September 16th, 2008
It has been far too long since I have updated my blog and there has been so much stuff I have experienced, so I will try my best to describe everything. August 31st we went to watch a soccer game in Leon, which was Leon vs. Atlas who are from Guadalajara (my team). Unfortunately, because we were in Leon’s stadium, I had to cheer against my own team. Katie came with me, which was pretty sweet, and she got interviewed by the newspaper at the game (she was probably the only blond girl at the game, haha). So, Leon beat Atlas 2-1, which was a really exciting game.
The next week, I had so much work because we had many essays, presentations, and tests for school, which really sucked. But to make matters worse, I got sick AGAIN on that Wednesday night. I was so sick again, but this time, I didn’t eat anything but drink Pedialyte and Gatorade for 4 days. YAY!!! FUN!!! Haha. On Saturday the 6th, we went on an excursion to San Miguel de Allende, which is about 1.5 hours away. For about 3 hours when we first got there, we went to Hot Springs and some pools, which was amazing. I really miss lying out in the sun and hanging out in/by water. Even though this was amazing, I still was sick so it had made my body especially week, which proved to be a huge challenge for walking around the city which is not especially flat. The city was beautiful and very clean with a different type of architecture. However, it was more expensive and was strange because very many people from the United States, and other foreign countries retire here, so you could see all their influence and so many people speaking English. I really liked this city and want to go back again since it is so close but very peaceful.
The next week at school I have more presentations, essays, and tests, but I was looking forward to the 4 day weekend. I finally ate my first meal on Monday morning, but was still feeling sick and other weird problems were happening to me. Finally, on Friday after my test, Katie and I met up to take a bus to Guadalajara for the weekend to stay with my uncle. We took a nicer bus and it was AMAZING! It was basically nicer than 1st class in an airplane with lots of room, large seats, movies and headphones, and they gave us lunch and a drink. We were pretty stoked and we saw some fantastic 80s movies. Haha. It took about 4 hours to arrive in Guadalajara, which is the 2nd biggest city in Mexico, and were greeted by my uncle. Guadalajara in Jalisco is where Mariachis were known to originate, is known for the city of Tequila where most agave is grown, and home of the Chivas soccer team. YES!!! My uncle lives a 10-minute walk from the centro, so we ate dinner there, which overlooked one of the 4 main plazas which are shaped in a cross around the main cathedral. Everything looked beautiful because all of the buildings were decorated with lights and festive decorations for Independence day. It is funny because since the beginning of September the decorations have been up and I kept getting confused because since Mexico’s colors are red, green, and white, I thought they were already putting up Christmas decorations since a lot of decorations are made out of tinsel…hahaha. On Saturday, we woke up early because my uncle took us to this amazing canyon outside of the city. It was ridiculously green and beautiful with a river and town at the bottom, but unfortunately, you cant go in the river because it is so horribly polluted. We hiked down which was difficult since it was all rocks and very uneven. We only went about ½ way down because it was very humid and it was a steep hike back up. All of the views were beautiful and the air was so fresh just like home. At the top Gatorade girls with free Gatorade greeted us. Yes! After we got home and showered, we were tired but went to eat lunch at the Mercado. My uncle took us to a place where they made fresh corn tortillas and it was one of the most delicious meals ever because everything was made in front of us and it was so cheap for a huge meal with as many tortillas as we wanted (as in cheap I mean for 3 huge gourmet meals it was about $10). Later that evening after a long rest, we went to a town on the outskirts of the city called Tlaqupaque which is an artisan town especially known for glass blowing. It was beautiful, but unfortunately, as soon as we got there, it was hurricane like weather and was downpouring. Good thing Katie and me bought out awesome $3 umbrellas, which were slowly degrading quick in the weather. We hung out at a really cool café then walked around and saw some breakdancers in the main plaza which was pretty sweet. It sorta reminded me of breakdancing in Venice Beach in the 90s. haha.
Sunday, Katie and I met up with some friends from her language school and went to a rodeo. Pretty sweet since everyone dresses up in crazy dresses and outfits with live mariachi music everywhere. That evening, we went to the centro and hung out while there were tons of people and music since they were preparing for Independence Day. Monday morning, we woke up to walk around the centro more before we came back to Guanajuato. We went to San Juan de Dios, which is basically known to be one of the largest markets in Latin America and has EVERYTHING or ANYTHING you are looking for from birds, crazy weird animal meat, tons of clothing, movies that haven’t come out yet, you name it, it is there. Katie and me had fun buying sugar cane juice and coconut milk in which they just take a machete to open the top of a coconut and stick a straw in it to drink. After getting back we had lunch with my uncle, packed and embarked on our journey to guanajuato in time for the grito for Independence Day at 11pm. My uncle told us to take a bus, which was 5 blocks away, and as soon as we left the house, it started down pouring so Katie and me got soaking wet for the bus ride and walking across the quickly formed lakes in the street praying cars wouldn’t drive by fast because we would get even more drenched. After jumping on a bus (literally jumping, because in Mexico anywhere you want is a bus stop so you just have to know when to get off ahead of time and jump off quick), I had to keep asking people where to get off because we had no idea. We finally had to jump off with our luggage and walk in the pouring rain again to the station in which we realized we missed a bus by 5 minutes, so we had to wait an hour. We finally got on the Bus and embarked on our journey back to celebrate. We arrived at about 9pm in Guanajuato to pouring rain and there were no taxis because so many people come there. Guanajuato is the 2nd most visited city for Independence Day since it had such a crucial role in the war for independence. So we jumped on a city bus, and where many people got off, Katie and me did too since they let you off in the underground tunnels they drive in and you have no idea where you are most of the time. We got out, had no idea where we were, but finally realized it and got off too early so our journey began. As we were walking with our luggage, there are tons of people in the streets and it is starting to pour rain harder and harder and there were no open taxis, so I knew we just had to hike up to my house. As Katie and we started up the stairs, it had already turned into a huge waterfall/river in which the water basically was splashing us up to our knees. Katie was carrying an umbrella which only had ½ working and the other ½ was just flopping and hitting her in the face while I had my rain coat on, but since it was pouring so much rain, all of the water finally made its way through the material, same with through my suitcase and all of our other bags/purses. As we are struggling up the steps/waterfall/river the rain keeps pouring harder and harder so our pants are getting wetter and wetter, therefore, very heavy, therefore falling off and we had no free hands so basically our butts were hanging out walking up the stairs and my converse I was wearing, well, they were very squishy, and as for Katie, she was wearing slip flops and she almost lost one from the current on the way up. We finally made it into our house after a 20 minute hike up and were completely soaked and to make it better, my host parents had family over and were all in the main room when we walked in lookin real good. Haha.
After a few showers, we decided to change and to trek on out again to the celebration even though it was raining harder than previously and I don’t even know that was possible. We got ready, and at about 11pm, the grito started and there were fireworks which we had an amazing view of from the balcony of my room. After watching them and having a glass of wine from a bottle that we had to ghetto rig to open with a pair of tiny scissors used for facial/body stuff, we strolled downtown. Tons of people were out, and we bought the most delicious corn on the cob on the street which is covered in mayonnaise, cheese, and chile at about midnight and probably on of the better investments Katie and me made all night. Haha. We strolled around to many bars and met up with many friends, and next thing we know, most bars are closed and it we look at the time, and oh that’s cause it is 5am. Haha. Woops. So then we went salsa dancing to cap of the night and could barely move cause there were so many people. Most would think by the amount of people of the street it was about 10pm, but it was like 5:30am. Haha. So yes, after waiting for a taxi for an hour and not one was open, we strolled back home. Independence day here was basically a crazy experience and was concluded by Katie and me covered in festive green, white, and red paint all over our faces and arms and waking up Tuesday morning or afternoon at about 2pm and listening to people putting off fireworks all day from their houses and the thunderous booms.
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