I am back in Puebla having successfully survived my Oaxaca adventure.
Last night it poured with rain so I stayed in and watched "Che" with two english girls also staying at my hostel. It was cool to see it since we just finished studying the Cuban revolution in my Latin American politics and history class. As a movie I think it could have been done better, but I liked it.
Today I didn't do too much. I walked around and bought a couple of souvenirs. I also went to this nice little park where there was this public collective dance/exercise class thing. It was funny and led by this guy wearing super tight lycra pants and a matching tank top.
I went back to the banana smoothie place, too. So good! There was a couple from San Francisco and a woman from Texas there and I talked to them a little. They were all really nice even though two of them were wearing Keens (ew).
When I got home I also found out that we got wireless in our house over the weekend. No more sitting on the curb! As Regina said, we now never have to leave our room again, haha.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Oaxaca Part 2
Today I thought of this Salvadoran guy who Destiny and I met in Chacaua who accidently called Oaxaca ¨Oacaca¨ and I laughed to myself. Just a little funny moment from my day.
Anyway, Oaxaca has continued to be excellent. Last night I hung out with this German guy I met at my hostel and we spoke three languages at the same time! It was cool because usually when I speak German now it hurts my brain and I say spanish words on accident, but it didn´t matter yesterday because that was kind of the point. Anyway, we had fun and talked about a lot of interesting things from our travels.
Today I went on a tour of the ethnobotanical garden which was sweet. It´s huge and beautiful and my tour guide was really cool and nice. It´s kind of sad how my perception of Puebla as the unfriendliest place in Mexico gets reverified every time I leave.
After the garden I went to this place called Hierva de Agua and it was quite the adventure. I had to walk really far to the second class bus station which was the sketchiest place on earth! And the bus was so rickety and funny. I took the bus from there to Mitla which took about an hour, and then I had to take a little truck through the mountains to Hierva de Agua. The truck driver was really nice and he stopped on the way to buy me a popsicle! It was my first ever papaya flavored popsicle, too and it was delicious. The mountains are beautiful and Hierva de Agua is tucked away in them. It is this natural bubbling mineral springs that form these mineral deposit waterfalls and you can swim in them. It was really cool and the truck driver showed me the way to hike all around them. The only dissapointment was that it started pouring with rain and I couldn´t go swimming. I didn´t have a real swimming suit anyway, though so it was fine.
When I got back to Oaxaca it was dry but on my way back to my hostel it started pouring again! I started talking with this guy on the street, though and we decided to go in a coffee shop to wait for it to calm down. It turns out he was waiting for is friend who is an american girl and they and some of their other friends are a part of this program where english and spanish speakers get together to teach each other the languages. They invited me out with them tonight, but it is still raining so I don´t think I´ll go.
Tomorrow it´s back to Puebla :(
Amazing pictures to come...!
Anyway, Oaxaca has continued to be excellent. Last night I hung out with this German guy I met at my hostel and we spoke three languages at the same time! It was cool because usually when I speak German now it hurts my brain and I say spanish words on accident, but it didn´t matter yesterday because that was kind of the point. Anyway, we had fun and talked about a lot of interesting things from our travels.
Today I went on a tour of the ethnobotanical garden which was sweet. It´s huge and beautiful and my tour guide was really cool and nice. It´s kind of sad how my perception of Puebla as the unfriendliest place in Mexico gets reverified every time I leave.
After the garden I went to this place called Hierva de Agua and it was quite the adventure. I had to walk really far to the second class bus station which was the sketchiest place on earth! And the bus was so rickety and funny. I took the bus from there to Mitla which took about an hour, and then I had to take a little truck through the mountains to Hierva de Agua. The truck driver was really nice and he stopped on the way to buy me a popsicle! It was my first ever papaya flavored popsicle, too and it was delicious. The mountains are beautiful and Hierva de Agua is tucked away in them. It is this natural bubbling mineral springs that form these mineral deposit waterfalls and you can swim in them. It was really cool and the truck driver showed me the way to hike all around them. The only dissapointment was that it started pouring with rain and I couldn´t go swimming. I didn´t have a real swimming suit anyway, though so it was fine.
When I got back to Oaxaca it was dry but on my way back to my hostel it started pouring again! I started talking with this guy on the street, though and we decided to go in a coffee shop to wait for it to calm down. It turns out he was waiting for is friend who is an american girl and they and some of their other friends are a part of this program where english and spanish speakers get together to teach each other the languages. They invited me out with them tonight, but it is still raining so I don´t think I´ll go.
Tomorrow it´s back to Puebla :(
Amazing pictures to come...!
Friday, May 15, 2009
Oaxaca Part 1
I arrived in Oaxaca last night, a city that has been talked up like crazy by everyone I´ve asked about it. Anyway, it seems to be living up to its rep so far.
Tourism is really low right now because of the flu so there are less organized activities through hotels and hostels. I think it´s a good thing though because it´s forcing me to figure out how to get places on my own. Today I went to some huge ruins that were really impressive and not too badly destroyed. I met an australian girl on the bus there and walked around it with her. We went inside a tomb and I scratched my back really bad getting out of it which made me very superstitious (actually we were pretty scared before that if I´m honest). Anyway, it was fun and I got a terrible sunburn. What was I thinking?! My tissue paper skin really failed me and now I have a bright red nose and bright red shoulders. Lame. Oh well.
After the ruins I went to the contemporary art museum of Oaxaca which was pretty cool. I think I was art starved because I was instantly in an excellent mood when I got there. It had a big collection and a cool mixture of oaxacan, mexican, and international contemporary art. I really enjoy when museums showcase local artists and their collection was pretty cool. I did not like how a lot of it was hung though; they should employ a new curator.
I ate at such a cool cafe this afternoon where I had a delicious vegetarian sandwhich and a banana smoothie. I kind of felt like I was in a Seattle cafe but with better avacado. Luckily the food energized me for the Oaxaca center of photography. It was so cool! It´s a pretty small place with only 6 or so rooms of photographs, but I actually kind of like small exhibits. The stuff that is up right now is really awesome and I´m thinking about going back before I leave.
Well, I think I am going to head off to another museum and probably scope out some more delicious food.
My skin hurts so bad!
Tourism is really low right now because of the flu so there are less organized activities through hotels and hostels. I think it´s a good thing though because it´s forcing me to figure out how to get places on my own. Today I went to some huge ruins that were really impressive and not too badly destroyed. I met an australian girl on the bus there and walked around it with her. We went inside a tomb and I scratched my back really bad getting out of it which made me very superstitious (actually we were pretty scared before that if I´m honest). Anyway, it was fun and I got a terrible sunburn. What was I thinking?! My tissue paper skin really failed me and now I have a bright red nose and bright red shoulders. Lame. Oh well.
After the ruins I went to the contemporary art museum of Oaxaca which was pretty cool. I think I was art starved because I was instantly in an excellent mood when I got there. It had a big collection and a cool mixture of oaxacan, mexican, and international contemporary art. I really enjoy when museums showcase local artists and their collection was pretty cool. I did not like how a lot of it was hung though; they should employ a new curator.
I ate at such a cool cafe this afternoon where I had a delicious vegetarian sandwhich and a banana smoothie. I kind of felt like I was in a Seattle cafe but with better avacado. Luckily the food energized me for the Oaxaca center of photography. It was so cool! It´s a pretty small place with only 6 or so rooms of photographs, but I actually kind of like small exhibits. The stuff that is up right now is really awesome and I´m thinking about going back before I leave.
Well, I think I am going to head off to another museum and probably scope out some more delicious food.
My skin hurts so bad!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Mexico City
Paddle Boat!
Francisco's barrio
The most important moon of the year, or so we're told.
Sculpture jungle, site of much dehydration
The last picture before the camera died, right before we broke into the national reserve desert. Still kickin it in the sculpture jungle with my 35 peso sunglasses that Regina picked out for me.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Mexico City, The Success
I ventured back to Mexico City this weekend with Regina and Destiny to make up for the previous swine flue induced failure, and what a success it was.
We stayed with some of our friends there in two different really cool neighborhoods one of which, Santo Domingo, is either the biggest or one of the biggest neighborhoods in latin america. It is really colorful, has an interesting history, and has a big student population as it is right next to the biggest university in Mexico City. It reminded me a little bit of some parts of San Francisco, but Regina says its more down to earth and I agree. Our friends took us to a big fiesta in the street that the barrio was having for a quincenera (a girl's 15th bday). Everyone was there from babies to old people just dancing and having a good time; there was a stage set up in the street with a live band, chairs on the sidewalks, and the street was full of people. It was really fun, but I wish I had known how to dance the cumbia as that seemed to be the dance of the evening.
We did so much other cool stuff, too! We went to a giant sculpture park that is nothing like the seattle sculpture park. It is much bigger with tons of huge sculptures and it is way more wild nature and you actually have to hike and climb through it. There is a giant sculpture of a snake that weaves through the other sculptures that you can walk on, too and it is raised about 5-10 feet of the ground depending on the spot. After we went there we hopped the fence into this national reserve desert with a huge soccer field sized abstract volcano sculpture thing. The middle of it is a huge pit/bowl full of actual dried lava that is there from when a volcano really exploded on the area and on the outside there are a series of huge triangles all the way around that form the outside of the volcano.
We also went to an antique market, rented a pedal boat in the gross lake at Chapultepec (Mexico City's version of Central Park), bought food at cool little shops in Santo Domingo, and cooked/mostly ate food that was cooked for us with our friends. Our friends were really good hosts. Two of them are students and the other one recently finished studying and they are in a reggae band together with some other people. It definitely wouldn't have been the same without them (nor would we have saved as much money sleeping for free and cooking). We didn't do very much of the tourist stuff and I still haven't seen any of the art museums, frieda's house, or the pyramids at Teotihuacan, but we never would have gotten to see the things we did if we hadn't been for our friends and we're going back one more time right before we go home so I can see that stuff then. It's really interesting how varied your experience of one place can be, especially somewhere as huge as Mexico City. It has so much to discover!
Well, our one failure was me forgetting my camera on Saturday at our friend's apartment and not being able to get it back until right before we went home since we stayed with our other friend that night and Regina's camera running out of batteries at the beginning of our sculpture park adventure. We have some pictures though, so I'll post them tomorrow.
We stayed with some of our friends there in two different really cool neighborhoods one of which, Santo Domingo, is either the biggest or one of the biggest neighborhoods in latin america. It is really colorful, has an interesting history, and has a big student population as it is right next to the biggest university in Mexico City. It reminded me a little bit of some parts of San Francisco, but Regina says its more down to earth and I agree. Our friends took us to a big fiesta in the street that the barrio was having for a quincenera (a girl's 15th bday). Everyone was there from babies to old people just dancing and having a good time; there was a stage set up in the street with a live band, chairs on the sidewalks, and the street was full of people. It was really fun, but I wish I had known how to dance the cumbia as that seemed to be the dance of the evening.
We did so much other cool stuff, too! We went to a giant sculpture park that is nothing like the seattle sculpture park. It is much bigger with tons of huge sculptures and it is way more wild nature and you actually have to hike and climb through it. There is a giant sculpture of a snake that weaves through the other sculptures that you can walk on, too and it is raised about 5-10 feet of the ground depending on the spot. After we went there we hopped the fence into this national reserve desert with a huge soccer field sized abstract volcano sculpture thing. The middle of it is a huge pit/bowl full of actual dried lava that is there from when a volcano really exploded on the area and on the outside there are a series of huge triangles all the way around that form the outside of the volcano.
We also went to an antique market, rented a pedal boat in the gross lake at Chapultepec (Mexico City's version of Central Park), bought food at cool little shops in Santo Domingo, and cooked/mostly ate food that was cooked for us with our friends. Our friends were really good hosts. Two of them are students and the other one recently finished studying and they are in a reggae band together with some other people. It definitely wouldn't have been the same without them (nor would we have saved as much money sleeping for free and cooking). We didn't do very much of the tourist stuff and I still haven't seen any of the art museums, frieda's house, or the pyramids at Teotihuacan, but we never would have gotten to see the things we did if we hadn't been for our friends and we're going back one more time right before we go home so I can see that stuff then. It's really interesting how varied your experience of one place can be, especially somewhere as huge as Mexico City. It has so much to discover!
Well, our one failure was me forgetting my camera on Saturday at our friend's apartment and not being able to get it back until right before we went home since we stayed with our other friend that night and Regina's camera running out of batteries at the beginning of our sculpture park adventure. We have some pictures though, so I'll post them tomorrow.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Weekend
So, due to the flu and SU's overreaction to it we were forbidden from leaving Puebla this weekend. Even though we do not like Puebla or being quarantined, we decided it would be best to obey. So this is what we did in Puebla this weekend.
We are not in Acapulco in these pictures.
We are not in Acapulco in these pictures.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
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