Bonus Video: Monsters in Mexico

This is the video I made a couple of weeks ago during a "digital storytelling" workshop that we had at the university. It's nothing fancy -- I think this was actually my first time ever using iMovie -- but I hope you like it!

El fin

Well, it's finally here: my very last day in Mexico. These past six weeks have absolutely flown by, and I have mixed feelings about leaving. While a big part of me is excited to get back to the States to see family and friends -- and to be in a country where I more or less know how everything works -- I also feel as if I'm leaving Mérida just when I'd begun to get the hang of so many things: the language, the bus system, the heat. While it sounded like a long time when I first signed up for this program,  I'm realizing now just how inadequate a month and a half is to get to know Mérida, or any new place. Before I get too caught up in my reflections, though, let me catch you up on how I spent my last week in Mexico:

The 4th of July. 

I have to say, this was one of the sadder Independence Days of my life. All of my final papers and projects were due on the 5th, so I spent my evening with two classmates at a Starbucks (America!) working on our paper for History of Mayan Civilization and Culture. My caramel frappucino was delicious and we went out to a yummy dinner afterwards, but it still wasn't quite the same. 

Last day of classes.

The workload for our classes had been a little heavier than expected, so I don't think anyone in my program felt truly sad about our last day of school. Still, it was bittersweet to know that we would never again catch the Route 2 bus to the facultad in the morning... 

La Facultad de Antropología, where we had our classes every day (School of Anthropology).

Final weekend in México. 

Since it would be our final one in México, our program didn't have any trips or excursions scheduled for this weekend. I used the free time to squeeze in a lot of "lasts": 

One last visit to el centro / downtown.

One last stroll through la plaza grande at Mérida en Domingo. Two clowns performed their routine to the delight of children and adults alike ;)

This one was actually a "first": a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  (Free entrance for all visitors!)

One last movie at Altabrisa. We saw Despicable Me 2 (or Mi Villano Favorito 2, as it's called here), but I saw this poster outside of the theater and couldn't resist taking a picture. 

A Bonus Excursion

Since we had an entire week left with no classes, our program director and a few UADY professors organized one last "bonus excursion" for our group: a three-day road trip through the northern part of Yucatán, guided by three students of tourism at the university. Our guides -- Emir, Ana Laura, and Geraldine -- were fantastic; it was really nice to spend some quality time with Mexican students our own age outside of a classroom setting.

On Tuesday we swam in a cenote and visited the village of Ek Balam. We ate dinner in the home of a family there, sat around a bonfire and listened to a few stories, and then spent the night in these cabins.

Wednesday we visited the archeological site of Ek Balam (which the village is named after). 

Pyramid, restored with thatched roofs. 

View from the top of the pyramid.

I'm really going to miss the other students in my program!

We left Ek Balam and drove to the coastal town of San Felipe. On the way, we made a stop at a roadside crocodile farm...?

Once in San Felipe, we took a five minute boat ride...

...out to a teeny tiny (mosquito-infested) island where we camped out for the night. 

We arrived back in Mérida yesterday (Thursday) evening and now...here I am! My final day will be spent doing laundry, packing, eating a delicious mole lunch with my family, meeting up my classmates one last time in the afternoon, and then going to my host dad's pizzeria for my last dinner. Tomorrow I'll wake up early, early for my 7 a.m flight and my time in Mexico will officially be over. It's been a remarkable trip. I've seen the rugged mountains of Chiapas and the tranquil cenotes of Yucatán. I've met incredible, warm people from the U.S. and Mexico both. I've felt frustrated, exhilarated, uncomfortable, and welcome -- sometimes all within the same hour. And I've probably seen one too many movies at Altabrisa (you have to understand...air conditioning!...and such cheap tickets!). I'm already getting excited for my next experience abroad, hopefully in the very near future. Thanks for following along on this adventure and sticking with me hasta el final. :)

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas

Late last night, my program returned from what I will undoubtedly remember as one of the very best parts of my time in Mexico: two and a half days in San Cristobal de las Casas, a colonial-style city in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The travel time was long -- 14 hours there due to frequent stops looking for a diesel filling station, and 14 hours back due to....well, I'll get to that -- but valió la pena. It was well worth it. 

(red line in bottom right shows Mérida to San Cristobal)

I've been fortunate enough to see some pretty breathtaking sights in my life: German villages nestled in rolling hills, vineyards perched on the side of the Italian Alps. The Chiapas countryside, though, in part because I hadn't expected it to, ranks right up there with the best of them:

                           

Clouds at eye level

I think what I loved most about San Cristobal is that despite its long history (the city was founded in 1528), its spirit and character feel incredibly young. Unlike previous excursions, our schedule in San Cristobal was largely unstructured, giving us plenty of time to wander the streets and stumble across chocolate shops, cafés, and mercados galore.

Our hotel, Hotel Don Quijote

Casa del Pan, the organic/local ingredient/vegetarian restaurant where we had breakfast each morning.  

Seasonal fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice...and hot chocolate, of course!

It was chilly and rainy most of Saturday and Sunday...

...but we still managed to get out and about!

When the weather was really yucky, we took refuge in  TierrAdentro, a delicious café / Zapatista merchandise market...interesting combo, but it works!

We really wanted to take a meditation class at the Buddhist center across from our hotel, but it was closed :(

San Cristobal has a thing about building its churches atop hills with lots and lots of stairs.

(See the little church in the middle of the picture at the top of the stairs, between the trees?) It makes for a bit of a hike, and the altitude will leave you out of breath...

...but, once again, vale la pena. What a view!

                                             

Looking out over San Cristobal

Sunday morning we drove to the nearby indigenous villages of San Juan Chamula and Zinacantan.

The community graveyard of San Juan Chamula. The church's roof caved in long ago and the building is no longer in use.

The people of San Juan Chamula are professed Catholics, but in practice they incorporate many elements of the religion of their Maya ancestors. If the head of a family changes his religion, he and his entire family are expelled from the community and may not be buried in the community graveyard. Many of the indigenous street vendors in San Cristobal are former residents of San Juan Chamula. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the village's church has no pews. Instead, shrines to various saints are maintained around the perimeter of the sanctuary, and tiny lighted candles and pine needles (they smelled like pine needles?) cover the floor.

In the textile village of Zinacantán we visited a small, family-run mercado. This woman is weaving a table runner.   

After we had done our shopping, the family invited us into their kitchen for  homemade corn tortillas with queso and frijoles. 

Back in San Cristobal, the weather was kind enough to clear up for a beautiful final day in Chiapas. 

On our last night, a group of us decided to go back to Casa del Pan (which just happens to have a tiny cinema room in the back?) to watch a documentary film about the Zapatista movement in Chiapas. I still don't have a firm grasp of it all, but essentially the Zapatistas are a semi-radical group whose primary cause is land reform for the indigenous campesinos of Chiapas. The movement began with a violent rebellion in 1994 after Mexican preconditions to NAFTA redistributed indigenous lands, and has been smoldering ever since. The film was informative, powerful, and balanced, but I didn't realize just how relevant it would be to our group...

Remember when I said that the return trip lasted 14 hours as opposed to the expected 12? On Tuesday morning,  Zapatistas set up road blocks to protest various recent government actions. We were stopped twice. The first time the subject of the protest was unclear (something about combustibles?), but protestors had parked a large truck in the middle of the road, leaving just enough space for small, "private" travelers to go past. Although vehicles of comparable size were let through, an organizer informed us that our van was too big and that we would need to wait an hour. "Don't worry," our director Diana told us, "I've already notified the consulate." Yikes! Diana asked to speak to a different organizer, who agreed to let us try and fit though the gap. We barely squeezed by...only to arrive at another road block a few hours down the road. This second one (pictured above) was more straightforward: we sat in a line of stopped cars for a while, and then were allowed to slowly drive down a road lined with stony faced protestors holding hand-painted signs. They gave each driver a slip of paper written in English and Spanish explaining their demands: the return of land confiscated by the federal government in February 2011, and the release of two imprisoned "companions."

The next 8 hours of the trip passed uneventfully and we arrived safe and sound in Mérida! My classmates and I agree that we could have happily spent an entire semester in San Cristobal, but it does feel nice to be back in Yucatán. This is my final week of classes, so I'll be celebrating the Fourth of July by working on the two final papers I have due on Friday. Woop-dee-doo. Light a sparkler for me! 

Coming soon...

...CHIAPAS! Tonight (at midnight) my classmates and I will pack ourselves into a van and begin the 12 hour drive to the Mexican state of Chiapas. Honestly, I didn't know until I arrived here that my study abroad program would include this four-day excursion to San Cristobal de las Casas, but from what I hear, it will be a trip to remember! Chiapas is different from Yucatan in practically every way: it's mountainous, much cooler, and has its own distinct cuisine and traditions. People from Yucatan are extremely proud of their home state, but several have told me that Chiapas may be the most beautiful in all of Mexico. I can't wait to see it for myself -- I'll post again on Wednesday and let know you how it went!

P.S. I feel bad about not doing a real post this week, so here are some random pictures of sweets to make up for it:

Mamey (maw-MAY) ice cream. Mamey is a fruit that I've fallen in love with here.

Whole mamey fruit. Its texture is so soft and smooth that you can just scoop it up with a spoon...making it into ice cream is actually kind of unnecessary.

Another student in my program had a birthday this week and his host family threw him a fiesta, complete with a piñata! These were some of the goodies inside...I especially liked the "Bubu Lubu."

On our trip to Uxmal last weekend, I was starving after all of the temple climbing and these caught my eye.  Strawberry/raspberry/blackberry ice-cream flavored Oreos...they were just as bad as they sound. But I was REALLY hungry.

¡Progreso, Uxmal, and Cenotes!

What a weekend! This Friday, I finally made it to the coastal town of Progreso for an afternoon at the beach. Progreso is really only a half hour drive from Mérida, but by the time I walked to meet up with classmates, took a city bus downtown, and then caught the Mérida-Progresso bus, it had taken closer to 2 hours. Mérida's bus system is...interesting; I've tried to explain it to a few people by comparing it to the "Knight Bus" from Harry Potter. There are virtually no official bus stops. Instead, you just stand on the side of the road and fling out your arm when your bus goes by (which is about every 15 minutes). Flagging down the correct bus can be tricky, since the route numbers are often hand-painted on the windshield in chipped, peeling letters. Grab ahold of something as soon as you step aboard, though, because the driver will step on the pedal the instant you've climbed the steps. He'll then take your bus fare and make change while simultaneously navigating Mérida's narrow streets and seemingly optional traffic lanes. And did I mention that all of the buses are stick-shift?

The long commute was absolutely worth it, though. What with the sunshine, the sea breeze, a good book and my Coke, I couldn't have been happier:

On Sunday our group took a day trip to the Mayan ruins of Uxmal and Kabah: 

Main quadrangle

Governor's palace

Temple of the Turtle

Group picture

So many stairs...everywhere...stairs...

Top of the world?

These next two pictures are from Kabah. One of the things I love about studying at UADY's School of Anthropology is that it's made me very aware of how discoveries about the Maya are still ongoing. The white stone portion of the building in the above picture, for instance, was uncovered by archeologists just six months ago. Before, it was covered by the earth and rough stones you see towards the top of the picture. 

This wall is covered in carvings of faces with elephant trunks for noses.  

After the ruins, we headed to a restaurant for lunch. My favorite part was dessert: crema española!

Next we headed to a Mayan village about an hour outside of Mérida to swim in a cenote.

Cenotes are underground pools of fresh water that were sacred to the ancient Maya.  They believed they were entryways to the afterlife. I know it looks dark and spooky, but there was plenty of light and the water was perfectly clear! It was also nice to swim out of the hot sun.