The Trek

Sarah (a new friend from Guanajuato) and I started the trek to Guatemala with a 1am bus ride to Mexico City this was luxury on crack! This bus has only 3 seats across and they are so wide and soft, with pillows and special things for your legs and eventually the whole thing is like an overstuffed lazy boy recliner and you can go almost fully horizontal and sleep, plus they have movies, music channels, separate boys and girls bathrooms, and wireless on board the ENTIRE time (if a bus in Mexico can figure out how to have wireless over the mountains, why can‘t Amtrak figure out how to have wifi from SF to Sac)

From Mexico City we flew to Chiapas (a southern Mexico state that borders Guatemala).


We spent the day in San Cristobal de Las Casas, a fascinating town, incredibly old with tons of Mayan history mixed with Spanish Colonialism, a huge traditional Mayan arts and crafts market, lots of pedestrian streets, old churches, good food and like GTO we stumbled across lots of music, as well as break dancing, and Marquesitas (a cross between a churro and a crepe stuffed with warm nutella or caramel…yum!) And Mom, check out the name of this street!


The following day we continued the trek to Guate (I think I will fly to Costa Rica). It wasn’t bad just long and hot. We took a shuttle (with a tour operator - don’t worry everyone I was not on chicken bus!) down from the mountains to the border, where we had to physically get out of the van and walk over the border and get back into the van and then had a very hilly windy, ride 3 hours over mountains. Great view but there were literally speed bumps every 200 meters - and I am not exaggerating this time. Eventually we arrived in Xela where the next adventure begins…

The last few days in GTO….

Even though I had ‘La Grippa’ I had an amazing last few days in Guanajuato…I visited 2 silver mines, another nearby city Dolores Hildago, where I feasted on avocado ice cream, saw traditional folkloric dance and spent lots of time walking around the city (eating pastries, drinking liquid chocolate and fresh mango juices) wanting to remember this magical place….that I will definitely come back to.

How cute mining humor…

Check out the guys cleaning the top.

One of my favorite folkloric dances (others were quite fun, a mix between country line dancing and salsa with a hint of big band music)


Scenes from around GTO



My favorite café

Under the city was a crazy system of streets for the cars (on top mostly pedestrian walkways) but these ramparts make you think you are driving underneath a fortress - take that Big Dig!

The pictures of my house didn’t come out because it was a little too dark, but this is the garden of the house I lived in (and it had a hammock where I attempted studying but only ever accomplished a siesta
)

And my absolute favorite thing about GTO ws turning evry corner and finidng live music, usually a whole band. But this has got to bee one of the coolest traditions…’estudiantinas’ (I think its like a frat, but most nights they play music in traditional costumes, sing funny songs, tell funny stories and then sometimes they start walking through the city singing in different alley ways, acting out the story of the Callaholn de Besos, here’s a clip….enjoy

It was also hard to say goodbye to my family, even though it had only been a month, they were pretty incredible and totally welcomed me fully into their family. They all made me promise, I would return soon and my host mother showered me with gifts including some of her prize recipes....YUM

Dia de Los Fleurs

This is the best holiday EVER! Today is Dia de las Flores, it starts Thursday night, the streets are filled and I mean FILLED with fresh flowers! People with tons of handmade, traditional toys for children line the streets everything from handmade sheeps, frogs, cows, mice every animal you can imagine to witches, princesses, angels, to huge paper flowers in every color you could ever imagine. Most popular are the brightly colored eggs filled with confetti that kids crack open over each others heads.

Then people stay up all night dancing, I’m not kidding you (I unfortunately have caught La Grippa - a cold so no partying for me, which has involved alot of odd things my host mother is making me take, gargle and sniff but thats another story) than at 6am everyone goes to the main garden and men walk in one direction women in the other. If a guy thinks you’re pretty he hands you a flower and you are suppose to exchange kiss on the cheek. (I did get a few flowers, my favorite, a yellow carnation from a 4-yr old boy but no kisses - I guess they could tell I had l had Grippa!). All the shops give out ice cream, fresh juices, pastries, cookies, and other tasty treats. And everywhere theaters, churches, houses are covered in flowers it’s a holiday specific solely to GTO.

Besides this holiday the city is in the middle of their 2 week book and culture fair. For 2 weeks there are free movies on the steps of the university, book fairs, lectures, dances tons of music and more. GTO seems to have a lot of holidays and festivals, there is a 2 week literature festival in October as well. Just on a normal every day non-festival basis, every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are live music in the park, the symphony plays every Friday here and groups of young men are frequently dressed up playing traditional instruments walking through the city. And then you got countless mimes

Climbing La Bufa

GTO is surrounded by mountains and last weekend I managed to hike the highest one, La Bufa. A fantastic view from the top and really interesting rock formations - and of course some altars along the way…(i'll post te video of the 360 view later)

Familia

I was definitely a little worried about going from living solo to living with a family again. But when I overslept today (this is the 2nd time this has happened) and was awoken by my host mother 20 minutes before class started (mom, dad, sound familiar?) with coffee waiting for me, I realized it hadn’t taken long to regress. But when I came home and saw my bed made, room cleaned, and then amazing lunch of cream of spinach soup, stewed chicken in tomatillo sauce, fried plaintains, fresh jicama and cucumbers, frijoles, tortillas, all topped off with homemade strawberry ice cream, I realized maybe its not so bad living with parents after all. In fact I think I’m getting used to this;)

Mummies!!!

So Guanajuato is famous for their mummies, but these aren't mummies in the traditional sense...Apparently because of the high altitude, dry air, and all the minerals (tons of silver and gold in the soil) as well as salts in the dirt, bodies that are buried in the ground naturally mummify. It started 200 or 300 years ago, for some reason they were digging up bodies, but when people realized that the corpses hadn't decomposed it became something of a phenomemnon. At first they started putting them on to view in secret and up until recently you would go into the 'musueum' with a candle and view all the mummies just chilling there. Now the mummies are in a nice museum, behind glass, and temperature controlled. While it was a little creepy as they had some mummies there from 1985 (it takes only 5 years for a corpse to mummify here) it was interesting because the skin, hair, socks , shoes and some clothes remianed eerily in tact.

They still put bodies in here if your family doesn't pay taxes/fees on the burial plot, hence this is why my host mother has decided to be buried in a town 5 hours away. They even had mummies of people that had drowned (skin was stil bluish), buried alive, and stab wounds (skin was stained). Even though it was creepy, it was also pretty fascinating...

Some More Pics from Guadalajara

In front of the Church in Taquepaque

Hanging out with the guys from the band ;)

Chivas vs. Atlas - check out my Mexican Soccer Jersey


The San Francisco of Mexico?

Mexican Gyms

Those of you who have heard my (and Jessa’s) many tales of woe from working out at 24 Hour Fitness can now take heart that I was well prepared for the Mexican gym experience. Some of you may even be wondering why I am bothering, but due to the lack of running and sheer amount of food my host mother makes I decided I might as well make a futile effort.

I arrive at the gym that is entitled ‘Underfit’ and notice just like 24 Hour in SF guys are lifting in jeans and muscle t-shrits … I attend a Pilates class (which was interesting, I don’t know how else to describe it) but instead of 8 peaceful repetitions we did 20 of everything, super fast to some slow awful music and then another round. But this was not before I happened to notice the women’s aerobics class which was blaring J.Lo songs combined with Britney Spears dance moves and a bit of salsa….now that sounds like my kind of class!!

Update on the Mexican Gym Experience: after failing to explain my tight hamstrings in espanol I have decided instead to dedicate myself to salsa dance lessons for exercise…watch out Dancing with the Stars….;)

Frying Fish

The Frying of the Fish...bones, head, tail and all...


The delivery of said fish YUM!!!!


Anything fried and then covered in lime, chili and salt ends up tasting good!

Why I love the Spanish Language

So who knew that me of all people could find grammar interesting, I have some pretty bad grammar and don’t really understand half of it, but while learning how to say things like I’m late or I’m snacking (on cookies, etc) the way its conjugated is not in the 1st person but in the 3rd person in a form that is used for actions that are not intentional, i.e. you will not accept responsibility for them. So you can't say Yo Estoy tarde (I am Late) instead you say “Se Me Hizo Tarde” which literally means something got in the way and made me late its not my fault….the same goes for snacking Se Me Antoja comer chocolates (literally translates to the chocolates snacked on me!) God, I love this language….

Patzcuaro & Morelia

(In advance I apologize for the lousy formatting - its not me its the blog!)

This past weekend the only 2 other cool Americans here and myself made a long journey out to the state of Michoacán and headed to two towns Patzcuaro and Morelia. The area of Michoacán is full of rolling hills, lakes, lush countryside and oddly enough pine trees!

Patzcuaro was considered to be the doorway to heaven by early inhabitants and then was discovered by conquistadors in the mid-1500s. It still is known for its indigenous arts.


First we headed to Lake Patzcuaro (which has a number of islands you can head out to, although we didn't have the time). Its also known for its fish, which is a little rare here since we are in the heartland and high-up. In particular, are yummy fried fish, bones, head tail and all (they are only a few centimeters long) cover them in lime, chili and a little salt and you got a tasty taste sensation!

(SF isn't the only one with cable cars!)
Downtown Patzcuaro is full of large plazas, red white buildings, and renown for its ice cream YUM! Zapote is a fruit here that is BLACK in the inside and Green on the outside, kind of like a plum, but a little less sweet it makes for great ice cream! In addition the town is famous for the Virgin of Salud (health) if you pray to her your health problems should (theoretically) disappear.





(Public Library in Morelia & Basilica famous for its towers)
Morelia is another incredible colonial city, and was the birthplace of Jose Maria Morelos who with Miguel Hildago started the War of Independence from Spain in 1810 (it may have been the first capital...sounds a little like Philly's history). Despite GTO, Patzcuaro and Morelia all be founded around the same time the architecture is incredibly different.. Large stone, imposing buildings and a huge basilica are tempered by the Mercado de Dulces (an entire one block market full of candies, sweet nuts, chocolate, sugary treats, candied fruit, cookies, sweet tostadas, caramels, marzipan and coconut like confections….YUM you can just tell how excited we are to be here…(ok will upload later - taking forever!)