Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Zacatecas...

December in Queretaro

Lots to report since the last update. I’ve been super busy trying to finish everything up before the end of training, but as of the 19th I am officially a volunteer and as of the 20th I’m officially on vacation until I have to report to Puebla on the 4th of January. So here’s the summary of the last couple weeks…. We visited two different children’s homes (orphanages more or less) and brought Christmas things and piñatas (piñatas are traditionally used in Mexico during Christmas).
December 12 is the day of the Virgin Guadalupe (this is the patron saint of Mexico) and the day is capped off by masses, fireworks, and other festivities. The church is the picture below is the church of the Virgin Guadalupe in Queretaro and the metal structure is the firework tower for later in the night. There was also day of the payasos (clowns) in December. Also, around Christmas time, many posadas are held. These are basically a type of Christmas party and have a piñata. Unfortunately for me my attempts at actually hitting the piñata were fairly unsuccessful, although as can be seen in the picture, the piñata was a little high.

I also spent a day and a night in a small town in the state of Guanajuato called Apaseo el Alto. Not a whole lot going on in this town, but it was nice to spend some time outside of Queretaro, in a small town, and without any other gringos or tourists to be seen. There was supposed to be a huge old convent somewhere on the outskirts of town (as seen on the towns website), yet someone not a single person in town had heard of it or knew where it was…..

Then finally, on the 19th, we had our official swearing ceremony. Our host families, some of the heads of the SEMARNAT offices (unfortunately no one from Puebla could make it), our Spanish teachers, and officials from the embassy were in attendance. After the ceremony, there were tacos and a mariachi band. Still awaiting the official pictures, but the one below is me with my host mom.

That is about it for now. I’m headed out of vacation for ~10 days to visit Zacatecas, Morelia, and Pazcuaro. Happy Holidays!

Jalisco (but not the part with Puerto Vallerta, the beach, or the town of Tequila)

This week we headed to the state of Jalisco on the Western side of Mexico. We visited a couple natural protected areas (La Primavera, Nevado de Colima, and Sierra de Quila) to learn about different management strategies and things like that. We also had a couple days of seminars and workshops on a variety of topics including: growing mushrooms, building straw bale houses, worms, medicinal plants, forestry programs, and making charcoal. We did get to “ride” horses for a little bit, rigged up a volleyball net, and went to a river with hot (geothermal) water.

The highlight of the trip was the visit to Nevado de Colima, a volcano. We went up to 14,000 feet on the peak of a mountain right next to the volcano and from there you can also see the peak of an adjacent volcano. We spent Friday night “in” Guadalajara (didn’t see anything of the city because we basically were on the side of a highway next to a gas station). Saturday went to a market in a nearby town before heading back to Queretaro.

Coming back was a little bit of a surprise as it seems that Christmas exploded on the city while we were gone. The main garden has about 4 nativity scenes, an elephant that moves, a scene with devils, an Adam and Eve scene, a large cow next to a giant cactus, and the gigantic plastic poinsettias. All the streets are adorned with giant sparkly Christmas shapes and most of the plazas have some of the largest tinsel “Feliz Navidad” signs that I have ever seen.

more picts than you would even care to look at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daninewcomb/

Feliz cumpleanos y dia de gracias

Not much to report on the 25^th birthday other than a successful night of playing quarters (get it….25) with real American quarters in a bar with bulls heads and matador posters on the wall. This was preceded by a quick trip to a bar with plaid cloth on the walls and the largest collection of model cars that I have ever seen…..interesting.

For Thanksgiving we cooked a full on turkey dinner at our language school. I must admit that having a Costco in town makes finding traditional thanksgiving foods much easier. We did have some salsa and tortillas (you can’t have a meal in Mexico without tortillas) and a jello mold cake. All that was missing was football and cold weather.