Salsa and Hiking

Last Saturday was a fun salsa and cumbia dancing night with the group from my old salsa class. I haven't continued with the classes, but I have gotten more practice in just regular social situations. It was fun to see my friends again, and hopefully now that the holiday seasons are over, we will have more get-togethers.



On Sunday, some friends and I went hiking up a local hill. Apparently, just two years ago it was pretty undeveloped and much better forested. Now, however, there are fields all the way up, random burning (preparation for more fields, I assume), and expensive housing developments right at the base. Here is the view of Popo, from the top of the hill.

Double Birthday Party and Circus

One of the researchers I work with had his birthday last Tuesday, and another guy in my office has his this Tuesday, so we threw a double birthday party on Saturday--bowling first followed by dinner. It was a cheese / cold-cut / wine thing, which was pretty good.



For the cake last Tuesday, we used one candle for every year...so we basically had a bonfire going!


*Original picture courtesy of my counterpart

Sunday I went with a friend to a traveling circus, put up in front of one of the many local malls. This one, though, has a lot of history--it was the Circo Atayde Hermanos, founded in Mexico in 1888! It was pretty cool, in the style of Cirque de Soleil (clowns, acrobatics, etc.), though I don't think it was as technical or complicated. One of my favorite acts:

Christmas, and a New Year's trip

This is a bit late, but I forgot to post before I headed out of town again. And this is going to be loooonnnnggg. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year as well!

For Christmas, I was invited over to a friend's house for dinner. Christmas and New Year's are both family events here in México, and last year I was on the road so didn't get a Christmas dinner. This year, it just happened that Christmas fell between my two trips, so I got to see a "real" Christmas. It was pretty relaxed, just hanging out with family, until midnight hit. Then everyone gives a round of hugs, wishes you well, and exchanges gifts! It was pretty interesting, and it beats trying to wake up early as a kid to see what Santa brought!

Right before New Year's, I headed out east to meet up with some PC friends from my group; my last big trip as a PCV. I hadn't seen these guys since May, June, or July, and we all wanted to meet up somewhere warm--and the beaches on the east coast won out!



My favorite beaches were at Tulum and Playa del Carmen...though I think the edge goes to Tulum because there were less people. The boardwalk at Playa felt like I was in Miami or something, just tons of tourists, stores, and really elevated prices (and prices were in US dollars / Euros and US ATMs!!).



Cancun was just plain crowded (and expensive like Playa). But the water and sandy beaches were just gorgeous in all of these places.

We also saw a couple sets of ruins (Tulum, Cobá, and Chichén Itzá). Tulum had the most beautiful setting (on the beach), Cobá was in the jungle, and Chichén was bigger / in better shape.

Snorkeling in Tulum was fun, and we got this great shot of the ruins above the surf.



Viewof the main pyramid at Cobá.



One of the carvings at Chichén. I was amazed at how well preserved they were.



Artistic shot of the Templo of Kukulcán, the main site at Chichén.



We also got to swim in a couple of cenotes, which are underground lakes or springs that the Mayans treated as holy sites. The water was really clean, and you could tell the difference from the ocean--it was much harder to float! So they had ropes spanning the cenotes to rest on.



Random things from the trip:
-People in the Yucatan still speak Mayan! So that Mel Gibson movie, Apocalypto, yeah, these guys understand every word without the subtitles.
-We met a random Swiss girl in Cobá, and she travelled with us for four or five days. It was cool to hear about all her other travels and see her perspective. With all the Europeans we've met on our rural travels, I've realized that Americans really travel differently than Europeans...

I had a great time, and it shows. When I went to the corner store today to stock back up on groceries, the first comment from the owner was, you went to the beach!? You look really tan! Haha.