We are presently staying in the area of town known as Old Mazatlán , close to the more historic pieces of town and far from the resort area further north. The word "old" here is also apropos because we spent the day reliving parts of a past visit to Mazatlán. Almost a year ago, we stopped here with friends on a cruise, so it's the one city in Mexico that we actually knew a bit beforehand. And today, we managed to eat at the same lunch restaurant that we chose a year ago, and we walked down some of the same streets. So far, we haven't really explored much new here.
But that's OK with us. Emily described this piece of the trip as a sort of vacation from vacation. There are no museums we need to visit, no cultural events we can't miss. It's just beautiful beach, pleasant plazas, and general relaxation. We spent much of the day strolling, eating, and napping. And we watched a beautiful sunset over the ocean from our balcony. It's lovely.
We have only done one real new thing today that bears reporting here, and that was to stop by a "Festival of Humor" set up in the gallery of a local theater. As we quickly discovered, "festival of humor" here means "display of tons of anti-American political cartoons." Ha, ha. Very funny. There seems to have been some sort of competition here to get the best anti-American cartoons from around the world, and the best were on display here in Mazatlán. The themes were pretty repetitive: you know, the usual, America eating the rest of the world; American killing the rest of the world; America taking a giant crap on the globe. No more than 1 cartoon in every 10 was actually intelligent or even marginally amusing. Not at all what we were expecting, but you have to keep your sense of humor about it, right?
Highlights of tomorrows plans: relax, stroll, relax, swim, relax, eat, relax. Maybe make some jokes about how awful America is.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Endless Summer
Emily and I, after a long overnight bus ride from Zacatecas, arrived this morning in Mazatlan to find that here, it's apparently still summer. Our hotel room is overlooking the ocean (which is gorgeous) and the temperatures are back in the shorts and flip-flops range. After a stint the cold temperatures of the middle of the country, this return to summer is a welcome relief.
Speaking of welcome reliefs (nice següe), Emily and I were very relieved to hear that Barack Obama will be the next president of our country. We actually managed to get the excellent news by connecting with Emily's dad by phone from Durango during a stopover last night. We are not as excited about some other things that happened yesterday in the election. California and Arizona, shame on both of you. You know what I'm talking about.
OK, politics now aside, let's get back to Mexico. We haven't talked at all about our visit to Zacatecas over the last couple of days. We arrived on Sunday and found our hostel, Hostal Villa Colonial, which was just lovely. Our room was up on the top of the hostal, just off of the rooftop terrace and with beautiful views looking out over the city. We got ourselves settled in and then went out to explore the town. Alas, Sunday in Zacatecas is absolutely dead, and so we didn't do much but walk around before heading back to the hostel for dinner in and sleep.
Monday morning proved to be almost equally quiet: Zacatecas is a town that seems to enjoy its rest, and it was very slow to start as we made our way out. Our first stop Monday was the Mina El Edén, an old mine in Zacatecas that used to be a rich source of silver and gold but that has been out of commission for more than 40 years. The bottom 3 levels of the 7-level mine are flooded, but the 4th level is open to visitors with guided tours. We took a narrow-guage railroad through the tunnels heading into the mine, and then after a brief walk through of the mine's museum of gems from around the world, we started the tour. More than anything, it was just very cool to get to explore an old mine, not something one finds a lot of opportunities for. The place was set up with some cheesy figures of miners working, and even some clay bats on the ceiling of one tunnel, but our guide was amusing and we enjoyed making our way through. We exited by an elevator on the other side after crossing over an underground river created by the flooded lower layers. The mine also has a nightclub inside, but we didn't end up returning for that.
The exit of the mine is close to the station for the teleférico, a gondola that heads over the city on cables and up to the big hill called el Cerro de la Bufa. The teleférico operator explained to us that bufa means "pig bladder" in Italian. Lovely. We strolled around the hill and saw the tomb of the heroes of Zacatecas (those who captured Zacatecas during the Mexican revolution) as well as the monuments to the three of the leaders of the revolution.
Our afternoon was relatively quiet. We walked down the hill and after finding lunch went for a stroll through one of the nicer parks in town, where we took some time to relax and discuss things that are pending for our return home (it's already starting to encroach on our thoughts, even though we still have more time away). In the evening, we peeked our heads into the Governor's Palace, which had a beautiful, courtyard-filling altar for Day of the Dead, as well as one of the most impressive murals we've seen. The mural is by Antonio Pintor Rodriguez, and the coolest thing about it is that the painted part of the mural blends into the carvings in stone that are underneath the mural. For example, painted tree roots blend seemlessly into stone-carved roots that emerge underneath the painting. We'll post a picture soon to give you a better idea.
Tuesday featured visits to two museums in town, each started from the collection of one of two brothers: Pedro and Rafael Coronel. We started with the Museo Rafael Coronel, which is housed in a stunning ex-convent which in some parts is almost a ruins beautifully covered by all kinds of plant life. The highlight of the museum is its collection of masks, primarily from Mexican culture over the course of many centuries. The museum has something like 2,000 masks overall. The Museo Pedro Coronel is aimed more at art, and it features in its collection some pieces by Miró, Dalí, Picasso, and many more big names. The collection is a bit random, and it switches quickly from paintings into very random artifacts from ancient Egypt (including a sarcophogus), Greece, China, India, and Africa. I never understand how these rich people happen to accumulate such things, but it's amusing to browse through the eclectic collection.
That was about it for our visit to Zacatecas. The town is very pretty, but it wasn't our favorite mostly because it wasn't very tourist friendly. The town was absolutely dead for about half of our time there, and even when things were open it seemed like only half of the businesses were running at any given time. We also, for some reason, had a very hard time finding any restaurants, and more so finding restaurants that looked appetizing. We were super excited to get to see the old mine, but I don't think Zacatecas will be on our list of places to go back to.
And now, to the beach!
Speaking of welcome reliefs (nice següe), Emily and I were very relieved to hear that Barack Obama will be the next president of our country. We actually managed to get the excellent news by connecting with Emily's dad by phone from Durango during a stopover last night. We are not as excited about some other things that happened yesterday in the election. California and Arizona, shame on both of you. You know what I'm talking about.
OK, politics now aside, let's get back to Mexico. We haven't talked at all about our visit to Zacatecas over the last couple of days. We arrived on Sunday and found our hostel, Hostal Villa Colonial, which was just lovely. Our room was up on the top of the hostal, just off of the rooftop terrace and with beautiful views looking out over the city. We got ourselves settled in and then went out to explore the town. Alas, Sunday in Zacatecas is absolutely dead, and so we didn't do much but walk around before heading back to the hostel for dinner in and sleep.
Monday morning proved to be almost equally quiet: Zacatecas is a town that seems to enjoy its rest, and it was very slow to start as we made our way out. Our first stop Monday was the Mina El Edén, an old mine in Zacatecas that used to be a rich source of silver and gold but that has been out of commission for more than 40 years. The bottom 3 levels of the 7-level mine are flooded, but the 4th level is open to visitors with guided tours. We took a narrow-guage railroad through the tunnels heading into the mine, and then after a brief walk through of the mine's museum of gems from around the world, we started the tour. More than anything, it was just very cool to get to explore an old mine, not something one finds a lot of opportunities for. The place was set up with some cheesy figures of miners working, and even some clay bats on the ceiling of one tunnel, but our guide was amusing and we enjoyed making our way through. We exited by an elevator on the other side after crossing over an underground river created by the flooded lower layers. The mine also has a nightclub inside, but we didn't end up returning for that.
The exit of the mine is close to the station for the teleférico, a gondola that heads over the city on cables and up to the big hill called el Cerro de la Bufa. The teleférico operator explained to us that bufa means "pig bladder" in Italian. Lovely. We strolled around the hill and saw the tomb of the heroes of Zacatecas (those who captured Zacatecas during the Mexican revolution) as well as the monuments to the three of the leaders of the revolution.
Our afternoon was relatively quiet. We walked down the hill and after finding lunch went for a stroll through one of the nicer parks in town, where we took some time to relax and discuss things that are pending for our return home (it's already starting to encroach on our thoughts, even though we still have more time away). In the evening, we peeked our heads into the Governor's Palace, which had a beautiful, courtyard-filling altar for Day of the Dead, as well as one of the most impressive murals we've seen. The mural is by Antonio Pintor Rodriguez, and the coolest thing about it is that the painted part of the mural blends into the carvings in stone that are underneath the mural. For example, painted tree roots blend seemlessly into stone-carved roots that emerge underneath the painting. We'll post a picture soon to give you a better idea.
Tuesday featured visits to two museums in town, each started from the collection of one of two brothers: Pedro and Rafael Coronel. We started with the Museo Rafael Coronel, which is housed in a stunning ex-convent which in some parts is almost a ruins beautifully covered by all kinds of plant life. The highlight of the museum is its collection of masks, primarily from Mexican culture over the course of many centuries. The museum has something like 2,000 masks overall. The Museo Pedro Coronel is aimed more at art, and it features in its collection some pieces by Miró, Dalí, Picasso, and many more big names. The collection is a bit random, and it switches quickly from paintings into very random artifacts from ancient Egypt (including a sarcophogus), Greece, China, India, and Africa. I never understand how these rich people happen to accumulate such things, but it's amusing to browse through the eclectic collection.
That was about it for our visit to Zacatecas. The town is very pretty, but it wasn't our favorite mostly because it wasn't very tourist friendly. The town was absolutely dead for about half of our time there, and even when things were open it seemed like only half of the businesses were running at any given time. We also, for some reason, had a very hard time finding any restaurants, and more so finding restaurants that looked appetizing. We were super excited to get to see the old mine, but I don't think Zacatecas will be on our list of places to go back to.
And now, to the beach!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Día de Muertos
I believe that Mexico has an incredibly healthy relationship with death. Correction: that should read Death, with a capital D. Mexicans are constantly making fun of Death, and when she comes (yes, in Mexico, it is a woman: La Muerte), she marks not an end but simply a change. The most beautiful feature of the whole relationship is what Emily and I got to experience a taste of this past weekend in San Miguel: Día de Muertos. The whole point of this festival is that over the course of a couple of days, all of your dead relatives come back to visit for a little bit. Families build altars to give their deceased loved ones everything they might be missing in the afterlife: good food, drinks, cigarettes, even toys for dead children.
But the part of the holiday that impressed me the most is when the families all head up to the local cemetery (or Panteón) to commune with their loved ones and decorate their graves. Emily and I went up to the panteón in San Miguel to see the action, and I had never before seen a cemetery so lively, so beautiful, and above all, so positive. I think we in the States have the impression of cemeteries as very scary places. We hold our breaths when we walk by one, and we certainly don't hang out in them at night. Part of our avoidance of cemeteries may not just be the fear factor, either: the cemetery is a bit of a sacred ground and many of us don't feel right just browsing the gravestones; we visit for funerals or to see the grave of a loved one, but little more than that. All of that gets flipped on its head in Mexico.
As Emily and I walked towards the cemetery, we were first struck by the long pathway crowded with vendors selling flowers for the holiday for use in decorating the graves. Then, when we went into the cemetery itself, the place was packed with people, som of them tourists like us, but mostly locals spending their time hanging out by this or that loved one's grave, laughing and clearly enjoying their time there. Not long after noticing how many people are there, we noticed how beautiful the place was. The typical flowers for el Día de Muertos is bright orange, and the normally tame colors of the panteón were overwhelmed by not only orange by many other colors of flower, not to mention various other decorations for the holiday. Día de Muertos is not at all about mourning; it is all about reconnection with family and the celebration thereof, and the colors and the overall spirit of the panteón on Saturday reflected that. It touched me and I hope that I can integrate some of that positive attitude and positive relationship into my own life.
But the part of the holiday that impressed me the most is when the families all head up to the local cemetery (or Panteón) to commune with their loved ones and decorate their graves. Emily and I went up to the panteón in San Miguel to see the action, and I had never before seen a cemetery so lively, so beautiful, and above all, so positive. I think we in the States have the impression of cemeteries as very scary places. We hold our breaths when we walk by one, and we certainly don't hang out in them at night. Part of our avoidance of cemeteries may not just be the fear factor, either: the cemetery is a bit of a sacred ground and many of us don't feel right just browsing the gravestones; we visit for funerals or to see the grave of a loved one, but little more than that. All of that gets flipped on its head in Mexico.
As Emily and I walked towards the cemetery, we were first struck by the long pathway crowded with vendors selling flowers for the holiday for use in decorating the graves. Then, when we went into the cemetery itself, the place was packed with people, som of them tourists like us, but mostly locals spending their time hanging out by this or that loved one's grave, laughing and clearly enjoying their time there. Not long after noticing how many people are there, we noticed how beautiful the place was. The typical flowers for el Día de Muertos is bright orange, and the normally tame colors of the panteón were overwhelmed by not only orange by many other colors of flower, not to mention various other decorations for the holiday. Día de Muertos is not at all about mourning; it is all about reconnection with family and the celebration thereof, and the colors and the overall spirit of the panteón on Saturday reflected that. It touched me and I hope that I can integrate some of that positive attitude and positive relationship into my own life.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Please Open That Bag, Señora
Yesterday, on our trip from San Miguel to Zacatecas our bus was detained at one of the many military stops that we often drive right past in our travels through Mexico. An armed soldier got on the bus and asked that we all please get off the bus while he looked at our luggage. The young solider then opened the luggage area and began looking and poking at bags. He selected two and took them off the bus. Lucky winner number one: ME! I am not sure what made my bag look suspicious, maybe the fact that it weight a million pounds at this point in the trip. So he then asked the crowed who the bags belonged to and I indicated that it was mine. I am sure he took one look at me, the little gringa tourist, and thought, well, I guess I don't actually need to inspect this. But one can't back down after making such scientific selections of suspicious bags. So he had me come over and open up my bag which he then looked through. He stopped a while at my clear plastic container full of wheat bran (I drink the stuff, it keeps things moving). "What is this?" he asked. I explained it was wheat, for drinking, you know, fiber. "Ah" the young man said, and moved quickly on to my dirty underwear pile. The whole thing took about 2 minutes. I was actually really really impressed with how polite the solider was and how careful he was with everyones baggage. Everything you hear about the Mexican military tends to be pretty negative so I thought I would mention our rather positive experience. That was my fun mexican military moment that I wanted to share with you all.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
San Miguel y Tío Juan
We took off from Guanajuato on Friday afternoon and headed for San Miguel de Allende, a trip of about an hour and a half. This is the town that my Uncle John and Aunt Elanna, may her memory continue to be for a blessing, lived in for many years. My uncle still lives there, and he and his caregiver Holly came to pick us up from the bus stop. It was really a nice change to get picked up by family rather than catching a cab. From the station they drove us to our hostel to check in. We were in a dorm room this time but as it turned out we had it all to ourselves for the two nights we were there anyway. From there we drove out to see my uncle's house, which my dad designed, and I have always wanted to see. It is located a little outside of town and has incredible view of the lake and valley around San Miguel, I must say the architect really used the land in beautiful ways, and the large windows took advantage of the natural beauty of the area. The house was really cool although right now it is a bit dusty from not being lived in, when someone wants to come see it the real estate agent gives them notice and they come give it a little cleaning for potential buyers (its for sale--Interested? Let me know!). It was so cool to see the house in person and I could tell that will with a little attention I think it will be as gorgeous as when my Aunt and Uncle were living there and giving it more love and attention. Every room in the house has a giant window that faces the beautiful view of the valley and lake. After watching the sun set from the balcony. Holly and my uncle took us out for dinner at a very delicious restaurant with a very American menu, called Hecho en México. My uncle seemed really good and that was good to see. The staff that takes care of him seemed responsible, friendly and well trained. Holly cooks him healthy food and the one of the two live in care givers is studying to be a nurse. It was a little sad to see him have trouble with his memory but he seems to remember well and with fondness many of his experiences rocking with New Riders of the Purple Sage and he mentioned talking to my grandma and told us about what she said on the phone that day so I think that he is still doing well. It was fun for Michael to get to meet him too since he was one of the last relatives left for Michael to meet, since he wasn't able to come up for the wedding.
One can easily see why San Miguel is so well loved by the 25,000 expat Americans who now call it home. It is a really charming city with a very pretty colonial center and thanks to the influence of the wealthy tourists and foregin residents, it seems to have quite a bit of money. You can also find most any American type treat you might want. Including... THAI FOOD! (I guess that is not technically an American treat, but you know). We were very skeptical when we walked into a little restaurant that labled itself Thai Mexican Food. Holly had told us there wasn't any good Thai food so we had very low expectations but thought, what the hell. We were so pleasantly surprised! The food was really good. Including the chicken being all white meat, the curry being really well spiced, and the Pad Thai just as authentic tasting as most of the places I have tried in the states.
We also were lucky enough to be there for The Day of the Dead, which is currently on my top 5 favorite holidays list. I am going to let Michael tell you more about it, but really if you ever have the chance to come to Mexico over Nove 1-2 I recommend it. Although you have to venture further south than the border because as you go north the tradition gets mixed into a strange Halloween/Day of the Dead hybrid. We are told Oaxaca is a great place to be for the celebration.
One can easily see why San Miguel is so well loved by the 25,000 expat Americans who now call it home. It is a really charming city with a very pretty colonial center and thanks to the influence of the wealthy tourists and foregin residents, it seems to have quite a bit of money. You can also find most any American type treat you might want. Including... THAI FOOD! (I guess that is not technically an American treat, but you know). We were very skeptical when we walked into a little restaurant that labled itself Thai Mexican Food. Holly had told us there wasn't any good Thai food so we had very low expectations but thought, what the hell. We were so pleasantly surprised! The food was really good. Including the chicken being all white meat, the curry being really well spiced, and the Pad Thai just as authentic tasting as most of the places I have tried in the states.
We also were lucky enough to be there for The Day of the Dead, which is currently on my top 5 favorite holidays list. I am going to let Michael tell you more about it, but really if you ever have the chance to come to Mexico over Nove 1-2 I recommend it. Although you have to venture further south than the border because as you go north the tradition gets mixed into a strange Halloween/Day of the Dead hybrid. We are told Oaxaca is a great place to be for the celebration.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Cutting Classes
We haven't talked much about our classes in Guanajuato, but I think we may have dropped a hint or two in the last week that we're not entirely satisfied with our experience. For example, you might have noticed that we decided to leave town a week early, even though we're loving the city of Guanajuato itself. Here's the deal:
Our school here, for future reference, is called Academia Falcon. When we arrived there a week ago last Sunday, we were shown to our room and basically left without explanation of where anything (i.e. outdoor lights, water, etc.) was located. We found out pretty quickly that besides being a bit on the dirty side and having a less than comfortable mattress on the bed, the toilet wouldn't flush. We were willing to troop through a lot, but if we're going to stay 3 weeks, we need a flushing toilet. So, we were off to a bad start.
The next day we had our first classes at the school. Academia Falcon is a bit like high school, with a schedule of one-hour classes on a variety of possible subjects. We started off in a class on indigenism in Mexico, which was just an hour-long lecture by a teacher who did not seem all that interested in our existence or presence for her droning presentation. Next we had a grammar class. We had been assigned to the most advanced class available, but we found ourselves learning simple rules about certain pronouns and well ahead of the two other students in class. What's more, we weren't convinced that the teacher actually knew what he was talking about. Our third class of the day was good: a simple conversation class with nice classmates and a good teacher, Catalina. Finally, for our fourth and last hour, we had a class on Mexican history, another lecture class, albeit slightly more interesting than the other.
Primarily because of our frustration with our grammar class, Emily and I decided to rearrange our schedule with the school. We dropped grammar entirely, because they didn't have a gramar class suitable to our level, nor were they able to make any adjustments in order to create one. We also dropped out of the indigenism class in order to facilitate rescheduling, though we weren't sad to see it go. We ended up with another conversation class and a class on Latin American literature, which we had wanted to take in the first place. The second conversation class turned out fine, which was predictable given that it was just the two of us in class talking with the teacher. The literature class not so much. The literature teacher is the sort of teacher who kills class conversation because he can't wrap his mind around thinking that it is not exactly the same as his own. Most frustrating was our second day in the class, during which we discussed a story by Julio Cortázar, an author by whom I've read several stories now. It's too hard to explain without spending a great deal of time describing the story, but by the time I had read and reviewed the story for this particular day, I was convinced, and with solid evidence, that much of the last half of the story had been a dream and that the main character who was dreaming about being on an island had, in the end of the story, died in a plane crash just off the island. I know, it sounds weird, but trust me on this. I had plenty of textual evidence, and the storyline is consistent with the way Cortázar tells stories. What was frustrating was that when I offered my view in class, the teacher made no effort to understand it or to change his overly narrow-minded (and I think incorrect, even if you didn't agree with me that the guy died in the end) view of the story. And instead of fostering a potentially interesting conversation, he killed it and returned to a mundane question he had asked to try to start conversation. I'm not sure I've explained the whole interchange well, but it was very frustrating.
Given our disappointment with our lodging--which we changed the next day but which remained less than ideal (e.g., the two twin beds we pushed together to make it sort of like sharing a bed)--and with the class offerings and with the quality of teaching, we decided to cancel our third and last week of class with Academia Falcon. Instead, we decided, we would have an extra week to make getting home a bit less stressful and to give us time to head out to California to see my family and to pick up our cats before settling in to Tucson before Thanksgiving and the impending beginning of Emily's new job.
This week of classes, for the record, has been a bit better, though it hasn't changed our minds one bit about our decision to cut school short a week. Emily and I are each taking a class aimed at teaching terms useful for our respective professions (and each of us is alone in our class, making it very easy to tailor to our needs and wishes). We're also taking two conversation classes, each with good teachers. And finally we have another literature class, but this time with a teacher, Eva, who knows what she's talking about, who fosters interesting conversation while also making sure we understand what happened in the stories, and who actually seems to enjoy the subject. So, we're still leaving, but at least we're leaving on a less sour note.
Our school here, for future reference, is called Academia Falcon. When we arrived there a week ago last Sunday, we were shown to our room and basically left without explanation of where anything (i.e. outdoor lights, water, etc.) was located. We found out pretty quickly that besides being a bit on the dirty side and having a less than comfortable mattress on the bed, the toilet wouldn't flush. We were willing to troop through a lot, but if we're going to stay 3 weeks, we need a flushing toilet. So, we were off to a bad start.
The next day we had our first classes at the school. Academia Falcon is a bit like high school, with a schedule of one-hour classes on a variety of possible subjects. We started off in a class on indigenism in Mexico, which was just an hour-long lecture by a teacher who did not seem all that interested in our existence or presence for her droning presentation. Next we had a grammar class. We had been assigned to the most advanced class available, but we found ourselves learning simple rules about certain pronouns and well ahead of the two other students in class. What's more, we weren't convinced that the teacher actually knew what he was talking about. Our third class of the day was good: a simple conversation class with nice classmates and a good teacher, Catalina. Finally, for our fourth and last hour, we had a class on Mexican history, another lecture class, albeit slightly more interesting than the other.
Primarily because of our frustration with our grammar class, Emily and I decided to rearrange our schedule with the school. We dropped grammar entirely, because they didn't have a gramar class suitable to our level, nor were they able to make any adjustments in order to create one. We also dropped out of the indigenism class in order to facilitate rescheduling, though we weren't sad to see it go. We ended up with another conversation class and a class on Latin American literature, which we had wanted to take in the first place. The second conversation class turned out fine, which was predictable given that it was just the two of us in class talking with the teacher. The literature class not so much. The literature teacher is the sort of teacher who kills class conversation because he can't wrap his mind around thinking that it is not exactly the same as his own. Most frustrating was our second day in the class, during which we discussed a story by Julio Cortázar, an author by whom I've read several stories now. It's too hard to explain without spending a great deal of time describing the story, but by the time I had read and reviewed the story for this particular day, I was convinced, and with solid evidence, that much of the last half of the story had been a dream and that the main character who was dreaming about being on an island had, in the end of the story, died in a plane crash just off the island. I know, it sounds weird, but trust me on this. I had plenty of textual evidence, and the storyline is consistent with the way Cortázar tells stories. What was frustrating was that when I offered my view in class, the teacher made no effort to understand it or to change his overly narrow-minded (and I think incorrect, even if you didn't agree with me that the guy died in the end) view of the story. And instead of fostering a potentially interesting conversation, he killed it and returned to a mundane question he had asked to try to start conversation. I'm not sure I've explained the whole interchange well, but it was very frustrating.
Given our disappointment with our lodging--which we changed the next day but which remained less than ideal (e.g., the two twin beds we pushed together to make it sort of like sharing a bed)--and with the class offerings and with the quality of teaching, we decided to cancel our third and last week of class with Academia Falcon. Instead, we decided, we would have an extra week to make getting home a bit less stressful and to give us time to head out to California to see my family and to pick up our cats before settling in to Tucson before Thanksgiving and the impending beginning of Emily's new job.
This week of classes, for the record, has been a bit better, though it hasn't changed our minds one bit about our decision to cut school short a week. Emily and I are each taking a class aimed at teaching terms useful for our respective professions (and each of us is alone in our class, making it very easy to tailor to our needs and wishes). We're also taking two conversation classes, each with good teachers. And finally we have another literature class, but this time with a teacher, Eva, who knows what she's talking about, who fosters interesting conversation while also making sure we understand what happened in the stories, and who actually seems to enjoy the subject. So, we're still leaving, but at least we're leaving on a less sour note.
Best Of Oaxaca-Arrival in Guanajuato
So now that we are leaving Guanajuato in one day we are actually getting around to putting together our "Best of" list for the middle third of the trip. We will take care of the best of Guanajuato as well as of the travel home when we get back.
Best City: Oaxaca
While DF certianly has a lot to offer, and the museum in Xalapa was incredible, Oaxaca was definately the highlight of the middle part of our trip. It has such an excellent mix of walkable streets, interesting day trips, great food, and incredible artesian work at every turn.
Best Restaurant: Casa de Tio Güero, Oaxaca.
This place couldn't be beat, it had really good food, and lots of it, for a very reasonable price, good service, and a really pleasant setting. If you are ever in Oaxaca they also offer Cooking Classes way cheaper than most of the other one. My favorite dish was the Pollo Almendrado (Chicken with thick Alomnd Mole).
Best Hotel: Villa Las Margaritas, Xalapa.
It was fun to have a big queen size bed and cable TV for around $30 per night, roomservice was totally reasonable as well.
Best Ruins: Teotihuacan
The others in the runnign for this trip were Monte Alban and Mitla, and not to say that these two weren't pretty cool too. But the size and magisty of Teotihuacan can't really be beat. We climbed to the top of the 3rd highest pyramid in the world!
Best Museum: Museo de Anthropología, Xalapa.
The Museo National de Anthropología in Mexico City came in a close second. But we settled on the Xalapa Museum for the beauty of its displays and the impress collection of 7 giant Olmec heads.
Strangest Museum; Museo de la Universidad, Puebla.
It didn't seem fair to put this in the same category at the other too but felt it merited a mention on the best of list. It really was the best weird museum we have visited in all of Mexico.
Best Artesania Demonstration: La Grana Tejido, Teotitlan de la Valle.
It was between this and the incredible Alebrijes demonstration but this won because I got to smash a bug with red paint inside and the passion of the man giving the demonstration was evident in the quiet pride he took in his work and his mission.
Favorite Olemc Head: The Smiling One.
The museum in Xalapa had the only smiling Olmec head known to exisit.
Best Artesania: Alebrijes
These fanciful wooden creatures made in two different pueblos outside of Oaxaca city won us over with their bright colors and silly poses.
Best Sign: Any direction you want, Mitla
Michael posted a picture of this one earlier, three arrows, no idication of where they lead. Hey, we know there is a road at least.
Best Movie: Blindness
In our time in Mexico City and Puebla, not being much of big city night life people we saw a lot of movies. Our favorite was Blindness, an adaptation of the book by the same name by Jose Saramago. It should be out in the states too.
Best City: Oaxaca
While DF certianly has a lot to offer, and the museum in Xalapa was incredible, Oaxaca was definately the highlight of the middle part of our trip. It has such an excellent mix of walkable streets, interesting day trips, great food, and incredible artesian work at every turn.
Best Restaurant: Casa de Tio Güero, Oaxaca.
This place couldn't be beat, it had really good food, and lots of it, for a very reasonable price, good service, and a really pleasant setting. If you are ever in Oaxaca they also offer Cooking Classes way cheaper than most of the other one. My favorite dish was the Pollo Almendrado (Chicken with thick Alomnd Mole).
Best Hotel: Villa Las Margaritas, Xalapa.
It was fun to have a big queen size bed and cable TV for around $30 per night, roomservice was totally reasonable as well.
Best Ruins: Teotihuacan
The others in the runnign for this trip were Monte Alban and Mitla, and not to say that these two weren't pretty cool too. But the size and magisty of Teotihuacan can't really be beat. We climbed to the top of the 3rd highest pyramid in the world!
Best Museum: Museo de Anthropología, Xalapa.
The Museo National de Anthropología in Mexico City came in a close second. But we settled on the Xalapa Museum for the beauty of its displays and the impress collection of 7 giant Olmec heads.
Strangest Museum; Museo de la Universidad, Puebla.
It didn't seem fair to put this in the same category at the other too but felt it merited a mention on the best of list. It really was the best weird museum we have visited in all of Mexico.
Best Artesania Demonstration: La Grana Tejido, Teotitlan de la Valle.
It was between this and the incredible Alebrijes demonstration but this won because I got to smash a bug with red paint inside and the passion of the man giving the demonstration was evident in the quiet pride he took in his work and his mission.
Favorite Olemc Head: The Smiling One.
The museum in Xalapa had the only smiling Olmec head known to exisit.
Best Artesania: Alebrijes
These fanciful wooden creatures made in two different pueblos outside of Oaxaca city won us over with their bright colors and silly poses.
Best Sign: Any direction you want, Mitla
Michael posted a picture of this one earlier, three arrows, no idication of where they lead. Hey, we know there is a road at least.
Best Movie: Blindness
In our time in Mexico City and Puebla, not being much of big city night life people we saw a lot of movies. Our favorite was Blindness, an adaptation of the book by the same name by Jose Saramago. It should be out in the states too.
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