Grutas de Cacahuamilpa and Taxco

Before you read any more, go google "cacahuamilpa caves." Then, incorporate a trip to them to the trip to Mexico that you are planning.  We went to them as part of the second free trip we had with the university, and it was awesome.  Like our Wine and Cheese tour, we left the university at the crack of dawn, drove for about four hours, and arrived at the caves around ten.  We walked down a short path, and arrived here:

 My Lord of the Rings obsessed geeky self immediately thought, "THE MINES OF MORIA!" For those of you who are not dorks, the Fellowship of the Ring travels through the Mines of Moria in order to cross the mountains, only to find that the dwarf city has been destroyed by goblins and...you know what, this is just sounding more and more dorky.  Anyway, it's cool.

 The Caves of Cacahuamilpa were formed from an underground river over 35,000 years ago (I think) and the cave system is one of the largest in the world.  The parts open to the public go back about 4 kilometers, and there is a large sidewalk with lights going through the whole part.  Our guide was very thorough, although she spoke a bit like an auctioneer.  We stopped about every 50 meters on the way in so she could explain more of the history of the cave and show us some interested formations.

Stalagmites and Stalactites

 As she shone her flashlight on a clump of rocks to reveal a shadow that looked like a bird, or a tiny spot on the wall that looks like a rat, or a small bit of rock that looks like a lion, we couldn't help wonder, "Who the heck finds this stuff?"  My favorite shadow story was one that looked exactly like a couple embracing, and as the guide moved from one side to the other, another figure appeared, the couple separated, then the figure disappeared and the couple embraced again.  The other figure? The mother in law, of course!

My favorite spot: The white tower to the left=a champagne bottle, and above, the eye of the hurricane.

 As we got farther and farther back into the cave the air got increasingly moist and thin.  By the time we reached the turn around spot, we were all pretty damp and had a bit of a headache.  But due to the amazing scenery, I didn't mind.  There was not a boring part of the walk.  Every new space revealed dramatic structures and new stories.  My pictures really do not do it justice.

 Although the lighting may seem unnatural and intrusive, I think it was very well done, and made the walk much more interesting.  On the way back, only the sidewalk lights were on, and you really couldn't see much of the area around.  After about 2 hours of walking inside the caves, we emerged back into the hot sunshine, and made the 45 minute drive to the center of Taxco, yet another Pueblo Magico.

 Jake, our friend Aubri, and I were all quite hungry by this point, so we walked to the zocalo with one thing on our mind: food.  A guy on the street recommended a place with a terrace with a great view and good food.  He was not wrong about either.  Taxco is very beautiful; it looks a bit like Europe due to the windy cobblestone streets and the white buildings with the reddish roofs.  Once we chowed down, we were ready to explore a bit.  Like Cuetzalan, it is built on a hillside, so we got in our leg workout.  Taxco is also famous for its silver, and there are approximately a bajillion stores selling silver in varying stages of tackiness.

  Besides that, there isn't much else.  We walked around for a while looking for something more, but we ended up sitting at a cafe, overlooking the zocalo, and enjoying some milkshakes and relaxing until we had to go back.  Once again, a great day trip.  

Oaxaca

Our hostel

For my birthday, Jake surprised me by planning a wonderful trip to Oaxaca, a colonial city about 4 hours away, south-east of Puebla.  Oaxaca is known for its food, its artisan crafts, and its beauty, so we were looking forward to getting to spend some time there.  We left Puebla on Thursday and got to Oaxaca around 5.  We got a map from a tourist kiosk at the bus station, and made our way to our hostel: Casa Angel, which was another great hostel find.

It is in a great location, very close to some great restaurants, a few blocks from the zocalo and the markets.  Everything is pretty much within walking distance.  It is also very clean and well maintained, with friendly and helpful staff, and it comes with a really good breakfast!  Once we dropped off our stuff, we wandered around the neighborhood, and stopped for dinner at a place Jake had read was good.  And it was!  I got empanadas...yummm.

 The next day, we expanded our exploring.  First stop: the Cathedral of Santo Domingo.  It was yet another beautiful, ornate church, that makes me realize how boring the Pilgrims were. We don't have anyyything like this in the U.S.

 Down a few more streets, we came to a women's artisan shop, which sells pretty much every kind of craft you could ever want to buy.  If you have ever seen small, wooden statues of animals painted in awesome vibrant colors, those are from Oaxaca.

Like dis.

We got a few gifts, but mostly gawked at all the beautiful things.  The intricate, woven rugs were really gorgeous, along with the colorful embroidered traditional clothing.  From there we walked down to the zocalo, which was bustling with the usual shoe-shiners, food and goods hawkers and vendors, and lots of people just watching the world go by.  We stopped in to see the other cathedral, which had some beautiful stained glass.

 For the next few hours we enjoyed the wonderful markets of Oaxaca.  There are three big ones: Benito Juarez has just about everything--crafts, butchers, fruit and vegetables, clothes, and mezcal.  Mezcal is an alcohol from Oaxaca which, like the more famous tequila, is made from agave.  Unlike tequila, there are not as strict regulations on the processing or creation of mezcal.  We stopped at a stand that had a wide variety of mezcals and we got the run down by the owner.  He scoffed at the touristy brands of mezcal, the ones that come in a pretty bottle and have a sombrero on the cap.  He recommended, of course, the most expensive and the strongest ones.  He gave us samples of all of them, and although he looked at me expectantly every time I tried a different one, all I tasted was extreeeemely strong alcohol.  It does have a bit of a smoky taste, which comes from smoking the pina (the center of the agave plant) before the distillation process begins.

 We stopped at a chocolate store, where I was much more willing to drink large quantities of what they were offering.
 The next market we went to is called 20 de Noviembre, which is all food vendors, selling the traditional dishes of Oaxaca: tamales, atole, various caldos (broths), and TLAYUDAS!!! Tlayudas are delicious.  We had them when we went to Mexico City, but these were even better. It's a giant flour, crunchy tortilla, covered with refried beans, oaxacan cheese (which is amazing), lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and meat.  We were pros so we knew you have to fold it in half then cut it in half to eat.  We watched some noobs struggling to eat it like a giant slice of pizza.
The next morning we walked up a big hill/park nearby our hostel.  It was a bit of a hike, especially in the 90 degree Oaxacan sun.  As we were walking, there was this constant loud, whining noise.  There were some radio towers at the top, and power lines going up either side of the path, so we were worried that there was something wrong with the electricity lines.  When we got to the top, we went down a different path for a few minutes, and even though there were no power lines, the noise was louder than ever.  Finally, I realized it was coming from the trees, more specifically, the GIANT cicadas living in the trees.  We were glad that it wasn't the power lines.

My tacos de barbacoa de chivo (barbecue goat) YUMMY!

As Jake said, that afternoon we went to the Tule tree. The real highlight was the food.  That evening, we wandered around a bit more to walk off our food babies.

My favorite mural ever.

Oaxaca is a great city to walk in.  It's very clean and scenic, with lots of nice restaurants, churches, parks, and markets.  Even though I've heard Monte Alban (the archeological site nearby) is great, and the Hierve el Agua (natural springs in the mountains) are beautiful, I was content just hanging out in the city.  We'll just have to come back.

The landscapes on the way back were amazing.  White hillsides covered with cacti and brush, mountains, cliffs, and cows and goats grazing in fields.  It was a great trip, from start to finish.  I highly recommend a trip to Oaxaca for anyone planning on going to Mexico.

The Tule Tree

     This past weekend Sam and I headed to Oaxaca – a beautiful city about four hours away from Puebla.  Sam will be posting more about the trip later, so I’m just going to write about one particular excursion.  On Saturday Sam and I decided to check out the Tule Tree.  The Tule Tree is a massive tree in a small town about fifteen minutes outside of Oaxaca.  To get there, we jumped in a Taxi Colectivo, which is a taxi that has a set destination and multiple people get in together so it’s a lot cheaper than a regular taxi. In fact, the fifteen-minute trip cost about 80 cents per person. When we got there, we saw exactly what we expected, a giant tree.  

The tree is only about 135 feet tall, which is big but not super-big.  However, the trunk is 45 feet wide, by far the widest tree I have ever seen in my life.  Also, they say it weighs 630,000 tons, though I’m not sure how accurate that is considering they have obviously never weighed it.  The tree itself wasn’t the best part of the trip though. What was, you ask? The food, of course! After seeing the tree and walking around the town a bit, we stopped in a nice little restaurant.   Sam ordered Tacos de Barbacoa de Chivo, or Barbecued Goat Tacos, and I got Carnitas, or Carnitas. Both were absolutely delicious and something we haven’t tried yet in Mexico.  After the food we sat in the park and played cards for a while before hopping in another colectivo back to Oaxaca.  I feel ready to get back home, but experiences like that make me just a little more reluctant to leave.

Wine and Cheese Trip

Our agreement with Delaware includes two free trips with the university and we took the advantage of a free trip, plus free wine and cheese, and opted to go to Tequisquiapan, a small town in the state of Queretero for a wine and cheese tour.  We arrived at the university early in the morning, met up with our friend Cortez, and started the four hour trip.  Our first stop: a cheese "factory" which was more of a museum, as it is just for tours and does not produce cheese.  We walked around and had a tour and explanation of how they make cheese, which would have been interesting if I had been listening.  In my defense, it was in Spanish and there were baby sheep and cows.

I thought of you, Jesse Kovaks.

Nooo Jake, you're not supposed to punch the cowlets.

We also got to wear the lunch lady hair nets and mask thingies.  We rocked them.

Getting a very fake demonstration of how they probably don't make cheese.

 All of this led up to the CHEESE! They were all delicious and very fresh.  I don't remember all the names but they were all good.  The people at our table had pity on the weird foreign kids and gave us extra.  Yay!

   From there we went to the tour of the Freixenet wine company.  Their specialty is their sparkling wine. Once again, I was distracted by the possibility of drinking wine, so I don't really know much about the process. It involves spinning bottles and putting them in different positions. Anyway, we got wine! We were pretty anxious for a while because we were told that we would only get an empty glass, but the university fulfilled their promise and bought us champagne.  

Champagne!

We went to lunch at a restaurant in a nearby town, then drove to the town of Tequisquiapan to walk around for a few hours.  In the town square there were some dancers showing off their zapateado techniques (rhythmic tapping with heels, but not like tap dancing) along with plenty of food and artisan vendors.

 On our way back to the bus, we noticed a funny looking monument, which apparently marks the geographic center of Mexico.  Who knew?

 It was a great little day trip with all the necessary components: friends, sunshine, food, and wine.  What could be better?

Cuetzalan

Ok pretend the date of this post is from 2 weeks ago, right when we got back from Cuetzalan, and not now, after weeks of sitting on my butt not writing blog posts.
So.
On Wednesday we left Puebla for the mountain town of Cuetzalan (pronounced kweh-tzah-lahn).  We ended up taking the longer route due to the other one being full.   It actually was pretty fun; the bus stopped in more towns, but we got to see more of the area and the people as they came in and off the bus.  As we went into the mountains we approached what looked like a cloud of smoke from a fire.  When we entered it we realized it was actually dense fog that abruptly ended once you left the valley.  Although I always find it cool to be in a cloud, it made the windy bus ride much more harrowing.  But, after about a 4 and a half hour bus ride, we made it, took a taxi to our hotel (La Casa de Piedra), and prepared to explore this little town.

We did not plan this.

Cuetzalan is beautiful, made up of windy, thin cobblestone streets with romantic little alleyways, spreading across the side of a STEEP hillside.  This town will work your calves like no other.  Walking from the bottom to the top is equivalent to 30 minutes on the Stairmaster.

The next day, we broke our fast on fresh mangos, coffee, avocados, and bread.  Yum!

We hired one of the dozens of young boys who wander around town with binders and pictures of the sights to take us on a tour of a cavern and the nearby waterfalls.  Armando was great, very knowledgeable and helpful.  First up: the cavern.  Mom was very adamant that she was NOT going to go to the caves (Cuetzalan has extensive cave systems) but was coaxed into this very large cavern by Rita and me.  It looked like part of the fire swamp in the Princess Bride.  I was ready for a ROUS to come attack me. It's name, Gruta del Chivostoc, or Cave of the Devil, didn't help with that image.  Luckily, no such things happened, and we made it out alive and proud.

Save me, Wesley!

Next up: waterfalls! We were very glad we had a guide because although there are signs at the entrances to the trails, there are no signs along the trails to the waterfalls.  With the help of Armando, we made it to all 3 waterfalls that day.  It was a pretty tough hike even taking the "long, easier way" rather than the "climb up a vertical mud cliff using tree roots way", but the views were worth it.  It was too cold for us to even think about swimming, but plenty of people were happily getting soaked.

Waterfall #1: Las Brisas

Waterfall #2 (top of Las Brisas): cool little pothole thing on the right side of the  photo.

15 minutes later, we arrived at waterfall #3: El Salto (the Jump)

 The landscapes were absolutely breathtaking: very luscious and green, so crazy that we were only a few hours from hot, dry Puebla!  Most of the forests we were in were mesophytic, which results in both pine trees, temperate trees, and tropical plants.  Very beautiful!

Another very steep downhill. Luckily it was paved, not mud.

When we got back to Cuetzalan we were ready for some food and rest.  We got lunch at Armando's sister and mother's cocinita for a yummy comida corrida: a fixed meal including juice, tortillas, soup, rice, a main dish, and sometimes dessert.  Mom and I both got chicken in a peanut sauce, which was probably the best thing we ate all week.  I've never had anything like it in Mexico, in fact, I haven't had anything peanut-y (except for peanut butter, which I bought after craving it for months.  My family laughs at me because I put it on "everything"--bananas, apples, crackers, toast, sandwiches...all the normal stuff for us!).  We walked over to the zocalo to catch a performance of the voladores, this time on an actual tree trunk pole, which swayed in the wind and made my butt tingle.

See how there's 2 guys on one of the ropes? Yeah, he wasn't tied in. And he was playing a pipe and drum at the same time.

According to Armando, they retain the original tradition of the dance of the flyers here in Cuetzalan.  Once a year, they go into the forest, chop down a tree, dig a hole (now with tractors and cranes, rather than by hand), put a live turkey, chiles, salt, tortillas, and seeds in the hole, and then squish it all with the new pole.  This is a sacrifice that will bring a good harvest and ensure the safety of the dancers.  I'm sorry for the turkey, but we were all happy to hear they change the pole once a year.

We wandered around the town a bit more, going through the market and some shops. Cuetzalan has a fairly large indigenous population, so there are lots of vendors of artisan crafts and such.  They are very forward and come up to you on the street or in restaurants, asking you to buy whatever they are selling.  They are persistent, and unfortunately will not be deterred with a simple, "no, gracias."  We wondered how they made any money from the little souvenirs that they were shoving in people's faces; as tourists, we automatically declined everything, but I guess Mexicans are accustomed to it, so they actually buy things.  

The next day, we decided to see the archaeological site nearby: Yohualichan.  It is a Totanaca site, similar to el Tajin in Veracruz, that is made up of several temples, pyramids, and includes a ball court.  

I remember hearing about this ball game before, but I never learned the more grisly details.  Apparently this game was played once a month, and consisted of two teams of two players, who tried to bump a 2-3 kilo stone ball through a hole in the wall only using their hips.  Ouch!  As if that doesn't sound painful enough, the losers were made into slaves, while the captain of the winning team was sacrificed to the gods.  Sooo pretty much only a 1 in 4 chance of getting out ok.  It was still early, so after I bought some of the much desired pepper (my host mom insisted I buy lots of it for her) we hiked to another waterfall, The Heart of the Forest, which Armando said was the most beautiful.

I've never been to England, but I feel like this is what it would look like, but with sheep.

Coffee! You can eat the red part, peel the membrane, and get coffee beans!

The forest was absolutely beautiful.

Armando was right, this is the most beautiful.

And you can walk behind it!! Like in all the movies!

We all agreed that it was by far the most beautiful waterfall we had seen, and we were glad to have made the extra trip.  Like the other days, we went back to the hotel, showered, walked around the town a bit, and got dinner.  If in Cuetzalan, I recommend you get mushroom things: soup, crepes, or quesadillas; they are the specialty.  Stuffed and sleepy, we went back to play some cards before going to bed.
The next day we parted ways; Mom and Rita took the bus to Mexico City, while Jake and I went back to Puebla.  We were sad to leave, but knowing that it would only be a month until we were back made it a bit easier.

Semana Santa part 1: Puebla/Cholula

Last week was our spring break, also known as Semana Santa (Holy Week) because HOLY MOLY it feels good to have a week-long vacation.  Just kidding, it's because of Easter.  Luckily for me, Colorado high schools have spring break the same week, so my lovely sister Rita and my wonderful mommy came to Mexico to visit for the week.  Unfortunately, although it was 80 degrees and sunny here, it was blizzarding in Denver on the day they left.  But after a long delay and little sleep, they arrived safe and sound in Mexico City a day later than planned.  They took the bus to Puebla, got connected with Jake and a taxi, and made it to my house, only to be whisked off for a cookout at Arcelia's mom's house.

YAY!

We all stuffed ourselves with yummy food, relaxed, had a beer, and soaked up the wonderful Mexican sunshine.  We also ate birthday cake, which I must say, was one of my better creations.  Jake and I translated and we ended up being able to communicate pretty well.  After lingering over cake and coffee, we cleaned up and headed back.  We checked Mom and Rita into their hotel (Posada Senorial, good value and location) and then walked around the UDLAP campus so Mom and Rita could stretch out their airplane legs.       The next morning I met them at their hotel for their desperately needed run.  I suggested running up the pyramid then to the garden for breakfast, which, from my sister's sad puppy eyes, was not enough to compensate for not exercising in 2 whole days.  While I huffed and puffed and blew my lungs out, my chipper sister ran up and down the pyramid THREE TIMES. The only thing that kept me alive was knowing that food was coming soon.  The garden was beautiful as always and we reminisced about my great aunt Peg's magical gardens while chowing down on yummy food.

My host mom Arcelia met us and Jake at the hotel to take us on a tour of some things in Puebla and Cholula that I had never seen before.  First up: Tonantzintla, a beautiful church a few minutes away from downtown Cholula.  It's famous for the thousands of indigenous children's faces carved into the interior of the church, which is also beautifully decorated.

Exterior

Interior

From there we went to see the world's smallest volcano, located right here in Puebla! When Arcelia told me we were going to see the world's smallest volcano, I kind of pictured an ant hill with a sign next to it.  The real deal was equally funny.

According to the sign, the volcano is called Cuexcomate, which is Nahuatl for "crock pot."  I love bad translations.  Despite Arcelia's wheedling with a security guard, we couldn't go inside because it's under renovation. We headed into downtown Cholula where we walked around, tried chapulines for the first time (crickets roasted with chile and lemon...they taste like chile and lemon), and went out to lunch where Mom and Rita tried mole poblano for the first time.  Good thing I had Pepto Bismol...Mom's stomach is not used to changing her usual diet of coffee and peanut butter to something so foreign as mole poblano.

The next day we had a really great day in Puebla.  For my birthday, Jessie and Eric surprised me with a cooking class, which we got to all do together in a beautiful hotel/restaurant Mesones Sacristía.  We even had a translator.  We learned the art of salsa rojo and verde, mole poblano, chalupas, and habiscus juice, all in a beautiful kitchen decorated with talavera tiles.

It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  Our instructors were great and very patient, and the finished products were delicious! The mole recipe we used wasn't as complicated as I anticipated, although it did involve blending up burnt tortillas with the other ingredients (chiles, tomatoes, onion, plantain, and chocolate).  I think if I made it again, I would leave out the burnt tortillas; they made it a little bitter.

The restaurant used glasses that I have seen a few times before in Mexico: thick handblown glass with a colorful rim.  The factory ended up being just a few blocks away, in a really gorgeous area with lots of colorful colonial houses.  We continued our lap of the downtown by going through the Gardens of San Francisco, walking through El Parian (the artisan market), down the Calle de los Dulces, and into the zocalo.  When we went into the cathedral we got a wonderful surprise: a group of classical singers were practicing for a performance.  They were excellent and the acoustics were amazing, so we sat around and watched them for a while.
We met up with my host family at a Spanish restaurant Eric had recommended for a yummy meal and a nice chat.  Honestly, it's nice to have not Mexican food every once in a while.

It was great to show Mom and Rita where I've been living these past three months and get to explore more of the area.  Up next, a real exploration: in Cuetzalan!