Winter Break V: Misol-Ha, Agua Azul, Villahermosa, Tonina

January 1^st: We spent New Year´s Day at 2 different waterfalls, Agua Azul (blue water) and Misol-ha. Misol-ha is a super tall waterfall that you can walk behind.

Agua Azul lives up to its name and even as you drive along the highway you can see the turquoise blue water below. Agua Azul is in the middle of a heavily Zapatista area, and just after we left there were clashes between the local camesinos and the Zapatistas. The Zapatistas have set up an unofficial ticket gate where they collect money before you get to Agua Azul. Though they don’t own Agua Azul, they control the road that leads to it. Another nearby waterfall, Agua Clara, has been closed since October when the Zapatistas took over the area and the ticket booth.

January 2^nd: On the 2^nd we took a day trip to the neighboring state Tabasco and its capitol, Villahermosa. Last October the state of Tabasco suffered tremendously as 80% of the state was flooded. While damage from the flooding wasn’t widely evident, the now permanent sandbags along the river in downtown Villahermosa is a constant reminder of the tragedy that struck.

The main reason for the trip to Villahermosa was to go to a park called La Venta. There was, and still is, an archeological site called La Venta, but when oil was discovered nearby the contents of the site were threatened by the exploration and so all the major sculptures (including 3 huge Olmec heads), were moved to a park in Villahermosa. Cuatis (see picture below) were roaming the park, but amassed into a begging horde by the food stand. I’ve never seen anything like it, but at one point about 8 were all up on their hind legs begging for food that I didn’t have. On the way back, we though we were lucky and took the 3^rd and 4^th seat on the bus, the 1^st seats which give you a nice view of the road, I think that is the last time I will sit there. Unfortunately, we almost collided with a minivan that cut us off and later saw the same van flipped over on the side of the road after a dangerous curve. Maybe it’s better to sit in the back of the bus and just watch the movie.

January 3^rd: As vacation started winding down, we packed up the now humidity drenched tent and all our belongings and headed back down to San Cristobal via Ocosingo for a quick stop at our last set of ruins, Toniná, after quickly ducking back into Palenque before the bus. Toniná was different from the rest in that it was pretty much 1 solid pyramid instead of a collection of different pyramids and temples. Toniná actually defeated Palenque.

After the ruins we had our final combi ride (2.5 hours) and arrived back in San Cristobal. We bummed around San Cristobal on Sunday before returning to Puebla on an overnight bus.

Fiestas, Fiestas, Fiestas!

So after getting back from a work trip on Monday night to the way way northern part of the state (5.5hr drive), the rest of the week was pure holiday parties. Wednesday we had the union party (but everyone was invited), followed by the St. Peterburg Ballet Company's Nutcracker later that night. Thursday we had the office christmas party . Friday was my department's holiday breakfast and Friday afternoon was a birthday party.


Wednesday: Union Christmas Party. Christy modeling the bottle of tequila.

So for the office Christmas party on Thursday, each department was responsible for supplying a pinata (for those of you that don't know, the pinata is actually a Christmas tradition and traditional pinatas have 7 points, 1 for every deadly sin, so the idea is that you are actually trying to knock off the 7 deadly sins). So here is our pinata that barely fit into the car.

Our office patio during the meal....
The exchanging of mugs....


For the toast, there were bottle of hard cider (made in the northern part of the state) and in Mexico there is a tradition that who ever the cork hits is the next to marry.The Delegado taking careful aim.....
Time for the pinata (I must say that I gathered the most candy of anyone, but suffered some bleeding in the process....no pain no gain).
Pepe, the pinata handler.....
Carnage after the pinatas....

Well this will be my last post for a while as I am headed off to Chiapas and Guatemala for the Christmas holiday. Hope everyone has a great Christmas or Holidays and a very very Happy New Year. See you next year!

Dia de la Virgin Guadalupe

The Virgin Guadalupe may be the most popular religious image in Mexico. Her feast day is celebrate on the 12 of December and commemorates her appearance on a hill outside of Mexico City in 1531. Her church, the Basilica of Our Virgin Guadalupe is the 2nd most visited Roman Catholic Shrine. Thousands of pilrims make the treck to the basilica in the weeks surrounding her day. Borrowed from Wikipedia..... The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once said that "...one may no longer consider himself a Christian, but you cannot truly be considered a Mexican unless you believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe."

So I was in Queretaro for the 2nd year on this day and all the festivites take place directly around the Church of the Virgin Guadalupe. There are food stands, music, and eventually a large firework display with one of the firework towers that actually displays a flaming image of the virgin.

La Cruz Market....late night

All the vols from my group had to go back to Queretaro for our “Midservice” conference, which is basically a time right around the 1 year mark where you have a bunch of medical appointments, meetings, interviews, and Spanish classes. Basically a check-in to make sure everything is ok. It was a good chance to spend some more time in Queretaro and get back to one of my favorite places, the La Cruz market, that is a normal market during the day, but at night has a back section that is open just with food stalls.





This is one of the lanterns that are strung up everywhere for Christmas.

Zacatlan Workshops

One of the steps of the process of Ordenamiento (a land use zoning or classification, which is what I am doing most of work in) is a workshop to include participation from the municipalities and allow people that actually live in the area to give their opinion or concerns about the program. On December 3rd we had the 1st workshop for the Ordenamiento of the Necaxa-Laxaxalpan watershed in Zacatlan, Puebla. Zacatlan is in the Sierra Norte, or the norther, mountainous part of the state. We stopped for breakfast at a place with a great view of one of the canyons on the edge of Zacatlan.
The municipal palace was already decorated with piñatas for Christmas.

This is the banner for the workshop, which was heald in the municipal auditorium.

After a general introduction to the process of an ordenamiento and advances specific to the watershed, participants were broken up into groups based on the sector they were representing (agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism).
While we were in the municipal auditorium, it also kinda looked like a German beer hall with this stain glass window.