Aventuras en Acapulco

One rainy Saturday afternoon, I found myself in the back of a taxi headed for the Mexico City International Airport. The 30-minute ride seemed to take something like 2 hours—but time always passes too slowly when one is looking forward to something. For the first time in the 10 months that I’ve lived here, my mom was on her way to visit! After waiting at the arrival gate C3 for a painstaking 20 minutes, she was here. Tears were shed, snot was wiped, and confused stares of strangers were ignored. We caught a taxi and departed back to my apartment—the plan was to drop off some of the luggage at the apartment, pack a small weekend bag, catch a bus to Acapulco, and enjoy sun, sand, and family in the famous bay. Everything was going to plan, right up until shortly after the “catching a bus to Acapulco” part.

The rain started in pretty hard when we were about four hours out of Acapulco. Game on. The first in our unusual series of events started when the bus jolted to a stop on the highway. While no one was ever officially informed of the reason for our emergency stop, passengers who checked for themselves found that there had been an accident ahead of us caused by falling rocks (we should have known right there and then that we wouldn’t be getting back to D.F. anytime soon). After arriving in Acapulco quite late, we were greeted by the nightman working the front desk at my uncle’s condominium, telling us that the elevator and water system weren’t working as a result of the storm. We hauled our bags up the six flights of stairs and were pretty quickly off to bed.

At around 3:30 in the morning, I woke up to the scariest-sounding wind I’ve ever heard. I crept out of the room to get a better look at the storm. I quickly learned that all of the electricity had gone out in our building. Out of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors, I couldn’t even see my hand if I held my arm out. Though, I did notice a pool of water that had formed on the floors, so I shut up all the doors and windows as best I could, and went to wake my mom up. We moved some of my uncle’s furniture to dry ground, left him a note, and went back to bed. (What else could we do?)

The next morning, we learned that an electricity distributer on the top of our building had been destroyed in the storm, and that the building would be without water for at least a few days. Later that day, we moved to the Hotel Casa Inn. Driving there, we saw that the Costera (the main road) was a mess—water, sand, debris, and damage lined the street. The Casa Inn was swamped with people, but we still managed to procure a couple rooms. Perhaps it was their completely-occupied status, but the hotel staff seemed quite unprepared: we had no drinkable water in the room, lines of 2-3 people took 20 minutes to move, the restaurants were unstaffed (or the security guards had to go track down the restaurant staff somewhere in the hotel), there was no internet, they only accepted one type of credit card…you get the picture. However, we did greatly appreciate having water and electricity again, and accepted the minor inconveniences as they were. By this point, the rain had been on for four days nonstop.

Found shoes lined up on the beach.

Beginning of debris clean-up

Flooded boat

By the time Tuesday early afternoon rolled around, my uncle told us that a friend of his had offered to take us in. A short drive from the Hotel Casa Inn brought us to the Costa Victoria Resort, where we were whisked up to the 23^rd floor. To say the apartment was luxury would be an understatement.  We felt very lucky to have such a nice place to stay, and our host was kind beyond all measures.  Come Tuesday night, the rain finally took a break and we started having some nice weather! 

Acapulco sunsets are the best sunsets.

The helicopters were out making rounds as the President of Mexico visited.

The view from our room--I could get used to this ;)

The Costa Victoria resort on a sunny day.

Roughin' it down by the resort pool with our complimentary beverages.

The living room in the apartment where we were staying.

Wednesday took us on a new adventure entirely. Our host has done a lot of work with an orphanage in Acapulco (and he has done a wonderful job), so he took us out for a visit. On the way, he told us, “The only risk you’ll have out there is falling in love.” And that we did. The kids were wonderful, happy, and kind. In this community of 80+ kids, there are only two salaried employees to keep everything running. There are no issues with kids fighting, refusing to share, or throwing temper tantrums. It’s amazing how well-behaved and smiley these kids are! By the way, if you’re interested in learning more about them, their webpage is here: http://www.marshchildrenshome.org.mx/english/index.php. 

On the way to and from the orphanage, we passed through the area that had the worst of the flooding. Water levels had fallen tremendously since the rain had stopped, but we still saw a lot of damage and devastation in the area. (Luckily for us, the alligators that had been swimming on the streets were forced to return to their rivers when the streets dried up). 

The Marsh Children's Home. Our host even paid to get them a little swimming pool!

These two cutie-patooties weren't staying in the
 home--they came with us. They are our host's nieces!

Our host, bringing food, products, and brand-new jump ropes!

The dining room at the Marsh Children's Home.

The remainder of Wednesday and Thursday allowed us some time to relax, take in some sun, swim, walk on the beach, and enjoy ourselves a little bit. So far, Friday has got us packed up and ready for a free flight back to Mexico City! Luckily for us, the government is paying for the flights right now, and the only downside is not knowing what time we'll get to leave. At this very moment as I'm typing, we're among a large group of people waiting to return to D.F.. We're hoping they'll call our group in the next couple hours. Until then, we wait! Despite all the bad weather and unusual circumstances here, we've been very fortunate to have safe places to stay, electricity, water, fun things to do, and great company. Gracias, Acapulco!

Muppet!

GUESS WHAT? I have a new roommate! I adopted a baby........hedgehog! He's now 2 months old, but I've had him since he was 5 weeks.

His name is Muppet.

Muppet lives in a glass tank on my dresser, but he gets to walk around my room whenever I'm home. He loves eating, pushing things around with his nose, and making as much noise as he possibly can. He accomplishes this by biting his water bottle, pulling his head back, then letting it go so it hits against the tank wall. (Trust me, it's my favorite when he does this for 15 minutes straight at 2:00 in the morning).

However, loud noises are only okay when he makes them. Any other noise, apparently, is terrifying to him. I'm hoping it's just because he's a baby, because it's kind of sad. Phone calls, sneezes, opening doors and windows, zipping up my backpack, regular conversation---they're all SUPER SCARY. So he curls into a little Muppet-ball and hyperventilates until he feels the danger is gone.

Scared Muppet. Oh yeah, camera clicks are really scary too.

When Muppet isn't scared, he's playful and likes exploring.

Muppet likes to be warm, and spends a lot of time sleeping on his heating pad. He also likes to sleep in my sweatshirt hood.

So...that's my most recent news from D.F.! I have no really good excuse for not posting in awhile, other than that I've been relatively busy with the new job and the places that I want to post about are all swamped on the weekends...Hopefully I'll have a chance to explore some lesser-crowded areas soon!

Malinalco

This weekend, I went to a "Pueblo Magico" called Malinalco with two friends. Although I've never heard of it before, I'll almost never turn down an invitation to get out of the city for a day. (Not that I don't love this city, but the concrete jungle wears on you after awhile). We met at the bus station at Metro Observatorio, on the southwest side of the city, and caught a bus going west. After about 2 hours, we made a transfer, and rode in a combi (public transport van) for 30 minutes south to our destination. First arriving in Malinalco, we were really hungry, so we stopped by the market to grab a bite to eat before beginning our touristy business.

The market. On the left is where we got our tacos and quesadillas.

The grill where they cooked our blue-corn-tortilla quesadillas and tlacoyos.

 After filling our bellies, we started making our way to the archaeological site.

Ooh, a random church we passed!

Once we started on the stairs, we worked off our lunch quite quickly. It took maybe 30ish minutes to get up to the top of the hill, 400+ stairs; reading signs and stopping to climb trees along the way.

I got really excited about all the climable trees.

Another tree!!!

Stopping at about the halfway point--if I wasn't in the way it'd be a really nice view!

 After all the tree-climbing monkey-business (terrible pun), we arrived to the top of the hill.

The Aztec structure at the top of the hill, El Cuauhcalli.

The town of Malinalco as seen from the top of the hill.

For the most part, 500 years has left this place amazingly intact.

I really wanting to hike back into that crevice/cave, but it was "not permitted." Pesky rules.

The hike back down was really easy and took about 10 minutes, because we had no signs to cause us to stop and read. Before heading back to the bus, we rested and looked inside the 16th century church in the town center.

The inside of the church was pretty, and the original paint from the 16th century was all still there.

The church's courtyard had very detailed paintings on the inner walls and ceilings. 

The bus ride back to D.F. took about 3 hours because of traffic, but we made it back safe and sound. It was an awesome end to the weekend (bittersweet Sunday night feeling). But hey, it's only 5 more days until next weekend!

Teotihuacan

Finally! I'm back in Mexico City, and back to playing tourist. I have a new job (!), more on that later though--the main thing is that I'll work a semi-normal schedule, and hopefully get to enjoy my time here a little bit more. Today, I went to a place called Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan is about 1 hour north of D.F., and it's famous for its pyramids. The ancient city, built by the Totonacs (we think), dates back to the early 1st century. This 2000-year-old metropolis is most famous for its two large pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. However, the site contains numerous temples, platforms, altars, and other various structures. I have a lot of pictures for this post--I'll do my best to condense an entire ancient city into one blog post!

First Stop: The Temple of Quetzalcoatl (a.k.a. The Feathered Serpent)

From a distance, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl doesn't look too impressive. At least, not in comparison to the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. Many tourists just snapped a shot from a distance and went about their way.

I mean, it's okay, right?

Those who walked back to the pyramid did not regret it. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl was my favorite--no one can climb this one, so it will stay in great condition for a long time. You can get plenty close enough to see the feathered serpents (representative of the god Quetzalcoatl) emerging from the temple walls. 

From the left: shells, Tlaloc (rain god), Quetzalcoatl

 As I was leaving the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, I snapped a picture of what can be seen of the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.

Closer: Pyramid of the Sun. Further: Pyramid of the Moon.

On the way towards the Pyramid of the Sun...

As I was walking down the Calzada de los Muertos (the main road), I explored a couple of the smaller structures. I found it noteworthy most of the structures here are at least partially underground, and new archaeological findings are still being discovered today.

Archaeologists are currently working on excavating the rest of this structure.

Note: The parts of the structures that have been rebuilt where the original
 was destroyed have been marked by placing small stones between the large ones.
Above you can see where the original structure is, and which part has been rebuilt.

Most annoying part of visiting Teotihuacan: The vendors here are so aggressive, and there are way too many of them!

 Finally, after seeing some of the smaller structures and blatantly ignoring 20+ vendors, I made it to my next stop.

Second Stop: The Pyramid of the Sun

Did you know that two of the three largest pyramids in the world are located within two hours of Mexico City? The Pyramid of the Sun is surpassed only by Cholula and the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Couldn't even fit the whole thing in one picture at this distance...

It was long-believed that this pyramid's purpose was to worship the sun--hence
the name, right? More recently, there has been a lot of evidence suggesting
that this temple was actually used to worship the god Tlaloc, the water deity.

 The hike to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun was 240 very steep, high, and narrow steps. Out of breath and feeling a sunburn coming on, I snapped a few shots and set my sights on my next climb...

The Pyramid of the Moon, as seen from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.

 Third Stop: The Pyramid of the Moon

 Climbing the Pyramid of the Moon proved much less strenuous--a mere 48 steep steps, and that's as high as you are allowed to go. It's still a nice place to sit, and get a good view of temple-platforms and the other major pyramid.

The Pyramid of the Sun as seen from the Pyramid of the Moon.

Here's me, chilling out on the platform halfway up the Pyramid of the Moon!

 While sitting on the platform, I had a snack and downed about 20 ounces of water--pyramid climbing is thirsty work! I also completed my lovely lobster-sunburn. It was time for some shade. Off to the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl, the Palace of the Jaguars, y el Templo de los Caracoles Emplumados! (Yes, Spanglish, because 'The Temple of the Feathered Shells' just sounds weird in English).

Fourth Stop: Palacios de Quetzalpapalotl, los Jaguares, y Templo de los Caracoles Emplumados

The Palace of Quetzalpapalotl is thought to have been the home of a high priest. While I suspect that the bright red paint at the top of the columns has been re-touched, the paint on the columns is still the original. The columns are carved with quetzal birds or butterflies, or a hybrid of the two.

 Just behind the Palace of Quetzalpapalotl is the Palace of the Jaguars. While you can walk around the patio outside of the Palace, you can only enter a tiny portion of it.

Walking around the patio of the Palace of the Jaguars

This palace had excellently preserved murals.

About the picture above: that is a jaguar. I know, I know, but run with me here. Starting at the tail and running along the back are shells. It's wearing a headband and headdress made of feathers (or so I'm told). In its paw it's holding a snail, and below the snail there are three drops of water. Although this wasn't incredibly well-explained in any form, what I did gather is that the headdress gives them an aspect of greatness, and the water relates them to Tlaloc (the water deity).

Moving on. From the Palace of the Jaguars, you can access el Templo de los Caracoles Emplumados. It is now a subterranean structure, but it is well-lit enough for pictures.

Some of the best-preserved original paintings are along the base.

The outer facade of the Templo de los Caracoles Emplumados. No entrance allowed, but I
suppose that's why they're able to keep the carvings and original painting so well-preserved!

After visiting these sights, and a few other smaller structures, I made my way to the small museum. While the museum wasn't a great photo-op, it provided a lot of good information on all that I had just seen, as well as cultural history. Outside the museum, there were botanical gardens that were a nice place to walk around (and would have been a more shaded place to grab a snack as opposed to sitting out on a pyramid). While the gardens weren't historical, they certainly were pretty.

And they had much-welcomed fresh air!

Random: This is nopal, found growing in the botanical gardens near the
 Teotihuacan museum. People cut the spines off and eat it. The little "toes" on
the top of it are called tuna--a cactus fruit that is also eaten here in Mexico.

And that was my day! 9 hours, 80+ ounces of water, and a red-hot sunburn later; Teotihuacan was definitely worth it.

Near my Apartment

I live in a nice, safe area called Escandon. My street, Jose Marti, is a mix of smallish apartment buildings and small businesses. A lot of small families and couples live on my street. Luckily for me, most everything I need is right on my street. We have lots of little delicious/cheap restaurants, cafes, office supply stores, internet rent cafes, hardware stores, bakeries, auto shops, convenience stores, gas stations, laundromats, butcher shops, cleaning supply stores, furniture stores, and my favorite: the fruit and veggie market. Yesterday, I went to the fruit and veggie market, and bought 2 big bags full of mangoes, oranges, and bananas for just 43 pesos--less than $4 U.S. dollars. Jose Marti is a very convenient street to live on!

Close by, there are some pretty places to visit. One that I walk by almost every day is the big church, San Jóse de la Montaña. It's right next to the metro, which is about 10 minutes northwest of my apartment, and there's usually one or two people selling handmade jewelry/candles at the churchfront. I've never been inside, but the outside is quite pretty I think:


Iglesia San Jóse de la Montaña

That church is on the corner of Benjamin Franklin y Patriotismo. If you take Patriotismo south, you'll pass my street, Jose Marti, and begin to see the World Trade Center in D.F. It's about a 10 minute walk southeast from my apartment, and a very impressive building. Impossible to fit the whole building into one picture, though!

World Trade Center, D.F.

North of my apartment, there is a neighborhood called Condesa. Condesa is a district with a lot of restaurants, yoga studios, and little boutique shops. Upon entering Condesa, there is a street called Amsterdam, which runs in a big oval around a park called Parque Mexico--a lovely place to walk and run.

"You are now entering Condesa."

The fountain picture above is on the street Amsterdam. Also on this street is one of my favorite restaurants/juice bars, Frutos Prohibidos. In my opinion, they make some of the the best juices in the city. Crossing Amsterdam will lead you to Ave. Mexico, which hugs Parque Mexico. The park is a great place to enjoy the trees and breathe in some fresh air.

Along the walking paths in Parque Mexico

The pond in Parque Mexico--a good place to stop, rest, and feed the ducks. Careful, the ducks are a bit food-aggressive!

Attack-duck

I love how green Condesa is. Nestled in the center of the concrete jungle known as D.F., it's a nice little oasis to get some nature, beauty, and fresh air. And, it's only about 15 minutes from my apartment!

I haven't done much exploring directly east or west, because those areas are mainly office buildings and aren't so scenic. If I discover something noteworthy in those areas, I'll add an update to this post!

Letter Home

So, it's only been about 2000 years since my last post, and unfortunately, I don't have anything too exciting to report today. Earlier this month, as some of you know, my grandfather passed away and I flew back to Iowa just in time to say goodbye. I'm glad I had that opportunity, and I was really happy and blessed to see my family, despite it being a sad time.

I came back to D.F. on Thursday, June 13th, and it's been a whirlwind of work since then. I now teach 8 groups a week, which is 36 hours. I spend a lot of time commuting (approximately 18 hours every week), as this city is huge. On Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, I walk to and from work in Polanco in the mornings, which takes about 45 minutes. Every weekday afternoon/night, and Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I walk 30 minutes and bus for 15 minutes to and from work in Del Valle. So, 54 hours of my week are dedicated getting to/from work and teaching. (Not counting lesson prep time, which I arrive at least a half hour early for). My earliest class starts at 7 am, and my latest class ends at 9:45 pm. As you can see, I'm left with little time to play tourist, and usually try to catch up on sleep whenever I get the chance.

Sunday is my one free day, which is when I usually can get out and enjoy life a bit. Tomorrow's Sunday, though, is going to be an indoor day. Here in D.F., it's been raining like crazy for the past four days--courtesy of Tropical Storm Barry. Even though we're about 4 hours from the Gulf, we're still feeling some of the effects from the storm. The rain will continue tomorrow. It could be a good day to visit museums, if I can muster up the will to walk for awhile in the rain sans umbrella. We'll see. Today, I appreciate the rain. It gives me an opportunity to do things that I've been needing to do--like clean my apartment, call my parents, make a blog post letting everybody know I'm still alive...There's a chance I'll go with some friends to see a movie tonight, if the rain lets up long enough for me to walk to the subway. I've been sick since Thursday, a mix of cold rain and bad drinking water, and I want to try to avoid walking in the rain whenever I can.

In four days, I'll be on my way to Colorado: Mom's getting married!! I'll be there for 10 days, so this is my last full weekend in D.F. until mid-July. If I do get a chance to post about any random excursions here, I'll definitely do so. If not, well....I'll be back soon enough :)

All the best!

XOXO

-Haley