Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido

Hey everybody!  I finally got a chance to update my blog after a long 6 days of travelling.  I’m currently writing this as our small group drives back from Puerto Escondido.  The drive from there to Puebla is about 11 hours, so I’ve got plenty of time to write.  (Hopefully I don’t make this too long)

Day 1:

Our trip was fantastic.  As I mentioned in the last blog, our trip started early Friday morning when my host mom, 5 other ND students left for the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.  It was about a 4 hour-long drive, and we arrived around 11am at Monte Albán, an ancient city in the mountains around Oaxaca.  We probably spent around 3 hours there.  It was incredibly beautiful up in the mountains, and examining all the different structures was fascinating.  I think I took well over 100 pictures there, but hopefully you can get a decent idea of it with the pictures I post here.

Great view of Monte Alban

Our group

After Monte Albán, we drove into the city of Oaxaca.  We got some café (coffee), explored some markets with cool handmade items, and then walked through the awesome museum of Mexican history and archaeology which was located in the same area.  It was built inside of a beautiful old monastery in the middle of the city, and was very well put together.  There was way more to see there than we could visit in the few hours we were there, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.  After leaving the museum, we spent some more time wandering the city before checking into our hotel.  After we were settled in, we walked to the Zócalo (main plaza) to find some food and see the city at night.  The plaza was decked out with red, green, and white decorations for Mexican Independence Day, and it was buzzing with activity.

Courtyard in the middle of the museum

View from the museum of the adjacent square

We stopped at this market, famous for its nieve, a type of slushy-like ice cream.

My first tlayuda, a crispy tortilla with beans, salsa, cheese, and other delicious stuff

Street performer at night in Oaxaca

Day 2:

Our second day in Oaxaca was packed full of different sites and activities.  Looking back, it might have been my favorite day of our trip.  Oaxaca was just an incredible city.  It’s fairly large, but small enough that you get some of the Mexican pueblo charm.  It’s nestled in the Sierra Oaxaca mountains and full of colorful buildings, so I just wanted to take pictures everywhere.  Also, there are a lot of cultural and culinary traditions in Oaxaca dating back to the many groups of indigenous people who lived in the area.  We experienced a little bit of all these things on our second day, and we were just incredibly satisfied all day.

The beautiful little courtyard at the hotel we stayed at

The start of my breakfast, Oaxaca's traditional hot chocolate and Pan de Yema, a type of sweet bread

Palace and church at Mitla, an archaeological site outside Oaxaca

Inside the palace at Mitla

One step of the production of mezcal, a traditional beverage similar to tequila.

We try some mezcal

Parade in Oaxaca

I found a Colts fan!

Some sights around the Zocalo at night

Day 3:
On our third day, we left Oaxaca early in the morning to head to Puerto Escondido (in Spanish, hidden port), which had been described to me as the surf capital of Mexico.  Three of the six of us ND students had surfed at some point before (I had a short lesson this past summer during my choir’s tour in Australia), so we were excited to have some time to surf and to just relax on the beach. Unfortunately, the drive from the city of Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido (both are in the state of Oaxaca) involved 7 hours of switchbacks through the Sierra Oaxaca mountain mountains.  I think we were all incredibly sick to our stomachs by the time we were halfway to Puerto Escondido.  What I saw of the drive was beautiful, but I spent most of the time curled up in a ball, trying to sleep and praying that I wouldn’t get sick.

That being said, once we arrived and got a glimpse of the beach, we all agreed: vale la pena (roughly, it’s worth the trouble/pain).  Naturally, we stopped for breakfast and coffee (this was common on our trip, Oaxaca coffee is outstanding) at a little café on the beach as soon as we arrived.  There, Sam and I’s host brother Luis met up with us to eat.  He has been in Puerto Escondido for about a week now working on some sort of architectural project.  He was really helpful when we were planning the trip, and it was great visiting him.  He’s hilarious, and really fun to be around.

After eating, we checked into the apartment we were staying in, changed, and then headed off to spend some time on the beach.  Sam and I took the opportunity to get in a quick hour of surfing.  Luckily, the board rentals were pretty cheap (100 pesos, or about $6 for two hours) and the waves were pretty good.  It is currently the off-season for surfing there, which is good, because it meant that we could go out with limited experience and not worry about getting crushed by the massive waves they experience in peak season (I saw some pictures/ videos, and they can be somewhat terrifying).

The time on the beach was a great remedy for our unpleasant driving experience.  It was only made better great end to the day, the rain held off enough for us to watch a beautiful sunset over the beach. 

Mountains on the way to Puerto Escondido

Our fist experience of the beach was a good one

                                 

Sunset on the beach

Day 4:

Day four started off with surf lessons at the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to go back with my camera and take pictures.  You’ll have to take my word when I say that the lessons was an incredibly wonderful experience.  I got some nice tips from our incredibly nice instructors and I got to drift around with my friends, looking back on a beautiful beach.  We even got a little cloud cover in the morning so that we didn’t risk getting too much sun.

After the lesson, we met up with Luis and my host mom for brunch (and coffee).  Then we went back to the beach from the previous day to swim and just relax on the beach for a while with some cocos fríos (chilled coconuts).  Afterward, we spent some time doing homework (gross), but it was in a café on the beach, so I wasn’t too upset about it.  Later, we changed and went out to dinner at this little restaurant that sold pozole, which is sort of like a soup with pork and a special type of corn.  It was incredibly good, and I helped myself to two bowls.  Absolutely stuffed, we headed back to our apartment and hung out on the porch before going to bed.  Overall, a really chill, relaxed day.

Surfers out in the water

The main strip of beach

Enjoying our cocos frios

Day 5:

Much like the previous day, we got up, ate breakfast together, and then went surfing together for a couple hours.  I caught one really good wave which took me all the way to shore.  One of my friends on the trip even got a good picture of it while she was taking a break on the beach.  I look like I know what I’m doing in the picture.  It’s great!  After getting ourselves sufficiently exhausted, (surfing is hard!) we grabbed some tacos (10 for 40 pesos, which is less than $2.50! I love Mexican food prices).  Then we relaxed on the main strip of beach for a little while before going back to the café from the previous day and doing some more homework.  We then went out for a big dinner, where I tried octopus tacos (they were great).  We went back to our apartment to pack and wait for El Grito, (approx.  “the yell”) the kickoff of Mexican Independence day (September 16)at 11:00 on the 15^th.  I don’t understand it super well, but I think people yell ¡Viva México! and typically begin celebrating with music and food.  We could hear a lot of music and there were some fireworks in the distance, but unfortunately we couldn’t see the fireworks because there were trees in the way.  Only slightly disappointed, we went to bed so that we could get up at 5am to head home for Puebla. 

Our boards being waxed before heading out

Sunset from the porch of our apartment

Day 6:

And here I am now, in our van heading back to Puebla.  I was super excited for this trip, and it ended up being even better than I expected.  I’m a little behind on some homework now, but it was definitely worth it.  Vale la pena. 

As always, I’ll have some more updates coming later, although probably not as long as this one.  Thanks for checking in!

Mexico City

I'm back with a long-overdue update on my adventures in Mexico, although this one will mostly be about my trip to Mexico City this past weekend.  Here, we call it D.F. (day eh-fay), short for Distrito Federal, or in english, the federal district.  The trip was sponsored by UPAEP's international student organization.  Mexico City is MASSIVE.  There is so much to see and do there, and this trip checked a lot of the boxes for things I wanted to do there.  Plus, it was a good price, so I was excited to go.  Four of us ND students went, along with maybe 14 other international students.  So, the group was a little bigger than I would have liked it to be,  as the size made it harder for us to have a flexible schedule and just have free time to explore.  Nevertheless, we got to see a lot of really cool stuff, and I got some great pictures.  We were there almost all day Saturday and Sunday, so I probably don't have enough time to describe everything.  Instead, I'll just post a lot of pictures with some short descriptions so you know (sort of) what's going on.  Enjoy!

A Photo Tour of D.F. 

El Palacio Nacional (The National Palace) as seen from the Plaza de la Constitution (Constitution Plaza).

Gardens inside the palacio nacional.  These had all kinds of cool native plants,  There were also lots of cats.

Courtyard inside El Palacio.  It was a beautiful building.

The best picture I could get to capture this famous mural by Diego Rivera which depicts the entire history of Mexico.  This was incredible.  There were several other murals by Rivera throughout this part of the palace.

Subtle signature by Rivera in the corner of his mural

Another mural depicting Mexico City before it was conquered by the Spaniards.  At the time, it was called Tenochtitlan, and was the center of the Aztec empire.  (Also, note the upside-down eagle people hanging from the pole toward the center of the pole, it will come up later.)

Aztec ruins close to the national palace.

Cathedral at the Plaza de la Constitucion

The upper half of the famous monument, Angel de la Independencia

Me in front of La Piedra del Sol (the Sun Stone) which is located in the Museo de Antropologia e Historia (Museum of Anthropology and History).  The stone is often referred to as the Aztec calendar, but it was more likely some sort of ritual altar.

Here's the whole group.

Outside of the museum, people demonstrate this indigenous tradition, which I pointed out in Rivera's mural earlier.

They played instruments while spinning around upside-down probably 100 feet off the ground.  It was impressive, to say the least.

Elote (corn on the cob) is popular street food in Mexico.  They serve it with mayonnaise, cheese, and chili powder.  It's delicious.

A view of the Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle).  Chapultepec means place of the grasshoppers.  This place has served as royal/presidential quarters as well as a military base over the years.

A view of some of the city from the castle.

More views from the castle

Outside the Plaza Garibaldi, where Mariachi bands wait to be hired.  These guys look like they got caught in the rain.

Image of La Virgen de Guadalupe on the tilma (tunic) of Saint Juan Diego.  This is located behind the altar of  the 

Basílica de Santa María de Guadalupe.

Enormous Sunday crowd at the basilica.

Mexico city is actually very pretty.  Unfortunately, the smog there hides a lot of the beauty.  As one of the biggest cities in the world, it has had a lot of problems with air pollution.

Path leading up to the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, outside Mexico City.  To say there were lots of vendors there would be an understatement.  This place was amazing, but it was also one heck of a tourist trap.

The Pyramid of the Moon, as seen from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.  Climbing the pyramid was really cool.  The view from the top was incredible.

This picture describes the view better.  

The view from the other pyramid.  You can see how big Teotihuacan actually is.  It must have been extremely impressive at its time.

 Update on Hospital Rotations

Now that I've gotten through all of that, I'll give you a quick update on how my hospital rotations this week.  I had a nice 2 days of rotations this week.  I followed a surgical pathologist, and saw how she took different cuts of tissue samples from operations in order to get a good picture of what is going on at a microscopic level.  She also showed us different slides and helped us determine what tissues they were and whether or not there was some sort of pathology.  It was super interesting, and I think the experience will be helpful with my histology class.

Tomorrow, I'll be heading out (yet again) for an extended trip to Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido.  I'll be heading there with my host mom and 5 other ND students.  We'll be meeting up with my host brother in Puerto Escondido, where he's currently working on some sort of architecture project.  I don't know a ton about Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido, other than that Oaxaca is well known for its tradition Mexican cuisine and Puerto Escondido is known as the surfing capital of Mexico.  I'll let you know about the places once I get back.  I'm sure I'll have a lot to talk about and a ton of pictures to share, as we'll be gone until Wednesday night.  Plus, we will be in Puerto Escondido during Mexican Independence Day.  I'm super excited, and I can't wait to tell you all about my travels.

Adios