Local Pyramid... El Cerrito

One day our friend, Yaid, took Billy and I to some local ruins right in the middle of a town, Pueblito, close to Queretaro. They are called "El Cerrito", which means "little hill" in Spanish, because for a long time people didn't know that ruins existed in the area, they thought it was simply a small hill in town. After finding that the hill was actually a pyramid covered by vegetation, they kept the name. Apparently these ruins are quite historically significant. After the Spanish conquest, some rich Spanish dude with an ego built his mansion on top of the pyramid...the remains of which are still there, as you can see.

Tequisquiapan

So, a while ago we went to this cute little town about 1/2 hour away from Queretaro. We attended their annual wine and cheese festival and walked around with our friend / Spanish teacher, Yaid, and his family. Good stuff.

Billy and I with Yaid and his family in Tequis

Main cathedral in Tequisquiapan

Main square in Tequisquiapan

Billy and His Best Mexican Friend / Spanish Teacher, Yaid

'Nuff said. Aren't they a cute couple?

Maya

One day, while I was walking to work, I found this little cutie barking at the passing cars. We've see a ton of homeless dogs in Mexico, so I'm not sure why I felt it was so obvious that I needed to help her, but it was, and I did. I just called to her, and she immediately ran over to me, licked me, and put her paw on my leg. I motioned for her to come with me, and she ran right next to me all the way back to our apartment. Once there, I left Billy the early morning surprise of a puppy to take care of. But seriously, look at her-- who can say no? When I got home from class I opened the bedroom door and found Maya and Billy snuggled in bed together =) Anyway, she is so smart, sweet, and affectionate, and we fell in love with her right away. Billy came up with the perfect name-- "Maya" -- in honor of finding her in Mexico. She lived with us for two weeks and learned some fancy tricks in that time. All things considered, we ended up deciding it was best for her, and for us (although it was super hard) to give her to our boss' family. They have 3 kids and had been wanting a new dog for a while. They were so excited at the opportunity to adopt her, and they have since told us that she is very happy in their family and that all their kids are sharing the dog-owning responsibilities. We miss her but are super glad she's not living a homeless-dog life and that she is with a family that loves her and can give her lots of attention and exercise

Finally, our own city.... Queretaro!!!

We figured it was probably time to show you some pictures

of the city we actually live in.

Here we are in downtown Queretaro.

Awesome church in Queretaro

Billy in front of the awesome church.

Pious Billy inside the awesome church.

???

Me eating ice cream (chocolate with a little chile flavor =) in downtown Queretaro.

Rosa and Fernando: The owners of our language school.

Me in our first "home". The mattress-on-the-floor place. This was our fancy dining room =)

For Jeremy....

Just for you, bud!

More Rewind: Mexico City

Billy knocking on the slightly large door inside the cathedral

Inside the cathedral downtown

Street art

More sculptures in the street downtown

Dancers in the main square

Main cathedral in the city's zocalo (main square). Nice, eh? Unfortunately, however, it was built right on top of an ancient pyramid during the Spanish conquest.

Rewind: Semana Santa Procession of Silence

Since we have the time, I figured we should post some pictures of the Semana Santa procession (holy parade) we watched while in Oaxaca on vacation. Unfortunately I ruined 2 CDs of photos, one of which had many more pics of the Semana Santa stuff, but at least most of them were still saved on our memory card. Here are the survivors.

These are for you, Thurop....

No questions, please.

Tepotzlan

Cool tree at the base of the hike to the pyramid

Congratulatory kiss for not dying on the way up the mountain

Notice the footwear -- yes, those would be flip-flops. Perfect for hiking steep terrain.

Billy pyramid climbing....?

Tepotzlan is a super cute little town about 45 min away from Cuernavaca by bus. It houses a mystic pyramid that is accessible only by hiking a steep mountain. By the time we were done my thigh muscles were shaking from near muscle-failure, but it was worth it!

Taxco

School children parading through the city for 5 de Mayo

El Cristo looks over the city

Opposite of wide = the streets of Taxco. They are pretty, though, eh?

The aeriel view we were looking for

Coke break on our walk up the steep streets in search of an aerial view of the city

The city´s main cathedral

Taxco is an awesome city made of cobblestone streets that are ridiculously narrow and steep. There are also about 350,000 silver shops to choose from. We took advantage of the relatively cheap prices for the high-quality silver. I got a thick silver chain with two sets of pendants and matching earrings, a bracelet, and a ring. Oh yeah, and one other pair of earrings. Gotta love Mexico... =)

Birthday Vacation...

So, having been here for almost 2 months, we figured it was time for vacation #2. It was a good one too-- we made it back to Cuernavaca where I did my study abroad 10 years ago, as well as to Tepotzlan and Taxco. Check out our pics...starting with Cuernavaca. The top two are the Cathedral in the city, followed by a pic of the awesome Robert Brady museum -- see www.bradymuseum.org . The final two are of Jardin Borda (we took the pic from a rowboat we rented and paddled around the lake), and ruins that are right smack in the middle of a residental part of the city.

Ruin Photos

Here are some photos from the ruins we have visited so far. The top two are from Teotihuacan-- first a photo of the ancient city followed by some detail from a pyramid. The big pyramid there is one of the largest in the world! Pretty cool.... The bottom three are from Monte Alban: 1)cityscape 2) me on pyramid steps 3) ancient "ball court"-- they used to have to move the ball around by hitting it with their hips and such....

Random Thoughts: "Work" life, and life in general

So... who knew? Teaching English turns out to be a job we both have quite an affinity for! Honestly, it is really fun, and neither of us feel like it fits the definition of "work" at all (except for the fact that we get paid--not much--but we are paid nonetheless). We are both working a whopping 17.5 hours a week, usually in the evenings. So, our days pretty much go like this:
Wake up around 10 am, hang out, do yoga, eat, hang out, watch some TV, read, play the guitar (Billy), play Cribbage, read, hang out, eat, read over lesson plans, walk to work, "work", walk home, hang out, eat, watch movies, eat popcorn with chile, and eventually sleep. Start over. It`s a good life. However, we may have lung cancer by the time we get back. Thanks to our route along a freeway entrance, our walk to work is nicely accented by copious car emmissions. Lots and lots and lots of car emissions. We could probably etch our names on each other every day by scraping through what feels like inches of black film on our skin.
Since the lung cancer seems inevitable, I am trying to evade skin cancer during our walks by donning a super-sexy sombrero-ish hat I got from WalMart. I shall enlighten and delight you with a photo later. Try to contain yourselves. I am especially attractive upon arrival to work due to the fact that the hat, though it shields my skin from the sun it so very hates, it also retains heat. It just so happens that Queretaro is a lot hotter than we expected it to be, so my face and hair are usually sweat-laden upon our arrival.

Random Thoughts: Food in Mexico

Well, as we mentioned before, Billy is more than excited about the cuisine here. I do use the term "cuisine" loosely, but the food really IS good, and I´m becoming more and more of a fan myself. However, the eats here are also amusing and they do take some getting used to. For example....

*Eggs in the grocery stores are NOT refrigerated. Granted people do tend to refrigerate them once they have been purchased, but until then, theyjust hang out by the dozen with the room temperature produce.

*Billy has suddenly become a sweets fan, mostly thanks to the pan dulce here (aka pastries). The pan dulce is sold everywhere, and in the grocery stores they have shelves and shelves of pan dulce varieties sitting out in the open (likely to tempt passers-by via scent and close encounter). Rather than protect the sweet goodness with the obvious protection of glass or plastic enclosure, most places instead strategically place fly traps in and around the area. Fly carcass + home-made dingdong? How could one possibly resist?

*Although many things here are significantly less expensive, some of our favorites are decidedly more costly. For example, Ben and Jerry`s ice cream in the states is appx $3. Here? Oh, at least twice that-- hence, we are not going to have many movie nights accompanied by Chunky Monkey. But, you know, my birthday is coming, so...

*While in an Oaxacan restaraunt, we were delivered our food bill on a sticky note! Despite the seeming novelty of the situation, we have observed that sticky notes are quite the popular vehicle of record-keeping here. The clerk at the gift shop in Teotihuacan took inventory of our sale on a notepad, as have many other store keepers. In fact, a few stores/restaurants haven`t even bothered with the formality of a pen and paper- they have just come to the table and announced the amount we owe :)

*We did mention that we ate cooked grasshoppers, right?

*ORANGE JUICE! Ok....this is why I`m in love with Mexico. So I`m easy to please, so what? Anyway, seriously-- the orange juice here is ridiculous. We can buy a litre of fresh-squeezed OJ in the grocery store or at a restaurant for appx US$1.00 - $1.70. That, and the pan dulce, and the tacos al pastor, and the produce, and the 17-hour work week might just keep me here (just kidding, Mom).

*Speaking of produce...aahhh...try super fresh and juicy and not-dry-like-American-fruit deliciousness. Especially the Mexican papaya, cantalope, mangos, oranges, grapefruits, avocados, etc. etc. etc.

*Chili/chile. Most things have it. Even ice cream. We got a vanilla/chocolate cone in el centro (which was delicious, by the way), and they both tasted distinctly like chile.

*Popcorn with chile sauce and mango with chile sauce. Need we say more?

*Avocado and banana smoothie. Don`t freak out, just try it. One avocado, two bananas, a little sugar, and enough milk to make it however thick or thin you want. Everyday, at least once a day.

*Meat just hanging out--without refrigeration--in the markets, everywhere.

*Remember my tale of the fatty fatty lamb-fat taco breakfast? It comes accompanied with lamb fat soup.

*Comida Corrida: (translates more or less literally into "running food", but what it really means is "four course meal"). These are popular during lunch time (akin to American happy hour) for a measly US $3.50.