Local parties and Jaripeo´s

This week there have been a couple of local festivals. Tuesday was the day of the saint in a neighboring church, so they were going to throw a fair. I showed up around 6 PM, thinking that it was an all-day event, but it turned out to only be an evening thing...and 6 PM is too early to be called evening in México. With the looming rain, I sadly left and missed out on the festivities. Here is a picture of me watching a local watch some workers watch other workers unloading the truck.



However, on Wednesday, in the exact same spot, they had a jaripeo, or a rodeo! I haven´t been to one in México, so I went to watch. They had some loud music (a staple in all local festivals) and bull-riders. Some of the bulls weren´t too energetic, but some really made the riders work. Sorry, the action doesn´t start until 1:30 into the video.



Later that evening, I headed over with some friends to another church, where there were bands playing cumbia andina, a type of cumbia from South America. Apparently it kept going until well past 1:30 AM, but I had already hit the sack by that time.

Paso de Cortés

We went up to the Paso de Cortés, between the two volcanoes that you can see from my site, Popo and Izta for short. It is how Cortés traveled from Puebla to México City when he was conquering the natives. Unfortunately we didn´t realize how far it was from the city, so we only got to spend a couple hours hiking in the pass. There are supposed to be a couple of waterfalls, so I will have to go back sometime. Here, the flags of CONANP (like our National Park Service), México, and the National Park of the two volanoes is backdropped by the cloud-covered Popo.



Also, I snapped this picture last week. There is a local church famous for its interior decorations (no pictures allowed inside, so no evidence here). Inside it is full of this amazing handwork on all the walls and ceiling. They manually ring their bells, though, so this poor guy was up in the bell tower trying to cover one ear while ringing the bell with his other hand.

New Site

So a couple weeks ago I moved to a new site, and I´ve been settling in. It´s definitely much easier the second time around...I understand the bus system, just not the local routes, and with an upgraded language ability I can communicate fairly well with the people.

This is the view from my small town. This is an active volcano, called Popo for short. You can hike near the volcano, but I´m not sure if you´re allowed to hike up this one. Some of the inactive volcanoes in the area you´re allowed to hike up with a permit and appropriate gear.



Also, I went to a local museum a couple weekends ago that has some really interesting pre-Hispanic artifacts. Skulls and death are important, as shown by Day of the Dead and the Katrina figurine that are popular all over México.

Fails

If any of you surf epicfail.com or failblog.org, you'll know a new fad is random pictures of things that don't make any sense. The pictures and videos are pretty funny, so I wanted to post some of the things that I've seen in México.

They were doing construction on my office...this guy is hooked up to a safety harness, which is good. But look closer at how long the harness cable is...



This is a kindergarten in Puebla...obviously the razor wire is only for the really bad kids...



A restaurant in Monterrey. No smoking, but they'll sell you the cigarettes anyways.

Busy two weeks

I had planned on coming back home last weekend between trips, but I had an unexpected opportunity to attend a course, so I jumped on it. So my last two weeks have been fairly busy:

I first went to a small community where a fellow volunteer had organized a two-day leadership conference. Both days about 30-40 people showed up, which was a great turn-out! There were probably less than 300 people living in the community, and it was great seeing how the "other half" of Peace Corps volunteers lives.



I then went down to Puebla, where a CONACYT center was hosting a four-day course called "Fundamentals of Business for Scientists". It was very interesting meeting the mix of people at the course and seeing a different center. I also had the chance to hang out with a volunteer stationed in Puebla. The big attraction there is a pyramid in the suburb of Cholula, where you used to be able to go into the tunnels under the pyramid. BUT, they had water damage in November, so they tunnels have been closed down...bummer!



Our group then had our mid-service training in Queretaro. One full year of service--done! One more year left! The time has flown by, and it was great seeing all the other volunteers and talking about our experiences.

Sierra Gorda Biosphere

This past week I again had the opportunity to visit the Sierra Gorda Biosphere in the north of Querétaro. I am helping some of the volunteers there on a project with remote wildlife cameras--basically sensors attached to a digital camera that takes pictures of critters in the wild. The hope is that they can get some good shots of the jaguars, etc., that populate the park. This is a rooftop shot of the main church where the volunteers life.



Also, we stumbled upon a barrio festival one night! There was a big band, two stages, and lots of people dancing huapango, the music of the region.



One day we also went swimming in a local river. I caught this ironically funny shot, though it is slightly unfair. These three kids were playing with an air mattress in the river, and of course the two girls are pushing it upstream while the guy is relaxing on top. I say unfair, because he jumped off about a minute later to help pull...but he still got a free ride for a while!

Summer heat

I had forgotten about how hot it gets here in the summer. Then summer came a couple of weeks ago. And it's not even really that hot yet (highs in the low 30's). It makes me not want to do anything at ALL during the day, except find somewhere indoors and preferably with air conditioning. Thus, I'm hiding today from the heat and have nothing of cultural value to share about México.

Okay, so I do have some little tidbits. Yesterday (Apr 30) was the "Day of the kids" in México, which means that at my office, they were handing out bags of candy for the employees who have kids. Now, I´ve never seen anything like this in the US (parents will probably tell you every day is "Kid´s day"), so it´s a pretty unique tradition. Also, today (May 1) is Labor Day, as in the rest of the world outside of the US. Unfortunately, it is a Saturday, so most people (like me) do not get an extra holiday. In fact, the holiday schedule is very random and not at all standardized. I have heard of some offices getting yesterday off (for Labor Day), other offices getting Monday off (for Labor Day), some offices getting May 5 off (Cinco de Mayo), and some places getting Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off to take care of both holidays. My office? We get Wednesday off for Cinco de Mayo, and nothing else.