The last four days since we made a post have been jampacked and full of new experiences. There is a lot to tell, and we hope that we can tell it as quickly as possible. Also, don't forget to check out the gallery for more photos of our adventures.
First full day in Mexico City (aka day 2)
We woke up to a delicious breakfast, prepared by Nico, the director of Casa de los Amigos. All of our meals have been accompanied by fresh fruit and various other fresh things. After breakfast, we headed off to the Zocalo, Mexico City's central square.On our walk, we got our first real taste of Mexico City. We passed street stall after street stall selling everything from Tacos Gigantes (Giant Tacos), to knockoff sunglasses, to magazines with the latest news on Justin Bieber. Traffic was noisy, street vendors vehemently shouted out what they had to sell, and the smells of the city assaulted our noses. Despite all of this, Mexico City is really pretty.
There are public spaces everywhere, the streets are really well taken care of, and the architecture is really beautiful. Also, there are some really nice parks. On our walk, we passed through one really nice park with fountains, statues and lots and lots of people enjoying the really nice park and weather.
Continuing on our walk, we were drawing near to the Zocalo we heard chants in the distance. The group split at this point, as some of us wanted to investigate. When we got closer, we found a gigantic protest. Seth threw right into the Spanish immersion aspect of our trip by shouting out to the people marching near where we were that we were students from America who wanted to hear about what they were doing.
Continuing on our walk, we were drawing near to the Zocalo we heard chants in the distance. The group split at this point, as some of us wanted to investigate. When we got closer, we found a gigantic protest. Seth threw right into the Spanish immersion aspect of our trip by shouting out to the people marching near where we were that we were students from America who wanted to hear about what they were doing.
We all siezed the moment and paired up with a random person from the march to find out what they were doing. What we found out is that it was a teacher's union strike, protesting for better pay and treatment from the government. After a while, we had to continue on our way, and reluctantly left our conversations, thanking them all for talking with us.
We met back up at the Zocalo after some confusion and phone calls, and toured the cathedral there, and then we all went in to the Templo Mayor, the Aztec ruin mentioned briefly in the previous post.
We met back up at the Zocalo after some confusion and phone calls, and toured the cathedral there, and then we all went in to the Templo Mayor, the Aztec ruin mentioned briefly in the previous post.
We spent a while there, and had some pretty hilarious encounters with a school group of about 50 elementary school kids. All museumed out, we found a place to eat lunch, where our previous post was penned. After that, we split up for the afternoon. Some people headed straight back to La Casa, while a few (Sam, Lynn, Sophie Drew, Alan, and Caleb) elected to try and visit a couple different museums on the walk back. Unfortunately, they were all closed, and we ended up with nothing more than a pleasant walk back.
 |
| Avatar, GI Joe and an angel in the street |
When we were almost back, Sam, Drew, Alan and Caleb decided to visit a nearby plaza called El Monumento del Revolucion, where we had heard there were free rides to the top. At the top, we got some great views of Mexico City, and Sam coerced us into taking a picture with some bubbly teenage girls.
We also spent some time watching people play in the fountain, and even went and ran in it ourselves.
That night after dinner, we attended a presentation at La Casa by an indigenous women from a sewing cooperative. She talked about her village's struggle to support themselves when many of them came to Mexico City. After the talk, we got a chance to purchase some of the awesome things she had made, and we came out of it with purses, dolls, and even a poncho that Bradley proudly wears. After the talk, we all collapsed into bed, tired after a very full first day.
That night, after a delicious dinner prepared by Seth, we heard another presentation by a woman named Rolene Walker, who had walked from Mexico to Chile to raise awareness about climate change. She gave a very lively and fast paced talk about her walk and both the problems she had seen, and the work being done on these problems by various groups. By the end, we had all pledged to plant 10 trees in our lifetimes and were all fired up on the issue of climate change.
After the talk a few of us went to the Monumento del Revolucion to see if there was any interesting nightlife.
We climbed up a short set of steep stairs and led to a tiny sitting room that we all piled into. After sitting there for a couple moments, one of the founders, and operator of Tochan, named Gaby Hernandez came in and greeted us warmly, bringing with her three of the residents at Tochan. She gave us more of an intro to the house and the work they do, and introduced us to three residents of the house. Two of them were brothers, 17 and 18 years old, from Honduras. They told us a little bit about themselves, what they liked, and what they wanted to do with their lives. The 17 year old was really into basketball and studying and wanted to become either a pharmecuitical chemist or famous rapper. The 18 year old was really into technology. Both of them liked a lot of the same music as us, and we found lots of similarities between us. Despite all the similarities, the differences between us were pretty huge. Both of them had been married at 15, and they both had kids. They had to leave Honduras because their entire family had gotten death threats from a gang, and had dealt with bribes and the threat of imminent death in their travels to Mexico City. It was pretty hard to listen to their stories, and many of us felt uncomfortable sitting there listening to the stories of these migrants who had so many terrible things happen to them when we were a bunch of rich white Americans who were able to return to a life of comfort at the end of three weeks.
After hearing their stories, Gaby took us on a very quick tour of Tochan, very being the key word as Tochan only houses 12 people at a time. After our tour, we sat down and spent more time talking with the residents of Tochan. After two hours, we reluctantly left and headed back to La Casa.
After all splitting up to get lunch, we headed off in small groups to different parts of Mexico City.
Day 2
For Drew and Sam, this day started really early, with a trip to the market for our breakfast. They returned with tamales, fresh fruit, and tortillas made 15 minutes prior. After breakfast, we headed off to the Mexican anthropology museum, which we had heard was a must see in Mexico City.
For Drew and Sam, this day started really early, with a trip to the market for our breakfast. They returned with tamales, fresh fruit, and tortillas made 15 minutes prior. After breakfast, we headed off to the Mexican anthropology museum, which we had heard was a must see in Mexico City.
It definitely lived up to its reputation, and we spent a good three hours wandering through, looking at relics, and trying to decipher the signs in Spanish. By the end of our time in the museum, we all agreed with what Sam's father had said, that the museum really should be visited over the span of two days.
After we left the museum, we split up again fro the afternoon. Some of us explored the park near the museum, where we found cotton candy and pickup soccer with a group of people from around the world.
Other people went to see the Frida Khalo house, where they found an exhibit of her clothes and paintings.
That night, after a delicious dinner prepared by Seth, we heard another presentation by a woman named Rolene Walker, who had walked from Mexico to Chile to raise awareness about climate change. She gave a very lively and fast paced talk about her walk and both the problems she had seen, and the work being done on these problems by various groups. By the end, we had all pledged to plant 10 trees in our lifetimes and were all fired up on the issue of climate change.
After the talk a few of us went to the Monumento del Revolucion to see if there was any interesting nightlife.
 |
| The Monument (not at night) |
We found a dog owners party, lots of groups of people hanging out, and a dance group performing traditional Aztec dances, which Oriana was very tempted to join in with. We headed back to the Casa to end yet another exhaustingly full day.
Day 3
Today was our first day of doing things that were a little bit less touristy. Our group trip was to a place called Tochan, a migrant house for people who had trouble as they made their way through Mexico and for whatever reason ended up in Mexico City. Before we went, we were given an introduction to Tochan and the idea of transmigration by Nico. We learned a lot about how Mexico is both a destination and a transit cooridor. We also spent some time talking about how to carry ourselves around the migrants we were going to visit. After a ride on the Metro and a short walk, we arrived at Tochan.
Today was our first day of doing things that were a little bit less touristy. Our group trip was to a place called Tochan, a migrant house for people who had trouble as they made their way through Mexico and for whatever reason ended up in Mexico City. Before we went, we were given an introduction to Tochan and the idea of transmigration by Nico. We learned a lot about how Mexico is both a destination and a transit cooridor. We also spent some time talking about how to carry ourselves around the migrants we were going to visit. After a ride on the Metro and a short walk, we arrived at Tochan.
We climbed up a short set of steep stairs and led to a tiny sitting room that we all piled into. After sitting there for a couple moments, one of the founders, and operator of Tochan, named Gaby Hernandez came in and greeted us warmly, bringing with her three of the residents at Tochan. She gave us more of an intro to the house and the work they do, and introduced us to three residents of the house. Two of them were brothers, 17 and 18 years old, from Honduras. They told us a little bit about themselves, what they liked, and what they wanted to do with their lives. The 17 year old was really into basketball and studying and wanted to become either a pharmecuitical chemist or famous rapper. The 18 year old was really into technology. Both of them liked a lot of the same music as us, and we found lots of similarities between us. Despite all the similarities, the differences between us were pretty huge. Both of them had been married at 15, and they both had kids. They had to leave Honduras because their entire family had gotten death threats from a gang, and had dealt with bribes and the threat of imminent death in their travels to Mexico City. It was pretty hard to listen to their stories, and many of us felt uncomfortable sitting there listening to the stories of these migrants who had so many terrible things happen to them when we were a bunch of rich white Americans who were able to return to a life of comfort at the end of three weeks.
After hearing their stories, Gaby took us on a very quick tour of Tochan, very being the key word as Tochan only houses 12 people at a time. After our tour, we sat down and spent more time talking with the residents of Tochan. After two hours, we reluctantly left and headed back to La Casa.
After all splitting up to get lunch, we headed off in small groups to different parts of Mexico City.
Some people went to see some murals done by Diego Rivera, some went shopping in a street market, and Seth, Berta (volunteer at La Casa and Scattergood class of '99), Caleb and Sophie went shopping for dinner, which we were also feeding to all the volunteers at the Casa as way of thanks for the hospitality they had shown us.. We decided to shop at the "exotic foods" market, mostly just to see the sights. At the market we found rows of whole chickens, advertisements for kangaroo, crocodile, guinea hen, and all sorts of weird things.
 |
| Sophie and Berta (Class of '99) |
Along with the weird things, we found gourmet cheeses, flours and an amazing amount of fresh fruits and vegetables. We ended up spending around 480 pesos, or $36.66 to feed about 25 people.
After we returned from our shopping, we threw together a delicious meal of cucumber salad, potato and spinach soup, arepas (a Venezuelan corn meal cake, similar to grits), and a lot of rice and vegetables. We shared a great meal with the volunteers, and a few of us definitely plan on returning to La Casa de los Amigos at some point in our futures.
After we returned from our shopping, we threw together a delicious meal of cucumber salad, potato and spinach soup, arepas (a Venezuelan corn meal cake, similar to grits), and a lot of rice and vegetables. We shared a great meal with the volunteers, and a few of us definitely plan on returning to La Casa de los Amigos at some point in our futures.
After dinner, we met for a few minutes to talk about our reactions to Tochan and to talk about our plans for the next few days. After a couple rounds of cards, we all headed off to bed.
Day 4
We woke up today to our last breakfast prepared by La Casa. We packed up our stuff and got ready to leave. By 10, our private van arrived and we said our goodbyes to La Casa. After thanking the volunteers multiple times, we all piled into the van and began our 7 hour journey, where we type this from in the van.
We recently stopped for lunch at a tiny little restaurant where we all ate delicous soup, various types of mole, cheese, and tortillas. We are passing through mountains with breathtaking views, tiny villages, and fields of all sorts, most of which as brown right now. The scenery is absolutely stunning, and no picture can truly capture it. We all wish you could see what we are seeing, and can't wait to tell you about it in more detail.
No comments:
Post a Comment