Visit in Tlaquepaque

Sergio and I are thoroughly enjoying our relaxing stay in Tlaquepaque. Last night, we hung out with Alberto and his partner, Vicente, in the hotel bar and ate dinner, and they invited us to stay for as long as we like, so we are staying at least one more night! It was great catching up with Alberto, and getting to know Vicente. After dinner, Sergio went out clubbing with some of his cousins, but I was pooped so I went to bed! I don't know how he managed it - we got up at 4:30 yesterday morning to drive to Guadalajara. He's napping now. Today we took advantage of the free breakfast, and spent the day wandering around the shops of Tlaquepaque. Tonight is Claudio's show!

Tlaquepaque

Ok, I am writing from a omputr with som of th lttrs not working. But this post is to lt you all know that I ma it hr saf an soun, an Srgio an I ar staying at Albrto's bautiful hotl. I an't upload piturs right now, but hr is th wbsit if you want to look at it! http://www.villadelensueno.com/

Thanks for th ommnts - it is grat to har from you all!

I wonr if you will b abl to unrstan this mssag at all. :) Mor latr!

Day in Puebla

Sergio and I spent a lovely day in Puebla! We are staying in a great hotel, the Hotel Imperial, that I found for us at a very cheap price (hooray!). This morning, we enjoyed our free breakfast, and then set out to explore the town. We walked to the Zocalo, or the central plaza, and peeked inside the cathedral, which was just beautiful. Puebla is a very conservative, religious city, and it shows. The cathedral is beautiful and dark and baroque, and there were plenty of people inside praying when we visited. Outside, there are angels guarding the fence. It was lovely.

After the cathedral, we went to find a museum that I really wanted to see. It's a house where a bunch of revolutionaries were killed at the beginning of one of the Mexican Revolutions - I think it was the second one. They were given away, and the government came after them. I was especially interested in it, because it has a special room devoted to women revolutionaries! Unfortunately, when we found it, we found that it was closed for remodeling. So, that was disappointing. But there was still plenty to do....

We then went to the Ex-Convent of Santa Monica, which was a convent that went into hiding for something like 77 years after the government cracked down on religious institutions. The nuns kept on operating, and created a lot of their own religious art (some of which is quite creepy - such as the life-sized recreation of the Last Supper and a painting of a saint being fed simultaneously by blood spurting out of Jesus' side and milk spurting out of Mary's breast). We also saw the kitchen where the nuns invented chiles en nogada, a famous local dish, and a cell where a nun lived, sleeping on a wooden slab with a piece of wood for a pillow, with various tools for self-flagellation. It was all thoroughly disturbing, fascinating, and beautiful. We peeked through a window into the chapel, where mass was being said to an almost full congregation. On Thursday morning!

After that, we headed to lunch. I had chicken in mole poblano, which was invented in Puebla (poblano=from Puebla), which was delicious. Then we put some laundry in at the hotel and headed to the Museo Amparo, a museum of mostly pre-Hispanic art that was incredibly well-designed and fascinating. We explored the city a little more, finished the laundry, and then headed out for dinner just as it started to rain. Sergio had a craving for cheeseburgers, and we didn't want to go far since it was raining pretty hard, so we ended up dining at McDonald's. I had a "Junior Pak" (the equivalent of a Happy Meal).

We are having an early night tonight, as we are leaving for the long drive to Guadalajara in the morning. We are spending tomorrow night at a hotel in Tlaquepaque, which is run by our friend Alberto's partner. Alberto offered to let us stay there for free one night, and to take us out to dinner. I haven't seen him since he moved back to Mexico 5 or 6 years ago, so I am really excited to see him!

Puebla

Sergio on the beach at Puerto Escondido.
Our hotel and the beach.
Me on the balcony of the Italian restaurant we ate at on our first night in San Cristobal.
Sergio at the market in Chamula.
Me at Chamula, in front of three Mayan crosses. (Pre-Christian Mayans also used crosses - representing trees.)
Chamulan women in front of the San Cristobal cathedral.
Sergio tries to take a nice picture of Na-Bolom, and I thwart him.
Me at a sidewalk cafe in San Cristobal.
Palenque!
We made it to Puebla! The ruins at Palenque were incredible, but we were very happy to make it out of the jungle - I could never live somewhere with that many mosquitoes! (Luckily, I had plenty of Off!) Thankfully, we only have one more long day of driving ahead of us. We will spend one day here before making the long trek back to Guadalajara.

We just found out that Sergio's friend (and my acquaintance) Claudio Limon, an artist based in Mexico City, is having a show in Guadalajara, and the opening is on Saturday night! It will be really fun to get to go to that - perfect timing!

Here are a few more pictures, just for fun!

Some San Cristobal Pictures!

The first few pictures are from in front of the cathedral in San Cristobal, and from our trip to Chamula and Zinacantan.

We also visited Na-Bolom, the home of Frans and Trudy Blom (the name of the house is a play on their name, and means "House of the Jaguar" in a native language), a European couple who lived in San Cristobal for decades. Frans was an archaeologist, and actually did quite a lot of the excavation at Palenque, and Trudy was interested in the culture and welfare of the indigenous peoples. Though they are no longer living, Na-Bolom still does volunteer work with the Lacandon people, in particular. The house has exhibits about the Bloms, Mayan medicinal plants, and photography exhibits about the region. It was a great museum!

The last picture is Sergio with Alex, a friend we made in San Cristobal. Many children (I think mostly people from Chamula who have been expelled because they have converted to evangelical Christianity - a huge political issue here that Sergio and I have become really interested in. We have been following a story in the local press about a town called Nachig, near Zinacantan, where Catholic Traditionalists have cut the water and electricity of Protestant families, and they detained a local government official for 19 hours when he tried to reinstate their services. They finally reached an agreement when the Protestants promised to participate in community life, as long as they weren't required to participate in religious traditions - sorry, that was a long tangent) sell little handicrafts in the streets in San Cristobal, and they often came up to our tables when we were eating. Alex tried to sell us some little animals, but neither of us had any change, so we invited him to eat breakfast with us and chatted with him for awhile. Then, last night, when we were out having a drink, he found us again! He was a really sweet boy, and I'm glad I got a picture of him so that we will remember him!