End of week 7 - Hiking La Pena, Gunajuato

The transportation system of buses in Mexico is spectacularly effective, but impossible to comprehend. There are hundreds of different public buses in Queretaro. Each has a sign in the front window with the route number and a list of places it goes. They pass by constantly, and you never have to wait more than 15 minutes for the same route-numbered bus to pass by again.

I appreciate this. It all makes for easy getting around. What's confusing are the bus routes themselves. In the US, a single bus travels along main roads and follows somewhat straight lines, in a systematic way, connecting major destinations to each other. In Queretaro, your likely to have two or three buses with different lettered or numbered names that travel along very similar routes, and the routes are nonsensical - they zig zag between main roads and side roads, turn on tiny side streets, go up, down, and in circles, and eventually go everywhere but still get you to where you need to be. It works, and maybe there is some logic to it, but its tough to find!

Eventually, it seems, each city bus makes its way to the central bus station. When traveling between cities, there are many different bus lines to choose from, all at ridiculously low costs. You get these buses at the central bus station in Queretaro, which looks more like an airport for buses than a bus station; there are security lines, separate terminals for different bus companies, hundreds of buses, and yes, even a large mall. You can buy a bus ticket to any city in the country, large or small, direct or indirect, first class or second class. First class direct buses are a little more expensive and are a lot  like first class airplane seats - the seats recline, they have meal service (two hot dogs - salchichas - in a small plastic bag, without the bun, but with "salsita"), and a separate compartment to put your feet... It's all a little hard to explain.

Last weekend we traveled to Bernal to climb La Pena (with a squiggly over the n, but I still don't know how to type the Spanish accent marks), a large monolith (rock) like Devil's Tower in Wyoming.


La Pena



The bus ride was about an hour long but only cost 33 pesos, or less than three dollars. This was not the first class bus, but no complaints (or salchichas neither)! The climb up La Pena was tough - straight up for about an hour - but the view from the top was worth it.

Afterwards, we wanted to go to a nearby town to visit their ferria de barbacoa, the grilled sheep taco fair. We took a city bus, but got off at the wrong stop so never made it to the fair. We had to chose between going further to the fair, or backtracking to a winery, and we chose to backtrack.

The vista.

The winery was interesting, crowded with Mexican tourists, but there were no free samples. This simply would not do in the US. Why would you go to a winery if there are no free samples? After we bought a bottle of wine and shared it in the parking lot (there were nine of us, not just Ana and I), we decided to head home. To get home, we stood on the side of a highway and flagged down one of the buses heading back to Queretaro. Do you think a greyhound would stop for a bunch of hitchhikers on the side of the road in the US? Well, it works here!

End of Week 6 - El Cerrito Pyramid, Queretaro

It's funny how spectacular works of human ingenuity and culture can feel so benign sometimes. In Mexico - although I'm new here - it seems there is an ancient Aztec, Toltec, Olmec, or Mayan pyramid in every city and town. Some are world famous, crowded with international tourists, emblems of Mesoamerica, while others are just another vacant lot in the middle of a growing suburb.

Thankfully, Queretaro has a pyramid that falls somewhere in between. El Cerrito (little hill), a 1,000 year old pyramid similar to the size of the Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacán, is in the adjacent town of El Pueblito, a town now consumed by the sprawling growth of Queretaro. There are few tourists; El Cerrito was not protected by the government until 1995, and restoration work involving the removal of vegetation that until recently obscured its form is still ongoing. Like with other Mesoamerican pyramids, human sacrifice was part of its function and many human remains have been unearthed from the site. The remains of a century old Mexican military leader's house can still be seen on top of the pyramid. I wonder what kind of ghost stories their kids had?

El Cerrito is only a 25 minute bus ride from the center of Queretaro, a trip that only costs 6.5 pesos, or less than 50 cents. It's almost too easy to get to - the adventure is in navigating the numerous bus routes that criss-cross the city, hopefully picking the right one, getting off on at the right stop, and finding your way back at the end.  Our Lonely Planet Mexico guide does not pay much attention to El Cerrito. Many people from Queretaro have never heard of it, and most have never visited. But El Cerrito is spectacular - its grounds are well maintained, native vegetation thriving, interpretive signage clear, and guides available - it is a Mesoamerican pyramid in every sense of the word.

Week 4 - Travel to Jalpan and the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve

Part of the Peace Corps training experience is visiting other current volunteers at their work site. I visited Avram - also a former Buffalonian, strangely enough - at his site in Jalpan, in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve in the state of Queretaro. Jalpan is one of five Franciscan Mission towns in the reserve, each over 200 years old.

Mission Church outside of Jalpan

Jalpan is in a forested valley (a tropical dry forest - the trees lose their leaves during the dry season), surrounded by tall pine and oak covered mountains, bisected by a river flooded with recent rain.

The flooded river

Jalpan Valley

Avram works at the Grupo Ecologico, a non-profit that manages the biosphere reserve and many environmental education, conservation, and community development programs. The reserve, and the Grupo Ecologico, were founded in the late 1980's by the community that wanted to protect its natural resources. This community-driven style of conservation differs from the mostly government-driven conservation in other places that I have visited in Mexico.

Among the work I helped with, which included loading 3,000 native trees into a truck at a vivero, or green-house, for reforestation projects in the reserve, we also ate some local food like cecina asado (thinly sliced, lime marinated, grilled to a crisp steak - very good!), and visited some of the tourist sites like the mirrador overlooking media luna (the mountain). I will be sure to come back to the reserve again!

Media Luna

p.s. An ongoing problem I will have in this blog is writing words with spanish accent marks. For example, Jalpan has an accent mark over the first A, so it is pronounced by stressing that syllable. Where are the damn accent marks on my keyboard?

End of week three - San Luis Potosi

Montezuma's Revenge isn't a thing of the past, no matter what the official Mexican tourism website says. I have never been with group of people that talked so much about their gastro-intestinal problems. We all assume this is just a transition period - new food, new water, mas picante, sin pasturizado - but as time passes, more trainees fall victim. Ana began the week by being the second or third Mexico volunteer to ever get amoebas, which kept her from going on the long-awaited tour of environmental projects in San Luis Potosi, a state north of Queretaro (the scotty dog of Mexico).

We would learn that Mexican national parks are not like US national parks. They are no less beautiful or ecologically important, but many have such little investment that they exist only on maps. Where Parque Nacional Cimitario in Queretaro had its problems with misguided reforestation projects and a lack of telephones, these parks had even more basic shortcomings. None of the national parks we visited had signs, or gates, or trails; they were simply forested mountains in the distance or endless stretches of desert plains.  Access was impossible, unless you already live inside a park, which many people do. Like in US national parks, though, cattle were still the most privileged visitors.

Hacienda at Gogorron

First, after a long bus ride, we entered an ejido (communally owned land - part of the land redistribution program from the revolution) called Gogoron, just on the border of and partially within Gogorron National Park. We arrived on a tour bus to a small, one road community, that ended in a beautiful, gated hacienda, with gardens, statues, courtyards, and water-filled canals. The hacienda was the filming location of the first Zorro movie with Antonio Banderas, and much of the set is still intact, although starting to crumble. We were greeted by fifty ejidetarios, mostly old cowboys interested in meeting us who later showed us their reforestation projects around their property.

Meeting house at Kilometro 58

The second day we went up into the mountains to an ejido called Kilometro 58, named that because it marked the 58th kilometer on a railroad that once connected it to the larger town of San Luis Potosi. When we entered the town it was cloaked in clouds. We were treated to a large meal of moles, gorditas, cheeses, and other strange foods. We were escorted through the town by a guide that showed us reforestation projects and erosion control projects. The guide knew a lot about local plants and animals. When asked if I thought the town had tourism potential, I responded "yes" for its scenic beauty and wildlife, although there are no hotels and no transportation.

Media Luna

The third day we visited one of the more developed and successful ejido projects - Media Luna. Blessed with a deep cavern filled with clear, warm spring water, the ejido has done well for itself by charging for access to the pool of water, hosting diving classes, and setting up restaurants, cabins, and camp sites.



The Altiplano in Matehuala



On the fourth day we drove far into the altiplano, or high plain, until we came to a community in the middle of the desert that had started a fish farm. With little water and many other less obvious technical problems, they were struggling to make the project a success. They were gracious hosts, and one family fed all forty of us with cabrito (baby goat), mole, tortillas, and helotes (maiz criollo, local corn).  

Week 5 - Celebrations! Queretaro



Historic Center of Queretaro

Let the festivities begin! On Monday night after work we walked from our house in Los Alamos Segundo to the plaza outside of the Templo La Cruz. We crossed over from the new side of town to the historic center - wide, busy avenues lined with shops, gas stations and two-story walled-in concrete homes gave way to narrow cobble-stone streets, colorful walls, iron gates, and ornate churches.

As we approached the plaza, the drums in the distance became louder, and the crowds grew bigger. We were going to festival that commemorates the founding of Queretaro. Vendors lined the streets selling different street foods; tacos, helotes, aguas frescas. People poured into the road, stopping traffic. When we finally entered the plaza,  traditional indigenous drums echoed loudly through it, their rhythms bouncing off the colonial walls of buildings enclosing the plaza, mixing with the sounds of crowds gathered to watch. Hundreds of half-naked dancers, known as concheros, dressed in traditional outfits with headdresses of tropical feathers and shells around their ankles paraded through the crowds.

As the sun disappeared and darkness settled in, the bells atop the Templo La Cruz began ringing louder, the drums in the plaza grew stronger, and the concheros moved faster. The crowds came closer, and some joined in the dancing. The plaza stirred with energy and heat.



Concheros



Suddenly, the plaza grew silent, the crowd grew still. After an ominous silence, the inconspicuous tower in front of us burst into flames - it was the castillo, or forty-foot tower of fire. Colorful firecrackers exploded in lines up and down the castillo. Wheels of flames spun around, and rockets flew into the sky and into the crowd. People ducked to avoid the sparks and choked on the smoke and ash that filled the air. Finally, after several rounds of explosions, the top of the castillo launched a hundred feet into the air, spinning with colorful flames. Large fireworks began exploding above us, illuminating the Templo La Cruz, the plaza, and the crowds. When the fireworks ended, the crowd grew silent and slowly left the plaza. The celebration was over as quickly as it began.

Templo La Cruz



Castillo



The indigenous peoples of Mexico, like the Aztecs, Chichimecas, nahuatl, and and many others, were never really wiped out by the Spanish; most Mexicans are mestizos (a mix of indigenous and spanish ancestors), and the indigenous culture is part of every-day life, the food, the language, and the way people look; it can even be seen in the architecture of Catholic churches.

This week is also the commemoration of Mexico's independence from Spain. Most people in the US don't know this, but Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's "4th of July", or Independence day. Instead, this September 16 was Mexico's bicentennial, the 200th anniversary of their independence. They celebrate with "el grito", or the shout of independence. In all major cities, the mayor, governor, or president walks onto a balcony overlooking a crowded plaza, rings a bell, and shouts "Viva los heroes del pasado! Viva Morelos! Viva Allende! Viva el centenario del la Revolucion! Viva (many others)! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!" With each shout, the crowd responds with "VIVA!". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1nQZvrzB4M

As silly as blind patriotism is, el grito is an exciting showing of raw emotion and culture. Maybe its just the tequila talking, but VIVA MEXICO!

This year is also the 100th anniversary of Mexico's revolution (November 20), a separate event from their Independence. It seems that every 100 years there is a revolution in Mexico; maybe this time the world will end? The build-up to 2012 in Mayan Mexico will be interesting!

Videos:
Concheros - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbFvaj6MPdo
El Castillo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBRnD2YtHWY

End of second week - filler

The second week ended with a trip to Parque Nacional Cimitario - an extinct (hopefully) volcano just outside of Queretaro. The park was well-maintained, with a gate, trails, bathrooms and camping sites. The only thing missing was a telephone, which made the return trip home more difficult after arriving by taxi. Mostly mesquite forest interspersed with nopale cactus, although there were many patches of eucalyptus plantation from previous shortsighted attempts at reforestation (eucalyptus is an Australian tree species - non-native and much different than shorter, pricklier, native vegetation). We saw a few neat birds, including vermilion flycatchers and phainopeplas. There were many unrecognizable hummingbirds - always a tough family to identify. All in all, a place worth visiting again.

The second week is over and somehow I am already three weeks late writing this blog. Quite an accomplishment. The second week was pretty uneventful; mostly Spanish classes and other informational sessions. So, rather than tell other stories from the week, here are a few thoughts on adjusting to Mexico (they all might sound negative, but I am having fun, I just need some venting):

The sun doesn't rise until almost 8am here. It feels like January in Buffalo... I hate January in Buffalo.

We don't eat lunch, or "comida", until 2:30. The locals eat lunch even later. It's a long time between 7:30 breakfast and comida. And, unfortunately, there is no siesta in this part of Mexico.

When Mexicans travel to the US, we expect the Mexicans to speak English. When Americans travel to Mexico, we expect Mexicans to speak English.

There is no such thing as "the pedestrian has the right-of-way" in Mexico. Crossing the road on foot, especially the intersection near my house, makes me question why I'm in the "Peace" Corps.

It's hard to communicate with my host family - I asked my host mother if Ana and I should cook for ourselves on Sundays so that she can rest. She said yes, that would be nice. Turns out, she thought I told her that I wanted to cook her entire extended family dinner the following Sunday. So, the following Sunday, we had a family party and we ate pizza.

And finally, "Tuna" is a very popular food here, but it's not what you think. Tuna is actually the fruit of a cactus (or, more appropriately, the seeds of a cactus with a little fruit too). There are many types of tuna, with scientific names like red and green and orange. It's served with almost every meal, sometimes as the meal. I don't like tuna, but its not because of the flavor (watermelony), the excess seeds, or the strange name. I cringe a little every time I hear the word "tuna". It reminds me of something painful from my past, but it was a while before I knew what. Finally, I was watching an NFL football game, saw Bill Parcells' name, and remembered that he is the "Big Tuna". I hate Bill Parcells. Bills fans know why - sad how that lingers and impacts me subconsciously, but those were my formative years.

End of the first week: Peace Corps in Queretaro, Mexico

The first week of Peace Corps in Mexico is over, so here is a summary of everything that happened.

We began in Washington D.C., after flying in from Buffalo. We (my wife and I) arrived in the afternoon and stayed at the Washington Plaza. It had a pool that fronted a busy traffic circle, but was still a good place to relax. The same afternoon, Ana and I walked to the Mall, saw the Lincoln and Washington Memorials, and almost went to buy Space Ice Cream at the Air and Space Museum (we were just too tired to walk anymore, and Ana's shoes were eating her socks). Space Ice Cream is the food that astronauts eat in space, and, as disgusting as dehydrated ice cream sounds, is one of my favorite treats.We stopped in front of the Whitehouse and I almost felt excited to see it - Obama lives there! It was a bit of a surreal experience, being in the most American of American cities, preparing to leave the country for two years.

We had a full day of orientation and training classes the following day and left for Reagan airport the second night at 1am. We drove through the Mall, with each monument lit up like in the opening credits of West Wing episodes. We arrived at the airport at 2am, even though the terminal didn't open until 4am, and the plane didn't leave for Dallas until 6am. After boarding the plane and taking off, we finally arrived in Mexico City at noon, having not slept for a couple of days, and immediately got on a bus for Queretaro. Four hours and one long sleepless drive later, we arrived in Queretaro.

The truth is, though, that reaching the hotel wasn't as simple as that. The hotel we were going to was in small, rural community outside of Queretaro. The bus we were on was large, and the streets we were on were tiny - narrow, dusty, cobble stone - so narrow that bus couldn't make turns on one try, or even two or three. The giant tour bus kicked up so much dust that the locals walked by choking and covering their faces, a perfect entrance for a bunch of Americans trying to fit in.

After a few wrong turns and couple of times getting stuck on steep hills, we finally arrived; Hacienda el Castillo. It was a sprawling, walled-in historic castle, complete with church, dormitories, cafeteria, and dairy. Its history is impressive - parts of it built in the early 1600's as one of the first Spanish colonies in Mexico - and its current condition is immaculate. Beautiful gardens, courtyards with fountains, and wonderful colors everywhere. Our room even had a loft bed. Meals, cooked by the local chefs known as the three Juanitas because they share the same name, improved with time as they slowly transitioned to real Mexican food, like a soup called pozole verde, and away from "American" food (they wanted us to feel at home), like cream cheese lasagna and pork meatloaf. The hotel has several interesting projects in the community, including the organic dairy and a community center with an organic vegetable garden.

We spent several days at Hacienda el Castillo, doing more training exercises. On our last day there, Saturday, they finally told us what our eventual job sites and job descriptions were, and I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I wanted to work on conservation projects in small towns in or near a national park or biosphere reserve, and many volunteers will be doing just that. In fact, one volunteer will be working in a town with only 30 people - she will represent over 3% of the population! Instead, my eventual location will be just the opposite; Puebla, southeast of Mexico City, a town of between 1.3 and 3 million people, the largest of any Peace Corps site in Mexico. 

I will be working at a regional SEMARNAT office (secretaria de medio ambiente y recursos naturales, loosely translated as the agency for environment and natural resources) to develop a community center. The work is somehow related to watershed planning, and somehow related to "ecotecnias" (small businesses related to sustainability like beekeeping or green roofs), but still not completely clear. Before leaving, I often joked that I wouldn't know what I would be doing or where I would be going until well after I arrived, and I think that still holds true.

After a quick tour bus ride from the Hacienda el Castillo to the Peace Corps office in the center of Queretaro, and a few more orientation classes, we met and were taken home by our new homestay families. It was like watching puppies being adopted, as Mexican families arrived one after the other to pick up their new kids, able to identify the volunteer only with volunteer's names tagged to their shirts. Many Mexican families speak no english, and many volunteers speak no spanish, so the initial happy but awkward greeting (usually accompanied by a kiss, which throws most Americans off) was followed by more awkward, smiling silence, until the homestay families and the volunteers left together into the city on the other side of Peace Corps office wall.

Our own homestay family was given the wrong names - they knew they were looking for a married couple, but thought the couples names were Ana and Rose. What do you think was going through their minds? The family has a mother, a grandfather that we rarely see even though he lives with us, a 19-year old daughter, several aunts that pass through, and a younger niece. There is a really friendly dog, a yellow lab, called "Gringo" for obvious reasons. Aside from the awkward silence at breakfast, at lunch, at dinner (and all times in between), it is a pleasant home to be in. I'm just joking; Ana speaks with them fluently in Spanish while I sit by in silence, so the awkwardness is all me.

On Sunday, the daughter, Ale, took us to the Mercado La Cruz, where they have outdoor (cheap Chinese goods) vendors in what they call a tianguis, and indoor food vendors, a la Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations". The food is amazing; who knew tacos could be so good with just a little lime, cilantro, and chile? We reurned to the same market later that night to eat again.

We walked around the centro (historic downtown area) all day, looked at the multiple catholic churches, sat in the many plazas, listened to music, ran into other volunteers, and generally just saw the sites. Later that night we went to a circus in the centro; it was in a small tent, with small stadium like seating, where everyone was close to the action. It was free - donations appreciated - but exciting. There was fire, jugglers, unicycles (and sometimes all three at once), men on stilts, jokes, and acrobats on ropes in the air. It was like Cirque du Soleil, except the audience was sitting with the performers, and the performers seemed genuinely excited to be there. The performers were all young, some seemed about 12 years old, and when they made mistakes or fell, they laughed and tried again (they didn't make many mistakes though). I couldn't help but feel alive and happy to be in Mexico, and almost relaxed enough to stop feeling the tension in my back from the last ten years of stress!