Cinco de Mayo

Sorry, I am a little behind!  

Cinco de Mayo was on a Tuesday this year so the teachers had Monday and Tuesday off.  Since it was a long weekend and we were going to go to Mexico City to see my friend Amber off at the airport, we decided to visit a few cities.  We took the bus from Mexico City to Tlaxcala (pop. 85k) which is a colonial town and the capital of Mexico's smallest state, Tlaxcala.  When the Spaniards invaded the city around 1519, the Tlaxcalans fought fiercely at first but ultimately became Cortés' allies against the Aztecs.  The city is the most beautiful city that I have seen so far.  We visited the Ex-Convento Franciscano de la Asunción, the Santuario de la Virgen de Ocotlán and the Zocalo. Unfortunately, the museums were closed because of the Swine Flu.

The next day we took a trip to Haumantla (pop. 46k) which is a Pueblo Magico (magic village). "To become a Magic Pueblo, a community must have unusual historical or religious significance, a heritage that has been preserved over time and reasonable access from major cities or other tourist destinations."  Unfortunately, we didn't really find anything interesting in the town and after lunch with the Yoder-Shrock family (they were on their way from the coast to Mexico City), we returned to Tlaxcala.

Tuesday morning, we took the bus to Puebla, which we had visited in October, to view the site of the battle of Cinco de Mayo.  (An interesting note:  Cinco de Mayo is not as big of a day of celebration in Mexico as it is in the US.)  The celebration of the battle of Cinco de Mayo (against the French) is in the town of Puebla on the Cerro (hill) of Guadalupe.  Unfortunately, because of the Swine Flu, the parade and many of the 'usual' annual activities in the town were cancelled.   We were able to walk around the Cerro and then went into the town to do some shopping for Talavera (fine pottery).

You can see pictures clicking on this site:  http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/TlaxcalaHuamantlaPuebla#

Coming next:  Ixtapan de Sal

 

Semana Santa--Week 2

Continuation....

(By the way, life here is back to normal!  There are still posters, notices, TV commercials and talk shows about the influenza but everything is progressing as usual.)

On April 13th, we traveled to:

Puerto Arista--a small little coastal town.  Unfortunately, since the week before was a week off, many people had visited the little town and left a lot of trash behind.  We spent time relaxing on the beach and drinking beer.  We also walked to visit to the Turtle Santuary outside of the town.  We were a little surprised at the amount of abandoned buildings, houses and offices on the way out of the town.  The morning before we left, we body surfed in the ocean which had huge waves and tepid water temperature!  It was a blast!

From Puerto Arista, we took a cumvi (van) to Tonala, bought our tickets to take the bus back to Mexico City (we actually thought that it was Thursday, but it was Wednesday--we had totally lost track of time on our vacation!), ate lunch, caught a bus to Escuitla then took a taxi to Acapetahua to spend the night.

Acapetuahua--a small town (pop. 14k) close to the Reserva de la Biosfera La Encrucijada.  This large biosphere protects 1448 sq. km (900 sq. mi.) of coastal lagoons, sandbars, wetlands, seasonally flooded tropical forest and the country's tallest mangroves, some above 30m (98 ft.). This ecosystem is a vital wintering and breeding ground for migratory birds.  The area also has one of Mexico's biggest population of jaguars, spider monkeys, turtles, crocodiles, caimans, boa constrictors, fishing eagles and lots of waterfowl--many in danger of extinction.  We hired a lancha (long, thin, motor boat) and driver to take us on the waterways through the mangrove forest.  He took us to the various different sections of the forest, explained interesting facts to us and showed us a crocodile on the shore.  After about 2 hours, he dropped us off at the Barra de Zacapulco (a small settlement on a sandbar between the ocean and a lagoon) where we had a relaxing lunch.   Later, we walked on the beach to another turtle sanctuary where we were able to see skeletons of dolphins, whales and turtles.  The lancha driver came to pick us up and take us back to the dock where we caught a cumvi back to town.

That night we caught the bus to Mexico City and 18 hours later, after catching another bus, we arrived in Cuernavaca!  It was the first overnight bus trip that I had taken in my life and definitely the longest!  It was interesting, we stopped only once at about 2 am where we could actually get out and stretch BUT the bus got stopped 7 times by Federal Police roadblocks so that the police could check for drugs.  Apparently, there is a lot of drug traffic in the border towns of the state of Chiapas (where the bus originated from).

For pictures, click on the link below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/SemanaSantaWeek2#

Coming next:  Cinco de Mayo vacation

Semana Santa, Week 1

Well, now that the Swine Flu craziness has settled down a little, I can return to regular blogging...

Semana Santa (Holy Week) takes up the whole week before Easter.  The kids don't have school during this week and in addition, the week after is canceled for Spring Break.  Reed and I took advantage of this and she planned a trip for us around the states of Tabasco and Chiapas.  

Here are the highlights:

Villahermosa, Tabasco--not really the 'beautiful town' that the name implies but we walked around the town, visited the river called the Rio Grijalva, and spent the night.  

Palenque, Chiapas--the name of the ruins and the town that is nearby.  We spent two nights in a cabaña (palapa) in the middle of the Parque Nacional Palenque which was satiated with sounds of the jungle!  In the early morning (about 2am) on both nights, a group of Howler Monkeys would make their way past our cabaña, calling out to each other in an eery, breathy howl (they are the loudest land animal with a call that can be heard for 3 miles).  One day we toured the Mayan ruins of Palenque which covers 15 sq. miles and the next day we took a cumvi (van) up to the waterfall, Misol Ha and then to the thundering cascades of Agua Azul (we swam here).

Ocosingo, Chiapas--We stayed in a hotel that is owned by a U.S. couple who were forced from their ranch by the Zapatistas.  (We learned from one of the women who worked at the ranch and now at the hotel, that the Zapatistas had great intentions for increasing the rights of the indigenous people of southern Mexico but power and politics have impeded the process.) We visited the massive ruins of Toniná which is where captives (including rulers) from Palenque were held and beheaded.

San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas--We spent 4 nights in this wonderful colonial town! We toured the Museum of Mayan Medicine, watched a reenactment of the trial and carrying of the cross by 'Jesus', went to Zinacantán to see a procession at the church by one of the indigenous groups called Tzotiles, took a boat through the Cañón de Sumidero, visited Na Bolom (a museum in a house owned by a Swiss couple who wanted to protect the people and work of an indigenous tribe called the Lacadón), got an oily massage, and shopped at the many artisan markets around the city.

Click on the link below to see the pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/SemanaSantaWeek1#

Here is a link for you to hear what the Howler Monkey's sound like:

http://www.belizezoo.org/grc/zoo/sound/how5.aif?

Coming next:  Semana Santa, Week 2

Swine flu update

The last week has been very interesting!  

Here are some highlights:

•  All schools have been closed, in the entire country, until May 6th .  (May 4th and 5th were a holiday anyway)

•  All public venues have been closed (museums, archeological sites, soccer games, etc.).  Some private venues also closed.

•  On Thursday and Friday, restaurants were asked to close (some did, some didn't).  Before that, they were asked to only provide food for take-out.

•  In a restaurant in Cuernavaca, the owner told us that the government has banned the sale of alcohol in some restaurants (if people drink, they stay longer in one place and therefore could be infected.)

•  Some national flights have been cancelled.

•  People have been asked to stay at home.

Here are some of the rumors about how/why the virus started that we have heard from taxi drivers and the locals:

1)  The drug cartel started the virus to take the focus off of them.

2)  The Mexican government made it seem worse than it was to keep people from going to the demonstration against the privatization of Pemex (the government-owned oil company) which was suppose to happen on May 1st in the Zocalo.

3)  The US and Mexican governments caused the virus to steal all the money from the Mexican people.

4)  Presidential elections are coming up on July 5th and many people think that the virus has something to do with the elections.

5)  And finally, the most fascinating rumor:  Obama brought it with him when he came for a visit to Mexico 3 weeks ago!

When we walked in the door of the bus station to take a bus to Taxco 3 days ago, we were handed a face mask by a military officer.  After we bought our tickets and were waiting for the bus, a man handed us a colorful 3-fold flyer telling us that the most important thing we could do was wash our hands!  There was nothing in the flyer about wearing a face mask (which, by the way, is not very effective against the virus, however, the military has been handing out millions!  Some people say the masks are a way to ease people's minds.) 

Yesterday, we walked up steps for 1.5 miles to take my friend Amber to see the pyramid above the city of Tepotzlan.  We were told at the bottom, before we started, that the trail might be closed at the top.  We climbed anyway and took our chances.  About 500 yards from the pyramid, the trail was closed off by red tape with 'peligroso' (dangerous) written all over it. People were sitting around in groups, talking and eating, which was pretty amusing because the reason the pyramid was closed was to stop people from congregating in one place so that the virus wouldn't have a chance to spread!

For pictures, click on this link:  http://picasaweb.google.com/regnor11/SwineFlu#