Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Pachuca Zoo

Rashel came to visit me in Mexico. We started off our adventurous week with going to the little zoo in Pachuca. It was the equivalent of 50 cents to get in, so why not?





There were adorable baby peacocks!

The monkey on the left was chasing the other monkey for quite a while trying to get the corn husk from it. It was hilariously entertaining.

What a great sleeping position.


Lots of turtles!
We also took some pictures around Pachuca. This is my favorite hill. It's got the coolest painted building ever.




La Presidencia statue in Plaza Juarez.

Big colorful letters are a thing here in Mexico, and there are ones that say Pachuca, but they are way too far away. This is close and means City Living. So it works.


Thursday, August 6, 2015

Adventures with Mexican Plans


So one of our students, Adamary, has been super excited to invite us over. She said that her dad was going to buy us some obsidian necklaces. There is a ton of cheap obsidian stuff in Tulancingo, which is like 20 minutes from Pachuca. And that was super nice of them to take us! So we left school to go with them for what we thought would just be buying obsidian necklaces. Nope. It turned into a six hour adventure, which was super awesome, but it would have been nice to know what we were doing so we could be prepared. Making plans with Mexicans is always extremely interesting. If we make real plans with parents, then they usually don't happen, but if they just say, "Hey, I want to invite you over." Then it always turns into an elaborate adventure. If I've learned anything here, it's to always be prepared. Have good shoes-chacos work for everything, water, and snacks just in case!

So we started off going to an old aqueduct. It was huge, and the super cool thing is that it's kind of like 4 corners. Because it has the borders of 3 states in the area. So I got a cool picture of myself in two places at once: The states of Hidalgo and Puebla. The other teacher took the pictures of us, so who knows when I will actually get them.

Funny story: while we were chillin on the aqueduct after walking around for a while, Adamary and her dad were telling us about a place we could see in the distant mountains. And they were trying to tell us what animals were there, but Adamary didn't know the English word for it. So she was describing it. I asked, "Owl?" She just looked at me questioningly. So I said, "Hoo, hoo," like owls say. And she said, "Yes! That one!" Then the other girls broke out laughing, but hey, it got the point across! That's how we communicate her in Mexico.

The Queen of Corn etched into a rock near the pyramid.
Then we went to a place pretty much in the middle of nowhere, After driving on some sketchy dirt roads and hiking up the mountains some more we came across some ruins. More pyramids. They must be all over Mexico in random places. I've definitely had my fill of rocks in the shape of pyramids, but these were pretty cool because it was the middle of nowhere, we were the only ones there, and the pyramids were kind of grown over and blended into the landscape of the mountains. It looked more natural. They are the pyramids of Xihuingo and in Tepeapulco. And there was this super cute puppy there that followed us around while we walked around. It was a ragged little thing, but still super cute. I wanted to take it home!

After looking at ruins, we finally went to look at obsidian necklaces! The thing we knew about finally happened after 4 hours. I picked out a quartz crystal necklace. I like it a lot. As if buying us all necklaces wasn't nice enough, then they took us out for chalupas and oreo pie. The food definitely was worth it. I love Mexican food. I will definitely miss it, but I'm excited to eat American food again too.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Mas de Cancun

 Here are a bunch of random pictures from Cancun

At the hostel pool

Sunset on the Lagoon. There really are crocodiles in there, so no swimming.

Isla Mujeres playa norte

Deck at Playa Caracol we snorkeled under

Sunset on Playa Delfines


Playa Caracol
Playa Delfines

Playa Delfines

Isla Mujeres



Gotta love that natural beach wave. My hair was fantastic the entire time I was in Cancun. Oh humidity...

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Isla Mujeres

I can't believe my trip to Cancun is half over! Today we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres, a beautiful little island. It has gorgeous beaches and is a very small Mexican town. We met our friend Bruno, from the hostel, there, and swam on the beach all morning, built a sand castle, and I turned Sav into a mermaid.

Once the sun was too hot, we headed for some good food and shade. I am so determined not to get burnt on this trip! Bruno snuck us into his hostel where we spent the afternoon. I took a nap with the hostel cat on the floor. Then we met some awesome guys who are travelling. They teach people how
to walk on the slackline and make jewelry and stuff to make money. Staying in hostels and meeting tons of awesome people who speak 5 languages and have been to 40 countries all make me realize just how uncool I am. Anyway, I properly learned how to walk on a slackline, which was super cool. And I bought one of their necklaces because they are awesome, and made it while we were chatting. It also smells really good.
We are talented at underwater selfies

Then Sav and I had a little photo shoot on the beach, because there was nobody there and it was gorgeous! We had some fun.

Couldn't skip out on some yoga on the beach! Super spiky rocks are definitely not the preferable place though...

I have a talent for finding dogs everywhere and taking majestic photos of them.


Playa Norte: Isla Mujeres is absolutely beautiful.




So much sand got in my hair from this picture! Gotta love waves...

Sav is gorgeous. And we had lots of fun being professional models and photographers.


Isla Mujeres is definitely a must see if you go to Cancun. The ferry ride is fun, it's a gorgeous Mexican island, and is filled with many eclectic people.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Cenote Siete Bocas

So cenotes are these super awesome underground pools of water. They are all over the Riviera Maya because of the limestone and how it has eroded. They are absolutely gorgeous. We went to like the cheapest one. It had a zipline, and some places to jump from. It was super awesome! I also took my snorkel, and saw lots of fish.