(Jess writing)
We are back in cold, rainy Mexico city- I am actually kind of glad we came here during the raining season- apparently the air is practically unbreathable in the dry season. The rain cleans the pollution out of the air alot (though not out of the metro...) We have definintely gotten to the point in our trip where it feels like we are just holding our breath, waiting to be home again. Clove is showing up in all my dreams- I can still see her tiny little face and big eyes gazing at me fearfully from under the kitchen table from the last time I left her for this long. Hopefully this time she will not run away again.
However, the homesick blues has not prevented me from enjoying more sights and sounds of Mexico. We spent two nights on a really chill, fairly empty beach on the Pacific Coast. We were trying to get to Mazunte, which is sort of a hippy, backpackers beach and ended up on St. Augustino or something... I think it was a lucky mistake. The waves were pretty rough- one of them sent both me and shannon sommersaulting (how does one spell sommersaulting) under the current- luckily it did not slam us into the sand or anything. The beach was actually really shallow, so I was never terribly worried about rip-tide or anything. Maybe I should have been...
We went on a tour of a swamp near by run by a community of 24 families that have set up an eco-reserve to preserve the endangered wildlife and habitat there. For only 35 pesos (3 dollars?) we took an hour long boat ride through the swamp where we saw about a douzen crocodiles, a bunch of bright green, huge iguanas and a handful of incredible birds. The tour guide actually beckoned a crocodile to come right up to our boat- seriously maybe two feet from my face, just by splashing his hand around in the water. I swear, i had hoped never to get so close to a crocodile, but it seemed not to want to try to snatch us out of our boat, which I guess is a good thing...
Then we wandered into the town of Mazunte to visit the turtle center, where we got to see hundreds of turtles, including tiny little baby sea turtles. The center is devoted to educating people about the reasons not to poach turtles and also to help raise and release sea turtles back into the wild. It was pretty sweet. We even saw slider turtles like Stella (if only I had had that yellow lid...)
The only downside to the beach is that it left me with about 45 mosquito bites... c'est la vie.
After the beach we went to Oaxaca city. The whole point of the excursion was to shorten the bus ride to Mexico city, though I think we failed because, despite the guide book tellig us the bus ride would be seven hours, it ended up being more than ten. I never want to ride on a cross country bus again...
Oaxaca city seemed like a nice city from what I could gather from one day's wander. It is the chocolate capitol of Mexico, so I bought some hot chocolate with cinnamon which I am excited to try when I get home. It was sort of a mix between the clean, brightly colored, mountainous charm of St Crisobal and the busy, faster-paced Mexico city. Only with more Oaxacan arts and crafts all over the place (like Monas dragon and giraffe). The best part of it is that everything is smothered in Oaxacan cheese (kind of like American string cheese, only it tastes like cow and is a lot thicker). I am going to miss this cheese...
Anyway, we are now back in Mexico city. We are either going to go explore Aztec ruins in downtown Mexico city or take an excursion to the pyramids outside of Mexico city, depending on how ambitious we feel. Mostly I think we both just want to go home to our kitties and drinkable tap water. Mmm... drinkable tap water.
If we are feeling ambitious, we might post photos today. Otherwise, we will certainly post more upon our arrival in Minneapolis TOMORROW!!!!!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Acropolis at Yax Chitlan
we walked up about 500 stairs (with our packs and all our luggage) to see this building, but it was totally worth it!
Welcome to the Jungle!
(Jess writing)
Shannon and I arrived back in St Cris last night- though it has only been about three and a half weeks since we left here, it seems like we have covered a lot of ground in that time.
The Jungle-
So we stayed in this picturesque spot in the middle of the lacondon jungle- our cabin had a beautiful view of the lacanja river. It was really only just three walls, a large bed with mosquito netting, a hammock and two chairs. We made friends with a giant spider about as big as my hand. It was actually quite respectful of our space and spent most of its time hanging out on the ceiling. I would like to say that we saw all kinds of awesome flora and fauna- jaguars and ocelots and monkeys and parrots and things... but really, we mostly just saw bugs. Giant spiders, irridescent flies, butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors, grasshoppers, cicadas... we saw a couple of monkeys from far away, some rodent looking thing that I am pretty sure was an agouti and one crocodile. We are convinced we heard jaguars fighting in the woods, though we have since been informed that it was probably howler monkeys. I am still convinced it was jaguars...
Did you know- the dinosaur noises from the film Jurassic Park were actually howler monkeys? Weird, huh?
We went rafting down the river that our cabin was on- it had about a douzen waterfalls- rafting down waterfalls is actually really fun- like valley fair, only without the safety precautions! One of the waterfalls was so large that we actually had to get out of the raft and jump off of it into the water below. I still can´t quite believe my body allowed me to do anything quite so foolish, but I seem to still be alive. I suppose the adventure is good for me...
After the rafting, we hiked back to camp through the jungle. On the way back there was a waterfall we could swim in- all in all, the day was pretty incredible.
The next day, Shannon and I spent the day exploring the jungle trasportation system in order to get to two nearby ruin sites, yax chitlan and bonampac. Bonampac has the only colored murals in the mayan world and yax chitlan was definitely the biggest and most impressive ruin site we have seen so far. After the ruins, we managed to catch a minibus back to palenque.
Yesterday, we did a tour from palenque to st. cris that stopped by the two big waterfall tourist attractions in the jungle- misol-ha and agua azul. Bus rides are definitely more fun when you get to stop to picnic and swim in waterfalls. I was a bit disappoited though because the tour made it sound like we would take a minibus all the way to st cris. They actually just had the big bus company make a stop at the waterfall to pick us up. Windy mountain roads on large buses equals motion sick jess.
Anyway, Monday we are off to Mazunte, a hippy beach on the pacific coast, then off to mexico city to see aztec ruins for a change, then home! I miss my kitty...
Shannon and I arrived back in St Cris last night- though it has only been about three and a half weeks since we left here, it seems like we have covered a lot of ground in that time.
The Jungle-
So we stayed in this picturesque spot in the middle of the lacondon jungle- our cabin had a beautiful view of the lacanja river. It was really only just three walls, a large bed with mosquito netting, a hammock and two chairs. We made friends with a giant spider about as big as my hand. It was actually quite respectful of our space and spent most of its time hanging out on the ceiling. I would like to say that we saw all kinds of awesome flora and fauna- jaguars and ocelots and monkeys and parrots and things... but really, we mostly just saw bugs. Giant spiders, irridescent flies, butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors, grasshoppers, cicadas... we saw a couple of monkeys from far away, some rodent looking thing that I am pretty sure was an agouti and one crocodile. We are convinced we heard jaguars fighting in the woods, though we have since been informed that it was probably howler monkeys. I am still convinced it was jaguars...
Did you know- the dinosaur noises from the film Jurassic Park were actually howler monkeys? Weird, huh?
We went rafting down the river that our cabin was on- it had about a douzen waterfalls- rafting down waterfalls is actually really fun- like valley fair, only without the safety precautions! One of the waterfalls was so large that we actually had to get out of the raft and jump off of it into the water below. I still can´t quite believe my body allowed me to do anything quite so foolish, but I seem to still be alive. I suppose the adventure is good for me...
After the rafting, we hiked back to camp through the jungle. On the way back there was a waterfall we could swim in- all in all, the day was pretty incredible.
The next day, Shannon and I spent the day exploring the jungle trasportation system in order to get to two nearby ruin sites, yax chitlan and bonampac. Bonampac has the only colored murals in the mayan world and yax chitlan was definitely the biggest and most impressive ruin site we have seen so far. After the ruins, we managed to catch a minibus back to palenque.
Yesterday, we did a tour from palenque to st. cris that stopped by the two big waterfall tourist attractions in the jungle- misol-ha and agua azul. Bus rides are definitely more fun when you get to stop to picnic and swim in waterfalls. I was a bit disappoited though because the tour made it sound like we would take a minibus all the way to st cris. They actually just had the big bus company make a stop at the waterfall to pick us up. Windy mountain roads on large buses equals motion sick jess.
Anyway, Monday we are off to Mazunte, a hippy beach on the pacific coast, then off to mexico city to see aztec ruins for a change, then home! I miss my kitty...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Mayan Ruins
We seem to be in the Mayan ruin section of our trip. We spent one night (and one action packed day) in Tulum visiting the ancient Mayan sea port town located on the coast just outside of Tulum. We didn´t really know what to expect from Tulum, just that we didn´t want to spend any more time in the tourist death trap that is Cancun. Though the hostel we stayed at was less than pleasing (and we met a couple of dude-bro backpackers from california who traveled only to party with other tourists and pick up "babes", Tulum wasn´t a total waste. The archeological site was amazing- there were iguanas everywhere and the ruins were quite impressive. The best part about though was that after spending an hour walking around in the beating sun on a ninety degree day with no shade, the path leads you directly down to a beautiful beach just under the towering ruins. The beaches in Tulum definitely had one up on those of Cancun- not only were they less crowded but instead of the drab view of hotels and resorts behind you as you swim, you get ruins and jungle.
We took a night bus from Tulum to Palenque (only a short 12 hours) on these first class buses- they handed us treat bags on the way in and had headphones so you could tune out the bad dubbed movies they play on all the buses here. We arrived in Palenque yesterday- today we went to the big ruin site just outside of town. It was pretty incredible- piraminds and palaces, all remarkably well preserved (or restored possibly). Tomorrow we are off to the jungle to sleep in a cabin on stilts above a river. I´m quite excited.
We took a night bus from Tulum to Palenque (only a short 12 hours) on these first class buses- they handed us treat bags on the way in and had headphones so you could tune out the bad dubbed movies they play on all the buses here. We arrived in Palenque yesterday- today we went to the big ruin site just outside of town. It was pretty incredible- piraminds and palaces, all remarkably well preserved (or restored possibly). Tomorrow we are off to the jungle to sleep in a cabin on stilts above a river. I´m quite excited.
Friday, August 14, 2009
back in cancun!
it was incredible. i dont have time to write much, let alone upload pictures (we have a bus to catch because we are not staying in cancun - too expensive), but suffice to say, it was beautiful, and we survived. heading to tulum to see some ruins tomorrow morning, then to palenque for more ruins, then to the jungle for a couple days. updates unlikely until our return to san cris (next friday or saturday).
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Birthdays and Bus trips
Gen´s birthday was yesterday. She and I (this is Jess) abandoned Shannon (sorry Shannon) and hiked up some Shaman´s mountain... here is the haiku we wrote about it
Hiking the mountain
Shaman on a four by four
Lazy dharma bum
Gen, Shannon and I have decided that we need to publish a haiku zine of all the collected haikus from the trip. Gen will illustrate.
Anyway, the birthday was lovely- gen and i both bought ourselves pretty rings (I am debilitated by my insatiable turquoise addiction...) and ate lunch at the falafel place. Then Alejandro, Shannon, Gen and I busted onto the set of some Mexican soap opera in order to get to Gen´s favorite bar where we drank mojitos and took scandalous pictures in the vagina installation the bar had up for the feminist cabaret. Life is good.
Anyway, we are off to Cancun this afternoon- going to spend sixteen hours on an economy bus known for breaking down ... hopefully that won´t happen. We will be in Cancun for three nights and then off to Habana! I´m very excited.
Hiking the mountain
Shaman on a four by four
Lazy dharma bum
Gen, Shannon and I have decided that we need to publish a haiku zine of all the collected haikus from the trip. Gen will illustrate.
Anyway, the birthday was lovely- gen and i both bought ourselves pretty rings (I am debilitated by my insatiable turquoise addiction...) and ate lunch at the falafel place. Then Alejandro, Shannon, Gen and I busted onto the set of some Mexican soap opera in order to get to Gen´s favorite bar where we drank mojitos and took scandalous pictures in the vagina installation the bar had up for the feminist cabaret. Life is good.
Anyway, we are off to Cancun this afternoon- going to spend sixteen hours on an economy bus known for breaking down ... hopefully that won´t happen. We will be in Cancun for three nights and then off to Habana! I´m very excited.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Lake Atitlan!
Too lazy to make a full post (plus this computer sucks ass), so here is my favorite picture!
Guatemala- where school buses go to die
We are back in sunny St Cristobal after four nights in Guatemala. Note to self: plan remainder of trip to involve fewer buses. We started out in Xela and spent two nights there in a lovely hostel. Quetzaltenango is an ugly, boring city so we decided to go visit Lake Atitlan which we were told was about three hours away from Xela by Chicken Bus. Chicken buses are old school buses from the US painted and decked out to be used as public transportation in Guatemala (we saw one with leopard print seats and lots of sparkly chains, one with spider man painted on it...). There are about five-ten chicken buses leaving from any major city or tourist destination at any moment, none of them are ever full and they get there name because people often transport their chickens on them. It seems like an instance of too many people trying to make their living with these chicken buses so the supply far out-strips the demand. However, because they are all really old, they stink like diesel fuel and are loud, smelly and slow. We took a long string of these chicken buses to get to panachela, which, though only three hours away, can only be reached through treacherous, windy mountain roads. By the end of the bus ride, all three of us felt sick and thoroughly exhausted.
Panachela was lovely, if not completely overrun by tourists. Our hotel was about four blocks from the lake and there were tons of nice vegetarian restaurants. After our wasted day of travel, we spent a whole day riding a very slow boat around the lake visiting three different indiginous villages and admiring the view of the volcanos and mountains surrounding the lake. Yesterday was another day wasted on travel (its an 8 hour bus ride from lake atitlan to St Cris) - none of us managed to stay up past 7:30 we were so exhausted from our trip of too many buses, too much time spent in transit and really only two days to see anything in Guatemala. Lesson learned- stay in fewer places for longer amounts of time.
Panachela was lovely, if not completely overrun by tourists. Our hotel was about four blocks from the lake and there were tons of nice vegetarian restaurants. After our wasted day of travel, we spent a whole day riding a very slow boat around the lake visiting three different indiginous villages and admiring the view of the volcanos and mountains surrounding the lake. Yesterday was another day wasted on travel (its an 8 hour bus ride from lake atitlan to St Cris) - none of us managed to stay up past 7:30 we were so exhausted from our trip of too many buses, too much time spent in transit and really only two days to see anything in Guatemala. Lesson learned- stay in fewer places for longer amounts of time.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Museum of Natural History Take Two
Because we were unable to capture these memories with pictures and because all three of us seem to think it is really important to convey the full aesthetic of this museum to you all, the blog will contain three posts on the museum of natural history. Here is mine (Jess'):
Xela- I am not sure I like this city very much... it is really polluted, the street dogs are mangier than the average mexican street dog, the colors duller... its hard to explain or put a finger on what bothers me about xela- maybe it is the fear of running into Steve Mullaney around every corner, the excess of Minnesotans at the hostel (like... fifteen or something...) or the fact that I am dying of the swine flu... who knows. However, I think the Museum of Natural History might have begun giving me the tools necessary to process all that is Quetzaltenango.
The museum started out as a boring collection of artifacts and historical furniture and docuements of famous Guatemalan people, none of whom I had ever heard of and the captions did nothing to explain. We were all sort of wondering whether this museum would be worth our 6 Quezales. There was a room filled with a collection of less-than-remarkable artifacts of outdated technology (computers from 1980, 90's cordless telephones juxtaposed next to cell phones, vinyl records, type writers, a cool old adding machine, etc.) Beyond that was a room filled with trophies and old black a white photographs from xelan sports teams, soccer and basketball and the like. The old pictures were kind of cool and some of the trophies looked really old, which was kinda cool. The next room was crowned with an old photo of a marimba rockstar with his toothy smile and sequin (sp?) embroidered jacket with Quetzals on it. He was quite fabulous. All the walls were lined with marimbas through the ages... it was pretty sweet.
The museum then led people uptairs where we were met with ases filled with a pretty stunning collection of old pottery and mayan artifacts. It was all displayed in a pretty non-chalant manner. One of the big rooms upstairs seemed to be devoted to products producted in Guatemala and contributed to Guatemalan industry, though my lack of understanding may have lost the meaning for me... Some of my faorite display was the one on how chewing gum is made, including all the examples of local chewing gum brands and the display of vintage Guatemalan soda and beer bottles. There was a display of chemicals found in Guatemala- one of the bottles in the display had actually exploded and lye was spilling out around the edges... In fact, everything in this museum seemed underwheling and badly preserved. The walls were lined with different species of dried leaves and plant matter, i assume all native to guatemala. It also had a rock collection of different volcanic rock. Since Xela is surrounded by semiactive volcanos, the museum devoted a lot od shelf space to photos of volcanos, volcanic rock, grade-school-sciece-project-esque panoramas of volcanos... The sign above this room said (in spanish) "Couples Please Show More Education" with a sticker about erectile disfunction. I think it was trying to make a statement about PDA, and was extremely tempted to get a shot of Shannon and I making out under it...
Ok- but the last room took the fucking cake. It was filled with stuffed animals. Now I know what you are thinking- "I've been to the Bell Museum and seen their beautiful displays of all-but-alive-looking taxodermied animals in panoramas of their natural banitats- how could a room full of taxodermy be creept, exciting or in any way worth writing home about?" Two words for you: amateur taxodermy. The first thing I saw was a display of snames, giant spiders, centepides and other creepy insects preserved in formeldeyde. In addition to that, the display had a bunch of dried up looking huge snakes with decaying eye balls and scales. Gen immediately got freaked out by all the dead snames so we moved on to the centerpiece of the room: a family of lionswith sticking-out bright red pleather tongues, more decaying eyeballs, the male had an equally bright red penis and all their coats looked decrepid... The whole display looked so little like actual lions that I couldn't spend too long examining the atrocious taxodermy job... The next thing were little catullus cats, one with a dead looking yellow bird in its mouth and the other with bird feet sticking out of its throat... come on, guys, cats don't eat birds whole. At least aside from the prey in their mouths, these cats weren't actively decaying...
The next display hit me right in the stomach- something about seeing an 8 week and 4 mouth fetusus preserved in formeldehyde all white and irredescent, leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Now don't get me wrong, I am not one to proport the superiority of the human race over other animal species, but to see a display of human fetuses right next to fetuses of cows, cats, dogs and goats seemed a bit inapproproate and jarring (no pun intended). Gen says it hit her right in the stomach- me... it hit me in the gut.
Just beyond the fetus display case was the googly eyed birds of prey display. Giant, decrepid looking eagles and owls that looked like if you coughted on them too hard, their wings might just disattach and fall to the ground. A few of the taxodermists had had the good sense to remove the eye balls, others had replaced the eyes with halloweeny-looking googly eyes and others just left the eye balls intact to decay in the display.
Other highlights were the toothy monster squirrles, the deer with its head reattached with packing tape (seriously), the crab with a greet painted peach-pit turtle riding on its back, the 12 foot long alligator skin nailed to the wall and a whole assortment of taxodemied siamese twin animals (the goat with two heads, the dog with one head and eight legs awkwardly jutting out of its body...) all these atrocities tightly packed together in only semi-coherant displays...
Off of this room was another packed with Noram-Bates-style taxodermied birds. Most of them looked as dead and decaying as the rest of the animals, though at the head of the room was the king of the museum- a beautifully done Quetzal with its tail feathers crowning its glass encasement- the national symbol of Guatemala. It was probably the only expertly done example of taxodermy in the whole museum.
When we left the museum, Gen, Shannon and I sat on a bench in the Parque Central and laughed and cried, rambling incoherantly as we tried to process all that we had just seen. One this is for sure- I don't think any of us are got to forget that museum any time soon...
Xela- I am not sure I like this city very much... it is really polluted, the street dogs are mangier than the average mexican street dog, the colors duller... its hard to explain or put a finger on what bothers me about xela- maybe it is the fear of running into Steve Mullaney around every corner, the excess of Minnesotans at the hostel (like... fifteen or something...) or the fact that I am dying of the swine flu... who knows. However, I think the Museum of Natural History might have begun giving me the tools necessary to process all that is Quetzaltenango.
The museum started out as a boring collection of artifacts and historical furniture and docuements of famous Guatemalan people, none of whom I had ever heard of and the captions did nothing to explain. We were all sort of wondering whether this museum would be worth our 6 Quezales. There was a room filled with a collection of less-than-remarkable artifacts of outdated technology (computers from 1980, 90's cordless telephones juxtaposed next to cell phones, vinyl records, type writers, a cool old adding machine, etc.) Beyond that was a room filled with trophies and old black a white photographs from xelan sports teams, soccer and basketball and the like. The old pictures were kind of cool and some of the trophies looked really old, which was kinda cool. The next room was crowned with an old photo of a marimba rockstar with his toothy smile and sequin (sp?) embroidered jacket with Quetzals on it. He was quite fabulous. All the walls were lined with marimbas through the ages... it was pretty sweet.
The museum then led people uptairs where we were met with ases filled with a pretty stunning collection of old pottery and mayan artifacts. It was all displayed in a pretty non-chalant manner. One of the big rooms upstairs seemed to be devoted to products producted in Guatemala and contributed to Guatemalan industry, though my lack of understanding may have lost the meaning for me... Some of my faorite display was the one on how chewing gum is made, including all the examples of local chewing gum brands and the display of vintage Guatemalan soda and beer bottles. There was a display of chemicals found in Guatemala- one of the bottles in the display had actually exploded and lye was spilling out around the edges... In fact, everything in this museum seemed underwheling and badly preserved. The walls were lined with different species of dried leaves and plant matter, i assume all native to guatemala. It also had a rock collection of different volcanic rock. Since Xela is surrounded by semiactive volcanos, the museum devoted a lot od shelf space to photos of volcanos, volcanic rock, grade-school-sciece-project-esque panoramas of volcanos... The sign above this room said (in spanish) "Couples Please Show More Education" with a sticker about erectile disfunction. I think it was trying to make a statement about PDA, and was extremely tempted to get a shot of Shannon and I making out under it...
Ok- but the last room took the fucking cake. It was filled with stuffed animals. Now I know what you are thinking- "I've been to the Bell Museum and seen their beautiful displays of all-but-alive-looking taxodermied animals in panoramas of their natural banitats- how could a room full of taxodermy be creept, exciting or in any way worth writing home about?" Two words for you: amateur taxodermy. The first thing I saw was a display of snames, giant spiders, centepides and other creepy insects preserved in formeldeyde. In addition to that, the display had a bunch of dried up looking huge snakes with decaying eye balls and scales. Gen immediately got freaked out by all the dead snames so we moved on to the centerpiece of the room: a family of lionswith sticking-out bright red pleather tongues, more decaying eyeballs, the male had an equally bright red penis and all their coats looked decrepid... The whole display looked so little like actual lions that I couldn't spend too long examining the atrocious taxodermy job... The next thing were little catullus cats, one with a dead looking yellow bird in its mouth and the other with bird feet sticking out of its throat... come on, guys, cats don't eat birds whole. At least aside from the prey in their mouths, these cats weren't actively decaying...
The next display hit me right in the stomach- something about seeing an 8 week and 4 mouth fetusus preserved in formeldehyde all white and irredescent, leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Now don't get me wrong, I am not one to proport the superiority of the human race over other animal species, but to see a display of human fetuses right next to fetuses of cows, cats, dogs and goats seemed a bit inapproproate and jarring (no pun intended). Gen says it hit her right in the stomach- me... it hit me in the gut.
Just beyond the fetus display case was the googly eyed birds of prey display. Giant, decrepid looking eagles and owls that looked like if you coughted on them too hard, their wings might just disattach and fall to the ground. A few of the taxodermists had had the good sense to remove the eye balls, others had replaced the eyes with halloweeny-looking googly eyes and others just left the eye balls intact to decay in the display.
Other highlights were the toothy monster squirrles, the deer with its head reattached with packing tape (seriously), the crab with a greet painted peach-pit turtle riding on its back, the 12 foot long alligator skin nailed to the wall and a whole assortment of taxodemied siamese twin animals (the goat with two heads, the dog with one head and eight legs awkwardly jutting out of its body...) all these atrocities tightly packed together in only semi-coherant displays...
Off of this room was another packed with Noram-Bates-style taxodermied birds. Most of them looked as dead and decaying as the rest of the animals, though at the head of the room was the king of the museum- a beautifully done Quetzal with its tail feathers crowning its glass encasement- the national symbol of Guatemala. It was probably the only expertly done example of taxodermy in the whole museum.
When we left the museum, Gen, Shannon and I sat on a bench in the Parque Central and laughed and cried, rambling incoherantly as we tried to process all that we had just seen. One this is for sure- I don't think any of us are got to forget that museum any time soon...
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Museo de historia natural (The Natural History Museum)
(Shannon)
holy weird museum batman. I wish we had been allowed to take pictures inside of this museum, because words cannot possibly do justice to the poor taxidermy jobs and odd combination of items contained inside.
It started out fairly normal/interesting - lots of old pottery and other assorted ancient Mayan relics. Old old B&W pictures of the city (Quetzaltenango) before and after is was totally destroyed by the 1902 earthquake. Exhibits about the numerous volcanoes in the area. A couple rooms about the various colonial governments and the liberal revolution of 1871. Then it started to get weird. The room dedicated to plants and mineral resources of Guatemala took great pains to explain the uses of the various metals and other things, which included a case full of packages of chewing gum (circa 1950ish - retro packaging!) to explain what gum rubber was used for, as well as a bunch of batteries of approximately the same era. still, not so weird, but a bit odd.
then came the animal room.
This room was filled with taxidermied animals of varying quality - one of the deer had its head TAPED BACK ON. an entire alligator skin pinned to the wall (12 feet long). an armadillo fetus in a jar of formaldehyde. a 'siamese twin' dog - one head, eight legs. a two-headed goat. a family of lions with bright red pleather tongues. an ocelot (that looked a lot like catullus) with a bird's feet sticking out of its mouth. a pelican with plastic googly eyes. a HUMAN FETUS in a jar of formaldehyde (in the same case as cow, goat, and even kitten fetuses). i wish i could begin to explain how utterly fucking creepy it is to be in a huge room full of poorly taxidermied animals, because I just can't do it justice. let me just say, to all your amateur taxidermists out there - LEAVE THE EYES TO A PROFESSIONAL.
and with that, it is beer o'clock.
holy weird museum batman. I wish we had been allowed to take pictures inside of this museum, because words cannot possibly do justice to the poor taxidermy jobs and odd combination of items contained inside.
It started out fairly normal/interesting - lots of old pottery and other assorted ancient Mayan relics. Old old B&W pictures of the city (Quetzaltenango) before and after is was totally destroyed by the 1902 earthquake. Exhibits about the numerous volcanoes in the area. A couple rooms about the various colonial governments and the liberal revolution of 1871. Then it started to get weird. The room dedicated to plants and mineral resources of Guatemala took great pains to explain the uses of the various metals and other things, which included a case full of packages of chewing gum (circa 1950ish - retro packaging!) to explain what gum rubber was used for, as well as a bunch of batteries of approximately the same era. still, not so weird, but a bit odd.
then came the animal room.
This room was filled with taxidermied animals of varying quality - one of the deer had its head TAPED BACK ON. an entire alligator skin pinned to the wall (12 feet long). an armadillo fetus in a jar of formaldehyde. a 'siamese twin' dog - one head, eight legs. a two-headed goat. a family of lions with bright red pleather tongues. an ocelot (that looked a lot like catullus) with a bird's feet sticking out of its mouth. a pelican with plastic googly eyes. a HUMAN FETUS in a jar of formaldehyde (in the same case as cow, goat, and even kitten fetuses). i wish i could begin to explain how utterly fucking creepy it is to be in a huge room full of poorly taxidermied animals, because I just can't do it justice. let me just say, to all your amateur taxidermists out there - LEAVE THE EYES TO A PROFESSIONAL.
and with that, it is beer o'clock.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Quetzaltenango
(Jess Writing)
After ten hours sitting in a crowded, hot sprinter bus, we have arrived in Xela! The trip was relatively uneventful, except that we ran over a dog on the highway and stopped at a cafe that had kitties! A baby kitten and mamma cat, who had adorably large eyes. The hostel we are staying at seems beautiful and comfortable. It is called the Black Cat Hostel, which just seems too appropriate given my unnatural attraction to black kitties... Neither Shannon nor I are sick enough to warrant us believing that we have the swine flu (though it might just be a weak strain- apparently chiapas has the most cases in the world but no one is needing hospitalization, so maybe we are ok). Anyway, happy hour is on- I am going to get a two for one gin and tonic to wash away the transit.
After ten hours sitting in a crowded, hot sprinter bus, we have arrived in Xela! The trip was relatively uneventful, except that we ran over a dog on the highway and stopped at a cafe that had kitties! A baby kitten and mamma cat, who had adorably large eyes. The hostel we are staying at seems beautiful and comfortable. It is called the Black Cat Hostel, which just seems too appropriate given my unnatural attraction to black kitties... Neither Shannon nor I are sick enough to warrant us believing that we have the swine flu (though it might just be a weak strain- apparently chiapas has the most cases in the world but no one is needing hospitalization, so maybe we are ok). Anyway, happy hour is on- I am going to get a two for one gin and tonic to wash away the transit.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
el buho pobrecito (the poor little owl)
(Shannon)
This is the one part of the rock-climbing story that jess forgot to post (or repressed because the fate of the owl was not yet known).
So while we were climbing, there was a crew of guys hanging out about 50 feet from us...and this owl either fell from its nest or they were throwing rocks at it, my lack of spanish made it hard to know. Long story short, they came over to us with this baby owl wrapped in a t-shirt. (picture below)
We sort of poked at it for a few minutes, and then the guys decided to leave, so we were left with this baby owl and no fucking idea what to do with it. we ended up putting it in a small bag so that it could be alone and in the dark while we figured it out. after we were all done climbing, we decided that the best course of action would be to take it to the zoo in town. so we show up with two car-loads full of kids, and tell the guard at the entrance to the zoo that we found this baby owl...he looks rather puzzled, but then opens the gate to let us in. so we go in and find a little shack with some zoo employees in it, and try to get them to take the poor thing. "no tocamos aves," (we don´t take birds), he tells us. The girls with us plead with him for a while, and we later learn that the bird specialist was not in that day. the pleading and begging continues. the girls say "no tiene corazon" (you have no heart!). the back and forth continues for about 20 minutes, until the guy eventually gives them the number of the bird guy. so they talked to him on the phone, and he agreed to let them bring the poor thing to his house.
phew.
poor thing. he had quite an adventure.
as it turns out, the bird was old enough that it doesn´t need its mother anymore, and so he will be able to nurse it back to health. its also apparently a fairly rare species of owl.
go us.
that´s all for today, i need some dinner. Adios!
This is the one part of the rock-climbing story that jess forgot to post (or repressed because the fate of the owl was not yet known).
So while we were climbing, there was a crew of guys hanging out about 50 feet from us...and this owl either fell from its nest or they were throwing rocks at it, my lack of spanish made it hard to know. Long story short, they came over to us with this baby owl wrapped in a t-shirt. (picture below)
We sort of poked at it for a few minutes, and then the guys decided to leave, so we were left with this baby owl and no fucking idea what to do with it. we ended up putting it in a small bag so that it could be alone and in the dark while we figured it out. after we were all done climbing, we decided that the best course of action would be to take it to the zoo in town. so we show up with two car-loads full of kids, and tell the guard at the entrance to the zoo that we found this baby owl...he looks rather puzzled, but then opens the gate to let us in. so we go in and find a little shack with some zoo employees in it, and try to get them to take the poor thing. "no tocamos aves," (we don´t take birds), he tells us. The girls with us plead with him for a while, and we later learn that the bird specialist was not in that day. the pleading and begging continues. the girls say "no tiene corazon" (you have no heart!). the back and forth continues for about 20 minutes, until the guy eventually gives them the number of the bird guy. so they talked to him on the phone, and he agreed to let them bring the poor thing to his house.
phew.
poor thing. he had quite an adventure.
as it turns out, the bird was old enough that it doesn´t need its mother anymore, and so he will be able to nurse it back to health. its also apparently a fairly rare species of owl.
go us.
that´s all for today, i need some dinner. Adios!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tuxtla
Yesterday was a very eventful day. Shannon and I woke up at 6am (I know- unheard of, right?) made coffee, ate breakfast and walked to the bus station to take a sprinter bus to Tuxtla, the capitol city of Chiapas. There, we went on a two hour boat ride through a beautiful canyon. I could try to describe it but pictures are coming soon, so i won´t waste my finger strength. We say monkeys and pelicans and a crocodile or alligator... we aren´t sure what the difference is and the tour guide was speaking fast spansih drowned out by the boat engine, so we aren´t quite sure...
After the canyon tour, we walked to Gen´s boyfriend Alejandro`s house where we met a very sweet kitty named poqueño panter. He reminded me a lot of chai in that all he seemed to want from life was a comfortable lap and some scritches. Sweet cat.
From there, we drove out to the South of town and walked about a mile to this rock climbing area that Alejandro and his brother had put up - there were sixty climbs in this small area. They put up ropes for two climbs, an easy one and a hard one, and we all took turns climbing. A whole bunch of Alejandro´s sister´s friends were there, so it was a lot of waiting around but the forest there was beautiful and it was amazing to watch ale and his brother rock climbing- i swear to god, it looked like they were flying!!! I actually managed to get to the very top of the easy climb without falling or dying even once! I was quite proud of myself. Rock climbing seems to be as much about believing in yourself as it is strength and agility. Anyway, today we are both sore and exhausted and happy to spend the day doing laundry, reading, and trying to figure out how we are going to get to la selva (the jungle).
All for now.
Ciao!
After the canyon tour, we walked to Gen´s boyfriend Alejandro`s house where we met a very sweet kitty named poqueño panter. He reminded me a lot of chai in that all he seemed to want from life was a comfortable lap and some scritches. Sweet cat.
From there, we drove out to the South of town and walked about a mile to this rock climbing area that Alejandro and his brother had put up - there were sixty climbs in this small area. They put up ropes for two climbs, an easy one and a hard one, and we all took turns climbing. A whole bunch of Alejandro´s sister´s friends were there, so it was a lot of waiting around but the forest there was beautiful and it was amazing to watch ale and his brother rock climbing- i swear to god, it looked like they were flying!!! I actually managed to get to the very top of the easy climb without falling or dying even once! I was quite proud of myself. Rock climbing seems to be as much about believing in yourself as it is strength and agility. Anyway, today we are both sore and exhausted and happy to spend the day doing laundry, reading, and trying to figure out how we are going to get to la selva (the jungle).
All for now.
Ciao!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
We found kittens!!!!
I am pretty sure gen thinks shannon and i are crazy given the fact that everytime we see a kitty or anything that reminds us of kitties we suddenly and mysteriously become eight year olds. none-the-less, there is a store about three blocks from Gen´s house that has two adorable five week old kittens tied up on leashes. Apparently we can take them home for only 30 pesos! ...so tempting...
In other news, Gen shaved her armpits to go to some graduation ball of her boy friend´s little sister and her boy friend said "Oh no! You killed your arm pets!!!"... apparently he thought the word for arm pit was actually arm pet... it was pretty hilarious.
St. Crisotbal continues to be relaxing and laid back. Shannon and i have spent most of the last few days reading. There are some Austrians staying at Gen´s house (friends of Gen´s roommate I guess). They seem nice, though they are baffled at how the US could put a spaceship on the moon and still don´t have enough money to give their people health care... I guess I am baffled at our priorities in that regard too.
We bought our plane tickets to cuba (for 4,320 pesos... not too terrible). We are leaving on the 2nd of August. Tomorrow we are going to Tuxtla to take a tour of a canyon and maybe go rock climbing (weather permitting). Gonna try to make it to the jungle soon. Guatemala on the 20th. Then Cuba, then back to st. Cristo and to Oxaca and beaches, then back to Mexico City and home! And you guys thought we had no plans (just kidding...)
For all you punctuation nerds, I promise that the lack of consistant capitalization is bothering me too... this is a really sticky key board and I have no patience for proof reading. Bear with me.
In other news, Gen shaved her armpits to go to some graduation ball of her boy friend´s little sister and her boy friend said "Oh no! You killed your arm pets!!!"... apparently he thought the word for arm pit was actually arm pet... it was pretty hilarious.
St. Crisotbal continues to be relaxing and laid back. Shannon and i have spent most of the last few days reading. There are some Austrians staying at Gen´s house (friends of Gen´s roommate I guess). They seem nice, though they are baffled at how the US could put a spaceship on the moon and still don´t have enough money to give their people health care... I guess I am baffled at our priorities in that regard too.
We bought our plane tickets to cuba (for 4,320 pesos... not too terrible). We are leaving on the 2nd of August. Tomorrow we are going to Tuxtla to take a tour of a canyon and maybe go rock climbing (weather permitting). Gonna try to make it to the jungle soon. Guatemala on the 20th. Then Cuba, then back to st. Cristo and to Oxaca and beaches, then back to Mexico City and home! And you guys thought we had no plans (just kidding...)
For all you punctuation nerds, I promise that the lack of consistant capitalization is bothering me too... this is a really sticky key board and I have no patience for proof reading. Bear with me.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Favorite tag thus far
i love the street art all over chiapas. as soon as i have a faster and/or more reliable connection, i will post more =)
San Cristobal
(Jess)
We arrived in St. Cris this morning after a fourteen hour bus ride through narrow mountain roads- at one point, I woke up to see our bus driver passing a big truck on a narrow, low visibility, one lane road into oncoming traffic in the fog... not the best wake up call... but we are here, blurry eyed but alive.
St. Cristobal is a beautiful little city! So many bright colors everywhere! Gen´s house is located just outside of the big tourist area (i guess this is a big expatriot and tourist city). Though we are a bit groggy today, we went to the big artisan market and to a big produce market and bought tons of delicious vegetables to make salsas and dinner tonight! There are lots of street musicians, kids selling all sorts of goods on the streets, and amazing street art on every corner. Unfortunately, I guess the government is trying to crack down on street art in st. cris. Gen said they shot a sixteen-year-old to death and beat the organizer of a big protest against the shooting. None-the-less, there are amazing political tags along every street. Shannon took a billion photos of them, so more to come.
My goals for the coming days are to learn spanish, figure out how to get to guatemala and plan the coming weeks or months. It is nice to be out of the giant mega city and into a more villiage-like, less European-like place. All for now!
We arrived in St. Cris this morning after a fourteen hour bus ride through narrow mountain roads- at one point, I woke up to see our bus driver passing a big truck on a narrow, low visibility, one lane road into oncoming traffic in the fog... not the best wake up call... but we are here, blurry eyed but alive.
St. Cristobal is a beautiful little city! So many bright colors everywhere! Gen´s house is located just outside of the big tourist area (i guess this is a big expatriot and tourist city). Though we are a bit groggy today, we went to the big artisan market and to a big produce market and bought tons of delicious vegetables to make salsas and dinner tonight! There are lots of street musicians, kids selling all sorts of goods on the streets, and amazing street art on every corner. Unfortunately, I guess the government is trying to crack down on street art in st. cris. Gen said they shot a sixteen-year-old to death and beat the organizer of a big protest against the shooting. None-the-less, there are amazing political tags along every street. Shannon took a billion photos of them, so more to come.
My goals for the coming days are to learn spanish, figure out how to get to guatemala and plan the coming weeks or months. It is nice to be out of the giant mega city and into a more villiage-like, less European-like place. All for now!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
last picture for tonight
anarquia es punkitud!
There is an amazing amount of street art and stencils all over Ciudad de Mexico...this one we saw on our first night in town, and I couldn't resist posting it.
There is an amazing amount of street art and stencils all over Ciudad de Mexico...this one we saw on our first night in town, and I couldn't resist posting it.
more pictures!
Kitty in the Botanical Garden at el palacio nacional. she refused to be touched, unfortunately.
pictures!
Karl Marx, showing the way forward, and Mexico's path to socialismo! This mural is huge, and amazing!
News from the DF
Jess here-
We are leaving Mexico city tomorrow evening on a seedy bus. Apparently when Gen came here on it the bus broke down and what should have been a 12 hour trip turned into a 22 hour trip. We bought the tickets today- apparently the bus station (or, I guess the handful of guys sitting out on the street writing your name into a notebook to reserve your seats) is in this terrible part of town. We ended up walking what felt like miles (but was probably only about ten blocks) on the outskirts of this crazy market. I swear, you could buy anything off a street vendor there- there were stands for everything from disney blankets to cow intestines, any kind of fake flower imaginable and a bunch of really depressing-looking prostitutes with camel toes. It was kind of shocking to see what looked like a sixteen-year-old prostitute standing on the street with sheets of makeup on her face disiplining a crowd of children playing in the dirt near her who could only have been the children of the prostitutes... one of those images that will be shifting around in my brain for a long time. I can only be grateful that I had the privilege to spend my time as a sixteen-year-old being angsty and rebelling against my mother (you know, rather than being one...) One way or another, I can now leave here feeling like, at the very least, I got a glimpse of the real mexico city...
Shannon's turn!
I get to write about all of the cool stuff we did that did not involve shady neighborhoods full of prostitutes!
Let's see...
Oh, it's the rainy season. On our second day here, we spent all day wandering the city in search of good coffee and wandering through beautiful parks, and ended up stuck in a torrential downpour. We hid in a bus shelter trying to decide what to do, and ended up deciding on taking a bus to the metro station in order to get back...too bad that when we got off of the bus, we landed in water somewhere between ankle and knee deep. boourns.
yesterday, we went to the Zocalo (city center with the government buildings and old cathedrals and old aztec ruins and such), saw some sweet Diego Rivera murals (pictures later - internet connection not so fast), and discovered that there were kitties in the botanical gardens in the middle of the palacio nacional. and they have earrings for some reason...very strange. then, Gen took us to some super bizarre-ass performance art thing, which we promptly got bored with and left. After this, we found a nice bar/restaurant where we could play pool and drink decent beer and listen to some johnny cash. that's my new favorite place.
today was more adventuring...went to Frida Kahlo's house (more kitties!), had some great coffee and lunch, and then made the trek to the shady bus station.
now it is time for NOMS. byebye
We are leaving Mexico city tomorrow evening on a seedy bus. Apparently when Gen came here on it the bus broke down and what should have been a 12 hour trip turned into a 22 hour trip. We bought the tickets today- apparently the bus station (or, I guess the handful of guys sitting out on the street writing your name into a notebook to reserve your seats) is in this terrible part of town. We ended up walking what felt like miles (but was probably only about ten blocks) on the outskirts of this crazy market. I swear, you could buy anything off a street vendor there- there were stands for everything from disney blankets to cow intestines, any kind of fake flower imaginable and a bunch of really depressing-looking prostitutes with camel toes. It was kind of shocking to see what looked like a sixteen-year-old prostitute standing on the street with sheets of makeup on her face disiplining a crowd of children playing in the dirt near her who could only have been the children of the prostitutes... one of those images that will be shifting around in my brain for a long time. I can only be grateful that I had the privilege to spend my time as a sixteen-year-old being angsty and rebelling against my mother (you know, rather than being one...) One way or another, I can now leave here feeling like, at the very least, I got a glimpse of the real mexico city...
Shannon's turn!
I get to write about all of the cool stuff we did that did not involve shady neighborhoods full of prostitutes!
Let's see...
Oh, it's the rainy season. On our second day here, we spent all day wandering the city in search of good coffee and wandering through beautiful parks, and ended up stuck in a torrential downpour. We hid in a bus shelter trying to decide what to do, and ended up deciding on taking a bus to the metro station in order to get back...too bad that when we got off of the bus, we landed in water somewhere between ankle and knee deep. boourns.
yesterday, we went to the Zocalo (city center with the government buildings and old cathedrals and old aztec ruins and such), saw some sweet Diego Rivera murals (pictures later - internet connection not so fast), and discovered that there were kitties in the botanical gardens in the middle of the palacio nacional. and they have earrings for some reason...very strange. then, Gen took us to some super bizarre-ass performance art thing, which we promptly got bored with and left. After this, we found a nice bar/restaurant where we could play pool and drink decent beer and listen to some johnny cash. that's my new favorite place.
today was more adventuring...went to Frida Kahlo's house (more kitties!), had some great coffee and lunch, and then made the trek to the shady bus station.
now it is time for NOMS. byebye
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We made it.
I HATE AIRPLANES AND AIRPORTS
The flight was uneventful. Mexico city is HUGE! It is great to be back in psychotic cabs on maddening roads. Everything is painted in loud colors. We have no real stories yet, so I will leave it at that. More later.
So no worries, moms. We are still alive.
The flight was uneventful. Mexico city is HUGE! It is great to be back in psychotic cabs on maddening roads. Everything is painted in loud colors. We have no real stories yet, so I will leave it at that. More later.
So no worries, moms. We are still alive.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
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