Weekend trip--AMAZING!

This past weekend I met up with a fellow volunteer in the State of Mexico, which is west of Mexico City. We went for one reason--Piedra Herrada, one of the few Monarch Butterfly Reserves in Mexico (and the only one not in / near Michoacan state...which is a bit dangerous right now). Monarch butterflies spend their springs / summers / falls in the US and Canada, but every fourth or fifth generation makes it way back to Mexico in the winter. This generation somehow returns to the EXACT SAME SPOT where its ancestors were born, four or five generations earlier! Scientists still don't know how the whole process works. This migratory generation doesn't eat for six or so months--they only will drink water--and by living six-ish months, they shatter the standard lifespan of a Monarch butterfly (less than two months). More can be found here. It was an incredible experience to see the ten to fifteen million butterflies that were in this small reserve. They looked like oak leaves flying in the sky, and their flapping could be heard on the quiet mountainside (not audible in the video...too bad). And yes, every single one of those things that you think is a butterfly, is a butterfly.



Here is a picture of a male (right) and female (left). The male is distinguished by the two small, black dots within its wing pattern (near the guy's thumb).



Also, Monday night happened to be a lunar eclipse! We got up early (or late) to take a look, and I tried my hand at night-pictures. This is one of the few that turned out good, and it is by far my favorite. Yes, the moon turned red!

Random week

Last Sunday (the 12th) was the day of the Virgen of Guadalupe...basically the most celebrated religious figure in Mexico. Last year I was in a not-very religious part of the country, so I had no idea how big this day was. But people from all over make a pilgramage on this day to the Bascilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Some walk, some ride bikes, and these pilgramages can last two to three days (one-way; most people who walk get rides back). On Sunday some fellow vols and I headed to a local park for a hike, and we saw people returning from their pilgramages--both biking and walking!



Today we have a Christmas posada, or party, at a coworker's house. Along with another colleague, I am responsible for the piñata! So here is my contribution...soon to be broken with the candy all over the place.

Navidad is in the air

Last night, I went to a pre-posada (a pre-Christmas party) at work, where I practiced my dancing non-skills. Official "posadas" don't start until the 15th, so it's not like we will have another one!

My neighborhood has put up its Christmas tree in front of our church. Here is Christmas in the rancho...tree, church, bell-tower, and kid cowboy.



Also, a friend opened up a local cafe to try and capture the student population. I stopped by to pick up a snack last night, and on my take-out bag was hand-written the ingredients! I thought it was a cool attention to detail, and probably a lot of work for her to write these out beforehand on each bag.

Wine tasting

Friday night I had the chance to attend a wine tasting with a Venezuelan sommelier who lives in Mexico. He brought with him three types of Mexican wine--apparently the state of Baja California is home to most of Mexico's wine industry (in addition to the states of Coahuila and Queretaro). I enjoyed learning about the different types of grapes and how to tell qualities of the wine from color, odor, and density. No pictures, but it was a great learning experience!

Christmas season and mountain biking

Saturday I headed to the nearby Zocalo and saw the city putting up its Christmas decorations! Not sure if this is only for this week (there were some youth choirs / orchestras on Sunday playing in front of this tree), but I'm pretty sure it will stay all month.



Also, I was invited by a Mexican friend to go on a bike ride (not a race) with him on Saturday night. I've never done anything like it, so I of course agreed. It wound up being a tough (for me) 21 km ride at night, up and down some small hills. I started out okay, but I ran out of gas on the return trip and wound up lagging behind the rest of the group...luckily the pro's and guides were pretty nice about helping me along and making sure I didn't get lost in the dark! I am a bit sore, but not as bad as I thought I would be--and of course I wore my helmet!

Concierto de las Campanas

So the Concert of the Bells was last night in Cholula. There are approximately fifty churches in the immediate area, and on this night, they all play together for an hour. I had thought it would be really organized and synchronized to some sort of musical score, but it turned out a bit random. The famous church in Cholula is up on a hill, overlooking the city, and so I headed up there for the concert. It was hard to hear the churches further away, but you can catch some on this video if you pay attention.



Yesterday (Nov 20th) was also the 100 year anniversay of the Mexican Revolution, so there have been a ton of other festivities as well.

Weekend chess tournament

Last weekend I wound up going to a chess tournament, which was kind of fun. I lost every match I played in, but I learned some interesting differences compared to back in the day...

1) People here don't say "check." Now, I've never actually played in a tournament, so maybe that's normal internationally?
2) The Mexican version of "bug house" is called "taxi" and is different from what I used to play, which threw me off a lot. The general idea is the same (teams of two, and when you capture a piece you pass it to your partner), but there are (at least) three different local rules that changed the game:

• They play with a 3 minute clock (as per the Wikipedia description). But this meant that every game ended on the clock, which for me was not as fun...I started playing the clock instead of my opponent.
  
• No putting pieces where the king is in check, which meant a more subtle strategy.
• If you castle, you can remove a piece from your teammate's opponent.
  

Day of the Dead

Sunday I went to a community called Huaquechula, famous for its non-traditional Day of the Dead altars. They tend to be all one color (predominantly white, though we saw one blue one) and a bit more "modern"--angels, etc. You can contrast that with a more traditional Mexican altar (black, orange, and with catrinas), which I saw on Monday in the Casa de la Cultura in Puebla. The event at the Casa was so popular, a line formed outside and down the block!



On Tuesday, I happened to be downtown with a friend, and we walked by the Cathedral. Wondering what the line was all about, we formed up. Apparently once a year they open the crypt below the main pulpit, where they have entombed previous fathers of the church. One time a year!

Dance Party

My salsa class had a get together last night at one of the student's house--her sister takes another class (general "ballroom dance"), and so she invited her classmates too. It was pretty fun, but what really got me was that the first couple of songs were Texas line dance songs!! I think this picture was to the Spanish version of "Achy Breaky Heart."



This entire weekend is also the Mexican version of Halloween (part of the Day of the Dead celebrations); it is nowhere near as organized as in the US, where kids in each neighborhood only come out on a certain day at a certain hour. Here, kids are in the streets, dressed up and asking for candy or money wherever and whenever. These two kids--my salsa teacher's kids--came to class on Thursday.

Day of the Dead 2010

Next week is Day of the Dead in Mexico (Dia de Muertos), which falls on the night of Nov 1 / day of Nov 2. Last year I went to Aguascalientes with some friends for a festival, but this year I will probably try to check out some small pueblitos around here--the region where I live is very traditional, so people say the altars and festivities are very authentic.

On a side note, my Salsa class takes place in the Casa de la Cultura, kind of like a community center. Every class is putting up an altar this week for a competition, and they will be judged on Friday. So, my class put up our altar yesterday! Because of my unique, non-Mexican height, I got to tape up our flower outline, although by today it had mostly fallen down. I get to try and put the flowers back up on Thursday, so we can be judged at our best.



One of the women also made these little muffin people, one for each person in the class. How cool was that!!

Future volunteers

I haven't done much of note this week...yesterday a couple that will be moving here after training came on their site visit. I met up with them downtown, and we walked around a bit and ate. They seem like a really nice couple, very outdoorsy and laid back.

On my way back, I heard a very random thing on the bus...an older woman actually yelled at the driver to drive more carefully!! Bus and car drivers are all pretty reckless by American standards, and I'm glad that Peace Corps does not let us drive. Rules of the road are not followed--a one lane road can easily turn into a two lane road with passing on the left-hand side. Turn signals are rarely used. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. So it was kind of funny to actually hear a Mexican complain about the style of driving...

Mexico City and Kites!

I went to Mexico City on Saturday to try and meet up with a friend, and to check out a photo exhibition of a mutual acquaintance in the Bosque of Chapultepec. Well, due to cell phone troubles and various other reasons, I struck out on both goals!! However, while looking for several asian restaurants in the Zona Rosa (where the US Embassy is), I stumbled across a Korean bakery--it made the whole trip worthwhile! I bought five different types of bread (four of them came in two-packs). The mochi was awesome, as well as two of the other sweet breads. Two of them, however, were just so-so...but mmMMmmmm, I haven't had that kind of bread in a long, long time. I also stopped by a highly-rated Chinese restaurant (some bloggers claim it is the most authentic Chinese restaurant in Mexico City). While it was run by a Chinese person, and it had CCTV (Chinese satellite television), I would only rate it so-so. When you can't get most of the ingredients fresh, it doesn't really matter how good of a cook you are...

While exploring the Bosque of Chapultepec, I snapped this picture of double-Mexican flags.



Sunday, in the morning was the 10th Annual National Kite Contest in Atlixco, where they had the world's largest chile en nogada. National is probably up for debate, but it was a fun event. Atlixco has a big hill in the middle of town with a church on top and an amphitheater on the hillside, and the hilltop gets lots of wind. As a result, only a couple got their kites up high and for longer then a couple of minutes. I snapped this shot of a kite in front of Popo.



Also, there were a lot of Charlie Brown trees getting their full of kites today...

Chess and Safari

Saturday I went back to the big Cultural Complex, where they host a weekend open-chess club / teaching session in the afternoons. I got to play a couple of people, and it was fun to brush up on my skills. Nothing serious, though! They did have these kids playing with giant pieces on the ground, which I thought was a riot...this kid is deep in though.



Today (Sunday), I went to the local safari, Afrikam. You can grab a bus from the city or take your own car, but it's kind of like the San Diego zoo where you can drive around to these open-air zones with different types of animals. We actually had some monkeys jump onto our bus and hitch a ride for a little bit, but I couldn't get any sort of picture or video.

Here you can see some of their tigers taking a siesta. They get to eat 8 kgs of meat, six days a week. Note how they're hugging each other while spooning...



And finally we went to a bird show. This is a Golden Eagle (in Spanish, Aguila Real), which is the eagle on the Mexican flag. I've had the chance to hold a raptor on my arm before, and while birds are fairly light, I can only imagine how much this guy weighs on this poor woman's arm...

Bicentennial

Last Thursday, Sept 16, was Mexican Independence Day. Last year I celebrated with a fellow volunteer in Oaxaca, but this year several of us went to Mexico City to participate in the biggest party of the last 200 years. Not only was it just Independence Day, but it was the 200th anniversary of the Independence from Spain, and the 100th anniversary of the Revolution that ended dictatorship in Mexico. So it was going to be a big party, in the capital of the republic!!

Because of fears of violence on this noteworthy day, there was a ton of security in DF (Mexico City), and they actually limited the number of people allowed into each venue. The main venue, where the Grito is done in the evening of Sept 15 (Viva Mexico!), was the Zocalo, the plaza in front of the federal palace, and only 50,000 people were going to be allowed in. So, we camped out. For five hours or so before the actual event. And even then, we were late and didn't get great spots. But, they had giant screens set up to show the main events, and various bands and dancers to fill the time. I could list all of the things that I saw (floats, dance numbers, giant statues, etc.), but the most impressive was the fireworks display. I heard reports that 16,000 fireworks were used, or 8 tons, but whatever the actual number, the display lasted a good twenty minutes or longer. It was huge! Some random pics and videos of the events follow.









Also, the following day, Sept 16, was the military parade. A huge number of soldiers, medical corps, and students, representing every branch of the Mexican military, paraded through the main streets of the city. Not something you see in the US, but it happens in all the major cities in Mexico for Independence Day. The parade lasted several hours and included their military vehicles, boats, and fly-overs. We must have seen at least 20,000 soldiers marching in DF alone! Even some of the embassies (including the US and China) sent delegations to march. Again, random collection of pics and videos follows.

PCT Visit

This past week two of the new trainees came to visit. These trips are parts of our three month PST to show trainees how volunteers live and work; for mine, I had gone up north to Saltillo.

These two had been out here last week to learn about my primary assignment, so I focused more on the outside-of-work experience. Thursday we had amazingly great weather (it has been raining every day for the last three months!), and so we went for a hike near the two volcanoes, where there is a waterfall called Apatlaco. It's a fun hike. While we stopped for snacks, a hummingbird actually came up to us and hovered behind one of the trainees for a couple seconds--I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and it was a pretty amazing / shocking / hard-to-believe thing. Apparently the other guy who saw the hummingbird and I had such stunned looks on our faces that the trainee thought she had some scary-as-crap animal behind her!



Friday we spent in downtown Puebla, browsing museums and the artisan district. We got caught in a downpour the afternoon as we were coming back for dinner (another party with my friends down the street), and the streets flooded. Here is one of the many rivers that we had to wade through on our way back.



Saturday a friend from my office took us out to this ex-Hacienda northwest of the city called Chautla. The governor used to live there, and now it is open for picnic-ers, fishing, etc. The house had some nice hardwood floors and a great view, but was definitely a fixer-upper.

Random festival and visitors

Last Saturday night I said there was a stage being set up in the center; I actually wound up going. A band started playing around 9:30 PM, with a small crowd. The crowd kept growing, and the band's pyrotechnic guys kept lighting off fireworks. At one point, they introduced these paper-mache bulls with racks of fireworks strung on top...and invited people from the crowd to run around with them!!! So these two guys (one after the other), put the bulls onto their shoulders, lit the fuse, and ran into the crowd. I kid you not. I got some videos from my hiding spot behind the speakers (yes, the speakers are stacked about 3 meters high):



Also, this last week I got to meet some of the new trainees in Group 9! They have been down here for two weeks, and as part of their training, they came down to visit my office. I gave a couple of talks, we got some tours, and we signed the official memo of agreement for my center to accept volunteers. The new group seems really sharp and has some great experience / backgrounds, and I look forward to getting to hang out with them.

Dinners and Chiles en Nogada

Last night (Friday) I had the chance to cook dinner for the family that had me over last week. It was kind of funny--since I don't have a lot of space in my apartment, I had to ask them if I could borrow their kitchen to cook for them. And all week, when I would invite people to the dinner, I'd have to say it was in someone else's house...not a normal party invitation! But it went over well; we had about 10 people, with lots of conversation til past midnight. I have no pictures, but hopefully will get passed some when I get to the office on Monday...

Today, the 28th of August, is the Day of Chiles en Nogada, a famous regional dish that is very popular. It is a chile stuffed with a mixture of fruits, meats, and nuts, topped with a creamy walnut sauce and pomegranate seeds. In a neighboring town, they have what is billed the "Largest Chile en Nogada in the World." It is actually made up of 2000 chiles en nogada and shaped to look like one giant chile. Here is a picture of them making it. This dish is incredibly labor intensive due to the number of ingredients and having to hand-cut them all (you have to remove the inside brown peel on the walnuts, etc.).





And looks like they are setting up for another concert tonight in front of our local church...not sure for what. But I will probably go check it out and see if I recognize anyone from the neighborhood.

Community Integration

One of the aspects that I really like about Peace Corps is the community integration. Many times, I think that Mexicans are more welcoming than Americans. Mexicans have been very welcoming to me as a stranger, and I know other volunteers have similar stories.

Lots of volunteers get invited to visit people's homes or over to dinner (like me going to Acatlan a couple weeks ago). This does happen in the US, but it just feels like a much rarer occurrence, especially for casual or new acquaintances. Case in point--last Friday, we were talking about regional dishes at the office, and on the spur of the moment, I am invited over to someone's house to dinner with their family. How cool is that? Yes, I've been to friends' houses in the US, but it seems like it takes longer for us to warm up to people. And even then, only the closest of friends get the choice treatment. I'm sure lots of factors play into it, but it is interesting to see a cultural difference.

If I take one thing back from my experience, I hope to bring part of this open culture back with me...

Flour carpets--not for my house

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to a pueblo magico called Huamantla. Mexico has various little towns with this designation; usually they have a unique cultural aspect that is very colonial or pre-Hispanic. In Huamantla, they have a long tradition of a festival called La Noche Que Nadie Duerme, or basically the Night Where Nobody Sleeps. I only went during the day (since I had no hotel reservations, I would have had to sleep on the streets, if I slept at all), but I got to check out some of the festivities.

This festival involves building these giant, long "carpets" made of colored sawdust, flour, and flowers throughout all of the major streets (bigger versions of the one two pics shown below). Early in the morning is a parade of the Virgen, which passes over these carpets. Here you can see these guys marking out the carpets near the Zocalo...once they start, you can't even cross the street!



There was also a competition for kids to build a little block of carpet. Here is one of my favorites, because it makes a good cover-picture for La Noche.



During the entire month of August, the town also is hosting its annual feria, or county fair. They had a ton of rides and stands, though things didn't pick up until the evening. There were some very odd looking Disney-themed trash bins, too...

Weekend trip to southern Puebla, Cheese Fair!!

So a very abbreviated account of an awesome weekend:

A fellow volunteer was visiting with a couple of people from his office. I was invited to spend the weekend with them (and I happened to know all of them from before). We spent Friday exploring Puebla and saw several things that I haven't had the chance to visit! One was this house that housed someone during the 1910 Revolution (I have to brush up on the details), and was attacked and shot up. Bullet holes are still present!



We then went down to Acatlan, a decent-sized city in the mountains in southern Puebla state. We stayed with the family of one of the Mexicans in their really nice house. It was the first house that I've seen with lots of big wood supports, etc., which was cool to see. They had these giant moths (as big as my hand!) that they said always show up when it rains.



Saturday we went up to the family's ranch with a ton of their friends (local and from Mexico City). We hiked up a riverbed to try and find a swimming hole, but it was just too dry. Along the way we found a pregnant cow, recently dead, who had tried to push her baby out unsuccessfully. I'll spare the pictures, but the rancher and some of the guys managed to pull the (dead) baby cow out...

Saturday evening we had basically a barbecue at the house with lots of music and eating. It was good times! Some of the hand-made ice cream that we had (melon flavor).



Sunday after returning to my site, the fellow vol and one of the guys from his office went with me to a local fair in my town. Even though it was late, the last day of the fair, and people were closing up their stalls, it was packed!! I had never seen so many people in my little town!

Exploring food

So the theme this week is going to be food. I got to explore a couple of different plates that I enjoyed, really enjoyed, and probably won't eat again.

First, the most interesting, though probably least tasty of the dishes. These are fried maguey worms with guacamole and some sort of mole sauce (was not a big fan, though I normally love mole). Maguey is a type of agave, which is the plant that they make tequila out of. These worms are only harvested during a certain season of the year, so they are one of the regional, seasonal foods. Some others are friend grasshoppers (crunchy and taste like the chili powder they are dusted in), escamole (ant eggs...still want to try these), chiles en nogada (now is the season, though they are eaten cold here...not so great).



Second, I always enjoy cake. We had a birthday at the office this week, so cake is always fashionable.



Lastly, my favorite was a traditional dish called a huarache, which has a tortilla-like base, beans, avocado, tomato, lettuce, onion, topped with meat and salsa to taste. What could be better!?!!?

Cacaxtla

Last Sunday (the 18th), a couple of fellow volunteers were down visiting Puebla. I met up with them at the central bus station, and we headed up to Tlaxcala to visit another volunteer. We then went as a group to Cacaxtla, which is a a set of ruins between Tlaxcala and Puebla. It was only discovered in 1975 and many of the murals are still brightly colored! It was amazing to see how long the paint had lasted!!



If you look at Google Earth, Cacaxtla looks like a giant, white block. Why? Because the Mexicans installed a giant roof over the top of the ruins!



Then on Wednesday, my center hosted a piano concert for one of its summer courses. The husband and wife team played some solos and some duets, and I really enjoyed the music.

Hurricane Alex

So this apparently did not get any news coverage at all in the USA, but Hurricane Alex hit Monterrey, my old site, a couple of weeks ago. Since then, a lot of pictures of the devastation have been floating around via e-mail. It is amazing the amount of water that was dumped on the city and surrounding areas (the bridge picture..that river used to be non-existent and instead was a riverbed about 30-40 feet down). The little pueblitos in the mountains around the city have been completely isolated because the roads all washed out, and they are relying on helicopter drops for food, water, etc. "Only" a few people died, which was amazing, but they could still use a lot of help. If you are interested in helping from the States, the Mexican Consulate has set up a bank account at Wachovia where you can deposit money (account number and news release here at the bottom).