Last week a couple of us visted the town of Tepoztlán, about 45 minutes from Cuernavaca. The town itself has its own rich culture, but the main draw is the pyramid of Tepozteco which sits on top of a mountian ridge 2,000 vertical feet above the city.
We made the climb in 31 minutes. The pyramid itself is not very impressive, but the view from the top is incredible.
Last night Mexico played the US in the final round of the Gold Cup tournament, so we decided to go watch along with everyone else in the zócalo where they have a massive screen set up for football games and movie nights. I don´t follow soccer much at all, but how often do you get a chance to route for your own team in a foreign country?
During the second half it started to rain which messed up the satalite reception, which finally cut-out with about ten minutes to go and everyone ran for shelter as lightning moved in. By that time the US has given up a two goal lead and was down 4-2 so the game was as good as over.
A few days ago, we visted La Fiesta de San Antonio which takes place every year (one local told me for the past 400 years) in the barrio of, appropriately, San Antón here in Cuernavaca. The day-long celebration consists of about half a mile of amusment park rides, tiendas, fireworks and revelers. Young people also give twelve coins and pray to San Guadalupe to meet their soul mates at the church. The evening culminates in a giant close-and-personal pyrotecnic display and dancing. Last night we got the first significant rainfall in my nearly 4 weeks here, not that anyone let that snuff out the festivities.
On Sunday we made a day trip about 3 hours north to what is left of the ancient city of Teotihuacan (I will be posting those photos on Flickr in the next day or two). At its epoch the city was home to around 250,000 people before it disapeared for thousands of years. Teotihuacan probably suffered an ecological disaster. The city’s year-round water supply came from springs at the base of the volcanic mountian that towers over it, just like Cuernavaca and countless other cities in the region today. During the rainy season, water falls on the mountains and gets caught in the forrests before being absorbed by the porus volanic rock. The people of Teotihuacan cleared imense ammounts of timber to build their roofs, cook their food and heat limestone to create the ornate cement that used to cover the pyramids of the sun and moon and nearly every other surface in the city. The result was that water rushed into the valley of the lakes instead of being absorbed by the rock and the springs could no longer support the rapidly growing metropolis.
I come from a place where clean, drinkable water is always plentiful. In our country everyone has nearly free access to potable water, even if its from the bathroom sink at McDonald’s. Yesterday I saw poverty on a scope and scale you just can not find anywere in the United States. Leaving the Federal District of Mexico City and driving into the State of Mexico I saw thousands on thousands of squatter camps stretching miles up both side of the valley. These families literally build their shelters homes overnight five hundred at a time on any available piece of land in hopes of staking a claim and after ten years being granted the title to their plot. Another student studying here has spent some time doing aid work in Monterrey. He said one of the questions people ask him a lot is why he feels like he needs to help in other countries when there is so much to do at home. His says they would understand in a heartbeat if they saw these places themselves.
When Will and I got back to our host mother’s house, we found out that the water was not working, and we were almost through our rooftop resivour. That means plastic dinnerware, rationed tiolet flushing and definately no showers after a day of climbing pyramids in the sun. Our area is in a drought, but the rainy season should be coming in the next weeks (or months) and our water within the next day or two. It did rain again last night. It was cold and quick, but it was the perfect way to freshen up after a long day. Standing on the roof in our swim trunks.
I’ve seen lightening from our roof almost every other night since we got here about a ago, even if we haven’t really seen any rain. This time it was right above our heads.
My roommate and I hung out there for a while to watch until the rain started pouring, when we went to run back inside. The problem was the door to the balcony and roof had blown shut behind us. In Mexico people are very serious about protecting their property, and they have to be. Every house in Cuernavaca is either surrounded by walls topped with barbed wire or the windows are barred, often both. If you close a door behind you, you won’t get back in without a key. Apparently that goes for doors on the upper floors too.
We called for help but our host-mother couldn’t hear us. Will thought he might have left his keys in pants pocket, in our bedroom. Fourtunately with a little luck he was able to reach them through our window with a mop. Unfortunately the roof door uses a different key. So we thought about jumping to the neighbors roof and seeing if they would let us in. And jumping the 15+ feet to the concrete sidewalk barefoot. Will boosted me up and I reached through a missing window pane in the door to take the keys from the other side. But they slipped out of my hand. About an hour after we went to the roof I finially managed, standing on Will, to use a stick to knock the handle on the other side over the open. Me gustan adventuras!
The trip was incredible in every way. Regardless of what you may have been hearing about the violence and drug trafficking in Mexico, tourists and travelers incur the same problems as locals and nothing more. Don’t let the news and/or media stop your travel plans or desires to visit Mexico. You will be safe if you make rational decisions and steer clear of questionable situations.
As for the photos, from the top down:
This past Thursday, Carol, Charlie, Maggie, Rashelle, and I headed out to Mexico City to visit the National Museum of Anthropology. It was strange to finally be able to go on an excursion exclusively with those who have been 2/5′s of our class every Monday; it truly felt like we were some sort of family as weird as that may sound. We spent a fair amount of time in each section of the museum as Charlie blew our minds one artifact at a time. We took a break for lunch around 3 where Carol, Charlie, and I dined at the restaurant inside the museum. Amazing food but a little spendy. We continued our quest for knowledge after eating and left the museum around 6:30. It was a very long day with an almost painful amount of new knowledge.
We all relaxed on the way home as we sat in traffic listening to Carol try to configure the GPS on her Blackberry, which incidentally interrupted me as I was about to ask a question. I’ve never been interrupted by an electronic voice before and to have it happen so suddenly made me laugh until I cried. As we crossed the ridge separating Morelos and the D.F., Charlie told us a story I won’t soon forget like all of his stories, and we arrived back at the school around 8:30. Quite a day.
A week ago I went with an environmental group to a forest in the north of town where the state of Morelos borders on the Federal District. We spent the entire day either walking on trails through the forest, learning about the vegetation, and making new friends or simply climbing. We climbed two portions of a ridge that overlooked nearly the entire forest and part of the highway going from Cuernavaca to Mexico City.
The environmental group’s central concern at this point in time is a proposal for building a highway to divert traffic from the main autopista running along the East side of Cuernavaca, to a bypass on the west side that would essentially cut the forest in half. It’s the last remaining national forest in Morelos and is a key factor in regulating the amount of water that Mexico City and other cities in Morelos receive in both the rainy and dry season. If the forest is damaged in any way on a large scale—like if someone were to put a giant highway right through it—two things will inevitably happen.
The first is the issue with the water flow out from the ridge which constitutes more than 50% of the water used by Mexico City. That’s a lot considering the population of the city itself is just about 9 million and there are just over 21 million living in the metro area. The other issue that would be created by this highway is one that could potentially ruin Cuernavaca’s trademark attraction, “The city of eternal spring.” Since the city is conveniently located a few thousand feet below a tall ridge, and has over 30 large ravines running through it, the temperate climate here is controlled much like a radiator is. In the morning, all the warmer air creeps up from the valley below and into the city, heating it gradually as the day progresses. In the afternoon and evening as temperatures reach their peak, the cooler air flows down off the higher ridges cooling the city and keeping the temperature more or less constant. Any damage to this delicate system of climate balance, say a highway clogging one of these ravines, would dramatically change the mean temperature of this city on any day of the year.
On to the photos: These go in chronological order of the hike and actually when i took them.
Here are some photos from the ninth roll of film I’ve taken (ISO 100). This roll ended up being pretty diverse in terms of locations and shots, though most come from El Centro this past Sunday where I just wanted to finish the roll to get it developed since I was there doing homework anyway.
The top photo is actually from a market near El Centro where we went last week for a portion of a class. I should have taken more there as everything was incredibly interesting, but the lighting on the section inside was a bit dim, and I was nearly the victim of a broom-swatting when a woman thought I was taking a photo of her and just asked me “Por que?!” (Why?!) as she tried smacking me with one of her homemade cleaning utensils. I replied with a very simple “No se, estaba tratando incluir todo” (I don’t know, I was trying to include everything) and gave her a cold, long stare.
The next four are from this past Sunday in El Centro as I already explained. The first of which is a guy playing the snare and trumpet in the middle of the Zocalo. It took me about 5 minutes of waiting to get that shot without having someone obstruct my view. The next three are the result of me being a creep in the Zocalo. I wish I could’ve gotten a better shot of the older men on the bench, the man in black stood up just moments before I took this. I sat for at least 20 minutes right across from them trying to figure out the best way to get a shot of them without their knowing. Once I did, it was too late. The last of them is below a bridge near another cafe that I quite like where all the Mariachis gather to do whatever it is Mariachis do when their not performing. Chat I guess?
The following three on the bottom are a continuation of our trip to Tepoztlán a few weeks ago. On top is a picture from one of the main streets and in the top third of the photo, you can see the pyramid we climbed too. It’s quite small so I’d recommend enlarging it. Below that is a street dog, definitely putting together a series of there when I get back. Last is a crazy tree near the path on the decent back to civilization.
I just got back from a hike in a national forest on the Northern part of the town bordering the DF and am exhausted. Got up at 6:45 and got back to my house around 7:30. Excursions are always so rewarding and insightful, but just kick the motivation to do work right out of me. I shot 28 film photographs there today so I should have those up late this week hopefully. I have ceased to shoot digital, at least in the past 3 weeks or so.
From bottom to top:
I’m headed out on a hike in a national park this coming Sunday, so I should have some photos to post from that. Otherwise, I’ll probably just do some shooting around town and such in the meantime. Enjoy.
You are currently browsing the archives for the Study Abroad in Mexico category.
