Ruta Independencia Part 2

Days in Mexico: 254

In the afternoon of the 27th of September after the pyramids, we went to Tepotzotlán- a small city between Teotihuacan and Mexico City. We walked around the markets in search for a sombrero shop. We didn't find a sombrero shop but we did find a group of people who were performing a pre- Espanic ritual dance to warn away bad spirits. It included lots of chanting and dancing traditional costumes.

On the way home we stopped at Fun Central which is a plaza for kids that has an ice skating rink, bowling alley, arcade games and a cinema. We started with a game of bowling and I did surprisingly well! I got a lot of strikes and came first by over 25 points! We then went to the ice rink which I haven't had much practice at. I didn't fall over but I didn't go very fast or stray far from the railings. 

For dinner we are churros rellano which are thick churros with a hole in the middle to fill with a range of syrups. I ate one filled with white chocolate and another filled with cajeta which tastes like a combination of caramel and chocolate. 

Sunday morning we left at 6am and drove to Guanajuato. On the way we drove past a couple of churches which looked really different. On of them was on the top of a very big hill and another looked like a blue and white dome with a tower on top of it. 

Tourism is the main source of income for the people who live in Guanajuato. It is a very beautiful city that I really love because you can explore and get lost but if you keep walking you easily find your way back. The city is built in between two mountains and some of the roads are tunnels. We arrived, by coincidence on a day with one of the largest celebrations of the year! It was the final day of the celebration of Mexican Independence Day so there was a massive parade through the city centre for about 4 hours! We arrived just before it started so as we explored the city we were also able to watch parts of the parade.

We went to the markets and I used my Spanish bartering skills to buy a sombrero at a very good price! There were lots of stalls with lots of beautiful colourful things. I bought a couple of souvenirs and presents while I was there.

We visited a some beautiful building like the Universidad de Guanajuato (the university) which has an amazing view at the top! We also walked past a church, gardens and more of the parade.

View from the top

Military in the parade

We worked our way to the teleférico which is a lift that goes up the hill. At the top of the hill was the Museo de leyendas (museum of legends) which was a visual explanation of some of the legends in the city.

In the teleférico

A legend in Guadajuato about the 'Callejón del Beso' 

At the top of the hill is the Pípila as well as an amazing view of the city below. The Pípila is a statue of Juan José de los Reyes Martínez Amaro, who was a significant figure in the Mexican War of Independence at the beginning of the 19th century.

El Pípila

We took the teleférico back down and on our way we walked past the theatre and outside there was a mime who gained a large crowd including a lot of tourists and kept them entertained for over half an hour. We sat down and watch and that's when I realised that he was acting in a way that everyone found funny even though not everyone spoke the same language. He did a really great job.  

We then continued walking and came to the Callejón de Beso. The alley has two balconies that almost touch and a legend that goes with it. The legend is that the daughter of a rich man lived in the house on the left. When he discovered his daughter with the man she loved (who was from a different class in society) he locked he in her room. The young man spent almost all he earned to rent the house with the balcony that nearly touched hers so they could spend time together. One day the father discovered them kissing so he went up to the girl's room and stabbed her to death in front of her lover. He then gave her a final kiss and later on committed suicide.

It is now a major tourist attraction and lovers kiss under the balcony on the third step for good luck. I was just with my family so a couple of people volunteered to kiss me when they saw that I wasn't with a guy. I declined.

The balconies 

After, we visited the Museo de las Momias de Guadajuato (museum of mummies.) The mummies were dead for at least 50 years before being uncovered in the mid 19th century. The bodies were in overground graves so they decayed naturally but the skin stayed and mummified the bodies. They are displayed almost exactly as they were found, some even with clothes and hair. The exhibition also has the smallest mummy in the world which was only 6 months when it was born prematurely. It is displayed next to it's mother who died at the same time.  

A mummy with the hair and clothes that she died with

The skin of the mummies has shriveled up around their bones with Roberto impersonating them

The world's smallest mummy  

We arrived back at the hotel and had a quick rest before dinner. The hotel was really interesting so I took photos. 

While we were eating dinner, a man came up and told us about a performance and talking tour that was happening later on at night. It sounded good so we went and had a good time. They were a group from the university and started off by playing some music. They had some really good tambourine playing skills! We then walked around the city as they said told us some of the legends about love and we ended in the Callerjón del Beso (alley of the kiss.)

On the Monday we left the city and traveled to San Miguel. It was raining lightly but we ate ice cream regardless. The buildings in the streets are coloured in different warm shades of red, oragnge and yellow which was nice to walk down on a slightly cold day. The main church in the city is very beautiful but it was hard to get a good photo because there were a lot of people trying to do the same thing as me.

After some shopping, we hit the road again and the next stop was Pechuca. There isn't much in Pechuca but there was one an 'El Globo' which makes the best bread in Mexico. Pechuca is known for making pasties and there are a lot of pastie shops in the city! So while we were there we ate some pasties.


We returned to Veracruz late at night after an amazing trip. The weekend after though, I went to a swimming pool on Saturday morning and I think I might have accidentally swallowed some water because by Saturday afternoon I was really sick. I had bad stomach pains and hardly ate anything for 4 days. I went to the doctor and got treated for a stomach infection so I rested and was fine by the Thursday. 

Ruta Independencia Part 1

Days in Mexico: 241, only 99 left :(

This is the first of two posts because I have done so much and taken so many photos! This post is a bit later than normal because I have been in bed with a stomach infection for the past 5 days. I'm feeling a lot better now but you will read about what happened at the end of the second part which I will post when I have finished writing it

The other week I travelled around Mexico with my family. We left Veracruz on the 25th of September really early in the morning and went to Puebla for breakfast. On the way we passed the 2 largest mountains in Mexico; Pico de Orizaba and Volcán Popocatépet.

A beautiful street in Puebla

For breakfast we went to the markets and ate cemitas which are a type of massive bread roll, filled with ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado and chicken schnitzel that originated in Puebla. A couple of hundred, maybe even thousand of cemitas are made fresh everyday at the market!

Cemita

So many bread rolls!

And so much cheese!!

At the markets there were lots of piñata shops. We watched as piñatas were mad using newspaper and a warm glue made out of a flour and water mixture.

Puebla is famous for having lots of churches. On every street there was at least one church so while we were there we visited 2 churches; Catedral de Puebla and Capilla de la Virgen del Rosario. They are two of the largest cathedrals in the city and have lots of fine details on the inside and outside. They reminded me of some of the beautiful churches in Europe.
Catedral de Puebla

Capilla de la Virgen del Rosario

We then left Puebla and arrived in Mexico City for lunch. We ate huarache, which is a traditional food made with tortia dough and frijoles (beans.) The bean mixture is put inside the tortia dough and it is stretched out to make a long oval shape. It's then cooked on a hot plate and served with other ingredients on top. I ate one with melted cheese on it.

In the afternoon we went to Xochimilco which is a river surrounded by vegetation. My host parents went there about 10 years ago and they said it was more beautiful back then because it wasn't as polluted or developed as it currently is. In the Summer it is really popular and there are lots of boats ready for tourists. There are also boats with mariachi bands that play music as you are floating down the river.

At night we went into the centre of the city and saw the light which were especially up for Independence Day. I have been to that part of the city before with my first host family in March, but it was nice to return and see the light displays. For dinner we ate fresh churros and hot chocolate.

The lights for Mexico Independence Day

Churros and hot chocolate. YUM!!!

On Friday we left at 5am and drove south into Morelos. We needed to leave early because the traffic is really bad at any time of the day or night in Mexico City. Mexico City and the surrounding suburbs have a combined population of about 22 million people, which is only a bit less than the entire population of Australia!

A quick breakfast of quesadillas and coffee. On the plate next to the coffee are a bread made from corn that are rapped in the leaves of the corn plant

We stopped for breakfast on the way and arrived at 'El Rollo' at 9am. El Rollo is the largest aquatic park in Latin America and is located near Cuarnervaca (where I went for the 'Bienvenido' last month. There are more than 30 water slides and hardly any queues so we had heaps of fun! The two scariest slides that I went on were the tallest in the park. One was a tube that you stand in and the floor drops from beneath your feet (the red tube in the next picture.) You gain momentum as you slide down and do a loop-de-loop before shooting out the bottom. The other scary slide was an open slide (the yellow one.) It is almost a vertical drop and for most of it, I was free falling before being caught by the slide at the bottom. It was thrilling but you end a with a really big wedgie!

The waterslides were so tall and so much fun

 There was also a wave machine for surfing so I had a go. I wasn't able to stand up on the board but I did get close to it a couple of times. I think it is harder to surf on the machine than it is to surf in real life at the beach. It was lots of fun, even though I ended but with lots of bruises.

On the way home we stopped at 'La Lupita.' The atmosphere is exactly how I imagined a traditional Mexican restaurant in Mexico City to be like; lots of people, music playing, rotisseries with juicy meat and the small of lemons, chilli and fresh, hot tortias in the air. The tacos that we ate were the best I have ever tasted! Even when I was full, my mouth craved the tasted and wanted more. I ate a 'gringo' which is a flour tortia with rotisserie meat and cheese on it and another tortia on top.

The restaurant

Possibly the best taco of my life!

We returned home late (mainly because of the traffic) and everyone was really tired so on Saturday we left at 10am with an aunty and uncle who live in Mexico City. For breakfast we had soup and tacos de borrego en hoyo con penca de maguey, which means tacos with the meat of lamb which has been slow cooked in a hole a in stove BBQ and has agave (a type of plant) in it.

Borrego en hoyo con maguey

The lamb meat was so good and melted in my mouth

Then we went to the pyramids in Teotihuacan. The pyramid 'Sol' (meaning sun) is the largest of it's kind on the continent of America. It was built between 100 and 200 AD and next to it starts the pyramid 'Luna' (moon.) Unlike the pyramids in Egypt, these pyramids were built to worship the day (sun) and night (moon) and don't have mummies inside them. I was able to climb all the way to the top of the pyramid of sun but only part of the way on the other pyramid is open to the public, so I climbed as high as I could. At the top of the pyramid of the sun there is a metal point that signifies the middle of the pyramid. Lots of people wanted to touch it so it was hard to get a photo of it, but it did end up getting one.

At the top of the Pyramid of Sun with my host family

Pirámide del Sol

The middle point

Jazmín and Roberto at the top of the pyramid  

Pirámide de la Luna

On top of the the Pyramid of the Moon, with the other pyramid and the hills in the background. Photo from Instagram