Homestar Runner and Frank Sinatra

So this past week has been intense. Thus, an intensely long blog is in order. Brace yourself.

The week started with a trip to Villahermosa. Shared a hotel room with Fraser (aka princess, frassy, frazy, franny, etc). We got a room with a balcony and an incredible view of the city. Mitch got a panoramic view with me and Oranges with his sleek camera. It´s a keeper. Anyways, once we got to Villahermosa from our rediculously long bus ride (upwards of 8 hours) we all went for a swim in the pool. It was nice to swim in a pool that wouldnt seemingly give chemical burns from the mass amounts of chlorine, as was the case at Hotel Flamingo. That evening we all went out for Sushi...but on the way there we all split up. I realised ¨hey...i dont like sushi¨. So Sarah and I went for McDonalds and had a sweet long talk for like an hour or so. There was a security guard in the McDonalds, even. Oddly out of place, but definitely necessary due to kidnappings and whatnot.

Villahermosa was a pretty city, and I don´t think we got enough time to enjoy it. We´ve been on the move so much that I guess we had to pick and choose where we stayed. After a solid breakfast buffet the next morning, we went to La Venta park to see some Olmec heads which are ruins from the La Venta site. The huge heads were intertwined with many different animals like jaguars, pumas, snakes, spider monkeys, etc. It would have been a good trip, but two people ruined it with their snappy comments to a number of people in our group. Regardless, we got back on the bus and headed for Chiapa de Corzo.

The next day we went on a boat trip through El Cañon del Smidero. Mike, Kelly, Mitch and I bolted for the front seat....bad mistake. We went FLYING through the water and felt every chop on that choppy water on our bums. We had a decent view of most of the canyon, except for anything that was straight ahead of us. The bow was too high. We did manage to see some crocodiles, birds, a Catholic shrine, all within redicuously high cliffs. The whole time in the boat, Mike, Kelly and I just bursted out noise from Homestar Runner and Frank Sinatra songs. Our boat driver mentioned that these cliffs were 1km high at its highest, and that some Mayan locals committed suicide off of them during Spains period of conquer. He said that they would have rather died than be managed by the Spanish.

Of course, we got right back on the bus. If we werent sleeping, we were studying. If we werent studying, we were playing Mafia. Lots, and lots, of Mafia. Even today we played like 10 times in a row. We called it Rapid Maf because there were only 6 or 7 players, and with 2 mafia members, and one died overnight...it didnt take long for the townspeople to win. The mafia won like 3 games. I love the Maf.

So this next part of the trip was my favourite part of the trip. We got off the bus in San Cristobal de las Casas and stayed in Hotel Moctezuma. I bunked with Will which was pretty fun. Except he snores...and I wasn´t able to sleep a wink one night. Regardless...this city was BEAUTIFUL. I could definitely see myself living there for a couple of years later in life. It was completely surrounded by mountains, which made the air crisp and clean and actually cold. We didn´t think we´d actually need to wear hoodies and jeans in Mexico...but we did! I bought a great poncho, as did almost everyone else. Mine is tan and white. It was a three day stay, and I spent most of it relaxed on the balcony reading and talking. There wasn´t much of a nightlife there, but we were there during the week so it was expected for such a small city.

For our group project on Mayan Herbs and Healing, the group (Mary, Steve, Heather and I) went to visit the Mayan Medicine Museum. This place had everything we needed! Despite the fact that Jorge told us not to even bother because we wont get any information out of them. We went through the museum and read about the 5 different methods for healing, we watched a video on traditional child birth (which to me makes much more sense than what hospitals in Canada do), then went outside to the herb garden and took a bunch of pictures and smelled differnt plants. We learned about their usages and applications, and which ailment they help heal. Very interesting stuff. Also went to the Mayan Pharmacy and picked up a few things for our class to experience during our presentation.

We also took two small day trips worth mentioning. The first one was to San Juan Chamula where we went to visit a church and central square. The entire population of this city was Mayan, and 100% of them are the same religion. It had two churches - one from the 16th century (no longer used) which the graveyard throughly used, with bodies of the same family topped ontop of each other, all with crosses marking the dead. A newer church was down in the community (not on the hill like the former), directly in the center of town. It was bursting with activity and it wasn´t even Sunday. Parishoners came to worship through lighting candles, chicken sacrifices, laying pine needles, and prayer. There were shrines all around the room for the saints, mary&joseph, disciples, etc. Jesus´shrine was at the front of the church, but on the righthand side of San Juan, the cities founder. A very, very synchronized religion.

We also visited Zinacantan. This trip exposed us to some beautiful artisan work like blanket weaving, pursemaking, and stuff. Makes you feel bad when you barter down for a legit price, but most of the stuff that we are offered on the street or from an outside vendour has been made from China. As we were about to leave, Mary and I went to visit a curandera about her knee problem (although it was also research for our project). The three of us sat down, and I held Marys hand through it all. The woman checked Marys pulse on both hands, said some prayers, and massaged her knee. Mary said it felt that she popped a bone that was actually out of place into a place where it wouldnt cause more pain. She also sipped posh (pure alcohol, moonshine) and sprayed it all over her knee. After it all Mary got up and she said that her knee hadn´t felt so good in a long time. Her knee is still in great shape.

We took an early start the next day for our trip to Palenque City, with a stop at Agua Azul (blue waters). It was incredible. Bluest waterfalls meters away from completely calm waters. The school had prepared a box lunch for us which everyone loved (ham and cheese sandwich, mango, apple juice, and chips)...but if you know me well enough, you know I only drank the juice. I´m such a stupid picky eater. I hate it sometimes. Anyways, after the lunch we went swimming. Just hanging out on the edge of a waterfall without worry of falling over. Oranges (the other Dave) managed to fall over the edge. Smooth one. It was rapid water so we didn´t see him for like 30 seconds. I was about to jump in after him but then he started to climb up a dry edge of the waterfall where we were sitting. (it wasnt that big of a waterfall where we were at). He got out, and that evening we applied some of the golpes ointment we picked up at the Mayan pharmacy. Two days later all the scrapes and brusies are nearly gone. We were rushed out of the waters after only 2 hours. Not even close to enough time. Our guides fail to acknowledge the things we like and alloting a good amount of time to them. It´s been a frustrating week like that...

That evening we went to Palenque City and I stayed with Steve overnight. In the morning we took off for the ruins. It was perfect weather to view them. Overcast! I´ll be honest...the tour sucked, and I learned more from my Christianne (my prof) than our Jorge (our guide). It was as expected though. After about 20 minutes a bunch of us just ditched him. We had our own resources available to learn while we were at the site. Some really interesting stuff. The site wasnt as breathtaking as I thought it would be, but the size and power of everything there was incredible. I´m not sure if it was my favourite though. Toss up between this and Uxmal. I really appreciated the jungle peeking into everything at Palenque though.

After Palenque we hopped back on the bus for Campeche. Its a historical colonial site, which is actually protected and funded by the United Nations. Its one of the three sites founded by the Monctezuma family (the father, the son, and the nephew). Spent the night with Steve again. Our room was really nice, but the shower put me in a bad mood. The curtain was a few inches too short so it flooded the bathroom, the cold water knob didn´t work so it was scaulding, and the only part of the shower head that water came out of was the periphery....so I had to shower in a halo of burning hot water. Ugh...

Anyways, all of the travelling has made me tired. We´re now all back in Merida, and I´m currently at the TTT school across the street from our hotel. This weekend I´m spending a lot of time on our group project...infact all 4 of us are in here now working on our various tasks. Tedious work, to say the least. There is so much to do this weekend, since there are 2 tests and a presentation on monday to prepare for. I´m stressed, and i wish I werent. I just keep reminding myself how much worse it could be in a classroom in Guelph.

Phew. You probably didn´t read all of that. I doubt you did. If you did...well, I´m impressed.

Take Care! For those in St. Catharines area, I´ll see you in a week!

D.