Weekend to Veracruz area!

Last Friday for some reason we had the day off, so most of us took off for the area around Veracruz. We had to catch a lot of buses to make it to our first destination, Tlapacoyan. On the way there the roads are really windy and extremely tiny, I believe at least two of the girls threw up...Our bus collided with another bus and the bus drivers' mirror was completely ripped off. If you would see this road you would wonder why this isn't happening every five seconds, especially since no one really drives in their lane. Honestly it will be a two lane road with traffic going in both directions and three cars will be driving side by side. Anyway, the hilarious part is that the bus driver didn't even say anything. He just kept driving along like this happens all the time, no big deal. Then when we arrived at the bus station he and his buddies tried to attach their own 'mirror' to the side of the bus, but in the process it broke into several pieces. They even continued trying to work with the broken mirror. I don't know what happened in the end, but it was pretty dang funny.

In Tlapacoyan we went white water rafting. It was awesome! We were able to swim with waterfalls and do a little cliff jumping. It was beautiful and we all felt like we were in the middle of the jungle. It was sooo GREEN. To reach one of the areas where we went cliff jumping we had to walk through this cave type area and climb up some rock. It felt incredible to have rock underneath my fingertips again. I definitely miss climbing. The rafting lasted about four hours. I enjoyed every second of it!


After white water rafting we caught another bus, which took us to the town of Casitas. Literally a one road town. We spent the rest of the weekend there at the beach of Costa Esmeralda. I love this town. I met some old ladies that totally hooked me up with food and because they liked me and I talked with them for awhile they hooked everyone else up too. They made some awesome, but super greasy food. During the nights this taco guy would open up and I literally have never put anything better in my mouth. I am going to crave those tacos for the rest of my life. I got talking with the taco guy and I loved his green sauce, so he asked me if I wanted to learn how to make it. Freak ya! It was so simple too! Onions, green chile pepper, avacado, cilantro, and water. Very simple! During the days we spent our time at the beach. Not the prettiest beach I have ever seen, but very enjoyable. I found that if I talked to all of the vendors for a little while they would give me free food or drinks. It was awesome, and the rest of the group definitely appreciated it because they all got to try some of my free stuff. I tried some amazing corn bread and some fresh coca nut milk and coca nut. The coca nut wasn't very good and was so glad that I didn't have to pay for it. Being at the beach was so relaxing, I was able to play in the sand, the water, and read part of the second hunger games book.

On Sunday, a group of five of us headed to Tajin where there are some impressive pyramids. If you know me, you will know that I was in heaven. We went on the perfect day too because the day we chose to come was also the day where they do this super amazing ritual, but they only do it once a year, June 19. It was a purification ritual and there was so many people dressed in traditional clothing. They all got in a circle in front of the main pyramid: los nichos. Old ladies were walking around burning some kind of plants and sprinkling water on everyone. The speaker was speaking in Spanish and Mayan. After this part of the ritual they went to go cut down a tree and then they were going to drag it back to the pyramids and the flyers were going to climb up it and fly down it.We didn't have enough time to stay for this part of the ceremony. We had to go back to Casitas to pick up our suitcases and catch the bus back home.  Apparently this part of the ceremony is really beautiful and impressive, I'm sad I missed it. One of the guys told me that they were going to kill or maybe sacrifice chickens...I'm hoping I heard this part wrong. I loved these Mayan pyramids. I seriously could have spent the rest of my time here. It was breathtaking. I just don't understand how the Mayans did it. Incredible!

We we got back to Casitas around 1 or 2ish we gathered our things and headed for the beach. We just hung out there for a few hours and then we all took our buses and headed home. I left around 5, but didn't make it back to Tehuacan until 12:45ish. Long trip, but worth it!

The Different Things

As I would expect, the daily life is very different here. Although I completely agree that differences can be a good thing, some of them are very funny.

1. Instead of a tooth fairy who leaves behind money for a lost tooth, they believe in a rat who replaces the tooth with money.

2. They are very positive people and put on spin on something disgusting. Apparently, walking in poo will bring you luck and riches.

3. Crepes at the movies are magical.

4. All of the houses are completely gated and locked up. No chance of even parkouring my way over these walls.

5. The cops don't pull you over, ever...even if you speed past them.

6. My Discovery kids where full on sweats to school. It is freaking hot!!! I about die every time when I see them.

7. Even though there all Sam's Club and sister Walmart stores, the people would rather go to the local markets to buy there food. They do buy some things there like cereal.

8. When you buy your food at the market, don't expect it to be refrigerated. It will be just chilling on the counter...yum!

9. There are people that ride around on motorcycles trying to sell things. They use a megaphone which make them all sound like Darth Vader.

10. Walking around the house barefoot is equivalent to behaving like a dirty dog. Socks don't even cut it. You have to wear shoes....I think this is because the entire house is made of tile and they are afraid that if you don't wear shoes you will fall and die.

There are a million other differences, so I will write another post about them later.

Daily Life

As of right now my days go like this:

7:45: wake up
9:00: zumba
10:00 go to the market with my mom
1:30 go to Discovery and teach
3:30 go home for la comida
5:30 go to Help and teach
7:30 go home and hang with the fam.

Everyday I have to walk to Discovery and some times Help. Here are some pictures of the schools I teach out and the route I walk everyday.

 This is the apartment where the head teacher, her husband, and Megan live. Miss Tere is la duena of the apartment. She is going to teach me how to make agua de horchata!! I sometimes have to crash here. After we all came back from our first vacation I was locked out of my house, so I spent the night here.

 They keep places (houses, schools, etc.) really locked up here.

 The pictures above are of Discovery and Below are of Help.

 This is my little classroom. :)

 The walk to school...

I love how the streets are tiled and so are the sidewalks. That's too much work for me!

My home

Here are a few pics. of my bedroom and bathroom. My bedroom is pretty darn big! The bathrooms here are pretty funny. There is no separation between the toilet, sink, and shower. It's actually pretty continent. If I have to go while I'm taking a shower I don't have to worry about getting out of the shower and getting everything all wet...

Tamales

I am in love with the food here! It is so wonderful! So far, my favorite food here are the tamales. There are at least two different kinds tamale con mole and tamale dulce. The tamale con mole that I tried was wrapped in a banana peel and it was huge! Tamale con mole is my favorite. The tamale dulce tastes like corn bread and it was wrapped in a corn husk. Both pretty delicious! It's my goal to learn how to make them.

My home

These are some pictures of the outside of my house.

Oaxoaca y Hualtulco

 My first (and only go) at eating cricket omelet!


Las ruinas de monte Alban:

We are given a few weekends for vacation while I am here and since I got here right before a holiday, Cinco de Mayo, we had our first vacation right away. On a side note, I am very upset that Cinco de Mayo is no big thing here. I think Mother's Day had more action...There is a parade in Puebla, the city where the battle took place, but I didn't get a chance to go because we went on vaca. First we went to Oaxoaca (above) where we saw some pretty cool ruins. However, nothing in comparison to Tulum y Chichen Itza.

Then we went to Hualtulco and went to two different beaches. it was no easy adventure getting to Hualtulco. We had to go up and down a mountain where it was constant switch backs for about four hours. These switch backs were worse than the switch backs in the Grand Canyon. Not to mention every two minutes we went over at least two speed bumps. It was a horrible ride! One of my really good friend's threw up. Then when we were almost an hour from being out of the mountain, there was a huge accident and we couldn't pass. There has got to be hundreds and hundreds of accidents there all the time because they are constantly trying to pass each other on the tiniest two lane road. Anyway, we had to wait about another four hours just chilling in the darkness of the jungle until they took care of the accident. Our driver and I walked up to see the accident and it was a huge bus with this tiny tiny truck. They were completely t-boned. It looked pretty bad, but I don't think anyone was hurt. When we finally got to Hualtulco we still didn't have anywhere to stay and it was way late! We found this awesome guy who took us to some apartments that cost about $12 a night. They were legit with two rooms, bathroom, kitchen, and a swimming pool. We went shopping at an artisan market, but I didn't buy anything because of course I got lost and then spent my time searching for our apartment. haha. Don't worry mother, it wasn't too hard to find. Well, when it was time to go back we had to pass through those dreaded mountains again, but thank goodness this time there was no accident, so it only took us 4 slightly miserable hours to get out of the mountains. Although, it was definitely worth it! We had a blast!

La boca nada: where we boogie boarded and had an intense mud fight:

La entrega: where I enjoyed a beautiful pina colada and we snorkled!