Trip to Yucatan and Chiapas!

Hello! I´m back in Xalapa now after a week of vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas. The trip was incredible, it was nice to get to see various other parts of México and get away from studies for a week. As a group, we left Xalapa last sunday in two vans to head to Celestún, a city on the west coast of the yucatan peninsula. It was about a 20 hour drive which each of the 2 drivers of our vans did without changing drivers through the night. Both surprizing and a little scary. The drivers were a lot of fun all week, we got to know them well and joked around all the time. We arrived in Celestún the next day and spent the day relaxing on the beach. The next day we took a boat ride into the natural reserve in Celestun and we able to see lots of flamengos along with various other kinds of wildlife. We also stopped in a swampy/jungly area to take a dip in a nice natural pool. That evening, we headed to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We took a tour of the center of the city which has a really interesting history. Before it was settle by the Spanish, there were 5 pyramids in the city. The Spanish took the stones from the pyramids and used them to build many of the churches and buildings that are seen today. The tour we got of the center was given by two mayan historians who speak both maya and spanish, so their perspective on the history was very fascinating. The mayan culture and language is still very alive in the yucatan, which gives it a much different feel than central Mexico, which was territory of the Aztecs. It´s interesting how the 2 parts of the country have very different backgrounds and histories.

From Merida, we took a trip to Chichén Itzá, which is one of the most impressive archaological site of the mayas. The science, history and mathematics behind the site were the most fascinating for me. There were unbelievable calculations made by the mayans when they built their pyramids and buildings, many based around their calendar and knowledge of the universe. From Chichén Itzá, we made our way to el Cenote Dtiznup, an incredible cave structure filled with crystal clear water that you can swim in (The yucatan is covered in limestone, so rivers dont exist, all flowing water is subterranean which forms the ¨cenotes¨). The formation was impressive and a very fun place to take a swim.

We spent the next day back in Mérida, I spent a good bit of the day visiting Jon Jenners uncle Jerry who lives in Mérida. It was fun to get to meet him after hearing many stories of him. From there, we took an overnight trip to arrive in Palenque, a city in the state of Chiapas in the morning. The entire day was spent at a place called Agua Azul, an extremely beautiful series of waterfalls and pools of water. Also a really fun and natural place to swim as you can make your way down the waterfalls, jumping into the pools below. That night, we spent in some cabins in the middle of the jungle. I had bought a hammock the day before in Merida, so I set that up outside to spend the night in, instead of sleeping in the cabins. When I woke up in the morning, two monkeys were playing in trees not too far off.

After getting our stuff packed up, we headed to the archaeological site in Palenque, another famous site of the mayas. For me, the buildings and surrounding area were more impressive and beautiful than Chichén Itzá. The site was built in the middle of jungle, with mountains and trees surrounding it. We went into the jungle, outside of the main site, and you can still find old buildings and walls which used to be part of the ancient city but now are covered in vines, plants and trees and havent been cleaned up or explored by archaeologists yet. After seeing the site, we climbed back in the vans to make our way back to xalapa. It was about a 12 hour drive and we arrived at about 4 am yesterday morning after being stopped once by a military checkpoint and having a vans searched by dogs and soldiers who are looking for illegal immigrants/drugs, etc..

Anyhow, thats the overview of our trip, hope it gives you a small idea of the incredible things I experienced in the last week. This next week will be much different, I have a lot of school work waiting for me. Hope all is well back in the states and wherever you might be reading this from. Take care!

Photos: they go in reverse order of our trip...

1-me in the palenque archaeological site

2-jumping off a small waterfall in agua azul

3-el cenote dzitnup

4-our group in front of the pyramid in chichén itzá

5-a view of the sunset on the beach in celestún

2 more pictures from parents visit

1-Farewell in the bus station in Xalapa

2-Waterfall in Xico

Parents Visit to Mexico!

Hello a todos!

The first week of vacation has past and it´s been a week well-spent with my parents! We managed to do a lot in the week they were here, it was great to get to introduce them to my family and friends here, as well as the food, places, smells and sounds that I´ve been experiencing the last 3 months. We started off the week in Cuernavaca where I was for a month. We were openly welcomed into the house where I stayed with a host family, it was really good to see them again, as well as the neighborhood kids who I used to play soccer with, the owner of my favorite panaderia in Cuernavaca and various other people who I got to know in Cuernavaca. We also took a tour of the sprawling market and bought fresh mangos before heading to park with a much more tranquilo atmosphere. Since it is Semana Santa, there were also various cultural events in the center center with lots of people out and about.

After being in Cuernavaca for a day and a half, we headed to Xalapa where we were greeted by some fairly nasty weather, but the next day things cleared up and turned out to be super nice for the rest of their stay. While in Xalapa, we went to various nice parks around the city, my parents tried lots of the local food, among the favorites: orange juice on the street, bread from the panaderia, chicharrones (typically fried pig skin with mayo, chicken, lettuce, pico de gallo, etc), esquite (corn, mayo, grated cheese), my host mothers smashed black beans, and the list could go on... We also managed to go to Xico, a small town near Xalapa, and visit the waterfall there and we went to the ex-Hacienda of Santa Anna (a prominent figure in Mexican history who was from Xalapa). One night was also spent dancing salsa with a few of my friends and their families at a bar/restaurant with a live band from Cuba.

But above any of the things we did or places we visited, it´s hard to describe the hospitality and connections that my parents experienced in both places. For me, it was really incredible to see the people who have reached out to me with such open arms for the last 3 months do the same for my parents. I think they were able to meet just about everyone who I spend a lot of time with, and in every connection, there were lots of laughs, smiles and invitations to return to Mexico. One thing I really appreciate about people here is the tradition of telling a visitor, ¨Esto es tu casa cuando quieras venir, aqui te esperamos¨, or basically that now you have a house to stay in whenever you come back to visit. And it´s said with a certain sincerity that you know that one day if showed up at their door without notice, they would take you in and be overjoyed that you had come back to visit.

It was also felt to me like a reunion between latin culture and my parents, after the many years that they hadnt been in a latin country. I enjoyed hearing they speak Spanish with people here and we actually communicated amongst ourselves the majority of the time in Spanish as well. Well, I could continue to write much more about the past week, but I´ll leave it there. I put various pictures because I know I enjoy looking at pictures more than reading sometimes.

1-Us with Omar and his family

2-Me in front of the university where I take classes

3-Mom and Dad enjoying fresh orange juice in a bag
4-Mom and Dad in a park in Xalapa

5-Mom buying platanos in the market in Cuernavaca

¡Que estén muy bien! ¡Hasta la próxima!

Scarf Complete, Vacation!

Hola a todos!

Time keeps flying here in Xalapa and we have now reached the midterm break point in the university. We have 2 weeks of vacation, the first week I will be spending with my parents in and around Xalapa for the most part and the 2nd week, the BCA group will be going to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit Merida, some surrounding sities, and passing through a bit of the north part of Chiapas!

The weather continues to get hotter here and the pase of the life never ceases to slow down. My host parents are also quite busy with their food business, these next 2 weeks they have to prepare food everyday for about 150 people using the kitchen in our house. This evening, I just got done helping them make 200 quesadillas, we had quite the assembly line going with the whole family, reminded me of my days working in the Marshalls factory, only with better hours and no restrictions on bathroom breaks.

I´ve also continued going to the weaving workshop, this past thursday we worked extra fast and got the scarf done! It turned out really great, I´m really excited about it. Hopefully I can continue to go to the workshop and buy a set of the sticks to bring back to the states. Recently I´ve been spending a lot of time with a few Mexican friends doing a variety of things, watching soccer games, going salsa dancing, going to concerts, watching movies here and there and generally hanging out and having a good time. My classes have been going well, occasionally it´s frustrating the lack of organization that a few of my classes have. The dynamic is very different than my classes in Goshen. Students are constantly in and out of the classroom, we still haven´t gotten a syllabus (by this time I think it´s too late), professors regularly show up 30 minutes late, etc. It´s difficult to describe exactly how the classroom atmosphere is and I don´t want to sound overly critical, although coming from a really well organized university system where everything generally runs smoothly, it feels like a lot of time is wasted here.

Anyhow, I´ll leave this entry a bit shorter, I should get going here. In the next entry I should have pictures of my parents arrival and time here! I hope everyone is well!

Pictures:

1-The completed scarf

2-A picture with a band from xalapa who we saw in concert

3-playing a little guitar at the weaving workshop