Two Worlds Collide (8/12-21)

My first visitor from home arrived Friday, August 12^th.  It was the start of my descanso.  I supervised jardines in the morning, went with the girls to breakfast, finished my last minute packing, and headed to the airport to pick up Jenna.  Jenna and I have been close friends since 1^st grade when we were on the same soccer team. We remained on the same soccer team through high school and classmates’ middle school through UNC.  It’s been a long friendship and I was thrilled to share my life here with her.  Her flight was on time (although I was a little late) and I spotted her yellow purse before her.  We shared a warm greeting and then headed to Cuernavaca for the weekend.

Jenna was promptly introduced to my fellow descano-ers and we shared a dinner at my favorite taco spot with Bailey, Meghan, and Alli.  Saturday we got an early start with the gang to spend the day in Tepotzlan, a gorgeous little town nearby where I attended a wedding in March.  This is the place where I also attempted to hike the mountain for the gorgeous view and temple.  Where I was unsuccessful prior, I succeeded that day. 

Me and Jenna at the top.

The temple with Jenna taking a photo.

We all made it to the top: me, Alli, Meghan, Bailey, Wesleigh, Monika, and Jenna.  It was a gorgeous day and a really tough hike.  This was not your typical hiking trail: it was mainly rocks in some kind of step form and straight up.  The end goal was totally worth it.  It was a spectacular view, pretty cool ruins, and we even made some new furry friends.

The weird part ant-eater, part monkey, part raccoon animals that live on top of the mountain.  They're very pushy with tourists.

An idea of how steep the trail was in places.

Once we got back down, the gang headed to the market to enjoy some fresh food and Mexican shopping.  Another bus back and we basically called it a day.  Everyone was pretty exhausted.

Sunday was spent exploring Cuernavaca.  We showed Jenna around, first taking a stroll down the street of books, admiring the beautiful paintings in front of the cathedral, and sipping coffee downtown. 

Our delicious looking coffee and strudel.

After our coffee break, I took Jenna to the black market for some educational shopping and then we explored a little of Jardin Borda.  While in the gardens, we discovered some empanadas, Jenna’s favorite Mexican food which is not very common in central Mexico.  It was a nice surprise and delicious treat!  After the gardens, we headed back to the apartment, packed up, and Jenna arrived at Casa San Salvador.  I gave her a quick tour of the place in the fading light, we grabbed some tortas at my favorite place across the street, enjoyed a movie, and crashed.

The next few days were spent enjoying the house and spending time with the kids.  It was their last week of summer vacation before school so activities were no longer happening.  Instead the schedule was very relaxed with a lot of lazing around.  I spent most of it with my section.  Jenna came in and out spending time with my girls, the other volunteers, and with different kids in the house.  Some highlights included: a day of soccer with the section during which Jenna had a lot of trouble as she could never figure out which girls were actually on her team; peces day when she helped us gut and clean the fish for the house; and a lot of pirated movies.

Wednesday night we headed to Cuernavaca again for tamales and tacos and to be close to our bus for our trip to Taxco the next day.  Taxco is another small town close to Cuernavaca that is famous for its silver and silversmiths.  The town is built on the side of a steep mountain.  We thought we had had problems walking in Cuernavaca; Taxco was a whole other ballgame.  We drank a lot of coffee, explored a lot of silver shops, ate a lot of good food (Jenna especially), and purchased a lot of cool stuff.  Unfortunately Jenna was having some ankle problems so we stopped by the house clinic on our way back to the apartment.  The doctor was very sweet and gave her some medicine to help with the swelling.  It was another early night and we got ready to leave for Mexico City the following day.

Jenna with all her food.  She was very hungry.

A view of Taxco on the mountain.

Jenna with our matching yellow purses at our favorite cafe.  We spent a lot of time there that day.

Friday found us again on the bus heading to Mexico City.  We quickly found our hostel, recommended by Monika and located directly in the middle of downtown.  We checked in, dropped our stuff, and headed to lunch.  Jenna’s guidebook recommended a great restaurant near the Anthropology Museum famous for its margaritas so we both indulged a little before heading to the museum.  The Anthropology Museum is the pride of Mexico…and huge.  I had been before on one of my previous Mexico trips, but it had been a while. We did a thorough canvas of the building and entertained ourselves posing with various artifacts. 

Me borrowing the Aztec king's crown.

Jenna, very kindly lending her head to a statue who had none.

My new boyfriend.  I was always told height doesn't matter!

Yeah, yeah, Jenna's an angel.  A photo op statue in front of the museum.

After the museum, we ended up at our favorite café chain for dinner and having nothing but coffee.  The caffeine definitely perked us up and it was with that high that we met our roommate at the hostel.  Her name was Ellie, she was Australian, spoke no Spanish, and was traveling through Central America on her way to spend several months as a vet’s assistant in Costa Rica.  She had arrived in Mexico just the day before and was already frustrated and lost with the language.  We invited her along for our plans the next day, and together headed to the hostel’s terrace to check out the live band playing that night.  They were awful so it was a short-lived trip.


Saturday the three of us ate our free breakfast at the hostel and then headed to Templo Mayor, the remains of an Aztec temple located in the middle of downtown.  That was followed by a trip to Xochicalco, a neighborhood in the southern part of the city.  It’s famous for its canals and the boats which navigate it.  Jenna was again thrilled to find a food stand selling empanadas and together we splurged on a boat ride through the canals.  That was a pretty unique experience.  The boats were very festive and the canals were flowing shopping centers full of portable mariachi bands hoping to hop on board for a song, boats full of food and drink, and floating tiendas of festive tourist gifts.  We kept our trip pretty simple much to the disappointment of our boatman and headed back empty handed. 

The National Cathedral in the background and the original Templo Mayor in the fore.

The boats used in the canals.

Jenna and Ellie during the ride.

Our next stop was to another neighborhood nearby for their Saturday market.  The market itself wasn’t very large by the time we got there and it was quite an adventure finding it, but Jenna and I both made purchases. Back to Centro we went, found a cheap taco place after seeing the disappointing dinner at the hostel, and treated ourselves to some refreshing ice cream.  All three of us packed up that night.  Ellie was moving on the next morning to farther south in Mexico and Jenna had her flight to catch.

Jenna’s last morning was just the two of us.  Ellie had left earlier and so wasn’t around for breakfast.  We dawdled a bit enjoying the bad coffee, checked the room twice, and called a cab.  It was a sad farewell.  We both had had a great time and weren’t quite ready to head back to our normal lives.  The taxi driver was very sweet giving us matching Aztec charms before whisking Jenna away.  I watched them drive out of sight and then headed to the metro for my own return trip to Miacatlan.

Jenna waving good-bye from her cab.  I was sad to see her go!