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
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