Hierve el Agua

Sunday I went to Hierve el Agua. The colectivo site was easy enough to find, since it was right by the bus station where I arrived, but getting a ride proved to be a little more difficult. Right now, it is the temporada baja, or low tourist season. Which is great for a lot of things, but makes it harder to get a large enough group. I tried to go Saturday afternoon, but by the time I was ready it was late afternoon and there weren’t other people around to go. So, Sunday it was, and by 11:00 we had enough people to go. Because Hierve el Agua is up in the hills with about an hour’s worth of dirt road to travel, this colectivo was really a small pickup with benches rigged up in the back. With 7 of us piled in the back and a family squeezed in the cab, we were off. It reminded me of driving up forest service roads with magnificent views and steep drop-offs.

Literally, hierve el agua means boiling water. It doesn’t boil. They are mineral springs that bubble up lukewarm water. But they are pretty cool. They form pools to swim in, as well as amazing mineral formations. Check it out…

To Mitla!

Since one of my goals was to travel and see more of Oaxaca, I decided to take a trip last weekend. After consulting a copy of Lonely Planet that Katie and Nithim left behind (I love Lonely Planet!), I picked Mitla. Mitla is a small town just outside of Oaxaca City with ruins to see, and a jumping off point to get to Hierve el Agua. I was surprised by how close the ruins were… they really were in the town. They were beautiful, not as big as a site as Monte Alban, perhaps, but they had some amazing, intricate stone designs.

This was my first time really traveling solo. I’ve traveled to and from places on my own plenty, and I’ve gone on weekend trips with friends, but I’d never gone anywhere all on my own, just because. I was so excited to leave Tlaxiaco that morning, to be doing something on my own, something new. And once I got going, I realized that I CAN do this. It’s true I hadn’t traveled solo before, but I have traveled a lot. I know how to do it. So, going alone wasn’t that much different. Except, of course, that I didn't have company. It wasn’t all that bad. Although, since I stayed in a small town, things really did close up early. I went to try to grab something to eat and maybe hang out for a bit, but most places were closed! I guess that’s what happens in a place where the tourists mostly just come during the day. Would things have been better with a friend along? Yes, but I don’t intend to let that stop me from making another trip!

This group of ruins really was in the middle of town.

Decorations inside the palace.

Valentine's Day in Tlaxiaco

Every day in Tlaxiaco, vendors set up their goods alongside the main plaza. Recently, in and among the regular vendors selling fruits, vegetables, clothes, pirated cd’s and movies, have been vendors selling Valentine’s Day items. Fake roses with perfume, stuffed animals, bags of candy, and heart-shaped balloons saying Kiss Me. Which all seemed funny to me. Apart from being overly cheesy, it all seemed out of place... so very American in a place with relatively little outside influence.

At Casa Hogar, we had our own Valentine’s Day event. Students chipped in 10 pesos apiece to have some carne asada and refrescos. Also there was a gift exchange planned, and an evening campfire. Before all that, though, we had a short prayer, Bible study and sang a couple songs.

As I was standing by the campfire, I looked around at everyone enjoying their carne asada, saw new pink blossoms on a nearby tree, watched people bring their presents for the gift exchange… it was all quite festive… in a way that seemed somehow familiar, yet entirely different at the same time. It seemed to have a little bit of a summer BBQ atmosphere, plus springtime, plus Christmas gift exchange…. all around a campfire. It was good.

For the gift exchange we stood in a circle around the campfire to give the gifts. One person started by saying a mí, me tocó a (person’s name), and then gave the gift and a hug to the other person. The person who received the present did the same thing until everyone had a turn. There were always oohs and ahhs when the gift was exchanged between a boy and a girl, along with chants of beso! Beso!

All in all, a good way to spend Valentine's Day.

Lots of onions!

The carne asada, onions and cactus were all grilled up over the campfire.

I'm on a bus!

Ah, the bus. Considering I don’t take busses for my daily transportation, I sure have spent a lot of time on busses. Most of the time if I go to Puebla for the weekend, I take the bus. Which takes anywhere from 5 to 6 hours. Luckily, the busses are really nice. They have comfy seats that recline, they play movies… in fact, on one trip into Puebla it occurred to me that spending the day on the bus wasn’t so bad. Warmth, comfortable chairs, movies… kind of nice. Especially since I don’t watch very many movies at Casa Hogar, and I do sometimes miss having a couch.

So for the most part, being on the bus is pretty relaxing, and when I look out the window, I’m paying much more attention to the scenery than the traffic. However, once on the way to Guadalajara, I noticed that we were turning onto a different freeway… and then I realized that we were facing the wrong way… a glace over to the other side of the bus told me that yes, cars were headed straight at us. (There weren’t very many.) As I watched the cars easily move over to the other lane to accommodate for the bus going the wrong way, I couldn’t help but think that if this were in the US, there would certainly be a wreck! Anyways, then the bus reversed down the freeway a little before crossing the median to the correct side of the road. No one was concerned at all.

All that being said, over vacation I think I had just about reached my limit for time spent on busses. A bus to Puebla, 10 hour bus ride to Guadalajara, then another 10 hours back to Puebla, then 4 hours to Veracruz, then an hour to the site each day in Veracruz, back to Puebla, back to Tlaxiaco. All in all, we’re looking at 50+ hours of bus time within 3 weeks.
And what did I do with all that time? Well....

1. Watch movies
2. Take naps
3. Read
4. Do Sudoku
5. Write in my journal
6. Watch the world go by
7. Talk to the person sitting next to me
8. Eat some snacks
9. Daydream
10. Take pictures at random stops

And there it is, in all its glory...

Waiting

Check out this fantastically orange bus... with a little live music as well.

The Half-Way Point

I am officially past the half-way point of my time here. Overall, I will be here about 7 ½ months, and as of now, I’ve been here just over 4 months. Although this isn’t my first time living abroad, it will be my first time being gone for such a long stretch of time. I decided to stay in Mexico for Christmas break and visit the Amayas in Guadalajara. I am so glad that I decided to do that; it was a great to see them and to experience Christmas in another culture. Also, I joined a mission team from California on their trip to Veracruz, which was also a really good experience. But… as I neared the half-way point of my time in January… it dawned on me. Even though I had a good vacation, and a good Christmas, I still didn’t get to see my friends and family. And 4 months is a long time to be gone. It felt like it should be time to see friends and family… except it wasn’t, and I was only half way through. Stuck in the middle, and stretched between the beginning and the end, both equally far away. May seemed a long ways off.

May still seems a ways away. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that the next few months will go by quite quickly. Besides, I am past the half-way point now. Three more months? No problem. The end is in sight, and I have momentum again. Time to re-evaluate, make some goals and, in general, aprovechar the remaining time that I have.

So, here are some things I intend to work on/do more of in the next few months:

1. Speak in English with the students. At first, I wanted to be able to build relationships with students, and because of their low English abilities, Spanish seemed the best way to do that. However, I think it’s time to switch to English.
2. Use a rewards system to try to get students to come to English class more often.
3. Hold bi-weekly vocab bees to encourage students to learn basic vocabulary.
4. Travel more. It turns out, I do enjoy travelling more than spending the weekend in Tlaxiaco with no real plans. And I want to see more of Oaxaca.
5. Read new books on my new kindle. (Yay for e-books and birthday presents!)

And…. Go!

Monte Alban

While we were in Oaxaca, we took a side trip to Monte Alban. It was pretty amazing. I had been to Teotihuacan to see the Aztec pyramid of the sun and pyramid of the moon. But what impressed me most about Monte Alban was the size of the site. The pyramids maybe weren't as tall, but there were many buildings spread over a large area. Situated on a hill, it also had great views.

Me, Nithim and Katie.

The ball court.

An image of a danzante.

Visitas y Viajes

Last weekend Nithim, Katie and I went to Oaxaca City. Although it isn’t that far away, (about 2.5 hours), I hadn’t gone yet. I don’t know anyone in Oaxaca City, and I think Agustin and Irene would have been concerned if I went on my own.

Who are Katie and Nithim? They are the two people who found my blog and decided to come and help out for a couple weeks. Our main project is putting together a volunteer handbook for future volunteers at HEI. When I first started looking into Casa Hogar, I couldn’t find any information about it at all. (Luckily, I was able to e-mail with a past volunteer!) We’re hoping that with the new website and a handbook, more people will know about HEI, and more people will decide to come. I guess there was no volunteer last year. Obviously, it would be nice if every year there was a volunteer. In the handbook, there will be information about Tlaxiaco, Casa Hogar, and what it is like to live and volunteer here. The other project is putting together some curriculum for teaching English. Also, Nithim is studying digital libraries and is collecting various things to use as resources on our new computers. It’s been really great to spend time with them, have a good project to work on and not be the only extranjera at Casa Hogar.

Anyways, we went to Oaxaca! It is a really beautiful city. I loved having breakfast in the zocalo, listening to musicians, and watching the vendors set up under the tall trees. It was a very relaxing place to be, and even though there were lots of people out and about, no one seemed to be in a hurry. It was also significantly warmer than Tlaxiaco! Not that it was that much different during the day, but it was so nice to walk around at night and not be cold. And to be able to eat dinner outside wearing a light sweater instead of eating inside wearing a coat!

I really enjoyed traveling, seeing a new place, being a little more independent. Perhaps I’ll be able to do another weekend trip sometime. If nothing else, it will be fun to plan something for Semana Santa!

Oaxaca is famous for its textiles and other handiwork.

Mmm... churros.

Queso Oaxaqueño- we ate a lot of it while we were there!

A really big tree in Tule, and possibly the largest biomass in the world.

Traditional huipils still worn by some in the indigenous community.