Back to School in México

Well it came to my attention that the reason I was not able to get tickets to Copa America(thus changing my plans) was because Hugo Chavez bought all of the available tickets to give as gifts to his loyal supporters. Oh well, thats life in Latin America.

So I can honestly say that my lack of updates is precisely related to my recent lack of activity. My stay in Cuernavaca provided me the opportunity to do things I haven´t done in a while. I got settled in to a consistent schedule, sleeping in the same in bed and eating three hearty home cooked meals a day. I spent a fair amount of time thinking about how easy it is to get settled into a comfort zone. I was extremely content with my less than 300 sq ft living space, in fact I only used about half of it. I chuckled a bit to myself when I remember my 4,000 sq ft home back in the states, and less than than 10% of that space is sufficient.

The Spanish School, Chac-Mool in Cuernavaca turned out be the perfect choice. The setting was tranquill, and I got a chance to meet a lot of interseting people. The school was not packed full of college students looking for graduation credits, to the contrary it had a much higher percentage of professional students. I was fortunate enough to spend the majority of my time there with the same classmates. I developed a bit of a reputation for contravesial comments during our conversation classes, but those who know me arent surprised by that. Here is shot with me and some classmates and teachers at Trishs´ going away party.

Living in the house with me in Cuernavaca were three other American students, and one Mexican girl who is studying at the University in town. For the most part it was pretty tame, but we did managae to have two pretty full house parties and attend a few others. The atmosphere in Cuernavaca during the summertime is great, but it has the feel of a vacation spot. I decided that that was OK, because in a way my stay in Cuernavaca felt like a vacation from travelling. One night in particular my friend Doug had his friend Mike stop by on his way to Belize. Doug and Mike are both Antropology students at U of H. Anyway, we set out to watch a soccer match and have a good time, We wound up in a little hole in the wall bar listenting to fantastic live music and being pestered like mad by a 50 something drunk Mexican guy who just repeated the same three sentences over and over again. The bar had a set of bongo drums, so Doug went up and gave it a pretty good run, playing the bongos to music he´d never heard before. Later that night, about three AM, we ate what seemd like the best Tacos al Pastor I´ve ever had. Here´s Doug on the bongos

I was able to fill my weekends with the occasional excursion to a nearby locales. One of my favorites was the city of Toluca. Toluca has a beautiful city center that has real colonial feel for such a big citiy.There are mountain vistas from just about everywhere including the famous Nevado of Toluca. It is a Volcano that remians snow capped just about all year long. Unlike Palm Springs there is no tram to get you there, just a windy cliff hanging road. After arriving and heading all the way to the top we were hoping to stay in a mountain refuge and do some exploring the next day. When we payed the toll at the entrance the attendant assured us that we´d find accomodation at the top, well what do you know. We arrived at the top at night time to find that the only refuge was being remodeled.Bad information! Something I´m getting used to here in México. So faced with option of sleeping in the car in sub 0 temps, we decided to head back through the thick evening fog for a lodge in town. Here is a shot of the Nevado of Toluca from a distance. You can get an idea of the fog.

I also headed out to Guadalajara to visit my brother in law(David) and niece(Allison). The night I arrived it was Pepe´s birthday and we celebrated the better potion of the night. The family was extremely hospitable as they had been the time before, and they kept me extremely well fed including a delicious Pozole for Fathers day. Unfortunatrely my brother in law and niece had to leave earlier than I, but on of Davids cousins was nice enough to show me around the city. Here´s a shot of me with the people who took such good care of me in Guadalajara.

I have now left Mexico City and am making my way south. I promise that the updates with be more regular....or I´ll do the best I can.
Thanks to Julio and a victorious USA I also have a full bottle of Don Julio repopsado in my bag, you know for those cold nights on mountain tops.