Don't Drink the Water

New Country. New Blog.

2011-12-08T15:47:00.000-08:00

Guatemala: http://dani-guatemala.blogspot.com/

New year. New job. New country?

2010-12-30T06:14:00.001-08:00

As 2010 quickly comes to an end, here’s a brief review of my year, or at least an overview of some of my fav pictures from 2010. I guess I could have used new year, new job, new country as an end of the year post last year too (year:2010, job: EPA, country: return to the US). We'll see if this becomes a repeating trend. In January 2011 I will be starting a new job with the U.S. Agency for International Development that will eventually be sending me to a yet-to-be-determined overseas location. Fingers crossed for some place that everyone wants to come visit me in. Happy New Year!

Snowpocalypse in Washington D.C.

Spring and Cherry Blossom Season in Washington, D.C.

Summer and Fall around Washington, D.C.

Coney Island

Colorado

Lake Tahoe

Vermont

Puebla: Mi mero mole

2009-12-10T20:47:00.000-08:00

So this is my last blog post. I can’t believe how fast the 27 months flew by. I’m really going to miss Puebla and the rest of Mexico. I’m headed to DC to start a job with the EPA, so it will be interesting to see the differences and similarities between working for the Mexican and American federal governments. So here are some final pictures of Puebla taken over the last 2 years.

Saludos!

Despedidas (Going away parties)

2009-12-10T20:46:00.002-08:00

In between packing, wildling everything I owned down to 2 suitcases, cleaning, transferring files, and finishing up peace corps paperwork, I had a series of holiday/going away parties and lunches my last week in Mexico (thanks to Shane for letting me use some of his pictures)

For our holiday party for the planning department of SEMARNAT, we decided to do carne asada at the state park that in inside the city of Puebla. This seemed like a great idea in the office, but we had some poor execution. 1st, we ended up leaving the office super late after everyone got caught up in last minute projects, still needing buy all the meat and salsas. Then once we got to the park, we got sent to a cabin without the keys and where there was no fire started. We got the fire started (good thing we had a bottle of tequila with us), but couldn’t get into the cabin. We had also lost another member of our department in the park somewhere and never did find him. People that were joining us later had car troubles and the office’s Jeep ended up dying on the road up to the cabin. And then it got very cold and very dark, but we managed to grill and to not burn too many tortillas.

Dia de la Virgen Guadalupe 2009

2009-12-10T20:46:00.001-08:00

So I'm a little slow in posting, but better late than never. This year for December 12 I was in Puebla to celebrate day of the Virgin Guadalupe and actually went to midnight mass on the night of the 11th to sing happy birthday to her. People brought balloons and flowers as gifts and many of the balloons ended up at the top of the chapel. The church in Puebla was packed (as were most of the churches across the country). Outside the church there were typical Mexican fair food stalls. Kids were taking their pictures in different scenes with the virgin and some were elaborate enough to have live animals like ponies, goats, donkeys, and lambs.

Kids, stoves, and more kids

2009-12-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

My boss and I went out on Thursday to visit the community of San Francisco Jalapexco in the municipality of Teopantlan, pretty close to the volcano Popocatepetl (pictured).

Our visit was to check up (and georeference) a stove project for women in the community. Basically, the idea is to build more efficient wood-burning stoves to reduce the cutting of trees and have chimneys that direct the smoke out of the house to create a healthier living environment. In my experience, most of the children in the communities are pretty shy and quite, this town was the exception. The second we got out of the car I was bombarded by children wanted to play with my camera, the gps unit, my sunglasses, and anything else I had on me. The kids were fascinated with the camera so we took a lot of pictures so they could see themselves on it. Here’s some of those photos.

As we made our way to different homes to see the various stoves, we picked up a couple more kids and soon had English lessons going on. One girl wanted to know how many friends I had in the US and then asked me to name them all. She then started asking me if I knew Sandi, Ramon, Martin….. and I was honestly so confused who she was talking about. I finally realized that she was listing all the people from her town that had gone to work in the US. Most of them are in New Jersey, Puebla’s main migration destination.

Many of the homes in this region of the state are made of palm. The sizes and structure of these houses vary from town to town and here, they were actually pretty tall. I've been in some where I can't fully stand up inside. The doors were still pretty tiny though.

Inside

Additional storage

Homemade mezcal break

The Poinsettias (called noche buenas in Spanish) in Mexico can grow to the size of trees

Charcoalmaking in process

Everything was going smoothly until we got to the last house. I was 3rd in line as we walked into the last house when one of their dogs decided to get a good hold of the back of my thigh. Luckily he didn't break through my jeans, so no need for a shot, but he got a decent bite in that drew enough blood and has left me with a nasty bruise and a slightly gimpy leg.

Thanksgiving and little trip to a cave

2009-12-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

I took a short (14 hr because of an immigration stop and tractor-trailor collision) trip up to Valles for some Turkey and a slightly belated birthday cake.

Our turkey

The inside of our turkey

A group of us also went some caves (Grutas de los sabinos) just outside of Valles. The cave system is pretty big, but you can only explore a fairly small section of it since you end up at an 80m drop down to an underground river at the back of the last cavern.

Cisterns in Zaulta, Puebla

2009-11-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

In stark contrast to my Saturday and Sunday spent in Mexico City, Monday I was in two rural communities in Zautla in the Sierra Norte of Puebla (about a 3 hour drive). Both communities, El Tepeyac and Zayolapan were involved in projects that gave money to women in the community to build cisterns. The only available water comes from a long tube and a couple hoses that run into the towns. Generally there is water flowing once every 3 days, but it is sometimes as infrequent as every 15 days. Thus, the main focus of the project was to construct cisterns that could be filled with rain water and with water from the tube to give people a more reliable source of water or at least the chance to store water when available. My boss tends to attract children in these small communities and I seem to attract stares as tower over everyone else.

Pictures from Zayolapan....
Pictures from El Tepeyac ........

Most of the people living in Zayolapan and El Tepeyac have family businesses making small pots that are then sold in nearby San Miguel. While we were visiting the cisterns, we passed several homes where the pots were being fired in large wood-burning ovens.

One of my favorite things about fall in Mexico.....the thousands of tiny yellow flowers that blanket the countryside

Birthday Weekend in Mexico City

2009-11-22T19:34:00.000-08:00

For my birthday weekend, I met up with some other volunteers in Mexico City. On Saturday morning, we re-visited Casa Azul, the house where Frida Kahlo was born and spent many years. Day of the Dead is over, but many of the museums still have their alters up (which is why you are going to see some more day of the dead things in this post).

We then went down to Xochimilco, a delegation in the Southern part of the city. Our 1st stop was at the Dolores Olmedo Museum. In short, she was a very, very rich woman that collected art from around the world and financed a lot of Diego Riveras work. Her house, the museum, is filled with art from around the world, as well as several rooms dedicated to Riveras art and 1 room of Frida’s paintings. Peacocks freely roam the grounds of the estate. There is also a fenced in area with a lot of Xoloescuintle, a hairless (and I my eyes, ugly) Aztec dog. It was amazing how much they looked like their statue.

We then went to what is probably the most famous attraction in Xochimilco, the canals. Back when the Aztecs were still living in Mexico City, the canals contained a series of floating gardens, used to cultivate crops. Now it features lots and lots of boats filled with people, beer, mariachis, food, and vendors of all kinds. None of the boats have motors and all are pushed by hand, kinda like a Mexican gondola.

On Sunday, we all headed our own ways and I finally made it up to the Basilica de Guadalupe, the most visited Catholic site in all of Mexico and 2nd most visited in the world. The Virgin Guadalupe is one of the most important religious icons in all of Mexico and her image appears on everything around the country. At the site, you can visit the new basilica, the old basilica, and climb Tepeyac Hill to another church and see the site where the Virgin appeared in front of Juan Diego on December 12, 1531. Pilgrimages are made every year around the 12th of December, and even though I visited in November, they had already started to arrive.

Inside the new Basilica

The old and the new

My last stop was Tlatelolco and the Plaza de las tres cultras (Plaza of the 3 Cultures). In the plaza, you have Aztec ruins, a Spanish church, and a modern Mexican building. The plaza was also the site of the student demonstrations in 1968 that ended in bloodshed, just before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.

Piedras Encimadas

2009-11-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

Since my last post it has been a long 10 days waiting for a root canal. I ended up with a golf ball sized infection on my jaw that actually entered my jaw muscle as well, making it impossible to actually do the root canal because I couldn’t open my mouth. After a week in Queretaro and several attempts, I was finally able to get a root canal on Friday, but still not able to get the crown due to more issues getting my mouth open wide enough. So on Saturday I was finally able to head back to Puebla (I initially left thinking I’d only be gone 2 days, but that turned into 10). After a quick stop in Tequisquiapan on the way home, I finally made it back to Puebla on Saturday night. On Monday, we had the day off work to commemorate the Mexican Revolution, so I decided to head up to the Sierra Norte and visit a place called Piedras Encimadas, a valley with odd rock formations. It was amazingly cold and foggy, sensations that you actually enjoy when you live in a mild climate.

Dia de los Muertos 2009: Michoacan and Aguascalientes

2009-11-07T09:43:00.003-08:00

On October 31st, a couple of us headed to Aguascalientes for the Festival de las Calaveras (Festival of Skulls). Aguascalientes is a cute colonial town. Our first stop was the Museo de Muerte (Death Museum) that featured paper mache skeletons (special for day of the dead) and then normal exhibits of art and artifacts from Mexcio related to death.

Aguascalientes’ most famous resident is probably Jose Guadalupe Posada, one of Mexico’s most famous lithographers and creator of probably the most used image of a Catrina (the female skeleton often associated with Day of the Dead). There is a small museum in town with many of his prints.

Then we headed down to the fair grounds area where they had a bunch of food stalls, big skulls, and general fair activities.

On Sunday morning, Kurt and I headed to Patzcuaro in the state of Michoacan, and perhaps one of the most famous places for Day of the Dead in Mexico. The indigenous communities around Patzcuaro Lake and on the islands in the lake spend the entire night from the 1st to the 2nd in the cemetery, as well as the 2nd. They build large structures out of marigolds (the official flower of the day of the dead, called Cempasúchil) that vary from community to community. We headed out to the island of Janitzio on the night of the 1st and wandered around the island seeing various altars inside people’s houses and visited the cemetery. We decided to leave around 12 when the majority of the crowds are filling the cemetery and beat the huge line for the boats back to Patzcuaro.

A tip if you ever decide to do Day of the Dead in Patzcuaro…..don’t actually stay in Patzcuaro. We decided to get a hotel room in Santa Clara del Cobre (20 min outside of Patzcuaro) and were about to make a reservation 2 weeks in advance and pay $300 pesos for a room for 2 people (less than $30 usd). Rooms in Patzcuaro are booked months in advance and prices more than double.

The cemetary (from above)

On Monday morning (Nov 2nd), we visited more cemeteries, starting with the local cemetery in Santa Clara del Cobre. The cemetery and flowers seen there are much more similar to what you will see in most areas across Mexico. Graves are cleaned and adorned with flowers and families will spend a significant part of the day there, eating, talking, remembering, but you don’t tend to see the elaborate structures from some of the more rural communities.

Then we visited cemeteries in 2 communities outside of Patzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan and Ihuatzio.

Tzintzuntzan

Ihuatzio

Alebrijes Monumentales and COS Conference

2009-11-03T17:55:00.000-08:00

On Friday the 23rd, I headed back to Queretaro for an All-Volunteer conference and my group’s close of service conference (COS). We had a day off in between the two events and so took advantage of that to go down to Mexico City on Sunday to see the Alebrijes Monumentales that were on display. I had wanted to go to the parade on Saturday, but at least they were still around the city. Alebrijes are traditionally from Oaxaca and can be carved wooden animals or can be made from paper mache. The ones used in the parade were all made from paper mache and featured artists from around the country.

After the seeing the alebrijes, I finally made it to the Anthropology Museum. I’d been putting it off and putting it off, but finally made it. After having visited over 30 sets of ruins in Mexico, it was nice to finally see some of the artifacts that from those sites. The National Anthropology Muesum pretty much has all the jewelry, pottery, skeletons, carvings, and tools from most of the archeological sites from around Mexico.

COS is a couple days where our entire group was together (plus some people from other groups that had extended) for several days of medical appointments, interviews, group sessions, and lots of paperwork. It’s the last time that our group (#5) was together before people started heading back. COS was also a great time for an old stomach infection to creep back into my system and for me to learn that I need a root canal….fun times.

Towards the end of the week, Dia de los Muertos decorations, alters, and sweets were starting to appear around Queretaro. My next entry will be about my Dia de los Muertos travels, so there will be plenty more pictures of skulls, papel picado, and marigolds.

Rainy weekend in Xalapa, Coatepec, and Xico

2009-10-20T18:04:00.001-07:00

Early Saturday morning I got on a bus and went to Xalapa, the capital of the neighboring state of Veracruz. I’ve been to Xalapa numerous for work, but never had a chance to see most of the sites. After dropping my stuff at the hostel, I first headed to the botanic garden. Xalapa is at a lower elevation than Puebla and has a much more tropical climate.

I’ve never seen anything like this before and I’m not sure that it shows up in the picture, but all the thin, black things are spider legs. There was a huge mass of spiders on this tree, more than I have ever seen together at any one time in my life.

After the garden, I went to a town called Xico that is famous for its mole and its July running of the bulls. Before heading into town, I decided to walk out to a nearby waterfall (Cascada de Texolo). The 2ish km walk was on a cute cobble stone road that meandered through banana trees and coffee plants.

Coffee

Cascada Texolo

I got stuck in a full on down pour walking back from the waterfall and ended up having to hide out under a small roof for an hour until it passed. Then it was into the town of Xico to buy some mole before heading to Coatepec.

Coatepec is another small town (and a Pueblo Magico) that is known for its coffee. The whole town pretty much smells like coffee and there is a roaster or a coffee store on every block.

I spent a cold Sunday morning wandering around Xalapa and visiting the anthropology museum that features sculptures, jewelry, and skulls from the various ruins throughout Veracruz.

Casa Ecologíca

2009-10-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

As a side project for one of the regional land use planning projects we are working on, we are looking to develop a sustainable community project that involves the use of eco-technologies. On Tuesday, we went to visit IMTA (Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua = Mexican Institute of Water Technology) in Jiutepec, Morelos to see their ecological house and talk to them about the huge community based eco-technology project that are currently promoting in Patzcuaro. The website for their model house can be found here…..
http://www.imta.gob.mx/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=447&Itemid=55.

This is a general diagram of the system (if you can make it out)

Obviously in communities, the project focuses on retrofitting existing houses, but for the model at IMTA, they built a brand new house out of adobe. So the house features solar panels for electricity and for heating water, rainwater capture, an ecological bathroom, and ecological sink and place to wash clothes, a mini-wetland treatment system, and finally a family orchard that receives the treated grey water from the house. The treated water is pumped into the orchard through an irrigation system powered by a bicycle.

Water heater

Treatment for the water from the sink and from washing clothes
Me on the bicycle pump (bicibomba)
The "orchard". They had just finished harvesting so it looks a little bare (and flooded from the storm the night before)
Solar disinfector for drinking water

Director of Mexico's National Park Service visits Puebla

2009-10-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

On Wenesday, Ernesto Enkerlin the director of CONANP (Mexico’s National Park Service) came to visit a natural protected area in the northern part of the state of Puebla (it also extends into the neighboring state of Hidalgo). The parks’ full name is Área de Protección de Recursos Naturales: Cuenca Hidrográica del Río Necaxa (Area for the Protection of Natural Resources: Watershed of the river Nexaca). We have been fairly involved in this area of the state through our work on the Ordenamiento (regional land use plan) for the watershed of the rivers Necaxa and Laxaxalpan. We also have 13 municipal ordenamientos currently underway in the region as well. The first stop on the trip was to visit a community mushroom growing project. The couple running the project actually received their check from the director that day.

Sterilization is one of the key concerns when trying to start a mushroom project. The mushrooms eventually grow out of hay placed in plastic bags that have been inoculated with mushroom spores, but the hay must be boiled and disinfected first. People working with the mushrooms usually wear plastic bags over their shoes and face masks.

As a complementary project, the same group has also started a small ornamental plant nursery.

We then made a quick stop to see a reforestation project funded by PEMEX.

The last stop, before finishing the day at a restaurant for some mushroom soup and grilled meat, was at a reservoir called Tejocotal that is actually in the state of Hidalgo. This is one of the reservoirs used by the electric company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) (it’s an entity of the federal government) to provide hydroelectric power to the region. The Necaxa Natural Protected Area was basically created to protect the production of hydroelectricity. The idea is that if you protect the watershed, you will ensure that water is still arriving at the reservoirs and if the land remains forested, the reservoirs will have a longer life time before they fill with sediments. LFC has worked on a lot of environmental projects in the area, including reforestations, the declaration of several of their reservoirs as RAMSAR sites, and trash clean-up. Unfortunately, the future of LFC is a little up in the air…. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/11/mexico.utility.company.raid/index.html. The Puebla offices mentioned in this article are where we have had most of our meetings related to the Regional Ordenamiento. All in all a good day and a chance to see a little bit more of the natural protected area.

An Early Morning Trip to Cuetzalan: Feria de Cafe y Huipil

2009-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

After spending Friday driving around the area of study for our Valsequillo project with one of the Peace Corps staff, I spent Saturday stuffing my face with tacos al pastor at Adriana’s borther’s birthday party. He hired one of the tacos vendor to set up in his house, which can definitely lead to consuming more tacos than really necessary. Bright and early at 5am on Sunday morning, Adriana, her daughter and I, as well as another pc vol and his girlfriend, headed out on a tour to Cuetzalan. The 4^th of October (Sunday) is the saint’s day for San Francisco de Assisi, the patron saint of Cuetzalan. In honor of this, they host the Feria de Café y Huipil (Fair of coffee). The problem with going to the fair for the whole weekend is that the hotels sell out and double and triple their prices, which is how we settled on a tour. The first stop was the town of Zaxapoaxtla, in the Sierra Norte of Puebla. The town is famous for 2 things, tlayoyos (which we ate for breakfast) and it’s participation in the battle of 5 de mayo. Adriana’s grandfather is supposedly buried in the town’s cemetery, but our brief search didn’t turn up his grave.

Tlayoyos!

Mushroom season is beginning, but I’ve been warned on numerous occasions to only buy mushrooms that you can identify since evidently they end up selling poisonous mushrooms in the market.

After that we have a quick stop at a waterfall called Cascada de Olla. Probably better to have headed right to Cuetzalan, but oh well. (the tour was actually cheaper than paying roundtrip bus fare)

We finally arrived in Cuetzalan for the fair. We headed directly to the church on the town plaza. Cuetzalan is a highly indigenous municipality and on Sundays, one of the masses is given in the local indigenous language. People pour into town from the surrounding villages for mass and for the Sunday market. We entered the church without problems and found that the archbishop was there to do a year’s worth of confirmations. So as you can imagine the church was packed. In addition, all the dancers that would be dancing throughout the day were in the church….dancing in front of various saints and virgins. Getting turned out be a quite a challenge as there were other people trying to enter for the next mass and in true Mexican fashion, no one wanted to wait in either direction. I almost ended up falling down on a little tiny old woman, and felt bad about it until she clothes lined me with her forearm trying to get into the church. After that it was really everyone for themselves.

Outside the church there was a complete mixing of cultures. Catholic images from San Francisco were mixed with indigenous symbols and as the voladores flew overhead, other dancers were performing at the base of the pole.

We ate a ridiculously large comida…the regional plate that had enchiladas, tlayoyos, cecina, local mushrooms, and beans.

View from the bus on the way home.

We got back at about 9:30 on Sunday night and then on Monday, Adriana and I had a 5pm meeting in Mexico City. Arriving and the meeting went well, but our boss got a little turned around on the way home and we ended up in a semi-sketchy area. We figured asking a taxi driver would be the best idea, too bad we ended up stopping the drunkest taxi driver in Mexico City that night. We finally made it home, but it was almost midnight by the time we arrived.

Taxco and the 44th Huey Atlixcayotl

2009-09-28T05:03:00.000-07:00

After spending 6+ hours in a car on Friday to go to the Forest Expo in Mexico city (for less than 3 hours), I got up early on Saturday morning to go on my 1^st Mexican tour. Really, it was just paying for a bus transport and turned out to be a lot cheaper than paying for the round trip bus ticket. The only bad news, the bus left at 5am and we got slightly delayed when we got pulled over by police at 5:02am. I spent Saturday in Taxco (if that name sounds familiar, I’ve been there a couple of times so the name might be familiar) for some silver shopping (Saturday is the day for the wholesale silver market).

On the last Sunday in the month of September, the town of Atlixco, Puebla celebrates the Huey Atlixcayotl, the 2^nd largest dance festival in Mexico outside of Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza. The festival takes place on the Cerro (Hill) de San Miguel and coincides with the Sunday closest to the saint’s day, September 29^th. Huey Atlixcayotl means the Gran Festival de Atlixo (Altixco’s Great Festival) in náhuatl. After arriving late last year and having to stand, I left a little earlier and was able to get a seat in the 1^st row of the general admission section. The festival features dances from the 11 distinct regions of Puebla, as well as 1 invited state.

Puebla's governor was in attendance and got pulled from his seat on several occasions to dance.

So you've probably seen the following dance before, it's the voladores from the Totonacan region of Puebla and Veracruz. They probably have one of the most impressive traditions of all Mexican dances since they swing down from a pole hanging by their feet. I've seen them a couple of times, but this is the 1st time I've seen something go wrong.

It turns out that after that the voladores' pole is only put up for the festival each year. When deciding where to place the pole this year, someone clearly miscalculated the length of their ropes. Unfortunately as they we almost to the ground, they began to fly into a nearby tree. Most were ok, but the 1st on that crashed was injured and had to be taken out on a stretcher and rushed to the hospital, an unfortuante end to the 44th Huey Atlixcayotl.

Indigenous Village projects in Cuetzalan

2009-09-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

Early Tuesday morning, I went with my boss to Cuetzalan, a town in the Sierra Norte, to check on the progress of 2 projects that built more efficient wood burning stoves for indigenous women. It was quite a contrast to go up there after having just been in one of Mexico’s most modern cities the day before. After trekking up some almost-impassable roads, we finally arrived at the 1^st community. We walked between homes visiting the various stoves and kinda chatting with the women. Most did not speak Spanish, but the technician that helped build the stoves was able to translate between Nahuatl and Spanish for us. None of the houses have running water or drainage, but some have recently gotten electricity.

The town center of Cuetzalan (you’ll be seeing a lot more of these in about a week since I will be returning for Coffee Fair on the 4^th of October)

Estufa Lorena (a more efficient wood burning stove that always funnels all the smoke out of the house, so it’s healthier and more environmentally friendly)

Chicken in a fruit crate, what you can’t see in this picture is that the box is actually hanging in the middle of the room….it used to be used as a baby’s cradle

In addition to my boss and I, another guy who works free-lance with green technology and community development, had tagged along and wanted to show us the proposed spot for some cabins. The road down to the river was awful, but luckily the jeep didn’t have too many problems. Once we got to the bottom of the canyon, we walked down to the river, where the community would like to put the cabins. It was a nice site, but with the combination of fairly impassable road and nothing really going on other than a pretty river, I don’t think they would really get the tourist traffic required to maintain the cabins.

Then we went to Xaltipan to see the 2^nd stove project. The town was also in the middle of harvesting white pepper. It’s like the black pepper that was a used to in the states, but has a slightly different flavor. Every house we went into had bags and bags of pepper corns (or wheel barrows full of the ground pepper). The smell was amazing, and at the end of the visit the community gave each one of us a huge bag of pepper corns to take home.

Projects in Puebla and a Trip to Northern Mexico

2009-09-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Friday was my 1^st day going to see the new urban temporary employment program. These projects are focused in different neighborhoods around the city of Puebla and fund things like picking up trash in gullies, reforestation, painting parks, and cleaning cemeteries. Our 1^st stop was Xonacatepec where they were reforesting trees and had cleaned out a gully (that looks more like a river when it is actually raining).

Random caterpillar

One of the small reminders than an urban park in Mexico is different from an urban park in the U.S……..

Then we went to San Francisco Totimehuacan where they were painting their zocalo and had picked up trash and cut back the weeds in their local cemetery.

Early Saturday morning I flew up to Monterrey (3 hours south of the U.S. border) and took at bus to Saltillo for Ben and Blanca’s wedding. Ben is a fellow vol. The wedding was a lot of fun and ended in an after-party at the bride’s parent’s house, complete with mariachis and tacos.

Sunday afternoon we headed to Monterrey with another vol, Jake, who lives there and crashed at his place until Monday night so we could see some of Monterrey. It was super hazy when we were there, but Monterrey is a large (3^rd largest in Mexico), modern city, ringed by mountains. The city definitely has a much more modern feel than any other city I have visited in Mexico and also has a much more “American” feel (helped by the fact that you are a 3 hour drive to the U.S.).

After returning to Puebla late on Monday night, I headed to Cuetzalan early on Tuesday morning…..details to be coming in the next post.

¡Viva Puebla! ¡Viva Mexico!

2009-09-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

For independence day, we get the 16th off work, but the 15th is pretty much a free day as well. Our office stopped working at 12 to have a party and "officially" closed at 3. We ate a bunch of pozole, tostadas, flan and tequila. There was also some really bad karaoke and a lot of smashing of eggs. In Mexico, they take egg shells and fill them with confetti and then you get to smash them on people's heads.....all fun until our boss got a little to violent with them and actually made someone bleed.

Even the security guard got pulled in to sing (I was able to avoid ever taking the mic...thankfully)

After the work party, Adriana, her daughter, and I went to the fair in Cholula to see some traditional dancing (really bad lighting so no pictures) and wander around the fair to see the crafts and of course, all the food.

Then they headed to her parent's house for a family gather and I went to the zocalo in Puebla. I was in the zocalo last year as well, but there were some distinct differences this year. After the granade attacks in Morelia last year, security was super tight. There was a combination of military and police and the zocalo was completly coordined off for a block in every direction. You had to enter through a series of metal detectors manned by police and dogs. They were also confiscating all shaving cream, so this year's celebration was a lot cleaner than last year. Once inside the zocalo, things were pretty calm since it was pouring. I think with the increased security and the rain a lot of people made alternative plans. Don't get me wrong, it was still packed, but not as wall-to-wall as last year. Then at about 10:15 the governor and the municipal president appeared on the balcony, shouted Viva for a while (they name all the important people in the revolution), finally yelled Viva Puebla and Viva Mexico, and then as the national anthem played the fireworks began over the cathedral. All in all it was pretty low key, but the police and soldiers on every corner and roof top made it a little different from last year. Then, leaving the zocalo, there was of course, more food!

Vacation Continued: Back in Mexico Part 2

2009-09-10T05:09:00.000-07:00

After Tulum, we headed to Valladolid with the intentions of leaving our bags at the bus station, going to swim in some cenotes, and then catching the 2:30PM bus to Chiquila, the town where the ferries leave for Isla de Holbox. However, upon arriving in Valladolid, we found out that numerous sites on the internet and the guide book had wrongly quoted the time for the only bus to Chiquila. The only bus left at 2:45AM, not PM. Modifying our plans, we found a very cheap hotel room, ditched out stuff and made a trip to Chichen Izta. I had been to Valladolid and Chichen Izta on my last trip to the Yucatan, but Kurt had not, so it was a good chance for him to see (and taste) some of the offerings of the non-coastal areas…..starting with some cochinita pibil (pig that has been cooked in banana leaves, supposedly underground…..delicious).

To cool off after the ruins, we stopped at the Cenote Ik-kil. If anyone is headed that way, I would def recommend skipping this cenote and heading to the ones closer to Valladolid. I had visited those on my last trip, so we decided to try a different cenote, but Ik-kil it turns out, is a scheduled stop for a lot of the tours that go to Chichen Izta from Cancun, so it gets a little crowded. For those that don’t know, because of the limestone geology of the Yucatan Peninsula, there is virtually no surface water. Practically no lakes or rivers, leaving cenotes as some of the few pockets where surface water is actually found.

After swimming, we went back to Valladolid, sampled some more yucatecan food (Poc Chuc and panuchos), wandered around town and the big convent, and then slept for a couple hours before getting on the bus at 2:45AM.

We arrived in Chiquila at 5:45AM and caught the 6AM ferry to Isla de Holbox. While these were not my preferred hours, I will say seeing the sun rise from the ferry as we passed flamingos was pretty incredible. We landed on the island, dropped our stuff off at the hostel/camp ground and by 8am my boat was leaving on a whale shark tour. Seeing the whale sharks was really the whole reason for the visit to Holbox. They feed off the coast of the island from May to September every year. The whale shark is a filter feeder and can grow to be up to 40 feet long, the size of a whale, hence the name.

On our 1 hour trip over to where the whale sharks feed, we came across some other sea life including dolphins….

giant manta rays (the wing span of this one was as the same as the width of our boat)

Then we finally reached the whale sharks and started our snorkels. The govt agency that I work for, SEMARNAT, also regulates the whale shark tours. Only 2 people and the guide are allowed in the water at the same time with the whale shark. It may not look like it, but they are moving pretty fast. On one of my snorkels we swam behind it for a good while and I was definitely swimming as fast as I could to keep up with it.

This is the giant manta ray from underwater. At point during the snorkel, we were with both a whale shark and a manta ray. They both feed on the same things so it’s not uncommon to find them in the same waters.

As we headed back, we were suddenly on top of about 40 yellow manta ray.

Since it was high tide, the passage to the river was open and passable, so instead of backtracking up the coast, we returned to the island via the river/estuary where there just happen to be all sorts of birds, including flamingos. I love pelicans, they might be my favorite bird (not really sure why) and so I love this picture of the pelican running.

Back on Holbox, Kurt and I headed to the beach where we built a make shift palapa from a sheet and drift wood. While we were on the beach, this weird mushroom cloud formed behind us….

That night, AeroMexicana, the airline, was doing some promotion or contest, so there was a couple eating a dinner on the beach and then they took off in the hot air balloon. Holbox is really small and we were there during the lowest of the low season. Hence, this balloon was the most exciting thing going on that night, everyone in town hopped on their golf carts (main mode of transport on the island, they even have golf cart taxis) and headed to the beach to watch.

The view from our tent in the morning

It was the same price to camp using our small 2 person tent or to use their giant family-sized tent that was already set up……easy decision

The much utilized hammocks at the hostel/campground

Salbutes and fish empanadas before getting on the ferry

The ferry

We caught the daily bus that goes from Chiquila to Cancun and then the ferry over to Isla Mujeres. We had been lucky enough to find flights back to Puebla for almost half the cost of the bus tickets, saving us $ and 24 hours on the bus. We wanted to stay around the Cancun area since we were flying out from there, but didn’t actually want to stay in Cancun, so Isla Mujeres was our choice. It is def still touristy, but much more laid back and cheaper than Cancun (and almost empty during the low season). We found a hostel right on the beach.

We did one last snorkel tour and though there was much less diversity than we had seen in Belize, we still saw a lot of fish (credit kurt for all the underwater picts from Isla mujeres)

Sunken statue of a virgin, supposedly given by Cuba

The beach behind our hostel (also had a great beach volleyball court that we played on a fair amount)

Saturday morning before our flight we went snorkeling again on the beach just behind the hostel. This little guy followed us around for quite a while.

Squid!!

This was the view from the ferry on the way back to Cancun and the way back to reality. It was funny though, when we got on our flight, 13 people from my office were also on it as they returned from the SEMARNAT Olympics that had been held in Cancun that week. So this wraps up the summary of my last big trip here in Mexico.....

Vacation Continued: Back in Mexico Part 1

2009-09-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

After crossing back into Mexico, we arrived in Chetumal and hopped a bus to Xpujil, a small town in southern Campeche. There is really nothing to see in Xpujil. It’s a town of about 5 blocks spread along the highway, no nice church, no pretty architecture, really nothing visually appealing at all, but it is the jump off point for a series of ruins and the national park called Calakmul. Town seemed even uglier as it started to rain while we were walking around looking for a hotel and then a dog decided to bite Kurt. He was fine (although I would not have been) and we were saved from the rain when we realized that as we exited the bus station we had actually passed the only 3 hotels in town (think small and poorly marked). In the morning we set out as early as possible to get to the 3 ruins we wanted to see before the only bus of the day to Tulum at 10:30. Since there is no public transport, we negotiated with a taxi to take us. We started out a little too early and upon arriving at the first ruin, Becan, discovered the gate was still locked. However, it was easy enough to slide around and the driver assured us that it was fine, “people do it all the time”.

After Becan, we went to Chicanna, famous for its door that looks like a monster’s mouth.

Then it was on to the ruins at Xpujil, pretty much right on the edge of town.

We got back with just enough time to cool down (the theme of this trip was hot, humid, and mosquitos), finish packing, and go to the bus station…..where we proceeded to wait for 3 hours for our bus. Buses in Mexico, especially 1^st class buses generally run on time, but not this time. This was our lovely view for 3 hours.

After the slight delay, we arrived in Tulum that night and then spent the next day camped out on the amazing beach. Well first we went to the ruins that share the same name as the town. The ruins themselves aren’t that spectacular, but their location, perched on cliffs about a white sand beach with the turquoise waters of the Caribbean below is pretty incredible. (I was here on my last trip to the Yucatan so the photos might look a little familiar). Then wandered down the beach looking for some shade, but not really wanting to pay for a palapa. We were lucky enough to find a great tree on the edge of the beach and had a nice, natural, cheap palapa all to ourselves. Well, all to ourselves until we noticed the two guys in the bushes and then the cop that kept driving by on his four wheeler. I can’t complain too much though, it was still free.

The next morning we went to the ruins of Coba, about 45 min away from Tulum. Coba has the tallest pyramid in the Yucatan and is a really spread out site set around 2 lakes. I think I have finally reached my end with ruins for now. I’ve been to over 30 different sets in Mexico and I’m getting to the same point that I am with churches….there has to be something really cool and unique to capture my attention….sad, but true.

We spent the rest of the afternoon back on the white sand beach with our only purchase of the trip. Kinda weird, but for 50 pesos (less than 5 usd), how can you pass up Obama flip flops??

B E L I Z E

2009-09-07T19:17:00.001-07:00

We took off from Boston at 7am and by the end of the day were sitting on the porch of our stilted cabin in Caye Caulker enjoying the ocean view and a Belikin. Caye Caulker is a small island about a 50 min water taxi ride from Belize City. It sits on the edge of the world’s second largest barrier reef. It’s a pretty laid back island with only 1 or 2 cars (mainly just golf carts), sand streets, and an early to be early to rise rhythm since it got dark at 5:30pm (no day light savings in Belize).

Sunrise (5:30am) the first morning in Caye Caulker

It stormed for a while in the morning, but cleared in time to go snorkeling (well, cleared until it started storming again, but we were in the water at that point, so not much difference)

Out on the reef

The rain returns

Beans and rice! (not served in Mexico, though many think it is)

Sunrise the morning we left the island

After leaving Caye Caulker, we took the water taxi back to Belize City and then from the bus station caught a bus to Orange Walk. From Orange Walk, we caught another bus to Sarteneja, a small fishing town on the coast. We are spoiled with buses in Mexico, they are generally really nice and somewhat roomy. Belize however, uses old school buses that have not been updated for non-elementary school sized people. We're not really sure what happened, but while we were waiting to leave for Sarteneja, a man who was trying to run off the back of the bus was aprehended by police and placed in the back of the cop car. That started a series of slow events on our way to Sarteneja. First there was the driving rain that made it impossible to see and turned the dirt road into a river of mud. Then we had to stop to refuel....at a bar. Some guy started pouring jugs of gas into the bus while our bus driver headed inside for a few beers. 15 min later we were on our way again, slipping and sliding the rest of the way to Sarteneja.

1 random picture of Belize City

Sarteneja is a sleepy little fishing town. There's really not much going on in the town, but just up the road is a natural protected area. We arrived in the afternoon to clouds of mosquitos, quickly set up our tent and then ran to the ocean to swim (the only place without mosquitos). The plan had been to spend the next morning doing to the nature reserve, but we found out that the only buses out of Sarteneja leave at 4:30am, 5am, 5:30am, 6am, and 6:30am, so we ended up having to take the 6:30am bus out. Since it is a fishing village, the bus schedule is designed to get the fisherman from town down to Belize City and their fishing boats. After standing for the 2 hour ride, we arrived back in Orange Walk and caught a bus up to Corozal Town for a last meal of beans and rice before crossing back over into Mexico.

Quick trip to the US: Maya's Wedding

2009-09-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

After nearly 2 years away, I finally went back to the US for 4 days. The event, my little sister's wedding in Boston. Kurt and I arrived on Thursday and were able to spend a nice, relaxing night with his friends before being flung into wedding preparations on Friday, which included of all things, stringing pinwheels to be hung inside the tent on Saturday.

My aunt with the pinwheels

One stack of them

Maya making her bouquet

Saturday was the wedding. Here are some pictures from the big day, but they are mainly what I would call "detail" photos since there was a professional photographer to handle the pictures and since I was the maid of honor and couldn't really be snapping away all the time. Either way it was fun to try my hand at some wedding photos, but I def have a long way to go and a lot to learn (The photos that I am in and of Maya walking with parents were taken by Kurt)

My mom and her sisters
The cousins (minus one)

On Sunday, my friends from grad school, Julie and Kate, came down from VT. It was great to see them. Then it was 1 more day in Boston before heading to Belize and the Yucatan for some vacation (next couple posts).

La Noche que Nadie Duerme and Fería de Cecina

2009-08-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

This was another busy weekend filled with festivals and fairs. Friday night was “La Noche que Nadie Duerme” (the night that no one sleeps). I went last year, but this year several more vols decided to go as well, so I had a full house this weekend. We got to Huamantla at about 9pm as the streets were just beginning to be filled with colorful sawdust and sand designs. The idea of this night is that all the streets in the historic center of the town are filled with tapetes, or basically carpets, of colored sawdust. Eventually, around 3am, the virgin and her procession of followers, leaves the church and walks through the streets of the town, on the carpets. We didn’t stay to see the whole procession, but did visit the virgin in her church.

Partial group shot (from Jen)

On Saturday, we made a quick side trip to Cholula. I’ve already put up pictures from there a couple times, but here are some from the inside of the church that sits on top of the world’s largest pyramid.

On Sunday, after most of the group headed home, Kurt and I went to Atlixco to the Feria de Cecina. Cecina is a type of think sliced beef that is grilled and often served with lime, tortillas and salsa, and in this fair, accompanied by a plate of cheese, cactus salad, grilled chilies, and avocado.

Next weekend they are going to make the world's largest chilie enogada in Atlixco, but I will be in the US for my sister's wedding and then off to Belize and the Yucatan.