Friday, May 20, 2011

More Mexico with Dad (o Mas Mexico con Papa)

My dad visited during "Semana Santa" or Holy Week, which is when nearly all of Mexico is also on vacation traveling to the most popular tourists places just like us. Sunday we went to Amikuu, a park I could nearly be a guide at myself having been there three times in four months. I loved it every time. The canyon never ceases to amaze, and the park is just kooky enough to work. I think my dad was most excited about the spider monkeys, and really who could blame him? Spider monkeys are the coolest little show offs around, much better than the crocodiles who never seem to move an inch. We saw the macaws and toucans, and jaguars and pumas, and after all that running around we cooled off in the pool. As we left through the museum, I heard "Yo Soy Chiapas"for the last time, which is an awesome song, and by far one of the best anthems I've ever heard.

The birthday song at graduation wasn't the last of birthday celebrations with my students. Some of us met on Monday in Rancho Nuevo (a nature preserve/forest area just outside San Cristobal). They brought a delicious choco flan and showed my dad and I how to slide down the cement slide on soda bottles (the type of slide we would probably use potato sacks for in the US). Martin was the best (just look at his pose). My dad, on the other hand, came home with a permanent souvenir from that ride down the slide.

After the slide, we went underground for spelunking in Las Grutas following dozens of other vacationers, and even overhearing a bit of the guides attempt at pointing out different formations (you have to look very closely, even more closely than when your friend points at a cloud and says "hey, doesn't that look like a unicorn!?"). We took a taxi back to San Cristobal, said our goodbyes and the group went back to Tuxtla while my dad and I explored San Cris again. We made it back to Tierradentro for a mocha, which my dad was certain was made with a special Mexican Chocolate because it was so amazing, but when I asked it was just Herseys. It was the coffee that was special, and we brought a couple bags home to try to replicate the mocha and the rompope lattes.

The next day we were up bright and early for the six hour ride to Palenque. I slept most of the way to ward off the motion sickness (which worked much better this time). We stopped at Aguas Azul and Misol Ha again, which were just as beautiful the second time. We opted for the English tour, and unlike last time, we were the only English speakers so we got our own tour. Our guide was a veteran who has working at the ruins since the 70s. I think you could take a tour with each of the guides at Palenque and get a new story every time. Our guide seemed convinced that the Mayan culture was a mixed culture with influences from Eastern and Western inhabitants who left pieces of their culture behind, like Buddhas. He also wasn't convinced that the famous image of Pakal's mother passing the crown onto him was inaccurate. He seemed to think that women weren't ever in power during Mayan times, and that this image was of a villager giving an offering to the king. Who knows? He waited at the bottom while we climbed the towers (I'm sure after the first hundred times climbing the ruins gets a little tiring).

We're still on the lookout for a book our guide recommended about the "real" story of Palenque. I'll let you know if I ever get my hands on a copy. After sitting in the royal seats imagining what it would be like to watch sporting events here years and years ago, we were back in our bus seats back to Tuxtla.

The next day we took in the rest of Tuxtla, went back to the market for souvenirs, and had dinner with a few of my students. We went for pizza (I know, such a traditional meal for my last proper dinner in Mexico). I have to say I was excited for pizza back in the USA since pizza in Mexico can hardly compete and is extremely expensive.

The next day we was our last bus tour. On the itinerary was El Chiflon and Los Lagos de Montebello. You can see the cascades of El Chiflon from the road, describing the height is useless, except for to say it is massive. At the beginning of the hike there are calm waters to swim in, and along the path are tents and picnic areas. We only had about an hour or two (and dad isn't a huge fan of swimming) so we definitely opted to hiking to the top. Chiflon is made up of several falls, and each has the perfect posing place etched out (some dare you to climb onto rocks, which we just had to do), and besides posing the falls are just another one of natures ways to awe and amaze us. They are truly beautiful. The path is shaded and the air is fresh, making the hike enjoyable and not too difficult.

From El Chiflon we drove to Los Lagos, on the border of Guatamala. In the mountains are lagoons surrounded by lush forests. We went kayaking in some of the bluest water I've seen since the grottos in Capri, Italy. After getting the hang of our paddling, we made it to the tiny island in the center of the lagoon. If only it was warmer, there was a perfect jumping point that would have served us well. On a small corner of the island it looked like someone had planted an bizarre plants garden where oddly beautiful flowers were blooming. We stopped at a few look out points and took photos in front of the mountain range that separated us from Guatamala. After passing all the street vendors, with the requisite meat hanging in the front of the tent, we left the mountains (after seeing cork trees) and headed home. This last ride "home" to Tuxtla was bittersweet. The next morning we woke up too early and jam packed a taxi and headed toward the airport for our trip back to Chicago.






Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Another visitor (o otro visitante)

My dad is half Mexican (it is to this half I my slightly olive complexion), and half Irish (it is to this half I owe my admiration for "Irish Coffee"). He didn't grow up speaking Spanish, but he does know how to make one heck of a tamale. My dad's trip to visit me in Chiapas was his first International trip, and I was excited to be able to show him around this country that our ancestors called home.

My dad got to town on my birthday, which also was the school's graduation. At the Tuxtla airport you buy a ticket to an approved taxi based on zones and color. So, we took at taxi that thankfully had air conditioning, the 30 or so miles to Tuxtla. I tried to point out what I knew on the way into town, but really, like most places, the ride from the airport to the center of town was quite uninteresting: farms, cows (cows are a lot skinnier in Mexico), small villages, tiny roadside restaurants. I explained that graffiti in Tuxtla didn't mean we were in a scary neighborhood, and still can't answer why the rebar is sticking out of most of the buildings. My best guess is that the owners hope to add on some day.

Friday was a busy day. We took the bus to breakfast (his first of many bunny bus rides) and I shared my affinity for chiliquiles and made sure he ordered some. Chiliquiles is my favorite Mexican food. It's fried tortilla strips simmered in salsa and topped with goat cheese and eggs. We took a brief tour of the west-ish side of town mainly featuring my school and then met up with some of my friends for a birthday lunch. It was everything a birthday lunch should be, and included an awesome crown (a tradition I'm told).

I wore the crown that afternoon, starting my 28th year as "royalty," but thought it would clash with my dress at graduation so I left it at home that evening. As a side note, I still haven't eaten the bubble gum that served as the center of the flowers. Anyway, that night students from two of my classes graduated (my 7 to 9 a.m. class and my 5-7 p.m. class). I really was lucky to have such fabulously smart and sweet students. They even sang "Happy Birthday" to me at their graduation celebration and gave me a card with the nicest birthday greetings. After taking pictures, talking with the local media and saying goodbye to my students it was time to celebrate with the other teachers at a karaoke bar. I sang a Beatles song with the new teachers from Poland, tried to sing along to the Spanish songs and danced when the lyrics were too fast to follow. Tequilla was drank (with Squirt, which is something I had never had before) and it really was a great start to my 28th year.

Saturday, after class, dad and I took the bus to San Cristobal. I took him to Tierradentro, which has by far some of the best food in Chiapas. Here is what our table looked like after we ate.


Keep in mind it was just the two of us. I had the vegetable plate, and also the celery soup that came with my dad's meal, which was Chiapaneco chicken mole. The blue corn chips with guacamole were fantastic, I could have eaten the guacamole with a spoon like ice cream.

The restaurant is, from what I gathered, a sort of Zapatista cooperative. The Zapatistas (primarily rural indigenousness people) have been in conflict (mostly nonviolent) with the Mexican state for more than a decade over control of local resources and rights of the people. Signs in Zapatista areas read "You are in Zapatista rebel territory. Here the people command and the government obeys." I found this video that does a great job explaining what the Zapatistas are about, you should watch it...


Ok, so this blog took a little detour. I'm going to leave it with this, and give you time to read the links and watch the video. But hopefully you'll be back to read more about my dad's visit to Chiapas, which should be up in a day or two...






Monday, May 9, 2011

The last round up of Andrew's time in Tuxtla

You can't visit me and not make it to a zoo. Like I said in my first post about this zoo, I'm a sucker for zoos, and assume everyone else loves them as much as I do. Luckily, in addition to macaws and pumas, Zoomat has tarpirs (photo below) and anteaters, so it is impossible not to love this place.

Zoomat also has ice cream-filled fruit. They were out of pineapple. But even though the orange wasn't tropically refreshing as the pineapple was, it was still delicious. I will be on the look out this summer for someone to have them in Chicago. Fingers crossed!

We also went to the Sima de Las Cotorra (Green Parrot Sinkhole), about two hours by bus and taxi through true country rounds. The sinkhole is home to thousands of green parrots who fly in and out of the hole in mass every morning and evening. We missed the mass exodus, but we did hear the calls of hundreds birds echoing, and with our rented binoculars saw ancient paintings on the walls of the sinkhole. The trail along the opening is filled with my favorite cactus trees, flowers and plants, and at the bottom of the 140 meter hole is a small forest. Since this time we only looked from above, maybe next time I'll find a way to rappel...

In Chiapa de Corzo there is supposed to be a pre-hispanic archeological site with ruins from 900 AD. They proved to be elusive. None of the taxi drivers seemed to have heard of it. I asked a tour guide who was sharing tales of the oldest town in Chiapas to other tourists and he said it was nearly inaccessible to visitors. The guide was telling tourists about the fountain in the center of town built by a Dominican friar in the 1560s. The fountain is under a Moorish style arch, which is unique and interesting, but maybe not as great as the hype it was given on a couple guide sites. The guide suggested we visit another site that he estimated was less than a mile away, but while we walked in the direction he suggested we took a detour up a hill on a hunch that something was at the top. We passed by what looked like an artist's home (paints and canvas were outside the small brick home), and made it to the top of the steps. We stumbled upon a "rehabilitated church" called Templo de San Sebastian. So, although we missed out on seeing some Zoque history, we did get to explore a secluded roofless church with great views whose bricks still were charred from candles that must have lit the place week after week years before.



There is a small altar in front of the green benches (above) that I imagine are filled each week for service. The set up is outside the actual temple, but is still nice in its own right. The walk back to town was more like a hilly hike, with little shade. The neighborhoods reminded me of Tuxtla, where small homes stood adjacent to storefronts and the streets had just a tad too much garbage, but overall it was a nice town (especially with the hills and the views of the river). After our hike back to downtown I suggested Andrew try pozol (a "refreshing" beverage made with cocoa and corn meal). The locals swear by it, but I couldn't get over the texture. The taste isn't bad, but I prefer not to chew my drinks. A student once let me try Tascalate, which tastes like pozol, but is free of the corn meal bits.


So, we're almost to the end of Andrew's time in Chiapas. We spent his last day in San Cristobal. San Cristobal is always a refreshing change of climate from Tuxtla. And who doesn't adore the mountains? Unfortunately, he only got an abbreviated tour of San Cris, but I think I hit a lot of the highlights. We made it to both markets (the artisan and the fruit), but somehow struck out on our search for empanadas. We climbed the steps to Guadalupe's temple, took countless photos of the clever stencils, walked through the second oldest chapel (and glimpsed at a few of the creepy statues so popular in old churches here), and saw the church that Pope John Paul II visited in the 90s. By the way, in Mexico, Pope John Paul is called Juan Pablo. A slightly embarrassing revelation I made with my students when we were talking about influential people in the world and they mentioned Juan Pablo. They read my curious shoulder shrug correctly and offered a helpful explanation: "el papa."

After touring around town we grabbed a warm drink at the Revolution Cafe on one of my favorite streets in San Cristobal (it is limited to pedestrians and lined with shops and fabulous places to eat and drink). For the first time in a long while I bought bracelets from one of the young vendors, and Andrew got a miniature stuffed green worm with its tongue sticking out, and I got a small pink mouse. So after the rompope lattes, with out matching hoodies, we went to the restaurant recommended by the hostel host. I had the best mole sauce covering my cheese enchiladas and a fruity margarita, but the sweetness was quickly muted by the shot of mezcal we had toward the end of our meal. If you can, avoid mezal at all costs. You might was well just down rubbing alcohol. If you have ever seen my tequila face, picture that, but 10 times as scrunchy. From there we ended our night at an empty bar where we cozied up to a corner table. They played fun music, albeit the same song rotated through a couple times, and the owner was nice enough to send us over a couple drinks. It was the perfect last spot.

And that was it. Andrew was back to the USA the next day, and I was back to having solo adventures for a few weeks (until my dad came my last week there)...


Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Mexican catch up - Round 2

The bus ride to Palenque was long, six hours winding through the mountains to be exact. The path to Palenque was beautiful (green valleys, mountain tops peaking up in the distance and blue skies).

(I can't write about this naturally beautiful area without mentioning the heartbreak as we past poor mountain villages. Maybe one day Mexico will figure out how to ensure all people have opportunities... Maybe one day the road to the waterfalls will be lined with sustainable homes with healthy children playing in the yard... Maybe one day... And if you're looking for a way to help, here are two organizations that I found doing a quick google search on Chiapas: http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/ and http://www.chiapas-project.org/about.htm)

So, as we traveled through the mountains, to the fabulous 80s soundtrack our driver chose, I tried not to focus on the quick stops, bumps and turns. It was next to impossible. I was ecstatic when we arrived at our first stop, Agua Azul. The name, while spot on in terms of the color of the water, doesn't give justice to the waterfall (photos don't do much better, but I gave it a shot).




We didn't have time to swim, but we did get to dip our feet in and feel the water spouting from a fish-like rock sculpture at a midway point to the top of the falls. The water was refreshingly frigid considering the heat. The path to the top is neatly carved steps, with a bridge over to a lookout point where mountain peaks filled in the distant skies and the pooled blue water began to cascade down hundreds of feet. We made it to the top just in time to see a swimmer gain the courage to swing into the water using a tarzan-esque rope. Her friends applauded and we had to make our way back down to the bus (equipped with stored fresh air and a Sprite for the rest of the bumpy bus ride).

We stopped once more before Palenque at another waterfall, Misol Ha. Fun fact: Ha means water in one of the local indigenous languages, so most of the sites have Ha as a part of their name (like all the "parks" and "groves" in the names of American towns). Misol Ha is one big fall rather than a series of small falls, it reminds me of a shampoo commercial. One of the problems with group tours is that you don't get to operate on your own schedule. I wish we had more time here. We quickly took photos in front of it and raced on the path to walk behind it and by the time we got behind the water it was time to go back to the bus.

After the refreshing trips to the falls, we boarded the bus one last time before getting to Palenque (see last post for the adventure that began there). I forgot to mention, in my post about Palenque, that we were there on the first day of Spring. This meant dozens of sun worshipers dressed in white clothes came to celebrate that day. It would be a great place to meditate, but our time was spent soaking up our guides insights on the thousands of years of history hidden in this site (like the death skull in the photo below).

After our six hour travel, the rest of our week-long adventures were closer to my new home in Tuxtla. Another catch up post will be up soon. If I keep up this pace, I'll be writing about my US travels soon enough (like this trip to Ohio).