Sunday, October 26, 2014

Can we go back to Cervantino?

The long awaited Cervantino finally happened! Cervantino is an arts festival in Guanajuato City, the capital of the state of Guanajuato. My friend Bruno and I left Toluca for Guanajuato Thursday night. It took us a while to get there, though, because on the way a rock fell from the mountains we were driving between and did some damage to our car and the car behind us. So we finally arrived at about 1AM on Friday. And we needed some tacos. Obviously. Then we decided to explore the night life scene. We found a place to dance and decided to stay. Again, obviously.

On Friday, we took a day trip to San Miguel de Allende. It’s about an hour away from Guanajuato. We walked around the downtown area for most of the afternoon. We found an art museum with some awesome exhibits. Could you tell I like art from all the art museums I go to? My favorite exhibit at this museum was a room that every part of the room was painted except the floor. But the floor had footprints to show you where to stand to have different vantage points of the room. There was a sculpture at the end of the room that provided the best view. We walked through the San Miguel de Allende cathedral and a few other churches. The view from outside the cathedral was the best though. Especially at night. We ate traditional food from the Yucatan for dinner at La Casa del Diezmo. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves since we didn’t eat at a regular meal time. Then we headed back to Guanajuato to go to a traditional callejoneada performed by an estudiantina. We basically followed carolers around the city. It was a blast! There were more than 100 people in our group. After that, we found a cumbia and salsa club and danced the night away!


Saturday was devoted to exploring Guanajuato. We started by going to the huge indoor market where I bought floral crowns for Halfway to EDC and some gifts for people back home. Then we marched over to the Museo de la Alhóndiga de Granaditas. This was an important building in Mexico’s independence. It was stormed and taken over by Miguel Hidalgo and Juan José Martínez “El Pípila”. There is a large statue of El Pípila in Guanajuato which is where we went next. It’s at a high point in the city and the view was incredible! Someone dropped their beer bottle and the 200 people that were there all shouted the same thing at him. I love Mexican culture. Then we toured a mine and a torture museum. It was more comical than scary. The tour ended in a candy store. They knew how to get my stamp of approval. After we returned to the downtown area we went to a Cervantino event in which there were acrobats tethered to the top of an interactive screen. They would run across the screen and do flips over each other. Then we went to a rock concert in Spanish. And of course the night ended in dancing yet again!













Sunday we woke up way too early to drive to Mexico City so that I could catch a flight to Chicago. When I went to print out my ticket (which I had purchased the day before), they told me I needed a slip of paper I was given when I entered into Mexico which was in Toluca! I went to immigration and all was resolved because they said I just needed to show my residence card. Gracias a Dios. When I boarded the plane, one of my friends from the poms team in high school was my flight attendant! What are the odds? I enjoyed the complimentary beverage and snacks!

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Beauty of Puebla

I was feeling spontaneous and took a weekend trip to Puebla! It was very last minute...meaning it was planned on Thursday and I left Friday. I was in Puebla for an education conference on Wednesday about how to teach English to children. It was great! I really enjoyed the speakers. They were very engaging. My favorite speaker talked about teaching in the 21st century. She taught us songs to use and how to adapt them to different cultures.

So on Friday I bought a bus ticket and took the 4-hour ride to Puebla where I met fellow Fulbrighter Clara and her friend Fer, who we spent the weekend with. When we got there, Fer took us on a short driving tour of downtown Puebla. We went to a restaurant on top of a hotel with one of the best views of the city. After that we had dinner in a nearby city called Cholula at a vegetarian restaurant. Best pizza I've had in Mexico (and possibly the US!). Then we listened to some banda music at a bar near the restaurant and called it a night.

Saturday was a relaxed day. Clara and I did a little exploring. We went to the Puebla Cathedral to see the inside and there was a mass going on so we sat down...until we realized it was a wedding. We left pretty quickly. Across the street there is an art museum and library so we checked it out. They had traditional dance performances so we stayed for a while. Then we met up with a British Fulbright ETA that Clara knew and her two British friends. We had comida corrida and walked through the open markets that fill the streets of Puebla. Puebla is known for their pottery, called talavera. So obviously I had to shop. Then we had hot chocolate and dessert at a little cafe downtown. At night we all went to Cholula again to go dancing. We were there until the club closed at 4! And needless to say, we had tacos before going home.


Sunday was more of a tourism day. Fer, Clara and I dined at a fancy restaurant for brunch. I had chilaquiles, thinking my stomach can handle it but I still just can't eat spicy food. Clara and I had heard about Museo Amparo so we made sure to go there. They had some interesting exhibits. Some art I will never understand. Nevertheless, it was still enjoyable. They had a great exhibit with recycled books. After that, we walked around the markets some more and had some ice cream before hopping on a tour bus. It drove us around the downtown area then up the hill to drive past some monuments. It was a beautiful view of the city. Unfortunately, the camera can't always capture the beauty. After the tour, Fer dropped us off at the bus station. We were running late but I was able to make the bus because it was sold out and there was another one 30 minutes later. Qué suerte! (What luck!)


The View from Above

The weekend started off right with a michelada. What’s that you ask? Why it’s a drink with beer, tomato juice concentrate flavored with spices and clam broth, lime juice and salt with shrimp on the bottom and rimmed with a kind of spicy gummy. Sounds gross but it was really good, actually! After picking up fellow Fulbrighter ETAs Britney and Charllotte from the bus station we headed to a restaurant in Metepec to meet up with our Mexican friends. This is where I tried the michelada.

Friday we went to a quaint nearby park to run. On the weekends there are Zumba classes in the center of the park. We made huevos a la Mexicana when we came back then ventured out to downtown Toluca for Alfenique. It’s a cultural festival/fair to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Los portales were lined with vendors selling pig shaped cookies, chocolates on a stick, papel picado, decorated sugar skulls and chocolate skulls. They also had people walking around in costume with their faces painted. I want to paint my face like a skull for Halloween/Dia de los Muertos! It rained on us on the way home. We should have expected that from the sunny Toluca skies. Ya get all sorts of weather in one day. We stopped by the panaderia, fruteria, and tortilleria to pick up taco ingredients and dessert. It’s so convenient. At night we had some adult beverages at a bar near the downtown area and we danced salsa, cumbia, and banda (which is mostly hopping around).

Saturday was the big trip to Valle de Bravo! Britney and I decided to be adventurous and try paragliding so we spent part of the afternoon sightseeing in Valle from the sky. It wasn’t scary at all, actually. We were driven up a mountain to a concrete landing from which the paragliders departed. We strapped up with an instructor, took a few running steps and started to fly. The flight lasted for about 30 minutes. We met our friends at the landing area and we hung out for a few hours next to the lake. Then we rented a boat and got a tour of the area. We got out of the boat to explore a waterfall and then it started to rain. We took the boat back to the dock and had seafood at a floating restaurant. I had delicious fish tacos. Then we walked around the downtown area to walk off all the food we had just eaten. I bartered and got myself a sweater! After that we headed back to Toluca and stopped to look at the stars on the way home since the sky is so clear because there’s no light pollution.




But the day didn’t end there! Once we got back to Toluca, we put on some warmer clothes at the apartment and headed to the nearby town of Metepec to go to Quimera, an art festival. They have performances and tents set up in the downtown area. The festival lasts for about 2 weeks. By the time we found parking, the events were mostly over and it had started to rain so we found a shelter at a mezcaleria. We stayed there pretty late and were able to celebrate Jess’ birthday which was on Sunday! It was a very long but fun day so we all crashed as soon as we got home. Looking forward to the next adventure!









Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Climb to the Top

The weekend started with a Toluca vs Chivas soccer game Thursday night. Gabby (my mentor and temporary mother) roots for Chivas and Mariano (my father) and I cheer for Toluca. It’s a big game for the teams and we had great seats, thanks to Mariano. I was able to rep my team with my new jersey thanks to one of the soccer players who bought it for me. AND I got to have churipan again which is a delicious sausage sandwich from Argentina. Thankfully Toluca won so Mariano and I have bragging rights!

Our Fulbright friends Stephanie and Clara came to visit us for the weekend. When they arrived Friday afternoon we came home and made some tacos before going to a despedida (going away party) for our Mexican friend Jesus who is moving to the US for work. The party was in a restaurant in Metepec. It was such a fun place: lots of people, great food, and mariachi music. We had the mariachis serenade Jesus while he wore a sombrero. We were there until about 2AM when we decided it would be a good idea to go home because we had to get up at 8. While we waited for the car my roommate Jess started climbing the outside wall of the restaurant. She’s my little monkey.

Saturday morning we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacán. There are about 2 hours northeast of Toluca. Thankfully it wasn’t too hot out or we would have roasted. We watched men tether themselves to a rope and spin around a pole as the ropes lowered them to the ground in the parking lot. Once inside, we walked down the Avenue of the Dead and climbed the Pyramid of the Sun (one of the largest in Mesoamerica) and the Pyramid of the Moon. Talk about leg workout. It started to rain but no too hard so we were able to stay. After a long day of climbing we indulged in some enchiladas de mole. ¡Que rico!

At night we went to a salsa club called MamboCafe. It was a blast! They played mostly salsa and cumbia music. Around 12 there was a live salsa band made up of about 9 people. When they took a break there was EDM music and I met someone from Las Vegas who is going to EDC there (as am I) in June. They dancing didn’t stop until 3AM. It was great to see so many good salsa dancers. I hope I’m that good one day! The night ended in tacos as every good night here in Mexico does.





On Sunday we showed the girls downtown Toluca. It’s only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We toured some churches, los portales, and the zócalo (open plaza) of Toluca. For brunch we went to a little market where they sell fruit, flowers, freshly squeezed juice, tacos, tamales, gorditas, birria (soup) and more! Their strawberry tamales are my favorite. It’s nice because you can walk around and get whatever and as much of it as you want. Then we stopped for ice cream and had a delicious berry and cream flavor. Sounds weird but it was great, like most things in Mexico