playa del carmen

in playa del carmen, which is super close to cancun.

and you can tell.

this place is, naturally, hot and humid. but the beach is beautiful, and i can see the waters hitting the shore from the terrace of our hotel room.

but it is a city full of tourists. i took out money yesterday and the atm gave me u.s. dollars. in a weird way, being here feels like foreign territory after two-plus months of living and travelling in generally non-tourist cities.

i'm afraid the overabundance of english-speaking mexicans here will break down my spanish-speaking drive when it comes to interacting with people outside of my friends in the program. we'll see.

i'm on the beach until sunday morning, when i'm going to take a plane to mexico city and enjoy mexico for one last night before my international flight on monday. i can't wait to be in mexico city one last time before home.

but more that anything, i'm happy to be coming home so soon. excited for seattle, and my family and my friends, and seeing hudson, and going to dinner, and walking around in places that i know and remember, and yakima, and sitting around and relaxing without lugging around a bag full of clothes and computer for once. i'm just ready to be home at this point.

in the meantime, though, i'll enjoy the beach...

chichén itzá

another day. another incredible set of ancient ruins.

monday morning we took a two-hour bus from merida to chichén itzá.

there, i found an incredibly touristy spot (it's only a few hours from cancun and playa del carmen) that was yet again amazing and humid and hot to a point of irritation.

but the ruins and famous, large, pyramid were astounding. there was an incredibly well-preserved court for the juego de pelota that i remember learning about in school (notable in my memory for the execution or torture of the losing team).

the large pyramid was immense and imposing. it was such a sight to behold in that i had been seeing recreations of it for years, especially in the last few months. and there were so many small details of the pyramid that were incredibly interesting. there is an odd echo when anyone in the grassy area that surrounds the pyramid claps their hands. there is a strange squeak that is emitted from the top of the pyramid. really weird. and i loved the long serpents that were carved into the pyramid sides, with the head of the snake protruding from the base.

just an amazing place to see in person. yet again. i feel terrible that the last two weeks, and months in general, have left me jaded to seeing such historically-rich and beautiful places. i have been spoiled by what mexico has had to offer me. i'm sure it will hit me the second that i sit down on the plane monday morning to come home that i am no longer within short driving distance of pyramids and art museums and the history that i have ultimately come to claim as my own. i know how lucky i am to have seen everything that i have in this country, and i am so amazingly grateful.

palenque, day 2

our second morning in palenque, we hopped onto another van and drove out to the archaeological site a little bit outside the city that contained the immense ruins that i spent the morning and early afternoon climbing up and down.

so amazingly cool.

and humid and intense and hot. it was worth it, but i'm almost certain i sweat out every single bottle of water that i had drank within two days of the trek.

but such an amazing place to be. it is so incredible to have walked around in these sites that hold so much history in every single stone and etching in the walls. there is a certain closeness to an age that usually seems so far away.

in lieu of attempts at explaining the experience, i'm just going to include more photos...

palenque, day one

(misol-ha)

palenque is so incredibly hot. and intensely humid. i don't deal well with this. but despite the weather, i found it hard to resist the sights.

on our free day on thursday, i laid in bed in our air-conditioned room and ventured out to the pool for only a brief dip. then i slept, and slept and slept.

but on friday, we took our little tour van out to the waterfalls of misol-ha. it was one slender waterfall that fell into a spacious bathing pool that the majority of the kids in my class jumped in to. absolutely gorgeous. and early enough in the day that the humidity didn't kill me.

(agua azul)

later, we went out for our venture to the waterfalls of agua azul. walking up about a mile of terraced steps, we encountered cascade after cascade of beautiful water. every single foot of the trek made a photo. despite the heat, it was relaxing. and i found places to sit down and enjoy the view without feeling too much sicker.

then it was back to the room to hibernate in the conditioned air.

san cristóbal de las casas

after the eleven-hour-plus bus ride, i woke up to find myself in san cristóbal de las casas in the state of chiapas. home of the zapatistas.

it was a really, really cool city. it's at a high altitude, so the weather was perfect for me. chilly, brisk, and a little bit rainy. one of the best few days i've spent in mexico, aside from being a little bit sick.

there was a fantastic market, with tons of really cheap amber jewelry (which i, unfortunately, never got around to purchasing any of.) it was also a city in which you were swarmed at every patio restaurant table by young kids selling bracelets. my inability to say no to young vendors in chiapas has left me roughly twenty small bracelets richer. it gets too difficult after awhile.

on tuesday, we went to the cañón del sumidero in a boat that toured us through the river and the canyon itself. absolutely breathtaking. with the added bonus of spider monkeys, crocodiles, and a variety of odd-looking birds.

wednesday brought us to two small towns to observe indigenous religious ceremonies and homes in the area. it felt more than odd to be a tourist in someone's homes, regardless of whether or not the people in the home were used to it. i never feel quite right about things like that. i feel like i'm participating in further alienating "them" from "us." it was very interesting, and the women in the home were very nice, but it's still a stranger practice.

i ended up getting really sick on wednesday night and the bus ride to palenque on thursday morning didn't make me feel any better. i more or less wished we could have stayed there until playa del carmen rolled around.

leaving puebla

(yes, i know this is a week late.)

the last week in puebla was remarkably uneventful. went to school, went out, saw some things for the last time, tried to talk as much to my family as possible.

my last day there, blanca was in bed sick all day. so i spent the last few hours in the house playing catch with javi and talking to pepe about random stuff. we played wii, too, which was odd.

i'm gonna miss my puebla family so much. but at the end of the day, i still knew that leaving them was bringing me one step closer to being home with my home family. in addition to all my home friends. home, in general. it evens out at some point.

hugs and goodbyes and taxis found me at the bus station, waiting with sixteen other students and a teacher for our eleven p.m. bus to san cristobal...

lunes

as of today, i am enjoying my final monday in puebla.
my class ends it's official run tomorrow at 12:30 with a lecture on the zapatista movement in chiapas. as of tuesday afternoon, it's on to preparing for the "educational vacation" that we will embark upon at 9 p.m. on sunday.

this translates to two weeks on the road. a few days in san cristobal, a few days in palenque, a few days in merida. with an excursion to chichen itza. and then six days of absolutely nothing on the beach in playa del carmen (close to cancun). one day in mexico city. then my early morning flight to seattle on june 7th.

so everything here is coming to a close. i'm rushing to line up all the things i need to do for the last time. seeing as i have less than six days to do them.

my list includes, but is certainly not limited to:
-sunday market (accomplished yesterday)
-delicious potato chips (pictured above)
-cafe milagro and delicious salad (yesterday)
-more movies at cinepolis(tonight and tomorrow, robin hood and nightmare on elm street)
-writing a letter to blanca, trying not to mess up my spanish
-amalfi's
-parados
-cafe teorema, if i can manage it
-thursday night party with the class (catered by a taqueria)
-having a decent sit down at the kitchen table with blanca and talking about random stuff for a long time
-making a play list for the 7+ hour bus rides

its coming along so quickly.

scorpio

so, monday night, robin and i went to a birthday party for one of the girls in our class in the centro.
(side note: everybody from class showed up to this birthday party. resulting in an l-shaped combination of four tables and very angry mexican waiters.)

we drank a little bit of sangria, which was delicious at this particular restaurant, and i came back in a very good mood, looking forward to having a silly before bed chat with hudson.

i brushed my teeth, put on pajamas, and was about to sit on my bed. that was when i saw the scorpion resting on the notebook on my bedside table.

cue the "robin! ROBIN!"

i didn't really believe i was seeing the thing, and in my state, i jumped up on her bed and paced around nervously until the calvary of our entire host family came in to help hunt the thing.

my host brother threw my gym clothes, back packs and notebooks around until finally flipping over my nightstand to capture the scorpion with a cup.

the terrifying creature was then transferred to a jar and left outside by the cars to suffocate during the night. usually, i would say that was awful, but in the case i was frightened enough to call it deserved.

apparently, it was just the heat and proximity to the garden. i am hoping that in the 9 days and 8 nights i have left in puebla, in my host home, i never see one again.

shivers.

(may i also say that i've been too scared to get up close to the jar to take a photo of the dead scorpion and that's why there exists no photographic evidence of how huge and bloodthirsty it was? that is all.)

monte alban

the pyramids of monte alban are amazing. it's about a 20 minute drive from the centro of oaxaca and the drive itself is worth the price of the taxi. it is so incredibly beautiful.

from the vantage point where the handful of well-preserved pyramids are located, one can see all of the city and more.

there were cicadas, or something like them, in all of the trees, filling the air with a resounding and haunting buzz that couldn't be escaped. it was so cool and gave the entire experience a different sort of flavor.

we walked up and down the pyramids that you could, and gazed up at the ones that were blocked off.

it still blows my mind to be in the presence of structures with a history such as these, let alone being able to climb up them and take photos (and steal pieces of broken stone--here's looking at you, mitchell.)

(the view down from the big pyramid, i tried to get everything into my camera's viewfinder, but there's another pyramid to the left. so amazing.)

tule

we saw the widest tree in the world. go us.

it was momentous and gorgeous and the sound of the birds was absolutely deafening. it was right outside the church and quite the sight to behold in the perfect weather of the oaxacan sunset. i loved it.

oaxaca, oaxaca

went to oaxaca for the weekend, leaving friday morning.
(it worked out perfectly--i didn't even have time to be sad about my mom leaving. she left for her flight, i went to class and did a hasty presentation over some short fiction, gym, talking to hudson for the first time in a week and wasting my evening with such, and the catching a bus early friday morning.)
it was a four hour trip, but my butt made it through.
oaxaca is super cute. the zocalo is small and pretty simple, but we went to the cultural center attached the huge cathedral of santo domingo and saw some cool artifacts from monte alban.

we stayed in a really awesome hostel in which we were the only americans, i believe. other mexicans and lots of europeans. it was crazy hot at night, but we had free omelets in the morning, so i'm not complaining.
there was some delicious food, but we were plagued by bees and the threat of cockroaches circling our dining area. on the walk home at one point, we were surprised by a scorpion. it was an interesting town for bugs.
the people were so nice and for the first time, i was besieged by enough small kids selling things in the zocalo that i bought something. three scarves for fifty pesos. the boy seemed happy, so therefore so am i. that gets really difficult for me to ignore sometimes.
but there was some cool stuff to do, and also a lot of time for relaxing in the shade in the remarkable heat. a very laid back weekend with adrianna, glory and patrick.

mi madre

mom came to visit for a week, starting last thursday.

we stayed downtown, in the hotel royaaalty. the hotel was so nice, and we had a beautiful view of the centro and the cathedral.

things we did:
-cholula, the church, the pyramid and lunch at "la esquina mas famosa en cholula"
-dinner at amalfi's with robin and andrea. the waiters flirted like crazy with everybody at the table. good work, mom.
-so many churches downtown, including the beautiful church of the rosary, a gold-plated annex that was absolutely gorgeous.
-the turibus! seeing the battlefield of cinco de mayo and many beautiful viewpoints.
-retouring the cathedral.
-museums upon muesums. all with beautiful art and amazing architecture.
-iron man 2. amazing. there were guys dressed as iron man and war machine waiting ourside the theatre selling masks after it ended. plus, we got to see it a week earlier. and eat caramel corn and self-serve gummy bears!
-lunch with my host family. they were so sweet and gave my mom a gift of chocolate from my host mom's hometown. and we ate some delicious home-cooked posole.
-lucha libre. this time with scary women that looked all too familiar, and midgets that were thrown through the air as weapons. i think that the fights are one of my favorite things here. and i'm almost tempted to go every week. mom had a blast. and we didn't even get teased.
-went to see cop out. the movie was just as funny, but also uncomfortable racist in it's depiction of mexican druglords on the second viewing. still, tracy morgan, caramel corn and gummy bears. plus, my mom.
-skipped school and went to the cinco de mayo parade. so amazing. it was mostly military and schools and bands. the military was amazing though, they come out in full force and color. people kept throwin confetti, so the guys on the sides were both incredibly serious and rainbow colored. i was so happy to be there to witness it.


(that poor guy's head made a cameo in all of my photos....)
-so much good food. and also some food that made us sick. but, i guess it's worth it at the end of the day...
-lots and lots of shopping and compensatory gift purchasing for solomon and grace. mom and i were both so sad that they couldn't come to visit as well. we thought and talked about them all week. sometime soon, we'll all go somewhere together.

it was just a really wonderful week and i felt so lucky that i had the gift of hanging out with my mom for a week in my temporary home. everything we visited and saw was a thousand times more fun and beautiful and interesting while she was with me. and i think my spanish was a little better, too.

(thanks, mom.)