Pictures

Here is a link to see some of my pictures for all of you not on Facebook!

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2266181&l=2aae0&id=12329993

¡Viva México!

Has anyone heard of couch surfing? I was recently told about this new way to travel. There is a website where people can create profiles for themselves and be both travelers and hosts. Major cities have a local chapter to have parties and events with new people. The idea is to be able to stay on someone’s couch for free in a new place and hang out with local people and meet other travelers when going to couch surfing events.

Two of my friends from school are couch surfers and subscribed to the Mexico City list serve to know what is going on. Last monday night we went to a party hosted by a couch surfer to celebrate Mexico’s Independence day, said to be one of the biggest parties of the year. And while we didn’t end up going to the Zocolo to join in with the other millions, we had a smashing party in our new friend’s apartment. There were people from England, Mexico (duh), Russia, the US, France, Panama and more. We milled about for a while talking and drinking and then moved onto drinking games (I’ll have to play this new one with any willing people when I return to the US), limbo and lots of dancing. I had such a good time and was really happy to be able to have actual conversations with local folks. I have been complimented on my good accent several times and am proud of how far my Spanish has come. The cab ride home was punctuated with lots of fireworks and the driver tried to charge us $30. I gave him $10 and told him to get lost. It is really annoying to ride in cabs without meters because the drivers just make up whatever fare they think they can get away with and it is up to the person riding to know what is reasonable and to have the Spanish to be able to argue and negotiate.

Top 14: The buses of Acapulco

Many of the buses in Acapulco are named, and I couldn’t help but start a list of the funny names. Some of the cabs are also named, but it isn’t as common. One taxi we took was named ‘Vivian’ and I couldn’t help but hear Richard Gere yelling to Julia Roberts in the end of Pretty Woman. Here are some of the bus names:

· Samauri
· Ferrari
· Maria Bonita
· Sacrifice
· Acapulcito (little Acapulco)
· Tazmanian devil
· Caliente (spicy)
· Excitement
· Stuart Little
· Angels
· Loonatic
· Mermaid
· Blue Label
· Alien

Acapulco

It is getting late on Thursday evening as I ring the buzzer to get into my house. Cha cha, the crazy dog, is yapping away as Silvia, my host grandmother, makes her way to the door. As she opens the big golden garage door I exclaim and I have “una cosa bueno y una cosa malo” (a good thing and a bad thing because I don’t know the word for news). I tell her that I’ve decided to visit Acapulco this weekend “cosa buena”, but that I have no clean clothes “Cosa malo” she dramatically plays along. We quickly get to work putting in the dark load and then watch the telenovellas, the super over dramatic Spanish soap operas while the washing machine does its thing. There is no dryer, so all of my clothes are strung across rooms and hanging across broom handles. I pray that it will be dry by morning. I am disappointed and take a heavy ball of damp clothes to school with me. There is a dryer on the roof of the building and I beg the sweet cleaning lady to let me use it and thankfully, she does. I’m good to go!

This weekend I tagged along on a trip with Josh to Acapulco. His boyfriend is coming to visit but wasn’t interested in Acapulco so I generously volunteered to tag along and keep him company. I am so sweet. After school we have an hour to kill so we grab lunch and chat and then make our way to the southern bus station. It is no surprise that his small blue backpack had plenty of room to spare while my huge red backpack is pulling at the seams. I have yet to master the art of packing light.

On the bus I am surrounded by vacationing Mexicans excited to make use of the long weekend. 5 rainy hours are passed by American movies dubbed in Spanish and conversation with my seat buddy and her six year old son. The son and I play tic-tac-toe and taught each other the shapes in our native language (I still have the paper as a study guide). He was much better at counting than I.

Josh and I weren’t on the same bus, but his arrived soon after mine and we grabbed a taxi to our hotel, the Seascape Hotel. The taxi driver was telling us our far our hotel was from the beach and that we should check out his buddy’s place and gave up when we told him we had a reservation. The hotel had its glory days in the 1960’s, but beggars can’t be choosers and I was thrilled to be on the beach. Turns out our beach was a 10 minute walk down a steep hill; very manageable indeed. It was kind of late and we were both tired from the bus. We enjoyed a sandwich and a few beers from the outdoor kitchen and bar next to the pool and then went to sleep. Interestingly enough, one of the decorations from the pool was an Ohio license plate. Small world.

The next morning we grabbed our gear and swimsuits and headed down the hill to the beach. We walked along the crowded coast until we found a beach entrance and hopped down the steps, climbing over the guy sleeping and found the ocean. Yay! What a nice change from the noise and bustle of the city! There were about a zillion cabanas lined up and we rented towels, cushions and settled in. We were the only ones there other than the restaurant staff. Apparently we were the early birds. We ordered cheese quesadillas (apparently breakfast food here), fresh pineapple juice and coffee and settled in with our paperback, only to be interrupted every five minutes by someone selling something.

I have mentioned before that the volume of people selling stuff, all kinds of random stuff, is incredible. But, in the name of being a thorough writer, I kept a list of things that we could have bought without leaving the cabana:

· Sunglasses
· Green pumpkin shot glasses
· Massages (they carried around a text book to make themselves more official looking)
· Cover ups and swim suits
· Coconut water
· Shrimp (out of a sand pail, no less)
· Sand toys
· Giant toy boats
· Tons of jewelry
· Henna tattoos
· Our names written in a shell
· Some turtle lotion that is supposed to be an aphrodisiac
· Sandals
· Boat rides
· Hang gliding
· Glass bottles of what looked like kool aid that the sellers would clink together to let you know they’d arrived
· Hammocks
· Mobiles
· Hair braiding
· Giant masks made out of grasses and dyes (I wish I had taken a picture)

And, when he went to use the bathroom, my friend had the opportunity to buy coke and weed. He declined.

We spent two lovely mornings on the chewing through our paperbacks. We also visited the local fort, Fuerte de San Diego, built in 1616 to protect the area from pirates and offers an excellent view of the bay and city. We strolled through the center of town and went to a club for a while on Saturday night. The club looked like a pirate ship and the drinks were 2 for 1; both drinks arrived at the same time. I felt like I was a bit of a lush when there were four drinks on the table and only two people. Oh well, the first two disappeared quickly. The other cool thing we did was see the cliff divers.

I’m not sure how this spectacle got started, and my guidebook was no help as far as the history. But, for a few bucks, you can see a bunch of guys in Speedos climb down or dive off of the closer cliff into the rocky water, climb up the much taller cliff facing the audience, and time their impressive dives into the choppy water with the oncoming waves. There were different platforms (a generous term for the little areas no bigger than their feet) and the guys took turns, each guy diving a little higher than their buddy before them. The guidebook says that they dive up to 35 meters and I think it is no exaggeration. The final guy in hanging out at the top of the cliff and prays to the patron saint of Mexico, Guadalupe. I would be too. The top of the cliff is easily twice as tall as the first platform. It was a very cool show.

Weddings, mural, medicine and boats

Life continues to be entertaining and fun. I have been hanging out with a few new friends from school. Josh, a California native is an independent contractor and has a little more flexibility than most. He decided to come down to learn some Spanish because he has so many Spanish speaking friends and would like to be able to communicate better. Another friend, Tracy, is also an American and came to Mexico to get married to Juan, a Mexican. She is so very funny; she lives is Washington in a double wide trailer home from 1958, drives a car from the 1960’s and wants to start her own nonprofit foundation and import crafts from Mexico to the US for sale.

Last week I went to the inside of the palacia de bellas artes with Kathryn, a new friend from Switzerland. We wanted to go to the palace to see other murals but it was closed because of a convention, although the guard thought it was really funny that I dramatically snapped my fingers and said “que lastima!”. I like going to museums with other people who enjoy the “skimming approach” that I do. I am not one to consider a single painting for hours and hours and feel a little tied down by people who do. We spent a lovely afternoon checking out the murals and then having lunch at a new vegetarian restaurant we stumbled across. It was down a few winding halls and up on the second floors but 4 or 5 signs made sure we found our way. I never thought I’d get to eat soy balls in Mexico. Kathryn went home afterwards and I went to a Starbucks to study grammar for a while. Thrilling indeed.

Another afternoon this week I went to the museum of medicine. Surprisingly, I couldn’t find any takers to go with me so I went on my own. The building that housed the museum was huge and magnificent. According to my trusty guidebook this building is the former headquarters of the Inquisition of New Spain. It was a giant square with a lovely courtyard in the middle so all of the rooms had natural light. It would be a neat place to have some sort of party or dance; string lights across the top and strike up the band! The museum houses different antique medical equipment, herbal medicine (thesis flashback!) replicas of old doctors’ offices and interesting medical specimen, including wax replicas of different skin diseases all over the body (ALL over the body…gross). As I’m wandering around, a few young people are there, seemingly on assignment from school because they’re taking notes about the different displays. There are also medical students milling about in their crisp white lab jackets. Because I’ve spent so much time in hospitals, this place felt surprisingly homey to me.

After the museum and a quick lunch of a sandwich from a café and yet another conversation about small bits of meat in the soup actually counting as meat (the shock) I wandered around. You never know what you’ll come across when wandering and I was not disappointed. I found a neat used bookstore that had paperbacks in English for 2-3 bucks and a also found “oh the places you’ll go” by Dr. Sues in Spanish. I had previously purchased the first Harry Potter from a lovely street vendor but it turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated so I’ve needed to scale it back a bit. I took my new treasures to a new coffee shop and the very cute waiter brought me one of the finest lattes I’ve had ever. The foam was super thick and wonderful; well appreciated by this barista!

On Friday I want to Xochimilco, the “Venice of Mexico”; a series of channels that were created to farm. Mexico city used to be a lake, but some people got the idea to drain the lake and build, build, build. The huge cathedral closest to the Zocolo is now tilted because of being built of soft ground. The remnants of the former large lake are these channels. The farmers staked out an area with poles and then filled in the area with dirt to make a little island perfect for growing fruit and flowers and no concerns for watering the crops. Now, locals and tourists are able to hop on a flat bottomed, very colorful boat and be pushed around to enjoy the peaceful scenery. You can also by beer or pop from the drink boat that comes up, tacos from the taco boat, blankets and tablecloths or pay the mariachi to sing you a tune. There really is no place in Mexico safe from people selling something unless you’re inside your own house. Period. It is all very strange and wonderful. I got the brilliant idea that I wanted to “drive” the boat, which involves wielding a giant bamboo pole and pushing along the bottom of the canal to propel the boat. So while my friends are betting if I’m going to fall in or drop the pole, I gave my best shot at what our driver, Miguel, made look so very easy. While I didn’t drop the pole or fall in, much to my friends’ chagrin, I have a much greater appreciation for the boat drivers. Since the pole is bamboo, it wants to float. You have to jam the pole down very quickly in order to hit the soft bottom of the canal or you’re pole floats up before you can make any progress. And, when I actually did hit bottom, the boat is super heavy and not to easy to steer. I gave up rather quickly.

Pyramids and Puebla

I have been up to a lot lately, and have been too busy to write. Eek! It is time to catch up a little bit.



It is too dangerous to go come late at night so if I would like to do something in the evening, I have been sleeping in a friend's apartment who lived in the school (now she is traveling around the country and I miss her already!). So this week in the evening I went to a salsa club, a regular dance club and watched a movie one night. Feels better to be doing normal young people stuff and not just watching TV or reading at home all the time.

Monday I went with six people from school to the Pyramids north of the city. It took about an hour by bus to get there and it literally was a welcome breath of fresh air from the craziness of the city. We met two guys traveling from Isreal and decided to do a tour. Our guide was fantastic and told us lots of stories and information about the people who used to live there, how they had hot showers, studied astronomy and geology. I think we got much more out of the tour than if we had just gone on our own. I climbed both of the big pyramids (the sun pyramid has 244 huge, steep stairs) and was sore for the next two days. I think that the priests of those days must have been in excellent shape. At the top of the sun pyramid there were a group of people in white clothes and singing, and really, it was beautiful enough to make one want to burst into song (¨the hills are alive...with the sound of music!¨). There was also a guy who was spinning one copper plate on top of another and had crystals and such. I asked him what he was doing and he said something about ¨turning on this big machine of energy¨and that there was a reincarnation of jesus, as a woman, nearby and how lucky I was to be there. Yup. Lady Jesus. I am lucky.

The salsa club was fun, but I really need to learn the local salsa because it is really different from salsa in the US. I guess I went to the club feeling like I was going to be decent because I have danced so much in the US but felt terrible that night. Yikes! When our group got there, there were two circles of people doing this kind of salsa-square dance thing that is really fast and involves a lot of changing of partners. Very neat to watch and would be really cool to learn. Who knows?

This weekend I went with two friends to Puebla, one of the largest cities in the Country. Peubla is famous for its architecture and spanish feel. We took a two hour bus to get there and immediatly searched for a hostel. We found one mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide (seriously the bible of travels) and got three bunk beds in a co-ed dorm for 13 bucks, with breakfast included. Sweet! We went to a history museum of the mexican revolution and were given a tour by the guard. It was really cool because I don't know much of anything about history but he was able to make it very interesting and the pride in his face as he is showing us different things was really amazing. We also went to the main cathedral of puebla and were stunned by the beautiful building. As we were leaving, a wedding was getting started and the bride was hanging out, alone, in a blue 1950´s car. As the crowd gathers to see the bride's entrance, move guests are entering the cathedral. Finally, the car moves forward and backwards, parallel parking style, and gets 5 or 6 feet closer to the curb (necessary?). The bride exits the car and looks super. Fun to watch!

We got dinner at a place called Super Soya. I couldn't believe that there was a health food place like that in Mexico. There was a restaurant counter where we got burgers (one of the girls was also vegetarian and the other went along with it) as well as foods and supplements for sale. Yum! We also went to an internet cafe for a while where I set up a skype account (excellent decision) and was able to talk to my mama. The first 4 times I tried to call home I could hear my mom but she couldn't hear me. She was so sweet because she said ¨I know one of you kids is trying to call but I can't heeeearrrr you!¨. Eventually we got connected and were able to have a long chat for 2 cents per minute. I guess I should clarify that my sister is currently in ireland, my brother is in germany and my other brother lives in DC.

Being cool young people, we wanted to check out the night scene and got ready in the hostal. We were told that we should go to the city center and look from there. So we walked, on empty streets, towards the city center. Are we forgetting that it is saturday night? Once we got to the city center, we saw a bunch of familys and children. Where are the clubs? Along the way, we were invited to a 15th birthday party (a very big celebration in Mexico) but decided to pass. We did eventually find a few clubs and were immediatly surrounded by three club representitives of the clubs offereing us drinks if we would please just come to their clubs. I guess that is what celebrities feel like. We walked through a bunch of guys looking us up and down as though we were steaks and sat down for a few drinks and a bit of dancing.

Sunday we went to the Africam Safari. I think it is the largest zoological park in the Americas and it was really cool. Our guide suggested going early, when the animals are most active and so we set the ole alarm for 9am, had our free breakfast (cereal, toast, juice and coffee) and walked back to the square where we looked for our safari bus. It took about 10 false starts and a lot of waiting in the rain, but eventually we were on our way. Even though it was raining, the animals were out and about in the park and very close to the bus. I was very close to lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) as well as elephants, birds, lots of deer like animals that I didn´t recognize and many more. Very cool tour.

Top 8: Things being carried

1. A live duck wrapped in a blue blanket being carried across the huge city square
2. a plastic quart bag of juice (an accident waiting to happen)
3. a light bulb that was 10 feet long
4. a huge stack of 20 chairs with white slip covers
5. three chubby men...by one teeny vespa
6. a louiz vuitton purse...used to hold change by the guy selling water in the street
7. a package of diapers strapped to a bicycle with a belt by a young guy...new father?
8. Clear plastic garbage bag of fried pig skin squares on the subway...do you know where your pig skin has been??