that the taxi driver showed us the night before:


going back down...there's Katharine at the bottom:

We returned to our hotel and asked them to point us to a cheap restaurant nearby. Well, it was a restaurant, and it had a nice view, but it wasn’t exactly what we meant by cheap. We figured it was ok though, as we would only be eating two meals that day. We walked through the downtown area again, which was cute, but didn’t really have any historical value that I could see. It also didn’t help that we didn’t have a map, though.
Later that night, we decided to take advantage of the fact that there was a pool. We had heard that you could go swimming in one of the waterfalls by the ruins in Palenque, which we were really excited about because it was so hot, but that wasn’t the case. So, we were glad to finally have the chance. We went for a lovely swim, despite the fact that the pool was crowded with 13 and 14 year old boys who were there for soccer.
Friday we were all set to go on a tour to Pantanos de Centla which is a biosphere with some rivers that open to the ocean and animals. It’s on the list of the 13 wonders of Mexico, so I was pretty excited.
A picture of the greatness we would have seen:

We got to La Venta at 9 like the tour people told us to do, despite the fact that we knew the tour didn’t actually leave until 9:30. It was raining. Around 9:40, they told us we’d be leaving in 10 minutes. Around 10, we finally left. Ten minutes into the ride, the guide got a call that we couldn’t go, as the boats wouldn’t be giving tours in the rain. (It's a good thing we decided to go with a tour, we would have had to have gone to the bus station and ride a bus two hours there only to find out we couldn't see much). So we went back to La Venta to pick a new route, and we were off to a chocolate plantation. The guide who gave the tour mumbled a lot, and there was a lot of noise, so I didn’t really catch too much. He was nice to look at though, so that helped.
Flowers of the cacao plant (I think):

chocolate (almost)

After trying the chocolate after various stages of production, none of which tasted good, we finally got to taste the finished product with added sugar and all. Delicious. We bought some chocolate and were on our way to the Comalcalco Ruins.
We went through the little museums and were on to the ruins. I was a little ruined out, but it was still interesting because of the buildings – they were built in layers of different materials, and the top layer is bricks.


We then went to Paraíso, which translates to paradise, which is a beach town on the Atlantic Ocean (we were so close to seeing both oceans during our trip!). If we had had more time, we were going to spend a day here. The tour guide took us to a restaurant on Rio Seco (dry river), and we sat down. We started to read the menu only to notice that all of the food was seafood. So, we ordered drinks, ate their chips, and went for a walk down the river.
pelican along the river:

After being whistled, honked and yelled at (we were starting to think that it had been years since these guys had seen a woman), an older guy (I don’t know, maybe in his 40s?) whistled at us and called beautiful, and then after he passed us, asked us where we were from in Spanish and then in English. So, we started talking to him, and he gave us a little history on the town, and asked what we were doing there and everything. He said he was glad that we trusted him enough to talk to him, as most Americans fear that they’re going to be robbed. It was broad day light on a busy street, so I wasn’t too concerned, but the thought had crossed my mind. After asking if he could see us again, (perhaps coming to visit us in our respective cities), our tour guide showed up in perfect timing to tell us it was time to go. Seriously, the people here are so friendly, they’re really open and interested in what you’re doing, and I love that. However, a lot of them ruin it by being creepy.
We returned to Villahermosa, ordered a pizza, and began to pack. I decided to go for a swim as the pool was empty since it was raining. I was swimming laps when I hear some whistles and yelling. The boys from the soccer team were standing in a window a few floors up watching me. Cool. So I continue swimming as if I can’t hear them, and a few of them decide to come down to the pool. They start talking to me, asking if I’ll take a picture with them (which I politely declined), where I’m from, and what room I was in. Eventually one of their parents came down and they all left. The boys here sure start young…
Saturday we woke up, finished packing, and grabbed breakfast. We went out to the lobby to ask about getting a cab, and the boys soccer team was out there waiting for their bus. Then, one of their DADS asked if they could take a picture with us. We asked why, and their dad said “two beautiful girls, why not?” Good to see that their dad encourages this.
We got a taxi to the airport and eventually got on our flight. The rules in Mexico regarding what you can take on a plane are so much more relaxed. The flight was under two hours. They played classical music, it made the flight feel so fancy.
I ended up seeing the Atlantic:

We claimed our baggage and found the bus station, which is right in the airport. Katharine’s bus was leaving immediately, and I only had to wait 20 minutes. A three hour bus ride to Querétaro, a call to mis padres who offered to pick me up, a short car ride, and I was home again.
New Food: coco con piloncillo. A dessert thing that looked like a piece of cake. It's made of coconut and sugar cane. Sounds good, but I really didn't like it.
Photos: Villahermosa

Palenque, Chiapas

The bus ride to Palenque was over 6 hours, which was a little longer than expected. San Cristóbal and Palenque are only 142 miles apart, but the road was continuous curves and mountains and speed bumps, so apparently it takes a really long time. That’s another difference between Mexico and the US – there are speed bumps EVERYWHERE here. Highways, subdivisions, everywhere. They have to be doing some serious damage to the cars here.
Anyway, we got to our hotel and settled in for the night, as it was already 10:30. (We booked a hotel because all of the hostels were full. This worked out well, as we were ready for our own bathroom again. Also, we were thankful to be in a hotel because we had air conditioning, which turned out to be quite a blessing in Palenque!) I was also grateful because the shower here was as amazing as the shower in Puebla.
Tuesday we ate in our hotel and went on a tour at 12 to go see Misol-Ha and Auga Azul, two cascades. Misol-Ha is 12 miles from Palenque, and Agua Azul is 42 miles away. They’re basically on the way from San Cristóbal to Palenque. We were only given 30 minutes at Misol-Ha, but this was almost enough. It basically consists of one main waterfall which is about 30 meters (98 feet) tall. There was a neat little cave too, but there wasn’t enough time for a tour of it.

We got a little thirsty:

Agua Azul was absolutely gorgeous.
Here's a picture I found online:

It got it’s name for the intense aqua color, which comes from the high mineral content. After a quick lunch when we first arrived, we were off. There were just so many parts to it, it was amazing! The bigger cascades are as big as 6 meters (20 feet) tall. We climbed all around taking pictures and then went for a swim.






We came back to the hotel, ate dinner and ate dinner at a restaurant across the street.
Wednesday we went to the ruins, which is the main and pretty much the only attraction in Palenque. We started to wander around by ourselves, getting offers for guides every other minute. After a few buildings, we decided to go back and get a guide. The site was a lot bigger than I had thought, and it was a lot hotter than I had thought. Later in the day, my thermometer said over 100 degrees, but who knows.
At the top of one of the ruins, overlooking the palace:


Anyway, after our tour was over, we bought some water and then wandered just a little in the jungle.


We then walked through some of the ruins that are back in the jungle. (This is where most of the ruins are, actually, but apparently the archeologists aren’t going to uncover any more, as they don’t want to ruin the jungle. Personally I wouldn’t uncover any more of it just because it’s so hot!) The path through the jungle goes past some little waterfalls and goes on to the museum, which was quite small.

After heading back to the hotel/restaurant area in which we were staying, we ate some lunch and picked up our stuff and were on our way to the bus station to catch the 5:30 bus to Villahermosa. The bus was full, so we had to wait for the 7:00 bus. We were actually quite lucky, as this was the first time this had happened to us. Also, we met some people from Germany who had to wait for an 11:00 bus, so it really wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, the bus station is not an enclosed station, so it was ridiculously hot…this is when my thermometer said over 100 degrees. We talked with some other people from Germany and waited. We saw a few people that we had seen on some of our tours in San Cristóbal.
New Food: Pozol – a drink basically made from corn and cocoa. Mi padre told me to try it, so I did. It had a really chunky texture, which I wasn’t to keen on, but the taste itself was good.
Pictures: Palenque