Oaxaca!

I leave tomorrow morning (sniff) from Oaxaca airport.  I've been here since satudary and have been having such a great time that I haven't had even a small chance to write any posts! 

So Oaxaca is the state just south of Puebla and it extends through several types of mountains all the way to the ocean.  I've been in Oaxaca city the entire time, which is a fantastic city.  It is beautifully historic, very interesting, very chill and mostly quiet (except in some of the crazier markets), and has some spectacular food.

I was expecting to come here alone, but at the last minute I roped two students into coming with me.  One stayed from Saturday until Monday afternoon and the other stayed until just a few hours ago, on Tuesday.  Having people down here with me definitely enhanced the experience.  One of the best experieences in Oaxaca is the food and sharing food is always better than eating alone.  We spent our time here mostly wandering through food markets, crafts markets, the areas around the zocalo, and eating spectacular food.  Saturday afternoon, Kristen and I went out for an amazing lunch at Casa Oaxaca, which seemed to be the height of fine dining here but only set us back about $20 each.  The food was great, partly because of the quality and partly because it actually had flavors we hadn't eaten in a while.

Sunday was mostly a day of wandering markets and then a nice italian dinner with Kristen and Cove.  Monday was more market wandering, and a great botanical garden with the three of us.  Cove left and 4ish and Kristen and I had a less than fantastic dinner at a restaurant with more than fantastic decorations (Las Danzantes)...  the restaurant was very fung shui as someone else described it to me, with a ceiling open to the sky although mostly covered by a billowing canvas roof.  Once it started raining and we got a bit wet and moved, the whole restaurant was filled by the sounds of the water falling into the pools at one end of the restaurant, which was prett amazing.

Today was more craft shopping and markets (oh yeah, and a lot of hot chocolate) before Kristen finally went home.  I've spent the rest of teh evening just getting my stuff together and getting ready for my trip home tomorrow.  I can't believe it's all over... it's been a real trip, both literally and figuratively.

mike.

No more pictures

For the second time this trip, I am left confused about what happened with my camera and for the first time I am left unable to take any pictures.  Sometime on Saturday my camera started telling me that I have a memory card error.  This is actually the second time this has happened to me, the first time being with my other memory card, although it wasn't as big a deal last time because the card was almst full and I had a second card to use.

I haven't been able to take pictures more or less since I got to Oaxaca, which really sucks because it is beautiful here.  Luckily I roped two other students into coming to Oaxaca with me, so I'll hopefully get their pictures.

Two more days and I´m out of here (or at least out of puebla)

Tomorrow is my last day of class and Saturday is the day I leave Puebla after four long and wonderful weeks.  A group of students are getting together tonight for some dinner and drinks as an early going away party, since they all still have a week left here (I´m doing my 4 weeks here out of sync with everyone else).  Tomorrow is the last day of class and my last dinner with my fam.  And then saturday at 11a, I hop on a bus to Oaxaca, a city in a state (of the same name) about 4 hours south of here.

It´ll be a sad going away, but at the same time, I´m excited to see Oaxaca (which is supposed to have great food and be an around chill and wonderful place) and to get back home after 5 weeks of being away and six weeks without seeing beth!  

I´m guessing I won´t post again until Sundayish, since my next few days will be pretty normal.  By sunday, though, I´ll have experienced Oaxaca some and will have more to write.   

Teotihuacan

Teotihucan
Originally uploaded by Michael Hollander

On Sunday, the whole school took a trip to Teotihuacan and then to a few sights in Mexico City.

Teotihuacan is a set of ancient pyramids that were originally built around 0 BC, although they were later used by other civilizations including, most recently, the Aztecs. The pyramids themselves were pretty amazing, although due to disrepair, some of them have been actually "reconstructed" and not always in the correct manner. The main pyramid, for example, is supposed to have four stages although it was rebuilt with 5 for some reason. It takes away from the mystical quality a bit ot know that we aren´t looking at what was really there, but nonetheless the pyramids were pretty amazing. The tallest was a few hundred feet high, although I´ve heard that the ones in Egypt are quite a bit higher and steeper. We were able to climb up most of them, which gave fantastic views as well as a great stair workout.

After Teotihuacan, we headed to Mexico City to see a museum (that I hadn´t seen yet) and the Zocalo (which I had seen). The trip was fun though... a chance to spend extra time with friends from school, see a few new sights, etc...

Tonight its off to Lucha Libre again. How can I turn that down?

Quetzalan

I finally got myself out of cities and into the beautiful mountains around here.  I headed up to Quetzalan with another student on Friday night and got back Saturday. It´s a 4 hour bus ride from here to there, but it took me more like 8 hours to get there all said and done.  To keep the story short, lets just say that there are two places called "Zaragoza" and when I bought my FIRST ticket, I bought it for the wrong Zaragoza and ended up crossing an 8 lane highway at one point to jump on a bus in the other direction. 

When we finally did get there, it was an place to see.  The town is a few thousand feet higher in the mountains than puebla (I´m guessing around 8k or 9k feet) and is pretty much built into the side of the mountain.  The whole town is pretty much inclined, with each farm and all of the main streets going straight up the hills... just like in SF, there were stairs built into a lot of the main sidewalks.

The town itself was very different looking than others around here, with far more native influence (and a lot of people still wearing traditional clothing).  The climate was more or less the same as the farm that Beth and I stayed on in Ecuador - cloud forest, which means some sun, but mostly fog rolling in and out and a bit of rain.  We spent our 12 waking hours there wandering around the town, taking a "bus" which was really more of a pickup truck with a bench in the back and a tarp covering it to a nearby town where there was a short hike to beautiful waterfalls, eating local food, and I got a massage ($30 for 1.5 hours!). 

All in all, despite the extraordinary amount of bus riding in a 24 hour period, it was completely worth the time and pain of the trip.  It was great to get out of the city and into the mountains and see some different scenery.

Also, a bonus of getting on the wrong bus is that I bought a specialty here, Tacos Arabe, which is basically a "taco" of spiced meat, arab style, wrapped in a "pita" tortilla rather than in a regular tortilla.  Perhaps the best taco I´ve had yet.  I actually had a moment of silence the next day to remember the wonder of those tacos!

Long time, no post, again.

I haven´t posted in a while and not because life hasn´t been interesting here, but more because the week was pretty normal with little new happening and I was gone all weekend.

The week was more or less a week of classes and nothing more.  I have a new prof (Lola), who is a pretty good teacher although not nearly as good as the last two.  I´ll have her until I leave this friday, which is fine... her best point is that she stresses exercises in the book, which my previous teachers didn´t.  A little practice to supplement the conversation is a good thing.

On Wednesday of last week we went to Tlaxcala, the smallest state in Mexico, which is about an hour east of here.  While the city was beautiful and all that, I have to say, I´m completely sick and tired of churches and museums.  No más!

Anyway, I´ll update on my weekend activities in other posts.