hogar dulce hogar

Time just flies when your havin fun! No, but seriously it really does, so not this last weekend but the weekend before we went up to Lake Chapala. My senora, Court, Christina, my Tia, prima Evet, y una otra Tia all headed out in the mini van at about 6 in el tarde. We arrived to this beautiful house in the campo (countryside). Played a quick game ping-pong then headed down to the lake. El lago es muy muy bonita! It is huge!! We walked around the cute town, got ice cream, walked out on the pier to the lighthouse and walked through the little market before nightfall. That night, Evet took us out with some of her friends to
this huge house in the middle of nowhere. The house had been transformed into a bar, still containing the normal bathrooms, sala, and all, even the kitchen had become the bar. The backyard over looks the whole lake. We hung out there for hours just over looking the lake and talking with Evet’s friends. The next day we got up and went to a bar with our senora and the fam to watch the Argentina vs Mexico game. Following the upsetting loss, we headed out to Monte Coxala, this resort built as if the prehispanic people built it. We walked around looking at the pyramids, jacuzzis, message restaurants, and spas. Next stop, Ajijic, this cute little town located on the water with the cobble stone narrow streets and colorful buildings. Our familia took us out to comida at this restaurant where our senora ordered for us, we all got the same things, but given no choice as to if that was what we wanted or not. Kinda interesting…she’s lucky it was good steak and mashed potatoes.

Well, we are officially in the rainy season. The intense thunderstorms are typically at night, or when we are walking home from the Soriana or even better yet after developing only half of my pictures for my class. We walked the 3 or 4 blocks (I don’t know what they consider blocks but its more like 23 blocks) to the pharmacy, waited for my pictures to print, waited for the pharmacist to fix the now broken machine, then waited for my money back and a free pair of swimming goggles…only to now have it start sprinkling. Not even 20 feet from the drugstore it starts pouring. Before I know it we are sprinting home in the hail and the pouring rain running through 6-inch puddles. Our senora literally fell on the floor she was laughing so hard at our arrival. We really like to make an entrance.

Other events of the week: On Monday we took a tour of the Corona Factory! Learned all about how beer is made and even got some free freshly bottled samples!! Tuesday, we hung out with our primos and tias until about 11 pm while waiting for the rain to stop. Finally our senora gave up and took us out to Cena. First salad I have had in a very long time. Wednesday, I traveled to the city of Teuchitlan, about an hour west of Guad, to visit Los Guachimontones’s circular stepped-pyramids. The site includes several pyramids as well as two ballcourts for the game of Mesoamerican.At the top of one of the pyramids a group was sitting in a circle calling to the Spirit and signing in praise. She invited us into the circle at the end for a final song of prayer. Also that night I learned the importance of not wearing Rainbows in the rain for the slippery marble like floors they have everywhere here. Fell flat on my back faster than anyone can blink. Luckily my head missed the stair and I fell so fast my whole body hit the ground at the same time. I had a couple nice bruises the next day though from that one.


Before leaving for Guanajuato on Thursday I brushed up on some basketball skills. Melissa, Austin, and I were challenged to a game of 3 v 3 by two tall guys and a girl. We thought we were doomed, ended up kicking their butts. Melissa and I had the most points of any of the boys. It was awesome!! After a three and a half hour bus ride we arrived in the beautiful city of Guanajuato, just in time for the rain. Guanajuato is another one of México’s 31 states to the east of Jalisco. With its charming narrow stone streets, enormous gold churches, and rich history this old mining city is BEAUTIFUL! After a good 20-minute walk in the rain, because buses cannot drive into the main city, we checked into Hotel del San Diego (coincidence) soaking wet. Melissa, Tina, Court and I walked into our enormous, old, fun room super excited for our weekend. That night we went to a salsa club with all the administrators and USD kids. Breakfast each morning came early at 8:30 but each day’s adventures were well worth it. Friday we went to the museo de los mummies. Super creepy, but pretty cool as well. The mummies were discovered when the families of the dead could not pay for them to stay in their grave. Upon being dug up they discovered that the soil had preserved the people perfectly. Most still containing skin, hair, eyelashes and everything. After we went to la Valenciana church. Guanajuato was a very rich city because of its gold and silver mine discovered during Spanish rule. Therefore, the churches all include amazing gold finishing in the inside. The Cata Mine was a cool visit because it is still one of the biggest mines in the world. After dinner and a nap we meet the group for a traditional “Callejoneada” where musicians play music throughout the Guanajuato alleyways telling stories of the history. The best story was the story of the street of el beso (kiss). It is a very narrow alleyway with two balconies up above, the story is of two lovers that would kiss from the separate balconies. I will have 15 years of bad luck after walking down the alley because I did not kiss anyone on the 3rd step. Haha Saturday after breakfast we went to the city of San Miguel de Allende where we had a short tour of the city and the Cathedrals then were released for free time to shop. San Miguel was a lot like Guanajuato just not quite as cool. It was a fun day though ending in some really good churros and rain. Sunday we took a final tour of Guanajuato learned a little more about the Mexican history in the amazing El Teatro Juarez, La Alhondiga, and El Pipila. We got on the bus to leave to go back to Guad completely drenched from the rain yet again.