Saying Goodbye

I had a wonderful time with Suzanne in Mexico!!  And it is always hard to say goodbye when it is time to leave for home.

Suzanne with Her Casa Hoy hosts, Katy, Gerardo, and Amelia.

And again, her host family

I left Cuernavaca at 9:45 am and arrived home at 11:30 pm.  I had a wonderful 18 days!  And it was great to sleep in my own bed with my cats beside me.

Until my next adventure away from home........hasta luego

A small adventure in Cuernavaca

Yesterday (Tuesday) I went with Suzanne to one of the schools where she is volunteering.  She works at this Waldorf daycare-like school every morning during the week.  Neither the teacher or the children speak English, so Suzanne's Spanish improves daily. On Tuesdays she is alone with the class of 8 to 12 years old, and she decides we will make frogs and lizards from beads she brought from the states.  We looked up some words that we would need to do the projects and made a vocabulary list the evening before.

It takes two buses to get to her school and so we leave the place where she lives about 7:15.  The teachers and the students eat breakfast and lunch at the school, so we didn't have to eat before we left.

I knew the children would love this project and they did.

For a break we go down into the barranco ( ravine) where the children have cleaned up and planted a garden.

After lunch we leave school and catch a bus out to NPH (an orphanage) where Suzanne's daughter, Meghan, volunteered for a year after she graduated from college.  We toured the campus and ate a meal there. (Meghan, these pictures are for you)

I couldn't take pictures of the kids or dorms etc., but it is an impressive place that does much good for children throughout Mexico and South America.

It took 3 buses to return home.  So six buses in one day!!!  I have loved all of our travels and adventures, but I won't miss the bus rides.

Today is another day of sun, swimming, and reading for me as Suzanne is at work.  I figure I need to take advantage of the pool here as it will probably be 5 weeks or so before I swim much at home.

Sunday in Taxco

Another day trip to the town noted for its silver jewelry.  There is only one silver mine operating there now, but silver is what most  shops sell.  The town is built on a hillside and has very narrow streets.

This is a two way street

We climbed up many blocks to get to the square.

We had a morning snack here so we could look at the view of the church and town.

The taxis here are white VW bugs.

Around the church looking for a way to sneak up into the bell tower.  We failed!

The stone streets have designs made of different color rock.

Every street is steep and narrow and there are no sidewalks, so we had to plaster ourselves against the building to stay alive.

It was a good trip that got over too quickly.  

Today I stayed home while Suzanne went back to work.  It felt good not to ride in any kind of bus! I enjoyed reading, walking to a store, eating at a street side stand, swimming ang sitting in the sun in the yard.  Tonight we did go to some friend's of Suzanne's for dinner which was very nice.

Tomorrow a new adventure......

A day spent in Tepoztlan

We came back to Cuernavaca yesterday afternoon and went right to a little store to get fruit.

We got carne de reyes tacos at a corner stand for dinner.  

We woke up this morning to my first view of the volcano, Popocatepetl.  It's last large eruption was in 2013.  I don't know how far away we are from it, but it is over 15,000 feet tall.

We caught a bus out to Tepoztlan for the day.  It is a new age town in the mountains (lots of incense, tarot reading, and different kinds of things for sale) and there is a pyramid that people can climb up to.  

And an ice cream shop with at least 50 favors

The mural on this archway is all made of seeds and grains.  Suzanne said the whole design changes.  She has seen four different scenes.

We came back to Cuernavaca and got pastor tacos at a little stand in the marketplace.  We took another bus home and went for a dip in the pool.  Another great day!!!!!!!

Cholola

Yesterday after breakfast, we walked over to a little bus station that would take us to a part of Puebla called Cholola.  There is a pyramid there that is the largest in the world by volume.  It is not as tall as the one in Giza, but the base is much bigger.  Only a little of it has been excavated because the Spanish built a church on.top of it.  

First, we went through some of the 5 miles of tunnels that go through the pyramid.  Since that can't study it from the outside, they have gotten much information by going into it.

Then we climbed up to the church.

We could take no pictures inside, but is was both huge and beautiful.  Outside we could look out over this part of the city in all directions.  It was not clear enough to see Popo, the big volcano

Puebla has over 365 churches and so we see them everywhere we look.  As we walked down off the pyramid, we stopped to buy some grasshoppers to try.  Not great....a little sour and crunchy.

We spent the next hors looking around the archielogical site.

And we climbed this restored part.

We stopped to watch the voladores de Papantla

And we walked around this part of town.

Stopped for drinks

Saw more churches

And searched for the place we could catch a bus back to the center of Puebla.

And back downtown ready to find a place to eat.

After eating it was too late to go back to the artesians market so we walked home just after dark.  It is lucky we headed home because, as soon as we arrived, we had a great and wonderful lightning, thunder, and rain storm. 

Today it is clear and warm as we ride along on the bus taking us back to Cuernavaca.  Suzanne is watching the movie being shown and I am writing this log.......bouncing along, it isn't easy.