Well, like I said, I began my vacation. So far, it's been awesome. I'm back in my home city at the moment, but that's okay. I went on a four day five night (or something like that) trip throughout southern Mexico. You already know the names, but now you get some pictures. First of all, the bus trip from Querétaro to Palenque is something along the lines of 15 hours. It was, however, well worth it.
This is the image from the backside of the ruins that are accessible. A few years ago, a team of students from either Texas or Canada, took some satellite pictures and discovered 65 or so more ruins that are under cover of jungle forest. We were able to visit six. In about the center of this picture is a tower. In the past, it was open to be in, but people kept falling from it. The ruins in Palenque have a history of no Mexicans dying there. So I was told to be very very careful.
This tomb is closed to the public, but I remember some of the stories about it. One of the early archaeologists was investigating this buildling and poking holes in things and doing the general archaeologist business. Then he returned home to Distrito Federal and died from poisonous gasses he inhaled while working. Oops. But what's important about this building is that if you count the stairs, on each side at the bottom, are numbered to nine. Nine by nine is 81, which is the total number of stairs to the top. And nine, if I remember rightly, which could be completely false, is the number of months in their calendar. Sure, the number of days in a month varied every once in awhile, but it worked well enough for them.
Then we went to Agua Azul, maybe two and a half hours away. This is the first lookout to the largest part of the falls (I think). It was just darn amazing. There exists a picture of me in front of the falls, but there's also a kid from the group walking in front of me. Kind of spoils the picture.
But these falls went on for a few hundred meters at least, and every one was very pretty. I was pretty darn pumped that I got to swim that day. In the warm weather, a beach boy that doesn't make to a beach is a sad creature. After Agua Azul, though, I was darn content. Another funny thing, too... Me being a Michigan boy and accustomed to Lake Michigan, the water was alright. Not the warmest like the warmest days of Lake Michigan, but definitely not the coldest. Some of the Mexicans could handle it, but a few began to turn blue.
We headed back to Palenque to sleep, even though the original plan was to go to Villa Hermosa. This was just fine, because we didn't really want to spend another night on the bus. (But me, though, the bus is just a cheap place to sleep.) And the next morning, we arose early and headed to Villa Hermosa and the museum of La Venta (or La Vanta...)
I think of all the big heads I photographed, this one turned out the best. I don't know so much the histories behind the big heads, but they are pretty impressive. We basically walked around the museum and looked at things and listened to the professor. At the end of the trip, there were some animals... Spider monkeys, and jaguars, and wild cats, and some crocodiles and turtles. But what's more:
We found these on our way to the exit. The girl without the sash is in my class. I think we mutually decided when I showed her the picture that I had taken (she's got one on her camera, too) that the girl from Querétaro was the better looking. When I saw the first sash, I thought, "That's odd. What's a girl with a sash with 'México' doing walking around here?" And wouldn't ya know it. I didn't get a story as to why they were there. I just accepted it as fact.
After Villa Hermosa, we headed our way to Oaxaca, some 9 or 10 hours away. We got there around 3am, but didn't like the prices in the hotels, so we slept on the bus until 6am and got better prices. I had some very crazy dreams that could be fun to write about here, but I'll refrain because there are no pictures.
In the morning, we climbed aboard the bus and came to this beast. It's kind of difficult to see the statistics about this tree, but it's more than 2000 years old, and reaches 42 meters high. It's got a volume of 816 cubic meters and weighs 636 tons. It's a darn big tree. I looked inside the church that's situated next to it, and then we went to grab some food.
I had this. Large tortilla (but this was the small order), frijoles, oaxaqueño cheese (Mmmm), aguacate (avocado), and tomato. Maybe there was a little bit more, but I'm not one to say. It was darn tasty, though. I had it along with some tamarind water. Not too bad, but I think I would have preferred lime water, or strawberry water or something. Doesn't matter, it was a good start to the day.
This picture I need to throw in because it's just darn pretty. So you see, sometimes I can take good pictures. After the big tree place (I think I might know where it is, but I'm not positive), we went to the ruins of Mitla. I took four pictures. None of them are really worth showing off, sorry. But in Mitla, I bought a blue shirt with white patterns, and a green flute. The blue shirt looks very Mexican. But in Mitla, I got to climb into a tomb. It was neat, but it was basically a tomb. Dark and a little chilly.
On our way to Mitla, we stopped at a place that sells mezcal. Mezcal is made from maguey. Now, I'm sure not many have tried mezcal. But to clear things up, mezcal has the worm.
And things like this happen. But this picture had to happen at some point. In my right hand is some maguey. I guess they were eating the pulp on the inside, and it tasted like the drink. I didn't have so much of it. In my left hand is a nearly full, hardly opened bottle of mezcal. I'm not exactly the greatest fan, but I did want a souvenir of Oaxaca, so I was trying to decide upon a brown or a clear shot glass. The girl that was standing next to me said, "Why would you want a glass? It's nothing but a keepsake," to which I replied, "Yeah. I know." But I ended up buying some mezcal, anyway. I'm hoping it'll still be around when I get back stateside.
This was the view of across the street at the mezcal place. I didn't so much take a picture of the ground... I rather preferred the contrasting colors of the hills, sky, and clouds... I hope you understand. On our way back from Mitla, we stopped at Barril Negro. Ehm.. Black pottery. The decorative kind. And the guy that makes it gave a demonstration of how to make a pitcher. He made it in about 15 minutes, but that was just for demo. The real pitchers and jars he makes during the course of a month. The clay he gets from a cave two miles out of town. Instead of using a pottery turner, he's got two plates that he turns as he works the clay. He showed us how he gets to shine on the clay and how to add designs, and handles... It was darn amazing how quickly he worked the clay. Then we headed back to Oaxaca.
During the night, we stopped by a chocolate shop. Now, I did want to buy chocolate. I even had some money to buy chocolate. But there was a lot of people in a small space, and I couldn't really take it. So three girls and I headed out to find food. I had pozole on the street. It was darn good food. When we finished, we headed back to the hotel, but kinda got lost along the way. But that's me. I get lost. I meant to go back to the chocolate shop the next day but I didn't know where it was. Plus, I got up at 7am, thinking it was 8am, and I was going to walk 30 minutes from the hotel and if I didn't find the chocolate, I'd head back because the day was to start at 9:30. But I headed back at 8am, thinking it was 9am. It was a mess. and I still didn't get my chocolate. So one of these days, I'm going to have to head back. Maybe go to Acapulco one of these weekends, but make sure to travel through Oaxaca. Anyway. At 9:30, we got to adventure out through the town.
So this was the first picture of the day. This particula flower is located by the church of Santo Domingo. My three friends and I paid for a tour of the church. I also believe that I was kicked out of the church at the end of the tour because I was wearing shorts. Oops. But this is what the church looks like:
And I took some artsy pictures that right now aren't much to show off. And at 3pm, we hopped on the bus and went to the ruins of Monte Alban. This place was darn cool. Everything I'd hope for in a ruins. But first...
From left to right is Edith, Noemi, Meira, and Jeff. We're standing on the ledge by the ruins above the valley. These were the girls I got to know during the duration of the trip. Sometime, I'd like to make up for the lunches I owe them.
This is the valley without the four people standing in front of it. Not so much the ruins until the next picture. I just figured it was a good chance for a panoramic shot.
To situate ourselves, left of the center of the picture is the north south line. The building in the center is turned 45 degrees and the stairs on that building (not visible) and the stairs on the building on the right line up. Behind me is another building, and behind the building in the background, I believe, lay more ruins. After we climbed down from this vantage point, we went through the museum, and climbed into the bus to head back to Querétaro (about 9 or so more hours in the bus).
So. In the whirlwind weekend, I spent about 50 hours in the bus. And maybe fifteen to twenty hours in hotels. I was the only gringo. This was a very awesome trip, and it's too bad none of the americanos were able to join me. But that's fine, because it let me have the mexicans all to myself. I kinda think I prefer travelling with Mexicans. I just need to find more who are travelling. But that's kinda the first part of my vacation. I've got some homework that needs to be done. Oh yeah. 160 pictures in these four days.
