An Aussie in Mexico: The Big Catch-up Part 1

Days in México: 267

The past couple of week ends have been crazily busy with Rotary commitments and travel so this week I am in Veracruz and am having a catch-up week for my blog and paperwork for Rotary. This will be the first of two or three catch-up posts.

On Saturday the 11th of October all the exchange students in the city went to a conference for the Centeral American Games and Rotary. We were presented one by one with our country's flag. There were so many people taking photos that we didn't know where to look! After the conference we had a group photo with the mascots of the games and then we ate breakfast.

In the conference

Photos with the mascots

Sunday the 12th, all the exchange students were invited to a pool party hosted by the Rotary club Liberdad (Liberty.) We had a great time and it was good to meet some other people that were involved in Rotary in the city.

The weekend after I went to Puebla for a trip with Rotex. Ten exchange students from my city went by bus on Friday, stayed overnight in Puebla then traveled with 90 other exchange students to Cuetzalan (about 4 hours by bus) in the morning. I Puebla I stayed in a house with four other exchange students and one Rotex (an exchange student who went on exchange last year.) The weather in Veracruz (my host city) is warmer than the other states close because it is a sea level and lots of the other cities have a higher altitude. So it was nice to have some cooler weather for a change.

Cuetzalan is in the clouds. On the way up the mountain we could see a waterfall

The first activity for the weekend was going to a waterfall. The water was freezing so not many people went in to the water but I did because I knew that I might not the get the chance to do it again. I even swam across and climbed on the rocks behind the waterfall. It was a really great experience.

Everyone at the waterfall

I made it to the other side of the waterfall! I'm at the top in the pink bikini

In the afternoon it was raining a lot so we had free time. When the rain eased a bit I went out exploring Cuetzalan with some of my friends. It then started to rain even heavier while we out and we returned to the hotel saturated!

The exchange students walking the streets of Cuetzalan with their suitcases

The church in the centre of the city

It started raining so heavily while we were out that rivers formed in the streets

The street that the hotel was on

At night we went to the Lienzo del Charro el Potrillo which is a restaurant that puts on a show while you are eating. The performers in the show did some dancers and some other bits in traditional clothing.

On the Sunday we woke up late then went to Yohualichan, an archaeological site that has pyramids. We spent about an hour taking photos and walking around before heading back to Puebla at night. We stayed in the same houses as Friday night which made me feel comfortable.

Rotex

Flags: USA, Australia, Ecuador, Brazil, Finland, Germany, France, Taiwan, Turkey, Denmark, India and Hungary

For dinner we went out and ate tacos árabes which is a food typically eaten in Puebla. The tacos were really delicious and reminded me of Turkish kebabs but unfortunately a couple of hours later mine didn't stay in my stomach. No one else had problems with the tacos, just me.