enero: Ryan visits Mexico

On December 28th, my Madisonian boyfriend Ryan came to visit for a couple weeks.

To start, Ryan and I spent about a week in Huatulco (a beach on the southern curve of the Pacific coast of Mexico) and it was a wonderful way to start our trip. It was nice to have time to relax and spend time with each other in a very easy-going part of the trip... afterall, it had been 4 months since we saw each other last. We started the week with a boat trip to see some of Huatulco's bays, stopped to snorkel at Playa la India, and ate on Maguey beach. Then we had a couple non-excursion days where we went with our own plans and relaxed at the hotel beach, went to the Playa Santa Cruz across the street, and tried jet-skiing in the ocean. We almost went cliffside rappelling (like mountain climbing) and even made it as far as the beach and waiting for our guides to get stuff set up... but an intense wind started up, pelting us with sand and not letting up for awhile. The guides tried to wait it out, but no luck, the wind forced us to cancel the trip. Instead, the guides offered to take us the next day on a 3 hour river rafting tour (half calm, half rapids). It was a lot of fun and something totally new for me. We all got soaked and had a great time talking with our guide Chin and the other two passengers in our raft. The other guides were awesome too, eally cool hippie/outdoorsy types, so we invited them out later for a couple drinks downtown. They actually showed up and they insisted on introducing us to mescal (a tequila-like drink, typical of the region) with a few rounds of shots. Then we bought some six-packs and went to a beautiful lookout of the Santa Cruz marina in Huatulco and mingled a bit before calling it a night. It was fun to make friends with locals and a highlight for both Ryan and me. We had another free day and went snorkeling on our own during the afternoon at Playa Maguey. There were some waves, but we found some calmer spots of coral and enjoyed the sea life. Ryan even saw an eel or sea snake - I swam too fast in the other direction to get a close enough look to tell the difference. :) The morning of our flight, we woke up with the sunrise and tried surfing with an entertaining Australian surfing instructor. I fell a lot, Ryan picked it up right away (surprise surprise) and we both had fun giving it a shot before heading back to Mexico City. The whole week was an awesome start to the trip and fun to let go of some of my strict "living simply" mentalities. I lived it up on the beach for a week with my boyfriend, we did a lot of excursions, and we ate incredible seafood at beach-side restaurants with our feet in the sand (including one meal that ended up on my "Top Ten Meals of All-Time" list). As someone who has a love affair with water, being by the beach was also a much-appreciated getaway from Cuernavaca.

Then we spent a couple days in D.F. (Mexico City). On Sunday, we went on a day trip from our hostel that took us to the Plaza de 3 Culturas (ancient ruins, colonial Spanish basilica, modern sky-scrapers all in view from the plaza). Then we went to the Basilica de Guadalupe, which holds one of the most important relics to Latin American catholics - the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe (the indigenous looking Virgin Mary) that is told to have been imposed on the cloak of a poor, Mexican campesino named Juan Diego. Story goes that she appeared to him and asked him to talk to the bishop to have a church built for her on a hill. Juan Diego went, the bishop didn't believe him. This happened again and the bishop asked for proof. When Juan Diego relayed that info to the Virgin, she told him to go to the hill and collect what he finds there and bring it to the bishop. He goes to the hill to find it covered in roses (normally it was dry and covered in grass and dirt - so a miracle in and of itself). Juan Diego collects the roses in his cloak and brings it to the bishop. When he lets go of his cloak, the roses fall and the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe was on his cloak. So, this cloak is on display in the Basilica in the spot of that infamous hill in D.F. - apparently the coloring of the cloak is untraceable to any paint or natural dyes. Interesting nonetheless, and a fascinating trip into the heart of Mexican (and Latin American) catholicism.
Then we went to the Teotihuacan ruins site, about an hour from D.F. The pyramids and the city were built in 500AD by an unknown Mesoamerican tribe and then abandoned until later inhabited by the Aztecs about a thousand years later. There are two main pyramids, Templo de la Luna (Temple of the Moon) and Templo del Sol (Temple of the Sun). The Templo de la Luna is smaller and has the northern point of the site. Templo del Sol is (what I heard) the 3rd tallest pyramid in the world and sits along the eastern edge of the site. The length of the city is about 2 kilometers and we had a chance to explore it all. We went into the museum and even bought a cool obsidian and turquoise mask (for half of the vendor's asking price!). Ryan had mentioned a few times during the brainstorming of our trip that he had interest in seeing ruins. When we actually arrived at Teotihuacan, I was doubting that he was excited to be there. However, after reaching the top of Templo del Sol, the smile on his face told me we made the right choice in going. It turned out to be a great afternoon that we both enjoyed a lot (not to mention some amazing photos).

We had one morning to wander a little bit of D.F. historic center before going to my volunteer retreat on Monday and Tuesday. Due to unfortunate timing, Ryan's trip overlapped our retreat. Fortunately, he was able to take part in some of our excursions and events and he had that chance to meet the other volunteers and Heidi. That was actually a neat way for him to see a bit of my reality here in Mexico.

We came back to Cuernavaca for a couple stressful days for me. I had a long list of things that I wanted him to see and do, and we barely scratched the surface. He told me that he didn't care if we saw So-and-so's Palace or Whatchamacallit Garden, he came to Mexico to spend time with me. So, we did a few touristy things, but not many. At first I was disappointed that we didn't do as much as I wanted us to do in my "hometown" but in retrospect, I'm glad we spent our time enjoying each other's company instead of cramming in a lot of "To-Do's" during the few days we had left of his visit.
We spent Wednesday (Marce's birthday) in and out of the house trying to lend a hand with the preparation of her birthday meal. We spent that night with the host family, who were eager to hear about us and about the first part of the trip. Despite having taken Spanish years ago, Ryan was remembering more and more each day and he did a great job keeping up with conversation and chatting back a little bit with them. Of course, the forced rounds of tequila shots helped (gotta love my host family).
The next day, Thursday, we wandered around town a little bit, stopping at a coffee shop, seeing the Cathedral, and eating with Marce. That night we went to a fancy dinner at an Italian restaurant (we were craving something non-Mexican by this point). The meal was great and the service was even better, Ryan said it ended up on his own "Top Ten" list. Afterwards, we went salsa dancing at a popular club in town called Mambo Cafe and I tried to figure out how to teach Ryan some salsa (which is tough being a woman and never having to do more than follow) and Ryan was just trying to pick up the basics and have a good time. It might not have been what I was hoping for, but oh well. At least there are salsa clubs in Madison so we can give it another shot some day after a bit more practice together.
On Friday, we went to my work sites for a bit of time. We went to La Estacion with some materials for the school (donated) and wanted to set things up - it is a project to promote hygiene habits like washing hands after using the bathroom. He got to see the community and meet my coworkers and students. I forced him to play "lobo" with the kids at La Estacion ("lobo" is like our "tag" in the U.S.). Then we at with Marce and went back out to my job at Casa Tatic. It was choas with the loss of some preschool teachers. We helped out the one preschool teacher who was juggling 48 kids with the most difficult part of the day - feeding them lunch. Once everything was finished and the kids were settled in with an activity, Ryan and I saw the rest of the school, met the other teachers, and bid our farewell. The kids at both sites loved meeting someone new and playing with him and have been asking me about him ever since. They seem confused that he lives in the United States and not Mexico, that I come from the United States and lived there before, that I am just in Mexico for a year and going back to the US, and that Ryan and I won't see each other in the meantime. It is an explanation that I mastered within the first few days after he left because of all their curious questions.

On Saturday, we went to Tepoztlan and I wanted to surprise him with letting him come see my soccer game... but I was told that we weren't playing. So we did the tourist trek of Tepoz and climbed the mountain to a dinky little pyramid at the top. I was expecting it to be a tourist-friendly hike (thinking of the cliche, out-of-shape, awkward "tourist" image), but it was a hearty climb. It was an almost straight up, rocky staircase with no flat stretches to catch one's breath. Ryan and I trucked on ahead, both happy for being in good shape. The pyramid at the top isn't much but the mountain view of Tepoztlan in the valley is breathtaking. On the way down, I got a phone call from my teammate Nuvia saying that the team actually was playing a pick-up game against one of the other teams in our league... in 30 minutes. I had gotten over that my big surprise wasn't going to work, and now that I had the chance we didn't have time (and I didn't have the energy) to play, to get something to eat, and make it to D.F. that night. I was so bummed by the bad timing of finding out... but then again, if we knew earlier we wouldn't have climbed the mountain. Watching a soccer game or climbing a mountain... I suppose it turned out alright after all.

That night we went to D.F. by bus and went to our airport area hotel for the night. Neither one of us was ready to face the fact that it was our last night together, so we went down to the hotel bar for a couple drinks and to catch a big soccer match-up on TV. The game was a fun one to watch, it went down to penalty kicks, and I loved sitting and watching soccer with Ryan. We didn't get back to the room until almost 2am, and crashed out before waking up around 5:30 to get ready to go to the airport. It was slow going, neither of us wanting to accept what the clock said... but eventually we got up and repacked our bags. Saying goodbye was hard, a very unwelcome moment that I had been dreading ever since I knew he was coming to visit. But such is life, and even though the farewell was hard, the rest of the trip was bliss. I wouldn't change it for anything.

** TOO MANY PHOTOS TO LOAD HERE - GO TO http://picasaweb.google.com/klgavle TO SEE PHOTOS **