Puebla

Vacation: Take 2. We headed on back to Puebla for some gorgeous cathedrals, gigantic ruins, and super cheap shopping. Definitely more chill than our vacation to Cuetzalan.



The Zocalo: the main church in the center.

So the Centro Historico of Puebla is the area we stayed at. Puebla has a lot of European influence with their architecture. In the area surrounding the center alone, there are over 76 cathedrals. So everywhere you look there are church steeples. We went into a few. They are huge and gorgeous, but to me you've seen one cathedral, you've seen them all. I really like that LDS churches are so simple and quaint. I feel like the cathedrals I've been in are too gaudy and huge and have so many statues and gold leafed decorations on the walls, ceiling, everything.

There were some cool traditional dancers in the center.

The shopping was awesome. And super cheap, which made it even more awesome. They have many gorgeous crafts here. A lot of merchants are making more of their craft that they have for sale. So it is cool to see that some of the stuff is made by the seller right there.

I love these tapestries. They are embroidered.

One awesome thing about Puebla is that it is home to the world's smallest volcano Cuexcomate. I really wanted to go, but we didn't because the other girls didn't want to and we didn't know how to get there.

We found Olaf in Puebla! Snuck a pic with him because who can afford to pay for a pic with Olaf? Not some cheap college girls in Mexico.

This is the Capilla del Rosario. It is a very gorgeous cathedral with a whole heck of a lot of gold plating on everything everywhere. This is the only cathedral I actually took pictures in. This one was definitely the fanciest, but the rest looked about the same.

 

Cholula

At the church on top of the pyramid overlooking the town.

Cholula is a short bus ride outside of Puebla. It is home to the world's widest pyramid. Tlachihualtepetl is the great pyramid of Cholula. According to myth, the pyramid was built by a giant named Xelhua of adobe bricks, after he escaped a flood in the neighboring Valley of Mexico. The pyramid consists of six structures, one for each ethnic group that dominated it. However, only three have been studied in any depth. The pyramid itself is just a small part of the greater archaeological zone of Cholula. Building of the pyramid began in the Preclassic Period and over time was built over six times to its final dimensions of 450 meters on each side at the base and 66 meters tall. This base is four times the size of that of Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid of Giza and is the largest pyramid base in the Americas. It's not the tallest pyramid, but it's base is huge.

There are some uncovered ruins at the bottom of the pyramid.

The small part of the pyramid they have uncovered is huge, I can't imagine seeing the pyramid in all its glory.

Yet another church in Cholula.

Now the pyramid appears to be a hill with a church on top. This is because throughout the years the pyramid was covered with earth, and the Spanish settlers built a church on top in the 1500s. Archaeologists have uncovered part of the pyramid, but most is still covered and the church is still on top. There are about 8 kilometers worth of tunnels dug out throughout the pyramid.

Hot Springs

Today we went to some hot springs nearby, which turned out to be more like a water park filled with hot spring water. It was so fun! We slid down all the slides super fast. And just chilled in the super hot water which felt oh so good on my sore muscles.

Then it started pouring rain. Which made for an interesting sensation having my body in super hot water with cold water pouring on my head. It didn't pour for too long, but afterwards it lightly sprinkled pretty much the rest of the day. So, on the bright side, no sunburn. But still a very fun day.

So Much Cake!

Eat the donut on the string.

The Father's Day celebration and a birthday party made for a very exciting day at school! They did pretty much the same show for the dads as they did for the moms last month. They also added in some games with the dads.

My favorite part is when the boys drop at the end and the girls step on them :P

The show was adorable, but Guillermo wanted the English teachers to do something in the show. Awesome! We have no talents! So last night we picked a music video, learned the dance, and danced it for the dads and kids today. It was hilarious. We made fools of ourselves, but it was fun and they loved it.

Feel free to watch us dance like monkeys on crack. Skip the first 45 seconds. It took a while to get started, and I don't know how to edit videos. Enjoy!

We are amazing dancers! Pretty impressive for learning it the night before right? 

Well then we were fed tamales filled with mole verde (my fav), fruit salad, and cake! Delicioso. 

Then the fathers left. Most of them took their kids with them. We normally have around 20 students, but today we had 8. And they still wanted us to teach! The Spanish teachers didn't even teach. So we sort of taught, but mostly just played with the kids. It was a pretty fun day.

Do you love our awesome craft? They remind me of the poor unfortunate souls in The Little Mermaid. Except more colorful!

The kids love musical chairs.

Then Juan Pablo's mom came. We know her well because we see her at zumba. So she brought cake and stuff and we had a little birthday party for him. The cake was so delicious! It was chocolate and caramel with nuts on it. They have good cake here, but I hadn't had any chocolate cake yet. It was a fun little party. Then we taught our afternoon classes. Once again, normally 20 kids, but a whopping 9 today. So we sorta taught and played games. Fun, relaxing day! I love playing with the kids, but teaching English is so not nearly as fun!  

Sam had the camera, and I don't think she quite understood how to look through the lens, so she cut a lot of people out...

Then we went to the restaurant for lunch after school. And they gave us cake for dessert! Chocolate cake! Normally they give us Jello or fruit. But today we finally got cake! So I kind of got a cake overload today, but I don't even care. By the way, if you thought that Utah was the Jello Everything capital, you are so wrong! Pachuca is the Jello capital. They have it in salads, for dessert, snacks, everything! Which is really annoying because I don't like Jello... Oh well. So I was definitely grateful for the cake today!

Felicidades Papa!!

Real del Monte with Roy

Today we decided to go to Real del Monte. We got on the combi and sat next to this dude with orange and black hair that looked really cool. Sav wanted to tell him she liked it, but couldn't remember which word meant horse and which one meant hair. So she was asking me, and she said, "I don't want to tell him I like his horse accidentally." And he kind of laughed a little bit.

His hair is pretty cool though, right?

So she was like oh my gosh, he totally speaks English. He has been understanding us this whole time! And we were talking a little bit more. And she was still trying to decide if she should try telling him in Spanish if she liked his hair, or if it would be awkward. After another minute or so he finally turns toward us and says in perfect English, "So, where are you guys from?" We all just died laughing! He told us he understood us the entire time and even told Sav how to compliment his hair, not his horse, in Spanish. Hair is cabello and horse is caballo. That's one I will definitely never forget! We talked with him all the way to Real del Monte, he lives there and works in Pachuca. We talked about his girlfriend and the other girls' boyfriends. Then he offered to show us around Real del Monte. He was super nice and we weren't getting any bad vibes from him, so why not? It ended up being a super fun day! His name is Rodrigo, but he asked us to call him Roy. He was way nice and sincere. We went back up to the European cemetery and walked around, then we went to the center and had delicious corn and hot chocolate. It was a great day!

There are tons of stray dogs that Hannah feeds dog treats to. This one wins the best dog facial expression award.

This is the European cemetery. It's beautiful, but creepy.

Real del Monte is a gorgeous town. It's very high up in the mountains. I love the colors here. I feel like they are so much more vibrant than Pachuca. The houses, people, and even the trees and mountains surrounding the town. I love it!

Sav met the Mexican Captain America!

A Day Exploring Pachuca

So Hannah's Spanish teacher from high school in Massachusetts happens to live in Pachuca. Small world, right? So he offered to take us around Pachuca and show us some cool stuff. He is super nice. We started off by going to Mineral del Monte, a town not far from Pachuca that is yet another Pueblo Magico. It is an old silver mining town that has a lot of European influence.

We stopped at a cemetery, which was pretty cool looking, but would definitely be super creepy at night. Then we went into town and looked at souvenirs and ate some amazing pastes. Pastes are a delicious croissant filled with many different things. I got mole verde and Hawaiano. They were both extremely amazing.

We drove back to Pachuca and he showed us some sites. There is an awesome looking futball (soccer) museum here. It was closed, but I want to go sometime. We also drove past the stadium. I want to go to a game in Pachuca! We were going to go to one a few weeks ago, but the tickets were super expensive. Hopefully they will have some cheap games while we are here...

 

Next to the museum is this huge mosaic that apparently they have concerts at sometimes. I think we had a bit too much fun taking photos here :)

Watch Savannah fly!

It was a fun day hanging out with her teacher. He told us about a lot of other cool places nearby that we should go to. I love making friends with the locals! I learn about so many awesome things that I never would know about as a classic tourist.

My Mission Call

Dear Sister Clark,

You are called to serve in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission in the Cambodian language. You will enter the Provo MTC on September 30, 2015.

 

I am so excited to be serving in Cambodia! I am scared to learn the language, it sounds extremely difficult, but I know that I will be doing the Lord's work and He will help me if I work hard.

Thanks to all those who got on Google Hangout to watch me open my mission call.
I get home from Mexico on August 20. So I won't be home for long until I leave on my mission!

 

Yohualichan

Yohualichan was the tiny little town outside of Cuetzalan that we stayed at. Many of the people there are native Nahuas and speak Nahua instead of Spanish. It was so cool to see the mixture of cultural clothing on the older ladies and modern clothing on the younger people.

I love their traditional clothes. They look so gorgeous on the sweet old ladies. I have no idea how they keep their clothes so white. But they also have amazing stitching on the blouses. The men all wore tire sandals. These people are all so nice and seem like a very hardworking society. It was cool to live amongst them for a few days.

This was our hostel we stayed at. It was run by a group of indigenous Nahua women. They had a store with all of their crafts they made. It was a nice place to stay.

Yohualichan also has some ruins. They aren't huge and you can't hike up them or anything, but they were pretty cool. Just a bunch more rocks piled up in the shape of pyramids...

There was also a little church in Yohualichan. We were invited to a baptism there, but we went on the high adventure tour instead.

This was the last sunrise I saw in Yohualichan. I took it as we were waiting for the truck to take us to the bus station. Yohualichan and Cuetzalan are both such beautiful towns with friendly people. I didn't want to go back to Pachuca and have to teach!