Tepoztlan

Happy Labor Day everyone! Oh, except in the states you have to wait until September... Happy Labor Day to everyone in Mexico, most (all?) South American countries, and most Western European countries, and happy May Day to those in the states! Holidays all around. Seeing as I almost never have a week-day off, I thought it would be a great idea to get out of town for the day. Apparently, everybody else in Mexico City shared my idea. I left my apartment this morning with no small level of bull-headedness: I was going to catch a bus to Tepoztlan, a small "pueblo magico" that I've been wanting to visit for a year, no matter what. I arrived early to the bus station, but it was packed, even before 8 am. After waiting in line forever, I finally got a ticket to go. It took about two and a half hours to arrive to a place supposedly 45 minutes away, since there was so much traffic going out of the city. Let's not travel on holidays anymore.

Luckily, the bus was clean and comfortable, and even had a movie playing! Too bad they chose to play "127 Hours", on a bus full of people who were going to go hiking. That was mean. Still, the bus dropped me off just outside of Tepoztlan shortly after 10, and from there I was able to walk to the city. (Mostly I was just lucky in guessing which direction to walk along the highway). Upon arriving, I fell in love with the town. Here's why:

The main square has a very old and beautiful church and ex-convent.

The front of the church 

Inside the ex-convent, there were beautiful wall murals, although I didn't fully
understand the relevance of some of the artwork. I'll get to that in a minute.

I think I could live here.

Some of the artwork in the Ex-Convento de la Natividad. It's cool, sure, unique. But
how is it related to the ex-convent? If someone could explain this to me, that'd be super.

The inside of the church. I've found that the ones that aren't particularly awe-inspiring
on the outside can be some of the most surprisingly gorgeous ones on the inside.

After visiting the church and ex-convent, it was time to visit the main attraction of Tepoztlan: El Tepozteco, a pyramid at the top of a mountain just next to the city. I walked along the main avenue, which let me straight to the trailhead.

Tepoztlan's main avenue. Tepoztlan has no cement or asphalt streets, and no buildings
taller than 2 or 3 floors. The town is colorful, calm, and has an old-timey feeling to it.

Towards the beginning of the trail. This looks easy enough!

The rest of the trail. Oh my god, why is it so steep and when did I get so out of shape?!

Towards the top of the mountain, these creatures appeared!

I later learned that these creatures are called 'coatimundi' or 'coati' and are in the raccoon family.

And they love when humans share their food...

 Now let me tell you a coati story. I was beyond excited to discover small cat-like creatures at the end of my hike. They came right up to people, weren't shy at all, super cute and friendly.....and apparently, giant bullies and awful thieves.

So I'm all goo-goo eyes over these strange but cute little creatures, and I think it would be a nice gesture on my part to offer a piece of my granola bar. Then I could have all the coati friends! So I dig through my bag and pull one out. I put my bag on the ground, and one coati immediately dives in to my bag. (Think cats and cardboard boxes). Instead of trying to pull a strange animal out of my purse, I think it's a better idea to persuade him with a little food. The wrapper crinkles as I'm trying to open it, and all of a sudden the coati is climbing up my leg! I didn't know if they bit, but the claws were sure sharp. As soon as the claws touched somewhere they really shouldn't have, I panicked and threw the entire granola bar down in front of me. And started an almost-to-the-death coati fight between 3 of them. They were so aggressive with each other; these seemingly cute and sweet creatures had a dreadful dark side! And they stole my lunch. And didn't give me the wrapper back, which essentially forced me to litter. Moral of the story: these creatures aren't really your friends.

The reward at the end of the hike, the Tepozteco pyramid

The view of Tepoztlan, as seen from the Tepozteco pyramid

Who's this sunburned blonde girl in the way of the view?

If you didn't want to pay 43 pesos to climb on the pyramid, you could
hang out down there and have lunch with the coati. Bad choice, I imagine.

That marks the last interesting point of my day. Unless, of course, you're interested in the ice cream at Tepoznieves. You really haven't experienced Tepoztlan until you've eaten at their famous ice cream store. (I'm talking rose-petal flavored ice cream, people). But, I never have my food in front of me long enough to take pictures of it, so you'll just have to use your imagination. Post-ice cream, I decided I had enough sugar to walk back up to the bus station and catch a ride home. Aaand that marks the end of my day in Tepoztlan.

Hiking Iztaccihuatl: The "Sleeping Woman" Volcano

.....Guess who's back? Seeing as it's been more than 4 months(!) since my last post, I thought it was high time to arrange another adventure in Mexico. The trouble is, most of the places I want to go to in Mexico now are much easier or better to go to with a group, and getting a group together requires more effort than I've been willing to put forth lately. Except for yesterday.

If you remember back to my last post, waaaay back in early January, I told you that I was going to hike the volcanoes sometime this year. And friends, that was no lie. (Except for the fact that I said 'volcanoes,' meaning both of them. At the time, I didn't realize it's been prohibited to hike Popocatepetl for the last 20 years). Getting to Iztaccihuatl, the dormant volcano that can be seen to the south of Mexico City, was tricky. I was lucky enough to go with 3 friends, who all speak fluent Spanish, and we were able to figure out how to make our way around volcano-town.

Our day started around 7 am, when we began meeting up with each other in the subway and the TAPO bus station in the eastern part of the city. We caught a bus to Amecameca at a little after 8 in the morning, and arrived there around 9:45. With food being the first thing on our minds, we stopped in the little market for a quesadilla breakfast.

The market in Amecameca. Our breakfast place was the one on
the right side, with the metal-shack roofing and the orange signs.

After our bellies were full of quesadillas, coffee, and tamarind-water, we negotiated with a taxi driver to take us up to the trailhead at La Joya. The drive took a little over an hour on winding mountain roads with hairpin turns, and the last 7 kilometers turned into an unmaintained dirt road where cars average less than 10 miles per hour.

It was okay, though, because our taxi driver had Captain America on the dashboard, watching over us.

Just before the road turned into dirt, we stopped to buy our permits
to go up the mountain at the Izta-Popo National Park Headquarters.

The view of Popocatepetl from the Park Headquarters

The view of Iztaccihuatl from the Park Headquarters

Our hiking group

Izta, from where we started.

Looking back down the trail towards the valley of Mexico.

Myself, and Popocatepetl in the background

Our hiking group, after getting our asses kicked by all the uphill work. The views were worth it.

The view of Popocatepetl after hiking about 60 - 90 minutes up Iztaccihuatl.

There's snow in Mexico? There's SNOW in Mexico?!? (Thankfully, only on the volcanoes.)

Continuing past the treeline, the mountain became mainly rock and dirt.

The higher we climbed, the steeper and colder it got (obviously). Notice how the gloves and thicker jacket came out?

After hiking about 3 and a half hours up the volcano, we were in the clouds. It
was certainly below freezing, but again, worth it. I only wish I'd brought a hat.

 After 3.5 hours, it was time to head back down. We were all suffering from being underdressed for the cold, and our taxi was supposed to meet us at 6:30.

On the way back down Izta, we ran into a group with 6 dogs, including THE softest and sweetest
husky puppy that I've ever seen. I had to steal their dog just for a minute, for cuddles and a picture.

We were glad we descended when we did. The clouds took over and the rain started around 5 pm.

At the base of the mountain, we tried to start a fire. It worked, for about 5 minutes, but rain kind of ruined it.

 Our taxi was supposed to be back around 6:30. In Mexico, though, these things are never certain, and since there was only one road, we decided to hitch a ride (OMG so sorry mom and dad!) in the back of a truck until we either saw our taxi coming up the road or made it to the Park Headquarters.

3 of us hanging on for dear life as the truck scrambled down the bumpy mountain road.

Since riding in the back of a truck in the rain at high altitudes may or may not make someone lose all feeling in their hands, arms, face, ears, and legs, I had to re-teach myself how to move after getting (falling) out of the truck when we stopped at the Park Headquarters. I never knew how much I could appreciate the hot mud-coffee they served there.

Side note: Just as I was writing here, a strong earthquake struck in DF. Obviously, everything seems to be okay, otherwise I wouldn't be blogging right now. Still, everyone here knows I'm a giant baby about earthquakes. Thank you Ana, the nicest roommate ever, who called and texted to check on me right after it happened, even though you're on vacaton! 

Aaaaanyways.....The taxi did come to pick us up at the Park Headquarters, and we found out that they weren't letting anybody up the dirt road, so it was actually lucky that we hitched a ride down! The nice, warm taxi took us all the way back down to our bus station in Amecameca. We grabbed dinner at the Chinese buffet adjacent to the station before getting our tickets to go home. Luckily, buses come every 15 minutes, so we were headed back to DF shortly after 8 pm. I was home, muddy and exhausted, by 10:30. Who knew you could get a beautiful, challenging, Rocky-Mountain-esque hike making only a day trip from DF?

The Basilica of Guadalupe

Another day, another adventure here in DF! To take advantage of this sunny Monday morning, I jumped on the Metrobus and took off to the famous La Villa, a site that contains several churches and religious buildings. The Basilica of Guadalupe, the most famous site in La Villa, is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Roman Catholic religion. Every year, millions of people make a pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay homage to the Virgin Mary on December 12th. It is believed that Mary appeared there (about 500 years ago) to Saint Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, and she asked him to build a temple for her.

"I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection. Because I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; to listen there to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows. And to accomplish what my clemency pretends, go to the palace of the bishop of Mexico, and you will say to him that I manifest my great desire, that here on this plain a temple be built to me."  (From http://www.sancta.org/basilica.html)

People now walk for days to visit this site, coming from states all over Mexico, and many walk the last few miles on their knees. Today during my visit, I saw a few people walking on their knees in the square in front of the Basilica. Maybe they're starting early this year?

The new Basilica, where people make a pilgrimage each December. See the man in the red shirt walking on his knees?

The old Basilica, where construction began in 1531. 

The front facade of the old Basilica.

The front of the new Basilica

Inside the old Basilica, a beautiful building with marble shrines and large paintings on the walls.

One of the paintings in the old Basilica.

Another section of the old Basilica, with a small golden chapel inside, connecting the two larger buildings.

The small golden chapel between the two larger parts of the old Basilica.

In the picture of the full outside of the Basilica, this is
the inside of the building on the right side of the church.

The inside of the new Basilica. I didn't want to take too many pictures during mass, but I had to
 snap at least one to show you! Besides, they have mass every hour on the hour from 6 in the morning
until 8 at night, so there's really no time that could I get a picture without people worshiping in it...

Behind the old Basilica, and up several flights of stairs, is the Capilla
de Cerrito. From there, you can get a great view of all Mexico City.

In front of the Capilla de Cerrito, there are four statues of the angels Gabriel, Uriel, Michael, and Raphael.
But, ever since I've started watching Dr. Who, I'm terrified of angel statues. And I never blink.

The view from the Capilla del Cerrito. You can't see in the picture,
but in real life, you can see the mountains surrounding the city.

The shrine to the Virgin Mary, where Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin
 is said to have seen an apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

The Capilla del Pocito, the last stop of my day in La Villa. 

From there, it was only a 15-minute walk to the Metrobus station, where I was able to take a direct bus for about 45 minutes back to my apartment. But, not before grabbing a delicious horchata-water to quench my thirst from walking all over La Villa! (For those who don't know what horchata-water is, it's a sweet and yummy milky water made from rice, almonds, and cinnamon. It tastes like the nectar of fairy kisses, unicorn tears, and essence of rainbow. It's that good.) After shooting a half-liter of horchata directly into my veins, I jumped on the Metrobus and witnessed two ladies get into a hair-pulling and face-slapping fight over a box. Jerry Springer should have been there. The police even escorted them off the bus! Oh yes, it's the little things that keep Mexico City an everyday adventure.