Christmas in Oaxaca and well-wishes!

We are off to Mexico City this Saturday for a couple of days 

and then flying to Oaxaca, Oaxaca with some friends of Reed's from Seattle.  Oaxaca is supposed to be one of the prettiest places to spend Christmas.  Here is a little blurb that I found about it:

"Oaxaca, the State Capital, declared Humanity’s Cultural Patrimony by UNESCO, owes its fame to the beauty and harmony of its architecture, the richness of its cultural traditions, the wide variety of its typical foods, and its soft temperate climate, spring-like throughout the year."

Actually, the REAL reason we are going is for the Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radish) December 23rd (Zócalo, City of Oaxaca) where: "ingeniously crafted images made out of radishes (cultivated in the region) are exhibited. It originally took place in the Trinidad de las Huertas neighborhood, and now comes from San Antonino Castillo Velasco and other communities."

Of course my next blog will be about our adventures in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and (if I don't write before..) a very safe, warm and Happy New Year!

Guadalajara, México

We left from Cuarnavaca the earliest ever (6:30am) on a bus bound for the airport in Mexico City.  Our one-hour flight left from Mexico City for Guadalajara, Jalisco at 10:30am (they were actually serving free alcohol on the flight, I was tempted but didn't partake...).  Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico (1.6 million) so the taxi ride from the airport to our hotel in the center of town seemed very long!  We were able to look at a couple of rooms in two hotels before we decided to stay in the second hotel.  It was about 4 blocks from the Zocalo and from most of the picturesque colonial buildings in the center of the city.  These buildings are in and around a pedestrian mall area that is free of cars and includes many plazas and fountains where people hang out all hours of the day and night.  

The state of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital, is the birthplace of tequila.  On Saturday, after we went to the International Fair of Books at the Expo, we went looking for a tequila distillery to have a "tasting".  Unfortunately our two maps that we had couldn't get us there!  What we did find was an Artisan's Market that had incredible hand-made items from all around the region.  We spent about 2 hours wandering around looking at everything and buying some things.  It was a real treat, the talent was amazing!

Guadalajara is also the birthplace of Mariachi music.  We went to the Plaza of the Mariachi's where bands of Mariachi's 'hang out' and wait for someone to hire them to play at a table, a fountain or for fun.  Unfortunately, at that moment, not many people were in the area or paying to hear them play.  However, we were able to hear Mariachi music throughout the city as we walked to various places.

Other places we visited were The Museum of the City, the Tiangis (very large), another Artisan's market at the Glorieta Chapalita (far from the center of town) and a couple of local bars, which were fun!

On a side note:  I know that I may not get much sympathy for saying this but...my mind and body have been thrown off with the weather here.  It is Sunday, December 14 and outside it is sunny and 75-80 degrees!  I can't even think about shopping for Christmas, it just seems too weird!

For pictures, click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/Guadalajara#

Coming next:  Some thoughts...

Thanksgiving(s) in México

We were able to enjoy not one but two Thanksgiving dinners over the holiday.  It was fortunate that Reed had Thursday and Friday off so that we could have a dinner on the REAL Thanksgiving Day.  We made a menu and started shopping the week before because we knew it might be hard to find some of the things here.  As it turned out, we ended up going to 9, yes 9, different locations for the ingredients.  The hardest items to track down were spices for the stuffing, cranberries (had to buy these in a can) and sweet potatoes .  Unfortunately, I had to 'set foot' in Superama (one of the many "Wal Marts" here) to get the cranberries.  (The number of Wal Marts in this town is a story for another blog.)  Reed has a day by day account of our adventure in her blog which is on the right of this blog, at the bottom in the blue box.  ("A different perspective..."). 

For dinner, I invited three fellow students from my school, Reed invited three teachers from her school and we invited a friend of Monica's (Reed's exchange partner) who invited a friend. Dinner was a big hit and it felt just like home!

The next day, we got up early to take the bus to Mexico City then caught another bus to Jilotepec.  One of Reed's colleagues, Jen, was making dinner for three of the Fulbrighters in the area, Ross, who is on an exchange through the British Council and two other friends visiting from the US.  We were able to enjoy another wonderful dinner and dessert. (I think I was able to eat more this time because my stomach was stretched out from the day before!)  We played a rousing game of Apples to Apples late into the night and then Reed, Ross and I walked to the house where he is staying because we needed a place to spend the night.  The next day, we went on a hike in the hills near Jilotepec and in the evening, caught the bus back to Mexico City then another to Cuernavaca. When we arrived at the house in Cuernavaca at about 10:30p that night, I had the turkey sandwich that I had been craving all day!  Mmmmmm!

For pictures, click on this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/Thanksgiving#

Coming next:  Guadalajara, the second largest city in Mexico