Regresamos a Mexico City

We are now in Mexico City, where we have been spending the final days of our trip. Prior to Mexico City, we spent three days in Acapulco and two days in Taxco. Acapulco is nice, if you don't plan on sleeping between the hours of 10pm and 6am when the night clubs shake your hotel room (and we were on the 21st floor) with the sound of Michael Jackson's Thriller. Taxco is a beautiful town, built on the side of a hill with maze-like streets that are fun to get lost in. It was a nice break from touristy Acapulco, and much quieter, except for the loud explosions throughout the night. We later learned they were set off to guide the deceased home for Dia de Los Muertos. We also learned a valuable lesson about traveling to Mexico City on the Sunday following a holiday weekend. Don't. Our 2.5 hour trip from Taxco to Mexico City turned into a 5 hour traffic jam. But we are happy to be back to the city where our trip began.

Today we visited Casa Azul, where Frida Kahlo lived after divorcing and then remarrying Diego Rivera. The house is filled with artwork, letters, books and other personal items of the couple. Afterwards, we visited Diego and Frida's first house, which is actually two houses connected by an aerial walkway. Much of the house was closed off for renovations, but we met the woman who lives next door in what she says is the first modern house in all of Mexico. She gave us a personal tour of her home along with an invitation to return. We'll be back in 2 weeks after we put notice in at our jobs. We're flying home tomorrow afternoon, and can't wait to talk to everyone.

Casa de Hogar, Morelia, Uruapan, Zihuatanejo

We just completed our week-long Spanish course and volunteering at an orphanage in Morelia. We were only able to spend a few days at the orphanage, but we loved every minute of it and were able to make a small, but significant difference. In addition to organizing the toy room, a 20x20 mess of stuffed animals, radio-controlled cars and action figures, we were able to tutor two of the children (David, 10 and Toño, 8) who had just arrived at the orphanage and had never been to school before. While our Spanish course did a great job explaining the intricacies of the past and future tenses of the language, it failed to brush us up on our ABC´s. As a result, David and Toño now know their ABC´s in a mixture of Spanish, English and French. We were sad to leave Morelia after spending almost 2 weeks there, but were ready to start traveling.

We just arrived in Zihuatanejo after spending 2 nights in Uruapan, a quaint town with a national park (think Yosemite and Disneyland, only with more taco stands). We also hiked 557 steps to the base of a waterfall, where we enjoyed the view while eating salted, limed and peppered watermelon and jicama. Much better than it sounds. We are now sitting in the only air-conditioned room in all of Zihuatanejo, a beautiful but humid beach town where you can drink the air along with $1 beers. We plan on spending the week relaxing by the water and making our way up the coast to Acapulco before heading back inland, through Taxco to Mexico City. We have to go pick up our clothes from the lavandaria now (a much needed task we finally had a chance to do!).

Valle de Bravo

Conversation of the week:



Paco: ¿Quieres ir (Do you want to go?)

Cathy: ¿Donde?(Where?)

Paco: ¿Quieres ir?(Do you want to go?)

Cathy: ¿Donde?(Where?)

Paco: ¿Quieres ir?(Do you want to go?)

Cathy: Si, Quiero ir.(Yes, I want to go)

Paco: ¿Donde?(Where?)



¡Hola! Upon our arrival in Valle de Bravo, we were greeted by several locals who had no idea what we were doing there. Apparently the organization that sponsors the volunteer program forgot to organize it. Things were thrown together at the last minute. We were given a house to stay in, but we had to install the stove, refrigerator (which never worked) and we were constantly unclogging the one toilet for eight people. The volunteer program was fun and we made several new friends from all over the world, but in the end we realized we wanted to travel and learn more. We returned to Morelia and were welcomed with open arms and open bottles of tequilla by the host family that we stayed with prior to the program. We just completed our placement exam for a Spanish course, and we will be starting class on Monday. After class, we will be helping Pina (our housemom) in her restaurant and taking the family dog for walks. They told us the dog stopped eating the day we left, so they are glad we are back. Plans for our final week in Mexico are still up in the air. We will either stay in Morelia and study, volunteer at the local orphanage, or continue to travel. We will keep you posted.

Patzcuaro

If a taxi leaves Patzcuaro at 8:00pm and travels two times the speed limit, how many minutes will it take to arrive in Morelia if the limit is 90kph and Morelia is 58km away?

A. Twice as fast as the bus ride to Patzcuaro.
B. I have no idea, I don´t know how long a kilometer is.
C. Who cares, as long as I come back alive.

Yesterday we visited Patzcuaro, a small town outside of Morelia. It is very nice, but very touristy. Don´t worry, we still stuck out like sore thumbs. Everywhere we go the kids say ¨Hell-o, how arrr yu?¨ And then they run away giggling. We took a boat out to the middle of a large lake in Patzcuaro to an island called Janitzio. There are no cars on the island, just a lot of tchotchke tiendas lining the winding cobblestone staircases that lead to a giant statue on the top of the island. We were able to climb to the top of the statue via a steep, narrow stairway and peer out of the raised arm.

After returning back to Patzcuaro, we feasted on Pasta Ice cream (¡muy bien!) and then headed home in a taxi (¡muy rapido!). Today we spent the morning preparing food for the restaurant of our host family. We learned how to make Sopa Tarasca. Then, we went for a walk with the family dog (a large German Shepard that lives on their roof) and tested our Spanish and cooking skills. We went to the market to buy all the ingredients needed to bake Joel's award-winning brownies. We can't figure out if it was our baking or Spanish skills that led us astray, but needless to say we have a lot of brownies, and no one wants to eat them.

Tomorrow is our last day in Morelia before leaving to Valle de Bravo. We are seriously considering staying here longer, since we were invited to a wedding...only 350 guests, 200 of which are relatives!

Change of plans

Where do we begin...
We have learned a few things while staying here in Morelia that we would like to share with you:

1. If upon arrival you are asked to make your own copy of the house key (to keep!) it is probably not a good sign.
2. If the cost of your stay has magically changed from $300 dollars to $300 Euros, also not a good sign.
3. If the map to the house that you will be staying in is written in crayon...not a good sign.
4. If you find your German language skills improving but haven't spoken a word of Spanish (unless you are in Germany, then the opposite applies) not a good sign.
5. If the only lesson your Spanish teacher has for you is how to get yourself out of the house you are staying in...really not a good sign.

In conclusion, if staying in Morelia, you will want to seek out a nice family with a restaurant attached to their house who want nothing more than to feed you and speak Spanish with you all day long. That is where we will be until Wednesday. So, if you don't hear from us, it is either because:

A. We have forgotten all of our English
B. We are too full to get to a computer.
C. All of the above.

We are having a great time and can't wait to share photos with you.
Speaking of photos, you can see our wedding photos online at www.onethousandonewords.com
They take a while to load, so please be patient.

Adios Mexico City, Hola Morelia

After two long days in Mexico City we are off to Morelia where we will be brushing up on our Spanish. We've enjoyed our stay here and have managed to eat more cheese and beans than we ever thought possible in two days. Yesterday we figured out the metro system and rode a few trains around the city, successfully avoiding a tag-team pick pocket attempt (we think they were rookies) as well as almost getting stuck in the subway door (they don´t wait for anyone). We toured the Casa de Luis Barragan (his own personal house that he designed in the 1940s). It was amazing, full of color and light and very modern even for today. Our tour guide gave us a ride to a popular neighborhood for lunch, where among the many options was Starbucks. We opted for a local restaurant where we were serenaded by a tambourine-toting Nirvana cover band...so much for getting out of Seattle! Our Internet time is running out and we have a bus to catch...Hasta Luego!

Mexico City

We arrived in Mexico City this morning at 6:00am (4:00am pst). We spent the day eating tortas and enchiladas, avoiding the water, and walking around downtown. We are exhausted, but we are enjoying everything so far. We are staying in a Casa designed by Luis Barragan. It is very comfortable and the people here are very friendly. Tomorrow we are going to the Frida Kahlo museum and then we will be off to Morelia for the week before heading out to Valle de Bravo. The internet connection here is not very reliable, so sorry for the short message. We will do our best to keep everyone posted of our adventure.