Mexico III

Ol' Benito Juarez and Alex. 

The first time we tried real street-side taco stand food. We never got sick.

If you are driving in Mexico and you see construction - beware! It will last at least 20 miles and there will be strange and sometimes dangerous detours. When there aren't detours, there will be no shoulders and 1.5 lanes for both lanes of traffic.

 

Balamku. I believe this is the largest frieze that we know of from the period that still has stucco and a little bit of paint. Imagine! It was amazing to see how well it has survived through the centuries. Now you can see there is a strange roof protecting it from the elements. This one site made me appreciate all the others even more to see how all of the temples/pyramids were probably decorated at one time. 

Toucan

Please don't urinate on the floor. Ah, Mexico...

Behold... Calakmul!!! This was one of the major Mayan sites during the Mayan Classical period along with Palenque and Tikal. It was a relatively recent discovery and only a very small part has been excavated/restored. Everywhere you go around here, there are mounds and hills covered with dirt and jungle and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to picture all of the ruins that have yet to be uncovered. It is located far off the beaten track in the middle of the jungle. 

These are all howler monkeys. We had a few sightings, but near one pyramid where we sat down in the shade to take a break, there was a whole family of 5 or 6 hanging out in a tree not 10 feet away. They looked at us but didn't pay too much more attention to us than that. 

Wildlife as Olympus sees it.

This round stone they think is where human sacrifices took place.

There is another pyramid behind Alex if you use your imagination.

A coati.

A cabana where we spent the night in Mahahual. No air conditioning but a nice place on the beach. (Finally, a week into our trip, we found the beach!)

This picture is to demonstrate the fact that due to the humidity, I pretty much always looked like someone had just Shop-vacked my head. 

More Mexico

As promised.

The ruin pictures are from Uxmal. This is a truly breath-taking place that shows Mayan architecture at its finest.

Part of the "nunnery" so named by some Spanish exporers. 

Still nunnery.

The Turtle House. Aren't the turtles cute?

The governor's palace. Simply amazing. I couldn't get back far enough to get it all.

They knew which way heaven was.

Lots of friends at the ruins. 

The caves at Loltun. These caves have been visited and used by thousands of generations for many different purposes: burying relatives, collecting water, gathering clay for pots, making hand prints on the walls, shelter during the caste war, among probably many other reasons.

Yaxcopoil, an old henequen hacienda. The man you see here worked here making henequen rope up until it closed in 1984. 

The henequen factory

A cart pulled by mules used to transport the agave leaves to the factory from the fields.

Zebu cattle starving waiting for the rainy season to begin

Where the owner and his family would have lived at the hacienda.

Don't be mad, Alex. I'm ready to go now.

From a museum at Campeche.

Still more to come. I had no idea it would be so hard to choose pictures to try to convey our trip. One thing is certain: the pictures do not convey how hot it was. I am sweating again just looking at these.

Driving in Mexico

This past week was an eventful week for us. We finished our adventure in Mexico, flew home on our four year anniversary, and I started my first job as a real professional.

I want to share some pictures of Mexico, but we took nearly 1,500 and it will take me a while to sort through them. I may have to post in installments.

We decided to rent a car and drive in Mexico. I would recommend it to anyone that wants lots of flexibility and a place to store their stuff while climbing pyramids. Here are some words of advice for anyone renting a car in Mexico:

1. A red light doesn't always mean stop, especially if the guy behind you is honking at you.
2. Beware of topes (speed bumps). That one is worth repeating. BEWARE OF TOPES!
3. Don't let the gasman cheat you. He might try.
4. Lane lines are suggestions. Especially when oncoming semis veer into your lane to pass traffic.
5. Shoulders of the road are for bikes, pedestrians, tricycle motorcycles, and for you when oncoming traffic is in your lane.
6. When turning left off of the freeway, pull over into the shoulder, put on your hazards, and wait until no one is behind you before turning (this one makes sense - no use slowing down everyone behind you!)
7. Hazards are good for lots of things: when you are turning, when you feel like driving slow, or just because.
8. Blink your lights to claim the right of way.
9. If there is roadwork going on, don't be surprised when you are re-routed down a dirt lane, forced to come back to the main road to wait thirty minutes for no apparent reason, then re-routed onto another narrow, bumpy dirt lane to face oncoming traffic that consists of semis, buses, and other cars for miles on end.

Now some pictures

Church door - Valladolid

Two chihueys at the Valladolid hostel. Alex wants a Chihuahua now.

The nunnery at Chichen Itza

 Izamal, la ciudad dorada (golden city). Friar Landa, loved (for making a record of Mayan culture, history, etc as he found it in the 16th century) and hated (for burning hundreds of Mayan bark books for being sacrilegious) by Mayans, scholars, and Mayan enthusiasts built much of the city using stones from the few nearby Mayan pyramids. Using the conveniently pre-cut pyramid stones happened many other places in the Yucatan.

Inside the cathedral at Izamal with our tour guide. He liked holding my hand...

Traditional dancers at Merida

um

 Mayan skull in the antropology museum at Merida.

Museum

Same museum

Alex, the Mexican revolutionary

An expensive chocolate shop/cafe. You all know chocolate originated in the Americas, right? Cocoa beans were commonly used as money back in the Mayan day.

 The cathedral doors - Merida

zonked

self portrait. Alex! Look at the camera!

We made a few friends

Still Merida 

the end.

For now. I only got through the first few days. Stay tuned!

Graduation

I am sure that some of you out there thought that "vet school" was just a big ploy on my part. A convenient excuse for why I couldn't come out to visit or couldn't participate in a certain social event. A hoax to make me feel smart and like I was actually doing something with my life. Well you were right wrong. Believe it or not, I was in actual fact a veterinary student and now I am in actual fact a veterinarian. I graduated on Sunday.

It was a lovely ceremony made even lovelier by all the wonderful people that came to support me. Thank you everyone that came, that sent a note, and that supported me all the time during vet school by asking how I was doing, understanding when time or finances were limited, and especially for the one person that had to live with me and offer love and support and talk me off the ledge a few times.

A few pictures from Nauvoo, where we visited on Saturday. Something of note: the wood floor in the picture on the right has a very neat history behind it: the building was auctioned off sometime after the saints left Nauvoo for a mere $4.40. No business could thrive there (undoubtedly because Nauvoo was somewhat of a ghost town and still is compared to its heyday when it rivaled Chicago) and eventually was converted to a family dwelling. The third floor by that time was in disrepair and was torn down. When the church rebought the building to restore it, underneath the roof the original wood floor was still intact. According to the senior sister who gave us the tour, this was the floor where Joseph and Emma danced (along with many other early saints) and where Joseph drew with a piece of chalk the route that would be taken to get to the Salt Lake Valley.

And of course, some pictures of the big day.

In the bottom left, that is me telling my sister "trust me, I'm a professional." 

Apparently I like collages today. 

Follow-up

Since there was so much interest, here is the recipe we used for Easter. There aren't a whole lot of rabbit recipes out there (since Americans don't eat too much rabbit), and I am not averse to substituting rabbit for chicken, but if anyone has good rabbit recipes, let me know!

Also, a few more pictures from the race, courtesy of the pro sports photographers, just so you can see how beautiful we are when we run.

running together before parting ways around mile 9

pain

never so glad to cross a line 

(why doesn't anyone else look like they hurt?)

can you see him? he is just behind the pregnant lady. 

saying ouch inside

(what? I got beat by a pregnant lady?!?)

ouch

 my name is Alex and I have big leg muscles. And a look of sheer determination.

Two days

Stuff has happened in the last two days. Significant stuff. For instance, yesterday, Alex and I nearly killed ourselves running the Champaign-Urbana half marathon. I am honestly not sure if it was harder than the marathon we did 3.5 years ago, but it sure felt like it was at the time. It was SO hard to push myself the whole 13.1 miles, and especially the last mile. However, I knew that I could suffer a little now and be much more pleased after the race about my performance than to slack a little and know forever that I could have done better had I just tried harder. We certainly didn't set any world records, but we met our personal goals (we were shooting for an 8:30 minute mile and came in at an 8:02 and 8:16 minute mile averages).

tired kids

(the next time you see Alex, please comment on his awesome post marathon pom-pom hair)

I also learned that it is not as simple as one might think to drink water while running.

And then today, I had my final ICU shift at the veterinary hospital. Kiss it goodbye - vet school is over.

A couple of Easter pictures:

We were grateful to be able to eat home-grown meat for Easter.

Finally, Ruben wanted to say hi: