Cuetzalan

Vacation!!!!! Finally!! Teaching English to crazy little kids can be extremely draining, so you have no idea how much I was looking forward to our first vacation.



We took a bus to Puebla, stayed the night in a cute little hostel, and went to Cuetzalan the next morning. That night in Puebla we walked around a bit and ate some amazing cemitas. They are so delicious. It's kind of like the Mexican version of a hamburger. But way better.

Puebla is one of Mexico's "Pueblos Magicos" (magic cities). I hope to go back because they have cool safaris, churches, and volcanoes! Everyone in Pachuca loves Puebla. They all keep telling us we need to go there.

The bus ride to Cuetzalan was fairly long, but super gorgeous. It was on extremely windy mountain roads. We saw a lot of jungle, small Mexican towns, and waterfalls. I honestly don't know how the bus stayed on some of those tiny roads up the mountain.

Gorgeous mountain jungle views from the bus

We walked around Cuetzalan for a while once we got there. It is a beautiful town with crazy steep, rocky roads. I don't know how cars and buses survive driving on those roads.



This church looks super creepy from the outside, but it is so gorgeous and colorful on the inside.

 It was crazy trying to find our hostel. We were staying in Yohualichan, a tiny town outside of Cuetzalan. And the combi driver took us to some random hotel. So we were lost. Yay. It was one of those times I was really wishing I could speak Spanish. But the guys at the random hotel were super nice and took us to the correct combi station and made sure we got on the correct one. They even carried the other girls' luggage. Times like that give me faith in humanity. We have met so many nice Mexicans willing to help out strange white girls.

Well, by the time we finally got settled into our hostel it was pouring rain and late afternoon. So we decided to just chill and play games together. It was way fun to get to know the other girls better and just hang out without having to worry about lesson plans or anything.

Cuetzalan is a gorgeous small town in the mountains of Mexico about an hour from the Gulf Coast. It was super humid and rainy. It is another Pueblo Magico, and for good reason. They are known for their gorgeous waterfalls. It is not a tourist destination at all though. Some Mexicans go there, but definitely no Americans. I love towns like that.

Rico, our tour guide

The next day we went with Aventura Extrema Cuetzalan on an all-day high adventure tour of the jungle. Our tour guide was Rico. I'm sure he was super excited to get the white girls. I know he was smiling and laughing at all of our white girl ways throughout the day.




Pre-Adventure, AKA: still dry

We started off hiking through the jungle down the mountain. I was really regretting forgetting my bug spray... Yeah, I got eaten alive by the end of vacation. Anyway, it was so gorgeous!

Then we came to a cave. So we got our headlamps and jumped right into some freezing water! We walked/sloshed/swam/crawled through the cave for a few hours. It was pretty awesome. Rico had the camera, so I mostly just have pictures of us. I would have liked more pictures of the cave because it was awesome, but oh well. He was super nice. Every once in a while he would just stop and say "foto, foto!"

We got a little muddy...

It was pretty dang slippery, and we all definitely fell more than once.

We came to a spot where there were tons of names on the wall in mud and rocks. So of course we joined in and put our names up on the walls too! I look like a crazy raccoon in this picture, but gotta show evidence that my name is in a cave in Mexico.

Rico was very entertained by our poses for pictures.

We swam through cold, deep water in a lot of spots.

Coming out of the cave. We decided it looks like a giant's uvula

View from the inside

Next we hiked down some more of  the mountain and came to the gorgeous waterfalls! We swam in what looked like Clifford's pawprint, and swam through tunnels. Then we walked and swam through some more of the river. It was so fun and refreshing. The views were gorgeous and it felt so relaxing!

So gorgeous! Photos can't even capture the true beauty!

I've never been more appreciative of walking sticks. Especially through the mud.

Who knew Clifford went to Mexico?

We swam through tunnels that were inbetween all of the little swimming holes. Some were really low, but it was super fun!

 

Gorgeous waterfalls, right? Well, then we got to slide down a waterfall! That was super awesome. We walked/swam through some more of the river, then we hiked through the mountain a bit more and we came to a little canyon thing to the side of the river and started swimming in it. At the end there was another waterfall! The camera died, and it was very wet, so we didn't get too many more good pictures. But it was super fun! We jumped off the rocks into the water and swam around for a while.

This was our epic fail attempt at a star.

All in all it was an extremely successful and amazing day. After this waterfall we hiked back up the mountain. A family in the village fed us a homecooked delicious dinner of mole, Spanish rice, corn tortillas, and bananas (the cute tiny ones). It was a classic Mexican meal, and so delicious! The people of Cuetzalan have very humble homes and surroundings, but they all seem so happy and have such cute little families! It was an amazing trip.

 

The next day we went to the Sunday market and mass at the Catholic church. It was in their native tongue of Nahua, a lot of people don't even speak Spanish in Cuetzalan and Yohualichan. It was very interesting and they had a lot of beautiful crafts!

Tire Sandals!

They had so many amazing crafts. I loved all the leather belts.

It started pouring, again, and the streets just turned into rivers.

 



Huasca

Oh my gorgeousness! I love Huasca. For our day trip this weekend, we went to Prismas Basalticos (beautiful waterfalls) in Huasca. The rocks are so cool there. We walked around the gorgeous waterfalls for a while. It was like a mini canyon of waterfalls!

We also went horseback riding, because Savannah really really wanted to. It was kind of lame as far as horse riding goes. But it made Sav happy, so it was worth it.

We wanted to ride in the hot air balloon, but turns out we had to be there at four in the morning, so scratch that.

The rest of the day was pretty chill. We walked around some more, played at the park, and went swimming. You know you are an adult on a playground when it's time to get off the teeter totter because your butt hurts, instead of when you are done having fun.

It was super fantastic to go swimming. The water was cold at first, but it was super hot outside, so it really felt good.

Grocery Shopping, Luchadors, and Pole Dancing

You never know what's going to happen in Mexico! We went out on a simple errand to get some groceries. That simple task turned into quite the adventure! On our way to the store we heard some very loud English music playing so we decided to head up the street to go check it out. Turns out they were having some kind of Mexican talent night or something in this warehouse lookin place. It was free to go in, so we thought, "Hey, why not? We're in Mexico!"

We stayed for quite a while. They had some really talented pole dancers (pole dancing is a normal sport in Mexico) which were awesome to watch. That has to take so much strength and skill! Then came the luchadores. The other girls said it was just like Nacho Libre (haven't seen it). But luchadores are these wrestlers dressed up like crazy with masks on. And then they wrestle. It's staged, but really cool to watch.

There were also some hip hop dancers. They were super talented. They had more pole dancers. And then another round of luchadores. We had to go at that point because we needed to get to the grocery store before it closed!

It was quite the adventurous night for some white girls in Mexico! You never know what a trip to the grocery store can turn into here in Pachuca.

Elder Bednar came to Pachuca!

We had the opportunity to go see Elder Bednar today. It was super awesome. He got up and said that he wasn't going to give a talk, but we would do a question and answer session. How often is it that you get to ask an apostle a question?? It was also really nice because he spoke in English. I have been going to church here, but it's really hard to pay attention when I have no idea what is going on.

Before he started the questions he talked a little bit about being agents instead of objects. Agents act and make things happen. Objects are acted upon. "We live the Gospel like it's a lengthy checklist of things to do. Then we sit back and say, what do I get now?" That is living the gospel as an object. "Faith in Christ is a principle of actions and power. First we act, then we receive power." People want to do it the other way around.

He gave a really great analogy about this. We are all in a completely dark world with a single spotlight right around where we are standing. That is our safe spot. In order to progress, we need to take a step into the dark. "Sometimes we want everything to be lit up so we can see the whole picture before we take a step into the dark, but the answer is always, 'Just step forward.'" It is scary taking steps when we can't see if we will trip on a rock, fall in a hole, or even possibly step into a flower garden.

"Take a step into the dark. The light will move, in a miraculous way."

Here are some of my favorite quotes that he said:

"There are no special scriptures for general authorities with answers in the back."

"Teaching is not talking. When we teach we observe and listen, then discern." (However this is not true when teaching English... You can't teach a language without talking. But it is true in many other aspects, including the Gospel!)

"The ordinances and covenants of the Gospel provide access to blessings."

"You don't make a choice to go on a mission, that's why you were born." (This was directed at the young men, but I still really like this quote. Thanks for being direct Elder Bednar!)

"If we know who we are and why we are here, serving a mission is automatic. You already made the decision before you were born. The question is, will you remember?"

"If you find the perfect companion, why would he or she want to marry you? You're not perfect." (once again, thanks for being direct :) )

"Don't look for the perfect companion, become the perfect companion."

This was obviously a young single adult conference. It was super interesting and I learned a lot. Along with the main theme of acting as agents, another question he constantly asked was "Did you hear some things that I didn't say?" Elder Bednar was talking and answering people's questions all night, but he wasn't the only teacher in the room. The Holy Ghost is the ultimate teacher, because He knows exactly what each individual needs to hear. Most of the above are quotes from Elder Bednar, but some of them are things I heard that he didn't say. I honestly don't remember which is which, but they are all things that I needed to learn.

"When we conclude the meeting, the word amen should mean begin. Go act upon what you have learned."

Teotihuacan

What a great day! Teotihuacan is also known as the City of the Gods. It is super cool there. They are Mesoamerican ruins. I read about a little bit of the history of the city last night, and it is pretty dang cool. Teotihuacan used to be a very elite city full of many warriors from all over Central America.

There are 2 large pyramids: The Temple of the Sun and The Temple of the Moon. It was a great workout to hike up them! The views were amazing.

Temple of the Sun

I'm in love with the clouds!

Some of the stairs were pretty dang steep. And some ladies were hiking in heels! I was glad I had my
trusty Tevas for a long day of walking.

People were selling souvenirs all over the place! The items were beautiful though.

Temple of the Moon

 The Temple of the Moon is much smaller than the Temple of the Sun, but still very gorgeous with great views.

Of course we had to take classic jumping pictures! The wind made my hair look super great... But the sky looks amazing!

 We made some great friends here. They saw that I took a picture of them, then kept changing poses and yelling at me to take more pictures. It was pretty funny.

Here's some other random pictures of the ruins.

Random majestic dog

There were many other ruins with archaeologists still working at quite a few spots. The other ruins are of the houses people lived in. They were pretty cool to walk around and see. We took lots of fun pictures.

There is also a smaller pyramid, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl. It was probably my favorite because of all of the awesome monster serpent heads.

The sky was looking so amazing all day! It made me so happy!

Do I make a good monster?