Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Aiy - Que loco!
So...life is crazy now and so much has happened since I returned from the field trip. I will have to get back to that when I have lazy, relaxing time. (That means it might never come, lol - lo siento) For semana santa I went to Tapachula to stay with some friends. Karina, Martin and Carolina and their mama. Also met lots of other really sweet people. We went to the beach one day, and to some beautiful cascadas (waterfalls) the next day. On Saturday I met with a bunch of people, celebrated a birthday and ate about 30 mangoes (not a joke). Tapachula is a land of heavenly fruits....mangoes, papaya, coconuts, cacao, caco, guyabana....everything deliciously goddess like and amazing tasteful. In Canada I am going to be extremely sad to not have fresh mangoes and may choose to never eat an imported mango again. Anyways I just wanted to write a little update to let you I am alive and kicking but Karina is visiting now, I have 6 entries to write about feminism and the subaltern voice in three texts for Spanish plus a 7-10 page essay for that class and I have a new agriculture class starting Thursday as well as I have a distance ed. course on sexuality and marriage in latin america and need to get an essay in asap and my lovely Jenna is coming to visit Thursday tambien! Muchas cosas pero esta muy emotionada! Y no preocupado, estoy feliz porque mi vida es muy bien. Entonces espero que todo esta bien en todo lugares y escribire mas en algun dias. Mucho amor (Ingles: Many things but I am very excited! And I don't worry, I am happy because my life is very good. So, I hope all is well in all places and I will write more in some days. Much love.) Are you all learning any Spanish yet?? I hope so. haha
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Starter salad - pt. one Yucatan trip
I just rolled out of bed a few minutes ago and can’t wait to start writing down my adventures. On March 14th my classmates, profs, and family started on a trip around southern Mexico. It was an amazing trip and I know that the only reason I got to go the places I did and see the things we saw is because of Marv my Art History professor and for that I am really grateful. Yes, the trip was hectic, but it was amazing and I hope to share some of my experiences with you here, although I could never do it justice. If you want to follow along on a map (my darling Aunties, related and non probably) here is the itinerary.
March 14th – leave San Cristobal 6am visit Palenque – sleep at Palenque
March 15th – head into the Lacadon jungle and visit Bonampak and Yaxchilan – sleep at Palenque
March 16th – visit Becan – sleep at Xpujil
March 17th – visit Calakmul – sleep at Xpujil
March 18th – visit a town called Felipe Carrillo Puerto – sleep at Tulum
March 19th – visit Tulum and Ek Balam – sleep at Valladolid
March 20th – visit Chichen Itza – sleep in Cancun with my family
March 21st – beach day at Isla Mujeres – sleep on bus and at Piste
March 22nd – visit Chichen Itza, Balancanche caves, Mayapan, Oxkutzcab – sleep at Ticul
March 23rd – visit Kab and Uxmal – sleep at Ticul
March 24th – drive to Campeche – sleep at Campeche
March 25th – visit Campeche museum, and Edzna – sleep at Palenque
March 26th – visit Misul Ha and Aguas Azul waterfalls – sleep at home
It probably took me more time to type that all out, with all the crazy spellings etc. than it will take me to write most of the rest of my entry. I have two classes today – it is going to be a busy day for me. On the trip we had class lectures at every site and Rita’s class 3 times in the evening, however it was enough work to just attend, take notes and do the readings so I did not finish all my assignments on the trip. Which means I have a lot to do this week but I am not complaining.
I haven’t written anything for what seems like forever. Maybe I will briefly say that my family came to visit on the 9th and I was very happy to see them and show them my city and my favourite places. We even made time to go to the Cacao house for some Chocolate drinks…mmmm. My parents are also very amazing…they helped get some things we needed for our place and also heavily assisted with the cleaning. Furthermore they bought Karyn and I a housewarming gift – a large blow up pool to put on our beautiful terrace! We are going to blow it up and fill it today – yay!
So, our trip. We were meant to be at project headquarters (Marv and Rita’s) by 6am. Most of us were there pretty much on time; however we had to send Val and James to go find Ewan and Rhett who were both still asleep when they knocked on the door. I decided to ride with my family for the first part of the journey. We had a great time listening to Nish’s Ipod through the car speakers. Dad really enjoyed the loud tunes ;) and the diving in and out around corners to try and keep up with the vans. Once we reached Palenque Marv gave us a tour of the museum and then we headed out to the site for more exploring and learning. If you want the details about each site you are welcome to check out my professor’s blog. lasom2.blogspot.com
That night we went into the town of Palenque and my family, Tina, Julie, Karyn, Heather and I ate at a restaurant on the corner of the zocalo. We walked around the plaza for awhile and headed back to get a good night sleep. That night and the next I roomed with Karyn and Julie. As Heather stated – way to mix it up! (For those of you that don’t know, Karyn is my roommate in San Cristobal)
The next day is my birthday and it was one of the most spectacular days on our trip. We had to drive way south into the Lacandon jungle. Sitting on the bus, listening to music I watched the hot, orange sun rise out of the sky. It made we wonder why I ever missed a sunrise. It is so powerful and beautiful. At one point in our trip we had to get out of the vans and load into Lacandon vans. They have the monopoly over the area and so anyone who wants to enter needs to pay to have them chauffeur you to Bonampak. Bonampak was small and I really liked it. On one of the temples was an amazing lintel and there was a beautiful tree. I think Karyn has a picture.
I thought a lot about my life that day. Birthdays are always a time to reflect, and even more so given where I was. How have I become who I am? How did I get to this place? How am I so lucky to be this person and in this place? Certainly I don’t deserve it, and so I am just grateful and content. I am so happy right now. I don’t ever remember a time when I love living in the presence as much as I love thinking about the future. Usually you are in a place where you are either really happy now and don’t want the future to come because the present is so amazing, or the present isn’t very much fun and you can’t wait for the future. But right now I am extremely happy here and also excited for the future. It is an ethereal feeling.
My birthday was full an eventful, starting at sunrise and ending after the date had changed to the 16th. After we went to Bonampak we got back in Lacandon trucks to our vans and then took our vans to where we took planchas (long skinny motor boats with thatched roofs) down the river for about 45 minutes until we reached Yaxchilan. It is an ancient pueblo situation on a bend in the river. It consists of many levels of buildings. I will try to attach some pictures because descriptions aren’t as amazing as it pictures. After our visit there we got back in the boats and headed on our way home. The river was beautiful, but as we watched the water I notices really strong whirl pools…not exactly safe for swimming – then we saw a crocodile…I’m sure you all want to swim now right? Also on our trip home we saw some young people get out of a boat on the shore and chase and shoot an iguana: dinner anyone?? I rode home with my parents that day. We listened to loud music and Dad even let me drive half the trip. While I was driving we came to a military check point. They were very cute. They asked me where I was coming from and in my fluster I thought they ask where I was going….I told them Palenque. They laughed and obviously discussed amongst themselves that it wasn’t possible because Palenque was the other way. Haha. Then they asked where we were from. I understood that properly and told them. Soy canadiense. They smiled and let us go. Afterwards I really thought a lot about how they treated us. If someone came to a Canadian or American police check or border, and they didn’t speak English (or French, in Canada) if they couldn’t answer questions they would be questioned more, probably interrogated. Pero en Mexico? We were smiled at and sent on our way. It kind of trashes some of the stereotypes about Mexico eh?
I almost got in an argument the other day with one of my classmates. It was on our second to last trip day and we came to a military check point in the vans. Our drivers were made to get out and had to answer questions about where we were coming from and going etc. They also looked in the back of our van and through Heather’s bag because she grabbed it when the doors opened so it wouldn’t fall out. Obviously all the found were her wet swimming clothes. It was about this time that a comment was made about the f-ing military. To which I retorted that they were just doing their job. He responded with something I will not repeat and I decided not to argue. It wasn’t worth it, but at the same time I was still angry. All they did was question us, they never harassed us, and although I know that sometimes military personal use their position to justify persecution and abuse and I do not like the ‘idea’ or framework of what the military stands for; that doesn’t mean that all people in the military are evil and cruel. Many people do not have a choice to be there, others choose the military over a life of extreme poverty. I cannot condemn someone for that. It always angers me when people who are meant to be open minded and humanitarian show extreme misunderstanding and hatred to those they feel are not humanitarians. It doesn’t make much sense to me.
Anyways, let me continue with my trip. :) For my birthday dinner we went to Don Mucho’s near the Palenque site. I had an amazing meal and it was awesome to share by birthday with so many of my friends and my family. After dinner we watched a live band for a bit, then we watched the fire spinners, and slowly people went home to bed. Julie and I stayed to dance outside in the dirt for a bit but we didn’t go home too late. We found Erin and the three of us walked the 2.5kms back to the hotel with the stars glittering above us.
The next morning we drove to Becan which I have to admit is one of my favourite sites. I loved the architecture. To spare you the details of the room and bench arrangements in residences I will just try to attach pictures. After I finish typing I will go to an interbet café with good connection and attach photos. We had a class that night in Xpujil – it was hot and we were tired but the class went okay. Our rooms in Xpujil were very cute and I roomed there with Maria Luisa for two nights. It was fun. I didn’t go out in Xpujil except to eat and buy groceries. There wasn’t much there anyways. We headed back into the jungle to a site called Calakmul the next day. It was a long walk into the site from the parking lot and we needed to come out to eat lunch. It was a good day though. I got to climb both of the tallest pyramids as well as others AND got to see some amazing residential courtyard complexes.
Anyways, the past week back has been hectic and although I wanted to post my whole trip at once it is not going to happen. You’d probably prefer tapas to a heavy many course meal though so here is your starter salad. Enjoy – I am going to Tapachula again tomorrow and am going to specials in Guatemala. It should be a good time. I will tell you all about it when I get back. Love the crazy Mexican.
Ps. Pictures to come soon on a better internet connection :)
March 14th – leave San Cristobal 6am visit Palenque – sleep at Palenque
March 15th – head into the Lacadon jungle and visit Bonampak and Yaxchilan – sleep at Palenque
March 16th – visit Becan – sleep at Xpujil
March 17th – visit Calakmul – sleep at Xpujil
March 18th – visit a town called Felipe Carrillo Puerto – sleep at Tulum
March 19th – visit Tulum and Ek Balam – sleep at Valladolid
March 20th – visit Chichen Itza – sleep in Cancun with my family
March 21st – beach day at Isla Mujeres – sleep on bus and at Piste
March 22nd – visit Chichen Itza, Balancanche caves, Mayapan, Oxkutzcab – sleep at Ticul
March 23rd – visit Kab and Uxmal – sleep at Ticul
March 24th – drive to Campeche – sleep at Campeche
March 25th – visit Campeche museum, and Edzna – sleep at Palenque
March 26th – visit Misul Ha and Aguas Azul waterfalls – sleep at home
It probably took me more time to type that all out, with all the crazy spellings etc. than it will take me to write most of the rest of my entry. I have two classes today – it is going to be a busy day for me. On the trip we had class lectures at every site and Rita’s class 3 times in the evening, however it was enough work to just attend, take notes and do the readings so I did not finish all my assignments on the trip. Which means I have a lot to do this week but I am not complaining.
I haven’t written anything for what seems like forever. Maybe I will briefly say that my family came to visit on the 9th and I was very happy to see them and show them my city and my favourite places. We even made time to go to the Cacao house for some Chocolate drinks…mmmm. My parents are also very amazing…they helped get some things we needed for our place and also heavily assisted with the cleaning. Furthermore they bought Karyn and I a housewarming gift – a large blow up pool to put on our beautiful terrace! We are going to blow it up and fill it today – yay!
So, our trip. We were meant to be at project headquarters (Marv and Rita’s) by 6am. Most of us were there pretty much on time; however we had to send Val and James to go find Ewan and Rhett who were both still asleep when they knocked on the door. I decided to ride with my family for the first part of the journey. We had a great time listening to Nish’s Ipod through the car speakers. Dad really enjoyed the loud tunes ;) and the diving in and out around corners to try and keep up with the vans. Once we reached Palenque Marv gave us a tour of the museum and then we headed out to the site for more exploring and learning. If you want the details about each site you are welcome to check out my professor’s blog. lasom2.blogspot.com
That night we went into the town of Palenque and my family, Tina, Julie, Karyn, Heather and I ate at a restaurant on the corner of the zocalo. We walked around the plaza for awhile and headed back to get a good night sleep. That night and the next I roomed with Karyn and Julie. As Heather stated – way to mix it up! (For those of you that don’t know, Karyn is my roommate in San Cristobal)
The next day is my birthday and it was one of the most spectacular days on our trip. We had to drive way south into the Lacandon jungle. Sitting on the bus, listening to music I watched the hot, orange sun rise out of the sky. It made we wonder why I ever missed a sunrise. It is so powerful and beautiful. At one point in our trip we had to get out of the vans and load into Lacandon vans. They have the monopoly over the area and so anyone who wants to enter needs to pay to have them chauffeur you to Bonampak. Bonampak was small and I really liked it. On one of the temples was an amazing lintel and there was a beautiful tree. I think Karyn has a picture.
I thought a lot about my life that day. Birthdays are always a time to reflect, and even more so given where I was. How have I become who I am? How did I get to this place? How am I so lucky to be this person and in this place? Certainly I don’t deserve it, and so I am just grateful and content. I am so happy right now. I don’t ever remember a time when I love living in the presence as much as I love thinking about the future. Usually you are in a place where you are either really happy now and don’t want the future to come because the present is so amazing, or the present isn’t very much fun and you can’t wait for the future. But right now I am extremely happy here and also excited for the future. It is an ethereal feeling.
My birthday was full an eventful, starting at sunrise and ending after the date had changed to the 16th. After we went to Bonampak we got back in Lacandon trucks to our vans and then took our vans to where we took planchas (long skinny motor boats with thatched roofs) down the river for about 45 minutes until we reached Yaxchilan. It is an ancient pueblo situation on a bend in the river. It consists of many levels of buildings. I will try to attach some pictures because descriptions aren’t as amazing as it pictures. After our visit there we got back in the boats and headed on our way home. The river was beautiful, but as we watched the water I notices really strong whirl pools…not exactly safe for swimming – then we saw a crocodile…I’m sure you all want to swim now right? Also on our trip home we saw some young people get out of a boat on the shore and chase and shoot an iguana: dinner anyone?? I rode home with my parents that day. We listened to loud music and Dad even let me drive half the trip. While I was driving we came to a military check point. They were very cute. They asked me where I was coming from and in my fluster I thought they ask where I was going….I told them Palenque. They laughed and obviously discussed amongst themselves that it wasn’t possible because Palenque was the other way. Haha. Then they asked where we were from. I understood that properly and told them. Soy canadiense. They smiled and let us go. Afterwards I really thought a lot about how they treated us. If someone came to a Canadian or American police check or border, and they didn’t speak English (or French, in Canada) if they couldn’t answer questions they would be questioned more, probably interrogated. Pero en Mexico? We were smiled at and sent on our way. It kind of trashes some of the stereotypes about Mexico eh?
I almost got in an argument the other day with one of my classmates. It was on our second to last trip day and we came to a military check point in the vans. Our drivers were made to get out and had to answer questions about where we were coming from and going etc. They also looked in the back of our van and through Heather’s bag because she grabbed it when the doors opened so it wouldn’t fall out. Obviously all the found were her wet swimming clothes. It was about this time that a comment was made about the f-ing military. To which I retorted that they were just doing their job. He responded with something I will not repeat and I decided not to argue. It wasn’t worth it, but at the same time I was still angry. All they did was question us, they never harassed us, and although I know that sometimes military personal use their position to justify persecution and abuse and I do not like the ‘idea’ or framework of what the military stands for; that doesn’t mean that all people in the military are evil and cruel. Many people do not have a choice to be there, others choose the military over a life of extreme poverty. I cannot condemn someone for that. It always angers me when people who are meant to be open minded and humanitarian show extreme misunderstanding and hatred to those they feel are not humanitarians. It doesn’t make much sense to me.
Anyways, let me continue with my trip. :) For my birthday dinner we went to Don Mucho’s near the Palenque site. I had an amazing meal and it was awesome to share by birthday with so many of my friends and my family. After dinner we watched a live band for a bit, then we watched the fire spinners, and slowly people went home to bed. Julie and I stayed to dance outside in the dirt for a bit but we didn’t go home too late. We found Erin and the three of us walked the 2.5kms back to the hotel with the stars glittering above us.
The next morning we drove to Becan which I have to admit is one of my favourite sites. I loved the architecture. To spare you the details of the room and bench arrangements in residences I will just try to attach pictures. After I finish typing I will go to an interbet café with good connection and attach photos. We had a class that night in Xpujil – it was hot and we were tired but the class went okay. Our rooms in Xpujil were very cute and I roomed there with Maria Luisa for two nights. It was fun. I didn’t go out in Xpujil except to eat and buy groceries. There wasn’t much there anyways. We headed back into the jungle to a site called Calakmul the next day. It was a long walk into the site from the parking lot and we needed to come out to eat lunch. It was a good day though. I got to climb both of the tallest pyramids as well as others AND got to see some amazing residential courtyard complexes.
Anyways, the past week back has been hectic and although I wanted to post my whole trip at once it is not going to happen. You’d probably prefer tapas to a heavy many course meal though so here is your starter salad. Enjoy – I am going to Tapachula again tomorrow and am going to specials in Guatemala. It should be a good time. I will tell you all about it when I get back. Love the crazy Mexican.
Ps. Pictures to come soon on a better internet connection :)
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dos amigas
well...if you really want to see it up close...