Mexico City & Good Friends

So my friends Nathan and Abby finally made it into town after an intense 16 hour drive from Merida, which is where they currently live.  What should’ve been a 16 hour drive to Mexico City took them 9 days due to multiple significant problems with their vehicle.  The ensuing repairs did not go very well either, but they have made it.  They’re resilient folk, so it was an adventure.  We’ve been having fun since they got here walking around town and exploring the landscape.  We’ve found some cool spots, including this one today from on top of a building overlooking the centro, or Zocalo:

This was at a rooftop bar that had 2 for 1 glasses of wine, making it an automatic winner for our group.  Thev views were amazing; we had a birds-eye view of the entire heart of downtown Mexico City.  There was a political rally/protest of some sort occurring today:

And now a video of us on our nice rooftop bar:

And one of the political protest we were privy to on the main square – a woman explained to us that the current president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, is not welcome in Mexico City by a majority of the populace.  They were protesting his arrival at the government offices that flank 2/4 of the zocalo:

A final shot of Abby and I right before we gave the little girl a few pesos:

I’ll sign off now with a shot Nathan took of me.   Things are a bit askew.

G’nite!

After Breakfast

After breakfast Josh and I went downtown to look for a gift for our mothers.  The cirucus happened to be showcasing their animals downtown for the upcoming show tonight.  I got some cool shots of the animals (especially when I stuck the lense through the bars):

This Bengal tiger reminded me of my dog MacGregor, who likes this particular position when relaxing:

I like this one.  Closeup facial shot.

These two are relaxing with each other just like my dogs do, except my dogs will not ever eat my face:

This is not the best shot of the jaguar, but hey – it’s a shot of a jaguar:

Another cool shot – I love these animals…they’re so awesome to look at.  I want some.  But they’d eat my face.

And here is a camel who obviously knew what I was talking about when I told it that I miss my wife Erin:

After this, I came to the internet cafe, where I sit at this very moment.  More to come later – we’re leaving for Mexico City tomorrow morning at 10am, and I have to run some errands today and get packed and ready.  My family is cooking a last hurrah meal for me tonight, which I hope I can eat.  I just have to start passing solids first.

Is that too much information?

Last Morning in Puebla, Mexico

All the students, their families, and all our professors got together this morning for a nice breakfast to say goodbye to one another. It was nice…here’s some pictures.

We had two tables because the group was really big. Here’s the other table:

And here’s a few photos of me with my Mexican mother and my professors and their son, Diego. I think I look fine in the pictures, although a chile habenero that I ate yesterday afternoon is continuing to liquefy my insides and anything I put into my stomach:

Here’s the family who served as our professors – Rosario and Antonio and their daughter Grecia. We pitched in for flowers and a pink pair of sunglasses for Grecia, who enjoys the color pink quite a bit:

And Diego, Josh, and I:

And last but not least, here is a picture of me with Karen, our trip coordinator:

If you’d like to see more breakfast pictures, you can do so here.

Quickie Post

Here’s a video of a Mexican dance theatre we attended a few nights back.  It was fun watching the traditional dances indigenous to Puebla:

Ok – g’nite!

Cholula, Mexico

We went to Cholula, a small town about 20 minutes outside of Puebla, a couple days ago. It is very pretty; there are quite a few cool little shops and multiple markets around the downtown area. The ruins there have never been fully excavated, so they are only partially visible. There is a church on the top of the pyramid that looks out over the city, and the views are great. The cacti are in bloom, and all is well:

But wait, a disturbance in the force is revealed when our tour of the pyramid begins.  Whoever built these pyramids sacrificed children between the ages of six and seven whenever there was a drought. The kids were told to tell the water god to send rain when they met him after their deaths. This is not a very nice way to treat children:

And here is the altar where these unfortunate events occurred (Andrea almost got accidentally sacrificed when she got too close):

We got outta there fast.  On a lighter note, here’s a picture of the cathedral on the top of the pyramid from the ground below:

Here’s a little video of the excavated part of the pyramid’s foundation:

And once we reached the top, here’s what we could see:

Now a couple of pictures from the top:

Some people praying next to a board full of religious tracts:

After all that climbing and sightseeing, we were hungry. A quick stop at a great little burrito restaurant yielded a 1 kilogram pile of meat that the three boys quickly took care of with the aid of some fresh tortillas, salsa, and lime. It was a nice afternoon. We all took a moment to rest afterwards:

Ok, goodbye for now. It’s time for me to leave the internet cafe. More pictures and video of Cholula can be found here, if you are so inclined.

A taste of school from Friday, July 27th

So here are a few pictures from the classroom where we get down to business every day. This one features Aaron Evans (great grandson of Bob Evans – crazy, eh?) getting his work checked by Rosario while her daughter Grecia verbally tests the rest of the class:

Here’s me with Antonio and Grecia. Antonio is Rosario’s husband; combined, they are one of the nicest families I’ve ever met:

And here are two videos. The first is in-class, the second is a short journey outside the class too see a little more of the building:

And a short journey outside the class…

Ok, that’s enough for now…gotta get to my families house for another lunch. =)

Lunchtime Olympics II

[Note: This is Part II of a previous post]

So the next day I’m up against the following:

1. Spaghetti Bolognese
2. Spiced Chicken
3. Nopales tacos – nopales are the pads from the cactus plant found on the Mexican flag. They’re very spicy and delicious. They’re eaten with pico de gallo, fresh avocado, bistec or pollo (steak or chicken), and salsa verde or rojo (or both).
4. Caesar salad
5. Fresh bread
6. Wine
7. Coffee
8. Water

Here is a quick little video illustration of the olympic area where I am involved in this training:

Could I handle it, you wonder? Must you ask? Here is how I dispatched this lineup:

1. Two heaping platefuls of spaghetti bolognese.
2. Two large legs of spiced chicken that arrived in the middle of my 2nd plate of bolognese. I carnivorously ripped the meat from the bone and divided in between three fresh tortillas, then added some pico, fresh avocado, and salsa rojo. Then straight into my belly.
3. Small break to eat half my caesar salad.
4. Rest for a moment, have some wine, ignore initial stomach distress signals.
5. Nopales tacos. Sliced fresh avocado, pico, queso, steak, and salsa. Half a lime squeezed out to cover fresh tortilla and contents with proper taste envelope and lubrication. I dispatched two of these tacos, proving yet again to my stomach that I am the boss.
6. More caesar salad. More wine. Water. Finish salad. Relax. Tell my stomach to stop whining or else I might have a piece of cake.

Did I eat more than I did yesterday? It is difficult to say, but I don’t think I ate quite as much. Another possibility is that my stomach has stretched more to accommodate the additional capacity it has been experiencing recently. Either way, I grubbed down fiercely today. And yesterday. And all the other days. You want an action shot? I thought so… (this is early in round one):

Here’s a good picture of the spread. My family thinks it is funny that I take videos and pictures of lunch. I tell them I need proof:

After all this, I wanted to take a nap. Instead, I went to the gym where we have a temporary membership and played two tennis matches, both of which I happened to win. Then to the pool for swimming races with my friend Diego, who could not believe I beat him in tennis. He is 21 years old, and swam competitively in high school. He calls his family over (our Spanish professors), as well as four of the girls who are in my class with me. He is sure he is going to take care of me quickly, and wants everyone to see it. We’re swimming freestyle, diving into the pool from the Olympic-style launching pads mounted at the edges of the pool.

I beat him. He couldn’t believe it and demanded a rematch.

I beat him again.

Then my body engaged in a total and complete coup d’État, preventing me from further competition due to physical exhaustion. We went out that night (last night), and I was falling asleep everywhere we stopped. I went home early and slept quite well. Now I’m blogging the experience, and I have lunch again one and a half hours. This is a great cycle…

My stomach wins gold in Thursday lunch event!

So almost every day when I eat lunch I seem to be able to eat slightly more than the day before. After lunch each day I think to myself “David, there is no way you can fit more food into your stomach than what you’ve just managed to fit in there.” Then, the next day, I blow that theory out of the water. I’m seeing a pattern here.

Today, however, I am positive that I cannot each more tomorrow than I ate today, a few hours ago. Will I prove myself wrong? It’s difficult to imagine. It scares me a little bit.

Here’s a coupla pics of the family over dinner; this first one is my Mexican brother Raul, who enjoys eating as much as I do:

And here is my Mexican mother Lena and her mother, Senora Blancita:

And here is a little video of the family over lunch. Lena will tell you what she prepared…

For dessert we had a glass of really great Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. Lena (who has a habit of closing her eyes in pictures) and her mother had some champagne, which reminded me of my wife Erin. She has irregular bouts with cheap champagne obsessions. I miss her. Lena’s husband Raul is standing behind Lena in this one:

After this meal 95% of the blood in my body was redeployed to my stomach for digestive duties. I was weak with satiation. For this reason I walked three miles to the internet cafe downtown, which helped immensely. I am sure I burned off any excess caloric intake from lunch need to run a marathon to burn off todays lunch.

It is 8:42pm local time and I am waiting for my friends Nathan & Abby to get into town from Merida, which is an 18 hour drive from here. I think I’ll end this post here…

Veracruz is pretty fun

Here are some photos of Veracruz: (we’re having a great time…)

From out of our hotel room:

Last night at our most excellent seafood dinner:

After dinner, the view from the road by the beach: (I love this shot…)

More later…gotta run. We’re hitting a nightclub now, apparently. Everyone is waiting for me, which I did not realize. My bad.

On The Road II

On The Road II

So we’re headed out of Puebla on our way to the gulf coast for the weekend. It’s just the students and our friend and guide, Diego. We’re on Greyhound-sized bus, but it is a luxury bus, especially when compared to Greyhound buses. It is a 3.5 hour trip to Veracruz. Our bus tickets were 280 pesos, or $28 U.S. dollars. You just can’t beat that.

This drive is a bit different than the one to Cuetzalan. Going to Cuetzalan we were driving up higher into the mountains; we are now descending to sea level from our home base of Puebla, located 7000+ feet above sea level. We seem to be winding through a series of very wide valleys on our descent, with mountains and foothills bordering the horizon on every side. My ears have popped once or twice already.

There are crops everywhere now. The land here seems to be a bit more fertile and verdant than the high mountain soil, so farmers are taking advantage. There does not seem to be a difference in the technology used to do the actual farming, though – I still am seeing many horses pulling wooden ploughshares with a lone farmer guiding the tills. It is an interesting contrast seeing this old-style farming occurring underneath giant electrical towers supporting a wide grid of power lines carrying energy to where it is needed most. It seems to me the farmer could use a little bit of that energy – that’s gotta be tiring work. It is perhaps a more interesting contrast that I am writing about this on a portable computing machine in an air conditioned traveling machine to the soundtrack of my choice on my music machine; all this machinery temporarily in the service of chronicling three or four brief seconds in the day of the farmer farming with millennia-old machinery. The technological contrast is astounding, as is the lifestyle contrast. It’d be cool to switch places with that guy for a week, then have the eighth day to meet up and talk about what it was like living for a week in the others life.

There are occasional shanty-esque towns dotting the countryside. There are homes there, but many are simply built of gray concrete block. They’re depressing to look at, quite frankly. Other structures & dwelling units rely heavily on tarps and whatever sheet metal the inhabitants can find, move, and set into a useful position. My first thought is often “These people are carving out lives for themselves in places I cannot imagine…how? Why?” The ‘why’ seems pretty circumstantial…they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got. The how seems like an essay unto itself – from what I’ve seen, it’s all about family here. People are living together with the ones they love, doing the best they can with what they have. They’re humble and accepting, and if my observations are correct, they are largely happy.

Wow…now we’re really coming down from some large mountains on either side…the road now is carved into the mountainside, providing some awesome views of the mountain range from the right side of the bus. Let me get up and see if I can sneak over to that side somehow…I’ll be right back.

My ears are popping again. We’ve been on the road now for about an hour and a half. The view is amazing right now – high, rounded mountains are very close on either side. On some of them, up very high near the top, patches of land have been farmed on steep grades. Glints of light can be seen marking the homes of whoever is up there doing the farming. I bet those families have a hard time checking their email. The vistas remind me of my current home in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains; specifically, the Morgantown area, and even more specifically, the views from on top of the mountain where my buddy Brad and I went to a music festival last year. If you’ve been through the Appalachians, you can visualize it. If you’ve been through the Rockies, just round off the jagged mountaintops and take a couple thousand feet of the height of the range. There, you’ve got a visual too. Here’s a couple of photos:

Time to close the laptop, listen to the new Haldolium album, and watch the Mexican countryside go by. Back in a few.

So I’m back. Haldolium’s new album, QNT, is interesting. It’s pretty good; if I had to slap it around with a genre-stick, I’d have to call in minimal psy-house. It’d be infinitely better if I could just remove the vocal track from songs two, three, four, eight, and nine.

We’re still going downhill. I’m sure the ride back is going to be a little bit longer. There is a long traffic jam in the two lanes going the opposite direction of us. A semi with a blown tire is jackknifed across the road; the cars behind it are at a dead stop waiting for it to clear. I wonder how many of those drivers and passengers have to pee really bad and don’t know what to do. I hate it when that happens. Does it make a case for the use of Depends undergarments as a travel tool? I don’t know – you decide.

We’re in the lowlands now, we must be getting close to Veracruz. We’re at 3:15 minutes on a 3:30 minute (mas o menos) trip. Here’s a quick hello from Josh and I (I found my headphone splitter; we’re rockin’ out).

I’m ready to eat again. It has been recommended to me a number of times from a number of independent sources that the food and prices at Mandinga’s seafood restaurant in Veracruz are excellent. The seafood there, according to my sources, is amongst the best in the province, if not the standout winner. The prices are right, too. Dinner’s gonna be yet another tasty treat…it is hard to believe how well and how much I have eaten on this trip. My esophageal muscles are totally ripped – they’re is in the best shape of their life. It is now clear to me that the past two weeks have been a complete training regimen in preparation for this seafood dinner tonight. What kind of wine will we have, I wonder? How many varieties of underwater life can I displace into my stomach? Stay tuned – these and other questions will be answered in the near future.

My battery is just about dead. It is 5:00pm EST right now. I’ll have this published as soon as I get the wireless hooked up in our hotel room. Here is one more video:

Looks like we’re rolling into Veracruz right now. Good times.

[We made it. We’ve been to the beach and to the store for supplies. 9:25pm EST]

We’re going to eat soon. I’m signing off.