Lucky you. I'm spending my last two nights in Cuernavaca with friends who have TWO laptop computers and wireless access. Watch for many new photos and posts! Meanwhile click here to see my little album called "Getting to School in Cuernavaca."
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Three-Day Weekend
Today is the holiday celebrating the birthday of Benito Juarez. I misled you in my last post; it's Emilio Zapata who is from Morelos, not Juarez. Juarez is from Oaxaca and was Mexico's only indigenous president.
Tepoztlán
Saturday I took a local bus to the town of Tepoztlán, about 20 miles and 40 minutes away. In this charming town there is an old Aztec temple called El Tepozteco that is dedicated to Ometochtli Tepoztécal, a tepozteco god of corn, good harvests, fertility, and good times. To reach the temple means climbing thousands of steps up a steep, steep bluff. It was exhausting and hot, and a challenge for everyone else on the trail. Safety precautions are not common in Mexico, but then neither are lawsuits. It's up to you, not the government, to take care of yourself. However, at the beginning of THIS trail was a sign that said, roughly, if you have had a heart attack or are prone to them, please don't take this trail.
I could see why. I was surrounded by children from a school in the state in Guerrero, and not all of them were happy to be working so hard. Their teacher kept yelling encouraging things like "Sí, se puede!" (yes, you can) and "Somos de guerreros, somos guerreros!" (We are from the state of guerreros, and we are warriors! because "guerrero" means warrior) They all made it, and so did I, after 45 minutes of climbing, resting, climbing, resting climbing. At the very top was a black cross commemorating someone who either had that heart attack upon reaching the summit, or chose that moment to fall off the narrow stone steps into a chasm. Oh well.
The view was outstanding. You could look straight down at Tepoztlán, or back across the valley at Cuernavaca, or up at the surrounding bluffs. The temple itself is quite small and most of its decorative stone has been removed, but it's a popular climb for people all over Mexico. Hundreds, in various states of fitness, were climbing, including some in running clothes who were obviously training for some ungodly event.
I had a lovely lunch with a woman from another language school in Cuernavaca, one that is apparently quite posh and caters to Mormons. We had beer and guacamole on a lovely terrace in a lush garden before walking back into town, where I went to the cathedral and the ex-convent. The gate features an intricate mosaic of corn and seeds, a la the Corn Palace. The convent is one of 11 in the state of Morelos that are UNESCO World Heritage sites, all built between 1523 and 1550 or so to house friars who came to convert the locals, who also had to buidl these structures and their accompanying cathedrals. One interesting feature is that many, like the cathedral in Cuernavaca, have outdoor chapels, because the new indigenous Christians weren't used to holding ceremonies indoors.
The highlight of the trip was ice cream at Tepoznieves, perhaps the most beautiful ice cream store I've ever been in. Turns out that the priests up at Tepozteco included in their rituals "nieve" or snow from the volcano Pococatéptel and flavored with maguey and other plants and fruits. This eventually became many flavors of ice cream and sherbet and this chain of ice cream is all over it. Click here to visit their site and see a picture of the temple.
Birthday and Baptism Party
Following my outing I showered, changed and went to a party down the street from my Mexican family's home. The hosts are the other grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of Angeles and Fernando's son's children. I was seated at a table and served a plate of meat, rice, beans and tortillas and a beer. There was Corona everywhere, and old people, young people, children in costumes (the party had a Peter Pan theme, and the baptized baby was wearing a Tinkerbell outfit), and babies being passed from one person to another. When I arrived at 7:45, the DJ was just getting to work. Outside on the terrace, speakers were stacked about 10 feet high and accompanied by ranks of colored flashing lights and a smoke machine. Once the dj got to work, the noise level was squared, or cubed, or increased by some large mathematical amount, so the walls and the floor truly were shaking. Cake was served. New, unopened bottles of tequila were distributed to each table. My "parents" Angeles and Fernando arrived and started eating. More people kept arriving. More food was consumed, all of it I think cooked back in the kitchen, because I could see enormous stainless steel pots lined up there.
When we left about 9:45, things were just getting going. Back up at our house, it was still loud, and across the barranca or ravine, another house was having a big party. Everyone was having a good time on this Saturday night in the Buena Vista section of Cuernavaca, but I kept worrying about those mariachis I saw the other day, sitting along the plaza waiting for work. Are DJs replacing them? Angeles and Fernando assured me that they have plenty of work, and are quite expensive. I guess you might have the mariachis for an hour or so, and then switch to the DJ.
Járdin Borda
Sunday morning I went downtown to this lovely 18th century garden, built for the man who owned all the silver mines in Taxco and eventually taken over by the French emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta as a vacation home. It's a lovely spot and on Sundays it is free, so many locals and visitors were present. (Lots of people from Mexico City come to Cuernavaca on the weekends.) In the rose garden was a really cool installation of paintings and sculptures representing the Virgin of Guadalupe. I took lots of photos and will post them soon. This was a lovely quiet morning after the excesses of Saturday night. Click here for a couple photos of the ponds and rowboats in the garden.
Bus tickets and Internet
Which brings us to Monday. Many things are closed but the woman at the travel agency that works with my school said she would be there after 11 or so. I´m trying to buy a bus ticket from Puebla to Oaxaca, where I will stay for a few days, and then from Oaxaca to Tapachula, on the Mexico-Guatemala border, and then I hope the TicaBus (run by "Ticas" or Costa Ricans) from the border to Guatemala City, where I can take a shuttle to Antigua, my next long stay. But this is my second attempt at buying the ticket, cuz she wasn't around last week. Otherwise I am staying home today ( after this interlude at the Internet cafe) and studying, studying, studying.
I have one week left in Cuernavaca. It has been a good stay, although my Spanish has been taking 2 steps back as I focus intently on some of my thorniest grammatical problems. Okay, more later. I have to go try to buy that ticket now!
Tepoztlán
Saturday I took a local bus to the town of Tepoztlán, about 20 miles and 40 minutes away. In this charming town there is an old Aztec temple called El Tepozteco that is dedicated to Ometochtli Tepoztécal, a tepozteco god of corn, good harvests, fertility, and good times. To reach the temple means climbing thousands of steps up a steep, steep bluff. It was exhausting and hot, and a challenge for everyone else on the trail. Safety precautions are not common in Mexico, but then neither are lawsuits. It's up to you, not the government, to take care of yourself. However, at the beginning of THIS trail was a sign that said, roughly, if you have had a heart attack or are prone to them, please don't take this trail.
I could see why. I was surrounded by children from a school in the state in Guerrero, and not all of them were happy to be working so hard. Their teacher kept yelling encouraging things like "Sí, se puede!" (yes, you can) and "Somos de guerreros, somos guerreros!" (We are from the state of guerreros, and we are warriors! because "guerrero" means warrior) They all made it, and so did I, after 45 minutes of climbing, resting, climbing, resting climbing. At the very top was a black cross commemorating someone who either had that heart attack upon reaching the summit, or chose that moment to fall off the narrow stone steps into a chasm. Oh well.
The view was outstanding. You could look straight down at Tepoztlán, or back across the valley at Cuernavaca, or up at the surrounding bluffs. The temple itself is quite small and most of its decorative stone has been removed, but it's a popular climb for people all over Mexico. Hundreds, in various states of fitness, were climbing, including some in running clothes who were obviously training for some ungodly event.
I had a lovely lunch with a woman from another language school in Cuernavaca, one that is apparently quite posh and caters to Mormons. We had beer and guacamole on a lovely terrace in a lush garden before walking back into town, where I went to the cathedral and the ex-convent. The gate features an intricate mosaic of corn and seeds, a la the Corn Palace. The convent is one of 11 in the state of Morelos that are UNESCO World Heritage sites, all built between 1523 and 1550 or so to house friars who came to convert the locals, who also had to buidl these structures and their accompanying cathedrals. One interesting feature is that many, like the cathedral in Cuernavaca, have outdoor chapels, because the new indigenous Christians weren't used to holding ceremonies indoors.
The highlight of the trip was ice cream at Tepoznieves, perhaps the most beautiful ice cream store I've ever been in. Turns out that the priests up at Tepozteco included in their rituals "nieve" or snow from the volcano Pococatéptel and flavored with maguey and other plants and fruits. This eventually became many flavors of ice cream and sherbet and this chain of ice cream is all over it. Click here to visit their site and see a picture of the temple.
Birthday and Baptism Party
Following my outing I showered, changed and went to a party down the street from my Mexican family's home. The hosts are the other grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins of Angeles and Fernando's son's children. I was seated at a table and served a plate of meat, rice, beans and tortillas and a beer. There was Corona everywhere, and old people, young people, children in costumes (the party had a Peter Pan theme, and the baptized baby was wearing a Tinkerbell outfit), and babies being passed from one person to another. When I arrived at 7:45, the DJ was just getting to work. Outside on the terrace, speakers were stacked about 10 feet high and accompanied by ranks of colored flashing lights and a smoke machine. Once the dj got to work, the noise level was squared, or cubed, or increased by some large mathematical amount, so the walls and the floor truly were shaking. Cake was served. New, unopened bottles of tequila were distributed to each table. My "parents" Angeles and Fernando arrived and started eating. More people kept arriving. More food was consumed, all of it I think cooked back in the kitchen, because I could see enormous stainless steel pots lined up there.
When we left about 9:45, things were just getting going. Back up at our house, it was still loud, and across the barranca or ravine, another house was having a big party. Everyone was having a good time on this Saturday night in the Buena Vista section of Cuernavaca, but I kept worrying about those mariachis I saw the other day, sitting along the plaza waiting for work. Are DJs replacing them? Angeles and Fernando assured me that they have plenty of work, and are quite expensive. I guess you might have the mariachis for an hour or so, and then switch to the DJ.
Járdin Borda
Sunday morning I went downtown to this lovely 18th century garden, built for the man who owned all the silver mines in Taxco and eventually taken over by the French emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlotta as a vacation home. It's a lovely spot and on Sundays it is free, so many locals and visitors were present. (Lots of people from Mexico City come to Cuernavaca on the weekends.) In the rose garden was a really cool installation of paintings and sculptures representing the Virgin of Guadalupe. I took lots of photos and will post them soon. This was a lovely quiet morning after the excesses of Saturday night. Click here for a couple photos of the ponds and rowboats in the garden.
Bus tickets and Internet
Which brings us to Monday. Many things are closed but the woman at the travel agency that works with my school said she would be there after 11 or so. I´m trying to buy a bus ticket from Puebla to Oaxaca, where I will stay for a few days, and then from Oaxaca to Tapachula, on the Mexico-Guatemala border, and then I hope the TicaBus (run by "Ticas" or Costa Ricans) from the border to Guatemala City, where I can take a shuttle to Antigua, my next long stay. But this is my second attempt at buying the ticket, cuz she wasn't around last week. Otherwise I am staying home today ( after this interlude at the Internet cafe) and studying, studying, studying.
I have one week left in Cuernavaca. It has been a good stay, although my Spanish has been taking 2 steps back as I focus intently on some of my thorniest grammatical problems. Okay, more later. I have to go try to buy that ticket now!
Friday, March 12, 2010
Why you should never use a web translation program
My hosts in Cuba sent me a perfectly lovely thank you note in Spanish...and then used a web program to try to translate the letter into English, with these unfortunate results:
Lover and dear Anne, above all receive the whole affection that you wins of each one of us. He/she was waiting to that arrived to their home to write him and to know as it was him the return trip.
We are well, we return to the Island on Thursday 25 and we are already preparing again trip for the Havana where we will participate of the General Assembly of the Council of Churches of Cuba, in this opportunity there will be general elections.
We will be so soon in contact it arrives from the Havana; I leave tomorrow March 2 and return March 6. When he/she returns I will begin sending him historical information and biografica.La he/she wants and it estimates.
Is the moral clear?
Lover and dear Anne, above all receive the whole affection that you wins of each one of us. He/she was waiting to that arrived to their home to write him and to know as it was him the return trip.
We are well, we return to the Island on Thursday 25 and we are already preparing again trip for the Havana where we will participate of the General Assembly of the Council of Churches of Cuba, in this opportunity there will be general elections.
We will be so soon in contact it arrives from the Havana; I leave tomorrow March 2 and return March 6. When he/she returns I will begin sending him historical information and biografica.La he/she wants and it estimates.
Is the moral clear?
Obeying a mandate from Alex
Alex sent me this note the other day:
Mom,
Don't get too frustrated with technology. Just show us what Mexico is like in words! Your camera will come around....Plus, if you're having a great time but all we at the blog hear is how bad a time you are having with blogging, you're misrepresenting your trip!
Just write about it,
Alex
I'm struggling with technology, but I'm not having a bad time. Today I will just write about it.
Today I'm sitting at an Internet cafe just off the zócalo or main square of Cuernavaca. Across the street, along the perimeter of the square, two dozen mariachis are lounging in full dress, smoking, texting, strumming their guitars. It's Friday evening on the corner where you come to hire a mariachi for a party or a wedding!
I'm loitering, too, waiting for the woman from a recommended travel agency to return so I can purchase my bus ticket from Puebla to Oaxaca and Tapachula, the border town where I'll have to find myself a bus to Antigua, Guatemala. This leg of my journey is two weeks from now, but travelers always have one eye on the future. Next Thursday the 19th, for instance, I move from my host family to the home of Andrea and Luke Roske-Metcalfe, ELCA colleagues who live and work here supervising our young adult volunteer program. How to get my big suitcase from my current home to my new one before school starts and without using the local bus (not built for big suitcases) is one concern. Getting to Mexico City with them a few days later will be a cinch, but how to get back from the D.F. (the Distrito Federal, or Mexico City - like our D.C.) to Cuernavaca on the 24th is another concern (a ride with someone I know? another bus?) and then on the 25th what time to take that long bus ride to Oaxaca...and on and on and on. This continual need to plan ahead, especially in an unfamiliar place and culture, makes it hard to "be here now."
Just to recap my journey so far, I was in Cuba from February 19 to 24, and after one night in Miami arrived in Cuernavaca on February 25 for three weeks of language study. Because all of this had been arranged in advance, I had a nice, soft, logistics-free landing. Those plans expire March 19, leaving almost five weeks to plan until April 21, when I get four nice, be-here-now nights at my friend Steve Broin´s Casa Sirena on Isla Mujeres. (Speaking of mariachis, if you click on the "Casa Sirena" link and then click "guest book" you'll see me being serenaded by mariachis on my 50th birthday.) That's where Mexico City; Oaxaca; Antigua, Guatemala (another language school--anyone have any recommendations?); San Cristobal de las Casas; Merida; and Vallodilad may all play a role. That's what I'm pinning down.
Meanwhile, school is going swimmingly, I love staying with my hosts Angeles and Fernando, and tomorrow I take a practice run at being a solo tourist by visiting Tepóztlan, a charming village with impressive Aztec ruins. It's a three-day weekend in Mexico, this coming Monday being the official holiday celebrating the birth of Benito Juarez, who was from this state, Morelos.
So yes, Alex, I will set aside my struggles with my camera, USB, and Picasa this weekend to post more words, okay? Meanwhile, I'm off to take pictures of mariachis and buy a bus ticket.
Mom,
Don't get too frustrated with technology. Just show us what Mexico is like in words! Your camera will come around....Plus, if you're having a great time but all we at the blog hear is how bad a time you are having with blogging, you're misrepresenting your trip!
Just write about it,
Alex
I'm struggling with technology, but I'm not having a bad time. Today I will just write about it.
Today I'm sitting at an Internet cafe just off the zócalo or main square of Cuernavaca. Across the street, along the perimeter of the square, two dozen mariachis are lounging in full dress, smoking, texting, strumming their guitars. It's Friday evening on the corner where you come to hire a mariachi for a party or a wedding!
I'm loitering, too, waiting for the woman from a recommended travel agency to return so I can purchase my bus ticket from Puebla to Oaxaca and Tapachula, the border town where I'll have to find myself a bus to Antigua, Guatemala. This leg of my journey is two weeks from now, but travelers always have one eye on the future. Next Thursday the 19th, for instance, I move from my host family to the home of Andrea and Luke Roske-Metcalfe, ELCA colleagues who live and work here supervising our young adult volunteer program. How to get my big suitcase from my current home to my new one before school starts and without using the local bus (not built for big suitcases) is one concern. Getting to Mexico City with them a few days later will be a cinch, but how to get back from the D.F. (the Distrito Federal, or Mexico City - like our D.C.) to Cuernavaca on the 24th is another concern (a ride with someone I know? another bus?) and then on the 25th what time to take that long bus ride to Oaxaca...and on and on and on. This continual need to plan ahead, especially in an unfamiliar place and culture, makes it hard to "be here now."
Just to recap my journey so far, I was in Cuba from February 19 to 24, and after one night in Miami arrived in Cuernavaca on February 25 for three weeks of language study. Because all of this had been arranged in advance, I had a nice, soft, logistics-free landing. Those plans expire March 19, leaving almost five weeks to plan until April 21, when I get four nice, be-here-now nights at my friend Steve Broin´s Casa Sirena on Isla Mujeres. (Speaking of mariachis, if you click on the "Casa Sirena" link and then click "guest book" you'll see me being serenaded by mariachis on my 50th birthday.) That's where Mexico City; Oaxaca; Antigua, Guatemala (another language school--anyone have any recommendations?); San Cristobal de las Casas; Merida; and Vallodilad may all play a role. That's what I'm pinning down.
Meanwhile, school is going swimmingly, I love staying with my hosts Angeles and Fernando, and tomorrow I take a practice run at being a solo tourist by visiting Tepóztlan, a charming village with impressive Aztec ruins. It's a three-day weekend in Mexico, this coming Monday being the official holiday celebrating the birth of Benito Juarez, who was from this state, Morelos.
So yes, Alex, I will set aside my struggles with my camera, USB, and Picasa this weekend to post more words, okay? Meanwhile, I'm off to take pictures of mariachis and buy a bus ticket.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Endless frustration and a link to another post
Maybe the USB has a virus. Maybe the camera does. Maybe it's his fault. Maybe it's mine. While the Internet cafe man and I argue in a language I don't know well, I still can't upload photos to this blog or to Picasa.
And all the great posts I write in my head at night have vanished when I get to the computer 20 hours later.
However, I did succeed in meeting my twice-monthly deadline on the ELCA World Hunger blog, Hunger Rumblings, so you can read that reflection on Cuba and simple living here.
It has been quite hot in Cuernavaca. Tomorrow my fellow students and I are going to swim a bit in our school´s pool after our classes and discussions have ended. Of course I've taken a picture of the school and the pool; of course, I can't post it.
Oh well.
And all the great posts I write in my head at night have vanished when I get to the computer 20 hours later.
However, I did succeed in meeting my twice-monthly deadline on the ELCA World Hunger blog, Hunger Rumblings, so you can read that reflection on Cuba and simple living here.
It has been quite hot in Cuernavaca. Tomorrow my fellow students and I are going to swim a bit in our school´s pool after our classes and discussions have ended. Of course I've taken a picture of the school and the pool; of course, I can't post it.
Oh well.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Getting around Cuba
These are sort of out of order, but they do give you a sense of how people move around. This blue truck belongs to the Lutheran Church and took our group around Isla de La Juventud for a few days.
The back of the bus has two benches along the outside wall. Church members set up rows of folding chairs down the middle to make room for more people, but as you can see, many people stood. All public transportation on the Isla seemed to be by passenger truck rather than bus, and all of them were crammed with people. Folks standing on rural corners seemed to expect us to pull over and pick them up, but the driver didn't.
Horses and carts were common on the island.
We took an afternoon's journey in a "carreton" or big carriage pulled by a horse. Here's the horse!
In Havana, yes, there were lots of great old cars. Any horses and carriages we saw were purely for tourists, and they do have buses in Havana.As you can see I have solved my technical difficulties and will now begin to steadily post great pictures of my journey!
Monday, March 1, 2010
From Cuba to México
To come from a country where almost nothing is for sale to a place where everybody is selling something is quite a shock. Instead of tv commercials, Cuba has public service announcements; instead of billboards for casinos or cars or Coke, Cuba has political slogans. On the extremely pastoral Isla de la Juventud, where we spent three nights, bicycles and horse-drawn carriages outnumbered private cars. It was very quiet, in the evening, without the sound of traffic. (You can read the history of the island (formerly called the Isle of Pines) by clicking on the blue link right here or an even more indepth excerpt from a book on google called Cuba´s Island of Dreams: Voices from the Isle of Pines and Youth It will work, I promise, Dad! Click on the highlighted part to get the link.)
Havana was everything the photos promised. Old Havana was beautiful; talented musicians play Buena Vista Social Club-style son in the bars and street corners (paid by the government, so you don't even have to tip them); gorgeous mansions are indeed in states of incredible decay; multi-story portraits of Che and Fidel adorn the government buildings; and many times I saw cars I expected my grandfather to be driving.
Organizing and uploading my Cuba photos from an internet cafe seems problematic but eventually I will succeed. Please be patient.
Meanwhile, I arrived in Cuernavaca last Thursday, settled in with my host family, visited the school, met the other students, and traveled to Taxco with them on Sunday. Today was my first day at CETLALIC language school.
For all its strangeness, Mexico is familiar. The paleta carts, people selling elotes, the old trucks straining under loads of scrap metal, plastic and cardboard that will be sold, the enchiladas and tortillas, even the accent all remind me of....Chicago!
Once I transcribe and digest my 15 pages of notes from Cuba, I´ll venture some opinions on the country and its situation. Finding time to do so will be tough cuz my schedule is busy and yes, I have homework.
Signing off with 300 photos in my camera that you still can't see....
Anita de viaje
Havana was everything the photos promised. Old Havana was beautiful; talented musicians play Buena Vista Social Club-style son in the bars and street corners (paid by the government, so you don't even have to tip them); gorgeous mansions are indeed in states of incredible decay; multi-story portraits of Che and Fidel adorn the government buildings; and many times I saw cars I expected my grandfather to be driving.
Organizing and uploading my Cuba photos from an internet cafe seems problematic but eventually I will succeed. Please be patient.
Meanwhile, I arrived in Cuernavaca last Thursday, settled in with my host family, visited the school, met the other students, and traveled to Taxco with them on Sunday. Today was my first day at CETLALIC language school.
For all its strangeness, Mexico is familiar. The paleta carts, people selling elotes, the old trucks straining under loads of scrap metal, plastic and cardboard that will be sold, the enchiladas and tortillas, even the accent all remind me of....Chicago!
Once I transcribe and digest my 15 pages of notes from Cuba, I´ll venture some opinions on the country and its situation. Finding time to do so will be tough cuz my schedule is busy and yes, I have homework.
Signing off with 300 photos in my camera that you still can't see....
Anita de viaje
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