Jecca Mehlota (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jecca_mehlota) wrote2009-01-28 03:10 pm
jecca_mehlota) wrote2009-01-28 03:10 pm
Entry tags:
No hablo.
In case you'd forgotten, I went with a class to Mexico earlier this month. Then I came home and immediately started moving, and was without internet and phone for a few days. But now I'm all set up! And unpacked! And classes have started again! And so it is time to ramble endlessly about Mexico. YAAAAAY. This is only part of it, because THIS IS TAKING FOR EVER AND I DO NOT WANT TO SIT HERE TYPING ALL DAY AAIUHRKJGMHT
Friday, January 9th - Day 01
As I whined about endlessly, my father insisted we leave about three hours earlier than we really needed to. It ended up working out okay only because a large group of my classmates took the Dartmouth Couch (it's a bus that runs straight to the Boston airport) and they arrived a little before us, so I had a bunch of people to sit and hang out with while we waited for ever (it really wasn't that long, but when you're dead exhausted, time moves strangely) for everyone else to arrive.
As we all went to check in around... eh, elevenish? They suddenly decided to move us onto a much earlier flight. So suddenly we weren't idly strolling through customs and getting a late breakfast / lunch at the shops, or looking at books, or napping. Suddenly we were OMG RUN and GET ON THA PLAAAANE. And, damnit, where is the last person? (He called because they were stuck in traffic, and this wouldn't have been a problem except the plane is leaving right now and not in like three hours.)
And then we had a monstrous layover in New Jersey. (By the way, I've seen the Statue of Liberty now. It is RIDICULOUSLY TINY. The fact that I was in a plane - hey, we were landing, so I wasn't way high above it - may not have helped this. It's probably impressive if you're right there at the base, maybe, I dunno.) Bunch of us ate at a really cute little diner and then we all wandered for a while. Our lost classmate caught up with us, thank goodness. FINALLY, THEN. We get on our flight for Mexico City and.... proceeded to be bored out of our minds for five, six hours. A bunch of people took naps, but I still cannot sleep in moving vehicles, so I sat with my eyes closed for a while, wrote for a while, and then read for a while. They fed us. It was plane food.
We landed abruptly - SERIOUSLY OKAY PLANES? PLANES ARE NOT MEANT TO STOP ON A DIME. WTF, PILOT. I am not joking. I have never stopped so fast in anything in my life. We were all stuck in the seat in front of us - in Mexico City, where we went through immigration and customs without much hassle, and where our guide met us and then we bussed to where we'd be staying. The air smelled bad, my memories are a bit fuzzy due to having been awake for about twenty hours (and only running on about 3 hours, tops, of sleep) at this point. They threw us into rooms and we all passed out. Sort of. I was assigned a single, but I didn't want a single, and also the picture on the wall kind of creeped me out, so I swapped into the 'dorm' room, where I got a top bunk. My last thought as I drifted off was, 'you know, last time you slept on a bed without a wall on your left side, you woke up and promptly rolled off.'
(I took no pictures this day.)
Saturday, January 10th - Day 02
Breakfast was at 8, we had a meeting at 9... I had a bowl of slightly stale corn flakes for breakfast because the other foods they were serving looked way too heavy for me and my feeble morning-stomach. Orientation was mostly just a HELLO AND WELCOME WE LOVE YOU message, though we also learned our instructor wouldn't be joining us that day because his back was really bothering him. Stupid plane and uncomfortable seats!
After the meeting, a bunch of us hung around outside until it was time to leave. PHOTOS!
This is where we stayed, the Quaker House:
Up the street:
Down the street:
FLOWERS GROWING ON THE WALL. FLOWERS IN JANUARY:
Anyway, we walked a few blocks, saw the Monument for the Revolution, but neither of my pictures is that great, then we hopped on a bus and rode down to the Anthropology Museum. Outside, there were a million little shops (I bought nothing), a blindfolded violin player, one of those robot-guys who paint themselves all silver, and then ... what is that? There were a bunch of guys up on a tall pole. Four of them. One climbed onto the little platform in the center, and then a fifth climbed up after them. Then the one in the middle started playing a flute or something, and.... WHAT WHAT WHAT they are spinning!
(I am the one unhelpfully narrating. They're... unwinding. Yes. ALSO SORRY FOR TURNING THE CAMERA HALFWAY THROUGH, haha, I wasn't thinking.)
Anyway, we watched them, then went into the Anthropology museum, where we didn't have much time and were rushed a bit, which was too bad. I really wanted to look around and get some neat pictures, but NO TIIIIME. Here are a few of the ones I did get:
Water fountain / pillar statue thing
Carved pillar
Writing
BUILDING WITH A MOUTH
A cool plant
Tree with a vine!
After running through there, we ate lunch, which was a buffet, and where we were nearly KILLED BY SQUIRREL FAMILY. No, uh. Some of us down at one end, by a wall... a couple squirrels started climbing over the wall and seriously, they looked like they were gonna jump on us. It was really unnerving. One of the waiters came by and handed them a roll, which finally made them go away, but I was ready to fight to the death for my lunch. Stupid squirrels. And then we all stormed the gift shop and I bought postcards.
Then we went to La Casa Azul - Frida Kahlo's house turned museum.
It was... blue. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but we got to see a bunch of stuff about her and by her, and we got to see her bed with the mirror, and also the urn with her ashes and stuff. We could take pictures in the courtyard, so I snapped a few there. Of plants. oh god i took so many pictures of plants on this trip. It was getting gloomy, so some of them are blurry. (Also, there were cute black and white cats all around inside.)
(haha, this is one of the only pictures of me. I didn't even notice I was in it until I uploaded these and was going through them.)
After that, we had free time, so we split into groups and went exploring. My group ended up in this cute little market, where I helped a few people figure out prices (I speak a little Spanish, and I can understand most numbers so long as they're under one thousand. I do not know the word for thousand), and then bought an alpaca wool ... poncho thing. Then we found another, much larger (and outdoor) market near a church. We'd wanted to get inside, but couldn't find the entrance. It was all fenced off for renovation (apparently there was a way in. Another group found it). I didn't buy anything else, but there was all sorts of really neat stuff - jewelry, art, the tiniest candles I've ever seen in my life seriously you'd get like maybe half a minute out of those things.... We stopped at a bar on the way back to the vans, where I ordered a soda and got strange looks (and apparently started people wondering if I was Mormon. I got asked about it later).
Dinner was on our own, but a bunch of us got together and went out to a Chinese-Mexican place (strange combination...). I had something called a torta, which is kind of a grilled sandwich, with refried beans and avocado, and tomato, and I had one with three different cheeses and it was the most amazingly delicious thing I think I have ever eaten. I could live off of tortas, I think.
Back at the Casa de los Amigos, I tried to shower and discovered that our room had no water pressure. Bummer.
Sunday, January 11th - Day 03
Morning was a repeat of yesterday's, only today we talked about history instead of HELLO HI WELCOME, and we met our guide for the day (some days we had a person who joined us for that day only, though our guide for the whole trip was usually around, too).
We took the metro to the zócalo, where there were a lot of huge and amazing decorations up (along entire BLOCKS of builings! There was also a very large tree, which you'll see again later) to see the huge cathedral (the Metropolitan Cathedral) there. We had lunch first (dude, didn't we just eat breakfast? We had tortas and they took a while to all be ready, so it worked out), so it was noon when we arrived.
Here is a short film of the bells ringing (THEY WERE RIDICULOUSLY LOUD AND THEY RANG AND RANG AND RANG for like ten minutes or something, and at every quarter hour, it was lunacy):
Here is a statue outside the cathedral, which is a bit freaky and that kind of disturbed me a bit:
We wandered around inside the cathedral, as well. They were having mass (it occurs all day on Sunday, since there are so many people), so no photos with flash, so none of them turned out well. Then we walked around the square to the National Palace, where we saw some of Diego Rivera's murals, which you can probably google and get better, full images of. But here is the fountain inside.
After that, FREE TIME. We split into groups again, and I went along with a couple people I'd started hanging out with (for they were awesome people). We went with our guide's cousin to a museum (I think it was the Museum of Fine Arts) to see more murals and some weird, more modern art... They had a room where you could create your own art, so one of the other girls in the group painted a picture for the guy leading us around.
BEAUTIFUL. So he carried that all through the museum and to dinner and... around. It was hilarious. (Also true, since he did. Does.)
From the museum, we went up the observation tower to see all of Mexico City going on FOR EVER AND EVER AND WOOOOW.
Remember I said the tree was huge?
NO REALLY IT IS HUGE.
(That's the zócalo. In the left is the cathedral, behind the tree and flag is the National Palace.)
We ate delicious dinner at a place called Sanborns and then we went to the Ballet Folklórico de México, which wasn't in the Palace of Fine Arts because it's undergoing renovations, arg. It was back at the Anthropology Museum. But whatever, it was... stunning. Really, if you ever get a chance, go watch it. It's really cool! So full of energy and just wow!
Our trip guide (who'd taken the day off) met us with the vans after the ballet, and some people teased him and said he should have been there because it was so incredible, and amazing, and because the guy who played the deer in the deer dance was really cute or hot or something, and he told us he was the deer (obviously a lie, but hilarious).
(Uh, regarding the guy playing the deer being cute/hot/whatever they were using, our guide - hell, apparently every male directly associated with the trip - which, okay, that's only three of them, but still - is homosexual, so.)
AND THAT WAS OUR THIRD DAY!
Monday, January 12th - Day 04
THIS WAS OUR LAST MORNING IN MEXICO CITY. MMM, SLIGHTLY STALE CORN FLAKES. Also, we had to pack everything up and bring it down and throw it into the vans.
Our first job was to go down the street and place our orders for our tortas for lunch. I had to have someone run my postcards (DUDE, I DON'T THINK ANY OF THEM HAVE ARRIVED YET? WHERE ARE THEY?!) down and mail them while I was ordering food, since we were running short on time.
Our first stop was at the Basilica of Guadalupe to see the Virgin of Guadalupe. There are actually three basilicas. The smallest, oldest one is way up on the hill, then there's the middle (both in size and age) one, and then there's the modern, HUGE one, which is where they've currently got it. Her. Whatever. I forgot to take a picture of the smallest one when we hiked up.
Here is the middle:
Modern:
Here is the inside of the oldest one. There was a group of students there chanting or something:
Here is one of the statues on the outside of the oldest one. There were four, and no points for guessing why I was amused by and only took a picture of this one:
People make pilgrimages from literally all over - ON FOOT! - to come see the Virgin (as we drove along, we'd pass groups), and here's a statue that maybe is supposed to represent that?
HERE IT IS, IN ALL ITS BLURRY GLORY:
They had moving sidewalks, haha. So people didn't just stand there and pray in front of it for the rest of time.
We were handed our lunches off the back of an old Mustang, then we all got back into the vans and went to Teotihuacán. Our guide was a really awesome old man, and he showed us around the ruins and stuff. Also, there were a million and six vendors there trying to sell us anything they had on them (and they'd chase you, it was a bit alarming), but one of them was pretty neat. He used cacti and worm larvae off one of them to show us how they got the reds and yellows to paint their buildings way back in the ancient civilizations.
The bottom, larger cactus has funny blobs on it - the larvae. He'd mash one up to get the red. The yellow came from the thinner one that's standing up. Then he'd use the juice from the inside of the big one to seal them off, and it dried instantly. Pretty cool! (The envelopes contained... postcards, I think? I didn't buy anything, I just ran away after the demonstration.)
My group did not climb the Pyramid of the Moon (it was closed at the halfway point, but I still wanted to go up both the pyramids). Instead, we ran down the path of the dead and sprinted past all the vendors, and found ourselves at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun.
WHICH WE CLIMBED!
(I know what people say, but really it is not that exhausting climbing those things if you just do it. Find your comfort pace and just go. Pause at the landings to admire the view and then go again.)
Here is the Moon from on the Sun:
Here is some of the view down from the top of Sun:
When we all gathered back together, we again got into our vans and drove off and away. It was four hours or so to our next destination, the capital city of Querétaro, Santiago de Querétaro. Though both are just referred to as Querétaro. So, hotel! We got our rooms and moved in. We were all really tired by this point, but we still had dinner!
We met our instructor's friend, who'd be with us for most of our time in Querétaro. She was a really incredible person, and I'm so glad we got to meet her.
Anyway, we walked to the restaurant, Fin de Siglo, where we met a lot of people (some even who work for the government, tourism-related stuff...) and where we were sung to by a pair of women (we were all given a copy of their CD later), and where we were fed THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD.
We were given Aztec Soup (well, we had a choice of that or creamed corn), which is a tomato broth base, and then at this place they gave us a little plate with things to put in it: avocado, cheese, tortilla strips, pork rinds, and a chile. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Then we again had a choice for our dinner. I went for the cheese-stuffed pepper in a nuts sauce, which was rich and also delicious, and had pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top and mmmm, I wished I was more hungry and capable of totally stuffing myself because it was soooo goooooooood but I just could not finish it.
Then for dessert we could have baked custard or cake, which was chocolate and yellow cake (but not marble cake) with a strawberry filling. I went for cake. IT WAS ALSO DELICIOUS. mmmmm.
And then most of us went back to the hotel and passed out like dead things might.
That is all for now. I am sick of typing.
Friday, January 9th - Day 01
As I whined about endlessly, my father insisted we leave about three hours earlier than we really needed to. It ended up working out okay only because a large group of my classmates took the Dartmouth Couch (it's a bus that runs straight to the Boston airport) and they arrived a little before us, so I had a bunch of people to sit and hang out with while we waited for ever (it really wasn't that long, but when you're dead exhausted, time moves strangely) for everyone else to arrive.
As we all went to check in around... eh, elevenish? They suddenly decided to move us onto a much earlier flight. So suddenly we weren't idly strolling through customs and getting a late breakfast / lunch at the shops, or looking at books, or napping. Suddenly we were OMG RUN and GET ON THA PLAAAANE. And, damnit, where is the last person? (He called because they were stuck in traffic, and this wouldn't have been a problem except the plane is leaving right now and not in like three hours.)
And then we had a monstrous layover in New Jersey. (By the way, I've seen the Statue of Liberty now. It is RIDICULOUSLY TINY. The fact that I was in a plane - hey, we were landing, so I wasn't way high above it - may not have helped this. It's probably impressive if you're right there at the base, maybe, I dunno.) Bunch of us ate at a really cute little diner and then we all wandered for a while. Our lost classmate caught up with us, thank goodness. FINALLY, THEN. We get on our flight for Mexico City and.... proceeded to be bored out of our minds for five, six hours. A bunch of people took naps, but I still cannot sleep in moving vehicles, so I sat with my eyes closed for a while, wrote for a while, and then read for a while. They fed us. It was plane food.
We landed abruptly - SERIOUSLY OKAY PLANES? PLANES ARE NOT MEANT TO STOP ON A DIME. WTF, PILOT. I am not joking. I have never stopped so fast in anything in my life. We were all stuck in the seat in front of us - in Mexico City, where we went through immigration and customs without much hassle, and where our guide met us and then we bussed to where we'd be staying. The air smelled bad, my memories are a bit fuzzy due to having been awake for about twenty hours (and only running on about 3 hours, tops, of sleep) at this point. They threw us into rooms and we all passed out. Sort of. I was assigned a single, but I didn't want a single, and also the picture on the wall kind of creeped me out, so I swapped into the 'dorm' room, where I got a top bunk. My last thought as I drifted off was, 'you know, last time you slept on a bed without a wall on your left side, you woke up and promptly rolled off.'
(I took no pictures this day.)
Saturday, January 10th - Day 02
Breakfast was at 8, we had a meeting at 9... I had a bowl of slightly stale corn flakes for breakfast because the other foods they were serving looked way too heavy for me and my feeble morning-stomach. Orientation was mostly just a HELLO AND WELCOME WE LOVE YOU message, though we also learned our instructor wouldn't be joining us that day because his back was really bothering him. Stupid plane and uncomfortable seats!
After the meeting, a bunch of us hung around outside until it was time to leave. PHOTOS!
This is where we stayed, the Quaker House:
Up the street:
Down the street:
FLOWERS GROWING ON THE WALL. FLOWERS IN JANUARY:
Anyway, we walked a few blocks, saw the Monument for the Revolution, but neither of my pictures is that great, then we hopped on a bus and rode down to the Anthropology Museum. Outside, there were a million little shops (I bought nothing), a blindfolded violin player, one of those robot-guys who paint themselves all silver, and then ... what is that? There were a bunch of guys up on a tall pole. Four of them. One climbed onto the little platform in the center, and then a fifth climbed up after them. Then the one in the middle started playing a flute or something, and.... WHAT WHAT WHAT they are spinning!
(I am the one unhelpfully narrating. They're... unwinding. Yes. ALSO SORRY FOR TURNING THE CAMERA HALFWAY THROUGH, haha, I wasn't thinking.)
Anyway, we watched them, then went into the Anthropology museum, where we didn't have much time and were rushed a bit, which was too bad. I really wanted to look around and get some neat pictures, but NO TIIIIME. Here are a few of the ones I did get:
Water fountain / pillar statue thing
Carved pillar
Writing
BUILDING WITH A MOUTH
A cool plant
Tree with a vine!
After running through there, we ate lunch, which was a buffet, and where we were nearly KILLED BY SQUIRREL FAMILY. No, uh. Some of us down at one end, by a wall... a couple squirrels started climbing over the wall and seriously, they looked like they were gonna jump on us. It was really unnerving. One of the waiters came by and handed them a roll, which finally made them go away, but I was ready to fight to the death for my lunch. Stupid squirrels. And then we all stormed the gift shop and I bought postcards.
Then we went to La Casa Azul - Frida Kahlo's house turned museum.
It was... blue. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but we got to see a bunch of stuff about her and by her, and we got to see her bed with the mirror, and also the urn with her ashes and stuff. We could take pictures in the courtyard, so I snapped a few there. Of plants. oh god i took so many pictures of plants on this trip. It was getting gloomy, so some of them are blurry. (Also, there were cute black and white cats all around inside.)
(haha, this is one of the only pictures of me. I didn't even notice I was in it until I uploaded these and was going through them.)
After that, we had free time, so we split into groups and went exploring. My group ended up in this cute little market, where I helped a few people figure out prices (I speak a little Spanish, and I can understand most numbers so long as they're under one thousand. I do not know the word for thousand), and then bought an alpaca wool ... poncho thing. Then we found another, much larger (and outdoor) market near a church. We'd wanted to get inside, but couldn't find the entrance. It was all fenced off for renovation (apparently there was a way in. Another group found it). I didn't buy anything else, but there was all sorts of really neat stuff - jewelry, art, the tiniest candles I've ever seen in my life seriously you'd get like maybe half a minute out of those things.... We stopped at a bar on the way back to the vans, where I ordered a soda and got strange looks (and apparently started people wondering if I was Mormon. I got asked about it later).
Dinner was on our own, but a bunch of us got together and went out to a Chinese-Mexican place (strange combination...). I had something called a torta, which is kind of a grilled sandwich, with refried beans and avocado, and tomato, and I had one with three different cheeses and it was the most amazingly delicious thing I think I have ever eaten. I could live off of tortas, I think.
Back at the Casa de los Amigos, I tried to shower and discovered that our room had no water pressure. Bummer.
Sunday, January 11th - Day 03
Morning was a repeat of yesterday's, only today we talked about history instead of HELLO HI WELCOME, and we met our guide for the day (some days we had a person who joined us for that day only, though our guide for the whole trip was usually around, too).
We took the metro to the zócalo, where there were a lot of huge and amazing decorations up (along entire BLOCKS of builings! There was also a very large tree, which you'll see again later) to see the huge cathedral (the Metropolitan Cathedral) there. We had lunch first (dude, didn't we just eat breakfast? We had tortas and they took a while to all be ready, so it worked out), so it was noon when we arrived.
Here is a short film of the bells ringing (THEY WERE RIDICULOUSLY LOUD AND THEY RANG AND RANG AND RANG for like ten minutes or something, and at every quarter hour, it was lunacy):
Here is a statue outside the cathedral, which is a bit freaky and that kind of disturbed me a bit:
We wandered around inside the cathedral, as well. They were having mass (it occurs all day on Sunday, since there are so many people), so no photos with flash, so none of them turned out well. Then we walked around the square to the National Palace, where we saw some of Diego Rivera's murals, which you can probably google and get better, full images of. But here is the fountain inside.
After that, FREE TIME. We split into groups again, and I went along with a couple people I'd started hanging out with (for they were awesome people). We went with our guide's cousin to a museum (I think it was the Museum of Fine Arts) to see more murals and some weird, more modern art... They had a room where you could create your own art, so one of the other girls in the group painted a picture for the guy leading us around.
BEAUTIFUL. So he carried that all through the museum and to dinner and... around. It was hilarious. (Also true, since he did. Does.)
From the museum, we went up the observation tower to see all of Mexico City going on FOR EVER AND EVER AND WOOOOW.
Remember I said the tree was huge?
NO REALLY IT IS HUGE.
(That's the zócalo. In the left is the cathedral, behind the tree and flag is the National Palace.)
We ate delicious dinner at a place called Sanborns and then we went to the Ballet Folklórico de México, which wasn't in the Palace of Fine Arts because it's undergoing renovations, arg. It was back at the Anthropology Museum. But whatever, it was... stunning. Really, if you ever get a chance, go watch it. It's really cool! So full of energy and just wow!
Our trip guide (who'd taken the day off) met us with the vans after the ballet, and some people teased him and said he should have been there because it was so incredible, and amazing, and because the guy who played the deer in the deer dance was really cute or hot or something, and he told us he was the deer (obviously a lie, but hilarious).
(Uh, regarding the guy playing the deer being cute/hot/whatever they were using, our guide - hell, apparently every male directly associated with the trip - which, okay, that's only three of them, but still - is homosexual, so.)
AND THAT WAS OUR THIRD DAY!
Monday, January 12th - Day 04
THIS WAS OUR LAST MORNING IN MEXICO CITY. MMM, SLIGHTLY STALE CORN FLAKES. Also, we had to pack everything up and bring it down and throw it into the vans.
Our first job was to go down the street and place our orders for our tortas for lunch. I had to have someone run my postcards (DUDE, I DON'T THINK ANY OF THEM HAVE ARRIVED YET? WHERE ARE THEY?!) down and mail them while I was ordering food, since we were running short on time.
Our first stop was at the Basilica of Guadalupe to see the Virgin of Guadalupe. There are actually three basilicas. The smallest, oldest one is way up on the hill, then there's the middle (both in size and age) one, and then there's the modern, HUGE one, which is where they've currently got it. Her. Whatever. I forgot to take a picture of the smallest one when we hiked up.
Here is the middle:
Modern:
Here is the inside of the oldest one. There was a group of students there chanting or something:
Here is one of the statues on the outside of the oldest one. There were four, and no points for guessing why I was amused by and only took a picture of this one:
People make pilgrimages from literally all over - ON FOOT! - to come see the Virgin (as we drove along, we'd pass groups), and here's a statue that maybe is supposed to represent that?
HERE IT IS, IN ALL ITS BLURRY GLORY:
They had moving sidewalks, haha. So people didn't just stand there and pray in front of it for the rest of time.
We were handed our lunches off the back of an old Mustang, then we all got back into the vans and went to Teotihuacán. Our guide was a really awesome old man, and he showed us around the ruins and stuff. Also, there were a million and six vendors there trying to sell us anything they had on them (and they'd chase you, it was a bit alarming), but one of them was pretty neat. He used cacti and worm larvae off one of them to show us how they got the reds and yellows to paint their buildings way back in the ancient civilizations.
The bottom, larger cactus has funny blobs on it - the larvae. He'd mash one up to get the red. The yellow came from the thinner one that's standing up. Then he'd use the juice from the inside of the big one to seal them off, and it dried instantly. Pretty cool! (The envelopes contained... postcards, I think? I didn't buy anything, I just ran away after the demonstration.)
My group did not climb the Pyramid of the Moon (it was closed at the halfway point, but I still wanted to go up both the pyramids). Instead, we ran down the path of the dead and sprinted past all the vendors, and found ourselves at the base of the Pyramid of the Sun.
WHICH WE CLIMBED!
(I know what people say, but really it is not that exhausting climbing those things if you just do it. Find your comfort pace and just go. Pause at the landings to admire the view and then go again.)
Here is the Moon from on the Sun:
Here is some of the view down from the top of Sun:
When we all gathered back together, we again got into our vans and drove off and away. It was four hours or so to our next destination, the capital city of Querétaro, Santiago de Querétaro. Though both are just referred to as Querétaro. So, hotel! We got our rooms and moved in. We were all really tired by this point, but we still had dinner!
We met our instructor's friend, who'd be with us for most of our time in Querétaro. She was a really incredible person, and I'm so glad we got to meet her.
Anyway, we walked to the restaurant, Fin de Siglo, where we met a lot of people (some even who work for the government, tourism-related stuff...) and where we were sung to by a pair of women (we were all given a copy of their CD later), and where we were fed THE BEST FOOD IN THE WORLD.
We were given Aztec Soup (well, we had a choice of that or creamed corn), which is a tomato broth base, and then at this place they gave us a little plate with things to put in it: avocado, cheese, tortilla strips, pork rinds, and a chile. IT WAS DELICIOUS. Then we again had a choice for our dinner. I went for the cheese-stuffed pepper in a nuts sauce, which was rich and also delicious, and had pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top and mmmm, I wished I was more hungry and capable of totally stuffing myself because it was soooo goooooooood but I just could not finish it.
Then for dessert we could have baked custard or cake, which was chocolate and yellow cake (but not marble cake) with a strawberry filling. I went for cake. IT WAS ALSO DELICIOUS. mmmmm.
And then most of us went back to the hotel and passed out like dead things might.
That is all for now. I am sick of typing.
no subject
Oh, cool water fountain/pillar thingie! And AWESOME OTHER PILLAR THINGIE. And MOUTH BUILDING OH MY GOSH that is awesome.
So many pretty flowers!
Mormon? What, 'cause you don't drink? ...lol?
And oh man, cool decorations! Well, cool and sort of hilarious and tacky, but in a fun way!
Haha, that statue is awesome. EVIL DEATH POPE WITH A FACE FOR A BODY!
Oh my gosh, the sky is so blue. WHY DID YOU NOT TAKE ME WITH YOU.
lolol deer guy! That is awesome.
Hoooooly crap that pyramid is freakin' huge. AGH I am so jealous. It must have been amazing in person.
no subject
I thought the leap from 'did not order a drink' to 'omfg iz mormon' was kind of a strange one. I laughed, but it was the laugh of a very confused individual.
I have had a very hard time smuggling people onto planes ever since they actually started enforcing the carry-on size! SOMEDAY THEY WILL SLACK OFF AGAIN.
Seriously, I don't think I could attend a church service - assuming I attended church services anyway ignore for now that I don't - with that statue lurking around outside. It's like something you'd have to fight in a video game. I'd spend the entire time looking around for a weapon to defend myself with.
HE WAS SO GOOD TO PUT UP WITH OUR IDIOCY.
The pyramid was so awesome. I wish we hadn't had to flee for the sake of our wallets, but at least they didn't chase us up the pyramid, so we could enjoy that. (And then everyone complained about their legs hurting for like... the rest of the trip! And I couldn't tell if they were joking or not?) BUT YES! It was incredible!