The week leading up to Easter I had spring break - a glorious week of no class, no work, no worries. And to top it all off, my mom was able to come visit for the week! We had a wonderful time, and while I won't go into everything that we did (and trust me, we crammed a LOT into one short week!), I would like to mention a few highlights.
My mom flew down on Palm Sunday, and I took a shuttle from Xalapa to the Veracruz airport to meet her. I knew I'd be excited to see her, but when I finally saw her I was sooo happy! :) Her luggage arrived without problems, and we grabbed a cab and then a bus to Puebla. It was a long trip -- and I know it felt even longer for Mom!! But we finally made it to our hotel, cobbled together dinner from the neighborhood Oxxo, and went to sleep.
In Puebla, we explored the historic district all day. We took a double-decker bus tour, and I got a lot of practicing translating quickly for Mom! Of course we visited the main cathedral, which has the tallest towers of any cathedral in Mexico. Just before lunch we took a brief walk down Calle Dulce, where they sell all manners of sweets and also have a talavera workship, and managed to escape with just a few talavera coasters and two small bags of chocolate-covered candy-coated almonds. The talavera shop was great -- we walked around looking at all of the beautiful handmade pieces, and when we reached the back room we saw the actual workshop off to the side! I enjoyed taking a few minutes to watch the artists painting the pottery pieces, bringing beautiful designs into full color out of thin air. If you ever get the chance to go to Puebla, make sure you see at least one talavera workshop! Later on in the afternoon we visited Museo Amparo, which houses a beautiful collection of art, but also has a rooftop terrace with some of the most beautiful panoramas I have ever seen.
The next day we took the bus back to Veracruz, which was significantly hotter than Puebla! After cooling off in our hotel for a few minutes, we took a taxi to the Acuario of Veracruz. It was a lot of fun, and the perfect way to be entertained without exhausting ourselves. We saw tropical birds, sharks, lots and lots of fish, jellyfish, otters(!), manatees, dolphins, and penguins! Although many of the tanks were kind of hard to see into -- particularly the manatees and dolphins -- the aquarium was still fun. After we finished, we walked around the "beach" of Veracruz and enjoyed people watching. It seemed like there were more people on the beach than sand!
On Wednesday, we had breakfast at the famous Gran Café de la Parroquía, where I ordered the famous lechero. The waiter serves you a glass cup with just a bit of coffee in the bottom, and when you are ready for your drink, you tap your spoon on the side of your glass. A "milk boy" then comes and pours the milk into your glass from quite a height -- probably two to three feet! While the lechero was certainly delicious, I don't think it was drastically better than others I've had (I know, I shouldn't say that!). After breakfast, we took a tranvía tour of Veracruz, and then went to San Juan de Ulúa. San Juan started off as a castle, quickly became a military fort (and defended Veracruz against pirates and even the United States). Over the years, both the French and the Americans occupied the fort at various times, but the city of Veracruz was ultimately victorious in expelling the invaders. For each successful expulsion, the city gained the title of "heroic" -- today, Heróica Veracruz is four times heroic! After the Mexican Revolution, the fort was largely converted into a prison for political prisoners. As you can see in one of the pictures below, the cells would have been a miserable place to stay: cramped, wet, dark, and sticky-hot.
Thursday we took an easier trip to the archeological site of Cempoala. Though the bus we took to reach the ruins dropped us at what seemed like a normal neighborhood, a short walk brought us to the site. Meaning "place of twenty waters" in Nahuatl, this city of the Totonac people was incredibly important, and one of the first places in America which Hernan Cortés encountered. Formerly home to an estimated 30000 people, the Totonacs allied with Cortés against the Aztec Empire, which ultimately led to their downfall due to widespread death from European diseases. The area we explored was the former religious and political center of Cempoala. Several pyramid-shaped temples are pretty well-preserved, and there is a tower for voladores which is still used for some special occasions. Amazingly, the temples were built with river stone held together by a form of concrete made from crushed seashells. According to historic accounts, during the time of the Totonacs the buildings shone like silver (which of course also served as an attractant for the Spanish conquistadores). One other thing from Thursday that should be mentioned -- we had some incredible shrimp at a little restaurant called RESTAURANT NAME in Cardel. Definitely worth a visit!!
Friday saw us back on the road for a bit, this time heading to my Xalapa. We grabbed lunch at a restaurant downtown before checking in at our hotel across the street from my house. Though it was cloudy out, it wasn't raining, so we decided to risk it and went to Macuiltepetl. I found out from the taxista that it hadn't rained too much in Xalapa the past week, so we walked down into the crater of the volcano. I know now why the mountain was known as the home of the flower god! With wildflowers blooming all around, the crater was awash in the wonderful smell of flowers and dotted with the color of their blossoms. We also climbed up to the Mirador, though it was too cloudy for good views of the area (we couldn't even see Pico Orizaba, sadly!), and admired the eagles and the mausoleum before heading back into town.
On Saturday, we took the tranvía tour of Xalapa (which I had never done before) and visited the Museo de Antropología. The English guide wasn't available, so I was really glad I had been before and remembered a fair bit to share with Mom! After a great lunch at a steak house, we shopped a bit around historic downtown. That evening we decided to go see Cinderella, since the other movie I saw at the theater here was in English. La Cenicienta, however, was not... Lots of points to Mom for putting up with a movie in a foreign language! I really enjoyed the movie, though, and the experience was even better because the little girl sitting next to me was loving it so much! If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and go, and take a little girl with you :)
Sunday was Mom's last full day here in Mexico. We went to the 12:00 Easter service at my church, where Mom got to meet some of my church family here. Mimi, another one of my friends here, is leaving on Wednesday to go to university, so I had another bittersweet "hasta luego". I'm really thankful that I met her and that she did so much to encourage me to get involved at church, even though I still haven't managed to make it to youth group!! After church, we went back to my house, and my host family here took us to lunch and to the Cascadas de Texolo. Mom and I walked around the waterfalls, exploring the trails for a bit, and then we all went to Merendero el Chinini, the BEST place I've eaten while I've been here in Mexico (and trust me, that's saying a lot!). I loved spending time with all of them! After lunch, we went back into El Xico to buy bread and cookies from a panadería, since Xico makes the best cookies around. Back in Xalapa, we started packing up Mom's stuff before going to bed.
We left for the airport Monday morning, and I'll freely admit I had a hard time saying bye to Mom, even though I barely have a month left here. In contrast with my normal super-chill weeks here, spring break was a nice burst of business. And sharing this beautiful country with my mom was even better! No, Mexico isn't perfect. But neither is any place in this world, and honestly, I think Mexico has a lot of wonderful and beautiful people, places, foods, and ideas to offer the world. Sure, I miss being home with all of my friends and family, but if I'm going to spend a semester abroad, Xalapa is a pretty amazing place to be! Earlier today I read a list of "ways to know you're a true xalapeño," and I laughed when I realized that I knew most of the things on the list, and had done a good number of them myself! If you are ever offered a trip to Xalapa, or really most any part of Mexico, TAKE IT. You'll learn a lot, and see a beautiful and largely unknown/misrepresented/misunderstood part of the world!
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