Semana Santa Vacations

With the combination of vacation days for Benito Juarez´s birthday and Holy Week for Easter, I got some time off work to travel. My mom and sister were here visiting so we headed down to Oaxaca, the capital of the state of Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a colonial city with a high level of indigenous influence and is known as the center of indigenous handicrafts in Mexico. Saturday we spent walking around the city doing the normal museums, botanic gardens, markets, and art galleries. Oaxaca is also known for their food which includes a couple different types of moles and a thing called a tlayuda which is basically a tortilla larger than a plate stuffed with any number of things from meats to cheese to veggies.

Sunday we headed for the towns of Tule, Zaachila, and Cuilpan. Tule has a very large tree (some claim it to be the largest tree in biomass in the world, but that has been proven to be false). Either way though, it is a really really big tree that is more than 14 meters in diameter and 636,107 tons.

After the big tree we caught a colectivo (or a communal taxi) to the town of Zaachila. Zaachila has a set of very small ruins, but you can actually go down into a tomb and see the sculptures of 2 vultures, a witch, and 2 kings on the walls of the tombs. Evidently there was a lot of gold and artifacts, but as with most ruins in Mexico, all the treasure ends up in Mexico City.

From Zaachila we headed to Cuilapan to see a monastery that was built in 1560, but never completed, leaving the impressive arches on the interior open to the sky since the roof was never built. Connected to this “building” was another large church which is also the site where Gurerro was executed.

Monday night we returned to Puebla and very early on Tuesday morning left for a day trip to Mexico City (more commonly referred to as DF or Distrito Federal). We visited the national palace (impressive murals inside, some done by Diego Rivera), the huge church on the zocalo, the old post office, the palace of the arts (also a site with some Diego murals including a replica of the one that was commissioned by Rockafeller in NYC, but destroyed for being to communistic), and a museum that houses one of Diego´s most famous murals: Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park (the museum was actually built just to house the mural after the original building was destroyed). We also managed to get slightly caught in the middle of a large demonstration in the zocalo over the privatization of petroleum that made the front page of the paper the next day.

Wedensday, we went to Cholula, a small town just east of Puebla that is known for its churches and is home to the world´s largest pyramid. However, by now the pyramid kinda just looks like a big grassy hill and the missionaries even mistakenly (?) built a church on top of it. However, there are a series of ruins that have been excavated and you can walk through some of the tunnels inside the pyramid.

Thursday was more ruins in Teotihuacan, about an hour north of Mexico City, and some of the largest in Mexico. The city covered more than 83 km2. The largest of the pyramids is called Pyramid of the Sun and is over 75 meters tall, making it the 3rd largest in the world (behind the one from the pervious day at Cholula and the Great Pyramid in Egypt). There is still debate as to who exactly built Teotihuacan, but it is believed to have been the Toltec or the Totonac. The name Teotihuacan was later given by the Aztecs.

That pretty much sums up the traveling over the break. The rest of it was spent in Puebla doing some important things like finally attaching my stove so that there is no gas leaking, watching the Good Friday procession, and trying to watch some Mexican wrestling.

My Mexican Apartment

I finally moved into an apartment on the 15th of Feb and it is slowly starting to look inhabited. I successfully hooked up my gas tank so there’s hot water, got a fridge, have a stove (still trying to figure out what is wrong with the gas line, so that isn’t quite functioning yet) and most of the time there is water and electricity. I’m in the process of attempting to construct all non-weight bearing furniture from fruit crates, so we’ll see how long before all that falls apart. So here’s some picts from the first night of the very empty apartment and then what it looks like now. It’s funny to move into a place with 2 bags of clothes and nothing else. My place is huge and different from what I originally wanted (was looking for something a little more historic), but it has great views from the room of the apartment building of 2 volcanoes and there is plenty of room for whoever wants to come visit!

Before…..

After….(but still a work in progress)

Monarch Butterflies

This weekend (and yes I do work during the week) I went to see the winter home for the monarch butterflies in the Monarch Reserve in the state of Michoacán (part is also in the state of Mexico). The theme of this weekend was different modes of transport. I started off Saturday morning on a city bus to Puebla’s bus station, followed by a long distance bus to one of Mexico City’s bus stations. We then used the metro to switch bus stations, hopped on another long distance bus (trip was a little longer than expected due to a flat tire) to arrive in the city of Zitacuaro in Michocán. From there we grabbed groceries for the cabin and hopped in a combi (basically a mini-bus) until we reached the state line with Mexico. From there we had to take a taxi to get to the cabins. However, we were a little late and were informed by the cab driver that he was probably the last taxi we were going to see for a while, which meant we had an interesting lesson on how to fit 9 people in 1 taxi (hence the following photo).

We finally got to the cabin, spent the night, and then headed out the next morning on horses to see the butterflies. The end of February is the best time to see them because they have recovered from their long migration and are ready to head back to the US and Canada. They mate right before they start the spring migration, the males die, and the females migrate and lay their eggs. After about 2 hours on the horses, crossing back into the state of Michocán (the butterflies tend to move a fair amount this time of year and some had already headed back), we arrived.

Literally everywhere you looked was orange with monarchs, the sky, the trees, and the ground (dead males). It sounded like it was a windy day, but the noise was actually the beating of the wings. There’s not too much that can be said about it, it’s pretty hard to describe or capture in pictures, but imagine a windy fall day where all the leaves have changed colors and are swirling in the air, but substitute butterflies for leaves.

So after the magical butterfly experience, we got to repeat the horse-taxi-combi-bus-metro-bus-bus route to return. When we got to the combi leg of the journey, the combi arrived pretty much full, but had to get back to Zitacuaro to catch the bus, so we piled in, there were people on laps with people on their laps and arms and legs everywhere.

Castro´s Beginning (kinda) and the Beach

This weekend I went to Tuxpan and Tecolutla in the state of Veracruz. Tuxpan is centered on the banks of the Río Tuxpan, and about 10 min to the Gulf of Mexico. To get across the river, there’s a bridge, or you can use the shuttle system of small boats (lanchitas) that run back and forth. On the other side of the river (opposite the center of town) is the Mexican-Cuban museum of friendship. This tiny museum marks the departure spot for Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, Guevara, and the other leaders of the Cuban Revolution as they left Mexico for Cuba in a private yacht (Granma) to begin the Revolution in Cuba. So it was an interesting coincidence to be visiting this site in the same week that Castro officially stepped down as Cuba’s leader. Tuxpan is a pretty quite town (about 200,000) and most of the economy is centered around its port and the petroleum industry.

From there we headed to the tiny town of Tecolutla on the Gulf of Mexico and the Río Tecolutla. This also happens to be the terminus of one of the watersheds that I’m working with. This beach town comes complete with hammocks on the beach and a plethora of seafood vendors with push carts right on the sand. Not too sure about the logistics of a seafood cart in hot sun, but I guess it works. Also not sure how much of the seafood you really want to eat seeing as most of the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico are fairly polluted from the petroleum industry. But all in all another good weekend in Veracruz and out of the office. Posting has been a little slow as the Mexican govt does a great job of blocking any and every website that you would actually want to go to.

La Huasteca, concrete art, and the Superbowl (Mexican style)

With a long weekend thanks to Mexican Constitution Day (Feb 5th for everyone that is keeping track of important Mexican holidays.....Benito Juarez´s birthday is next on the 21st of March), I headed up to visit some other volunteers in Ciudad Valles in the state of San Luis Potosí, only a short 12 hour overnite bus ride away. Saturday was international wetlands day so I tagged along with the volunteers and their SEMARNAT office to a cienaga (big wetland basically) in the Huasteca region for a trash clean up and small get together with the local community. This area is the heart of sugar cane production in Mexico. There are sugar can fields as far as the eye can see and the road out to the cienaga had tons of trucks laden with cut sugar cane to be processed. It’s definitely a little warmer in this area than Puebla (and much more humid). In the summers, the highest temps in Mexico have been recorded here, over 130°F…..thankfully Puebla maxs out in the 90s in the summer!

Sunday we headed to a town about 2 hours away called Xilitla, although technically we never made it into town, only to Las Pozas. Las Pozas is a hard place to describe because I’ve never quite seen anything like it. It is basically a garden of concrete structures created along a series of waterfalls and pools (poza means pool) and was constructed in the 1940s by a Brit named Edward James. A place like this would never be open to the public in the US as there are narrow staircases without railings 2 stories above the ground and all sorts of other lawsuits just waiting to happen. It’s set in lush tropical vegetation and everywhere you turn there is another strange structure, arch, gate, sculpture, or staircase just waiting to be explored. These pictures do not do it justice at all, but they give you an idea of what it was like.

We got back Sunday night just in time to watch the superbowl with Spanish commentary. The only unfortunate thing was that Mexico does not get the normal superbowl commercials….oh well. Monday I bummed around Ciudad Valles, saw a bull in a pick-up truck, explored the market, made some excellent guacamole, and then started the journey back to Puebla by heading to Tampico. Unfortunately, upon my arrival in Tampico, the bus to Puebla was sold out, no fear though there was another at 9 pm that would get me into Puebla at 6am, in time to shower and go to work, right?...wrong. Got stuck on the high way somewhere in Veracruz for quite a while so I didn’t actually get back to the bus station in Puebla until 7:30. With the gynormous line at the taxi stand, I opted for the city bus at the height of morning rush hour and arrived at my house at 8:20, to find my host mom in the shower. 5 min later and I was out the door, unshowered, but ready for a great day at the office. All well worth it for the weekend.

Many of you have asked about my apartment status. I think I now have a place and hopefully should be moving in at the end of the week, more to come on that as I get some more details.

Papantla and El Tajín

This past weekend I headed over to central Veracruz. Spent Friday night in Poza Rica, not much worth noting about this town. It’s basically a distribution point for petroleum from inland sites to the port in the city of Veracruz. But from there, headed to Papantla, a small town about 35 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico in lowland rainforest. This region is the center of vanilla growing in Mexico and jewelry, artwork, and food products from vanilla are widely available. Papantla was a nice break from the colonial architecture of central Mexico and had a cute, yet simple central plaza complete with black squirrels, a nice market, and voladores. Voladores (see video below....make take a min to load) partake in a ritual dance common to the indigenous group of the area. This basically involves 5 men climbing a large pole. One sits on top and plays a musical instrument similar to a wooden flute while the others swing around in a circle as they descend to the ground.

Also close to Papantla, are the ruins of El Tajín. The main pyramid is known for its windows, of which there are 365. Set in humid rainforest with palm trees and nice green vegetation (a sight that is lacking in Puebla since it´s the dry season), these ruins are by far my favorite so far in Mexico.

Puebla

I’m officially in Puebla and have been working for about 3 weeks. I work SERMARNAT (the secretary for natural resources and the environment) which is an entity of the federal government. My job over the next two years is to assist with the management of two large watersheds in the state of Puebla. One, Alto Atoyac (about 5,000 km2), includes the city of Puebla as well as other parts of the state and the state of Tlaxcala. The end point of this watershed is a highly contaminated reservoir about 30 min outside Puebla. The main contamination issues in this watershed are from untreated sewage and industrial discharge. Ultimately the rivers in this watershed join with others and flow into the Pacific Ocean. On the other side of the continental divide, I´ll be working with the Necaxa-Laxaxalpan watershed that flows into the Gulf of Mexico in the state of Veracruz. The majority of the section I will be working with is located in the Sierra Norte, or the northern section of the state of Puebla (much of which is cloud forest), but also some parts within the states of Tlaxcala, Hidalgo, and Veracruz. This watershed, while still contaminated from untreated sewage, is much more rural and has more impacts caused by agriculture and intensive livestock grazing. Basically my job will be to coordinate all the other federal agencies that fall under SEMARNAT (things like the national commission for water, and the equivalents of the forest and national park services) as well as state and municipal governments in the management of the two watersheds.

One of my other jobs is to organize a conference on natural disaster preparedness. At first I figured this would be flood risks since my background is in water resources, but I have since come to find out it is actually going to be about volcanic risks since Puebla and the surrounding municipalities are situated near several volcanoes (Malintzin, Popocatèpetl, Iztaccìhuatl). So that should be right up my area of expertise.

I’m currently apartment hunting and think I may have found a place. Looking here is a little different than searching in the state for several reasons. First, you pretty much have to walk around and look for signs on buildings. For the most part, most apartments don´t come with anything so you have to get a refrigerator (think dorm size) and a stove (lucky if you can get one with an oven). I’m looking in the historic center of Puebla which presents some other obstacles. There are no closets in any of the apartments and the bathrooms are usually a tiny room in which everything gets wet since there’s no space or real reason to have a shower curtain. My two favorites right now are in the same building. One, is two rooms and has 2 balconies that overlook the street. It has 15 foot ceilings with exposed wood beams, tiled floors, and is in a nice old historic building with an interior courtyard. (plus its like 2x the size of my apartment in Vermont). Sounds great right? Well, the thing is that right now there’s no shower, so the landlord is looking into the logistics of putting one in. If that happens I’ll definitely take it, but it still is lacking one other little thing…a kitchen sink. Fortunately, with a combination of plastic wash tub in the apartment and the communal area to hand-wash your clothes, this shouldn’t be too big of an issue and is overshadowed by the two balconies. So we´ll see. If not I´ll take the one big room in the same building that has a balcony that overlooks the interior courtyard.

I´ve been living with a host family for the last month and one of the rules of the house is that I have to wash my socks and underwear by hand and hang them out to dry on the clothesline. I mention this because I think many of you would laugh at the image of me hunched over a wash board scrubbing and wring out my underwear. Good news is my possible new apartment has the same washboards and washtubs so I can continue that tradition if I want to.

Geography Lesson

Here's a little Google Earth visual in case you were starting to wonder exactly where in Mexico all the places mentioned in my blog actually are....

My favorite word.....Vacation

We had a little free time in between swearing and the end of training and our start dates for work. I traveled with a friend from the states for about 10 days in the central region of Mexico to Zacatecas, Morelia, and Pátzcuaro.

Zacatecas

Zacatecas is another colonial city of Mexico located in the state of Zacatecas, about 6 hours northwest of Queretaro. While the city is surrounded by barren semi-arid lands, the city itself is a great example of colonial architecture and has what is considered the best example of a baroque cathedral in Mexico. Originally, Zacatecas was established around the large silver mine (which I did go down into, but is no longer functioning and most is flooded). Built in a valley, the surrounding hillsides offer great views of the city and its many churches. One of the museums in town has one of the best private art collections I have even seen and included works from around the world and by artists such as Miró, Dali, Chagall, Picasso, and Goya.

About 40km outside of town, there are Aztec (actual origin is still disputed) ruins dating from 500AD called La Quemada (nickname means the burned and reflects the fiery end that the building met at the hands of the Spaniards). Getting there involved convincing a 2^nd class bus to drop us at the nearest road crossing (literally in the middle of nowhere as you can see from the pictures) and then walking about 3km to the ruins and then hoping that you could flag down a bus on the way back even though it was Christmas Eve. We did make it back and spent Christmas Eve with one of my PC friends on the top of our hostel overlooking the cathedral.

Morelia

After 9.5 hours on a bus, we finally arrived in Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacán, another colonial city. Here we did the normal looking at churches, plazas, and government buildings, but also had the chance to go to a tiny natural history museum that had the strangest collection of Siamese twin animals and deformed fetuses (no worries I’m not including the picts that I took of those). Morelia also has a fairly large market designated almost entirely to sweets which the state is famous for.

Pátzcuaro

Pátzcuaro is a small town about an hour’s bus ride from Morelia. The town is near a lake (Lago de Pátzcuaro) and many of the residents of the area are Purépecha ( type of indigenous people). Just outside of town is a fairly large hill that offers good views of the town, lake, and islands on the lake. We took a small boat out to one of the islands (Isla Janitzio) that has a huge statue of Morelos on the highest point. One the second day, we visited two other small villages (Tzintzuntzan and Ihuatzio) near the lake that have Tarascan ruins. This town and surrounding areas might be one of my favorite places that I’ve visited in Mexico so far.

Pátzcuaro also had a huge market for such a small town that featured a lot of fish from the lake (which is highly polluted), a huge raw pig’s head, and chicks that were dyed and wearing football helmets.

I spent new years eve in Queretaro, where surprise surprise there were more fireworks. I really don’t think that I have been in Mexico a single day without hearing a firework. I’m currently in Puebla and about to finally start working. More about Puebla and all that in a later post……

I did manage to get one picture from the swearing in ceremony so here’s a group shot (for the most part, I think one got cut out).

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!