Respira, Respira

The coloring is a bit off, but I think you get the idea.

This Sunday we took our first trip! Seventeen of us traveled together in a van with a driver named David. He will probably make reappearances throughout the semester as I believe we will hire him for most of our trips. His van is perfect for our number and really is pretty awesome. It actually has stadium seating within the van, which makes for good conversation acoustics (well, to be honest, we all pretty much passed out both ways for this trip...but in the future I know our van-rides will hold a lot of promise...).
So, destination: Tepoztlan. Tepoztlan is a pretty small little down near Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos. It was quaint and beautiful and was sort of nestled at the bases some massive and very green mountains. Right away, we set off to our first activity-The conquering of El Tepozteco, a mountain with a pyramid on top. The main street led right to the base of the mountain. As we got closer, we saw signs warning us about the dangers of hiking and dehydration. The beginning of the ascent was lined with vendors offering a way out of workout ahead (and boy, at this time my legs were already feeling the burn...bad sign). However, as we began, I knew it was going to be vale la pena (worth it!). The way up was roughly 2,000 feet but my group stopped frequently to...take pictures and enjoy the scenery...and participate in such activities as the title of this blog implies. Now, the story in pictures:

The beginning of the climb!

How could one not stop to marvel at this beauty of creation?

So...Lush. 

Climbing buddies, Amanda and Reagan

The pyramid at the top! Usually it would have cost 30 pesos to go check it out, pero domingos son gratis!

The view from the top of the pyramid. Magnificent.

Students Victorious. Enjoying the view and the rest.  This pyramid ledge went all the way around the top for some nice and treacherous scaling!

Hi Mom and Dad!

There were these cute little creatures at the top of the mountain called Tejones and plenty of signs warning against feeding them. 

Baby Tejon!

I tried to make friends...it wasn't having any of it. 

After climbing down, our legs were all literally shaking. We ate some grub and headed to the market for some browsing. They had wonderful displays of fresh fruit and countless works of art. Believe it or not, I actually escaped with just a small 20 peso candle, a postcard, and some fruit. Eventually I will have to overcome thriftyness or I will come back empty-handed, but for now, I await the next stipend. We walked past an ex-convent in the middle of the market. Its entrance had a mural on it made completely of seeds!

We also encountered a procession in the street which was seemingly devoted to corn. There were tons of men and women carrying corn stalks and images of corn and one woman was incensing the entire group. I'm not really sure exactly what it was all about, but I gathered that corn is important. To say the least. It made me wonder why there are not any devotional activities to corn in the Midwest. Well, now that I think about it, there are probably some sweet parades somewhere around there.

All in all, it was quite the successful first trip. And now, I should really start some homework...

Oh and Sidenote: So, my schedule did not allow me to sign up for any Salsa dancing classes for the semester, which is very sad, but hopefully I'll still pick up a few techniques somewhere along the way. In its place, however, I have signed up for a Zumba class. Apparently the tag line for Zumba is "ditch the workout, join the party!" Basically, it is an aerobic dance class with somewhat of a latin feel to it and it started today! Today, I essentially just perfected the art of raising the heart rate by spastically moving around. Hey, whatever gets it done. My hopes for the semester include getting some Shakira hips learning how to do the whole rapid motion chest pump/thrusty thing that apparently takes a lot more coordination than I thought. After all those years dancing in front of Grandpa Joe and Grandma Pam's mirrors (well, almost any mirror that showed me my reflection), I would have thought I could handle it. Oh well.  However, I have to say that there was a cotton-eyed-joe number and I aced it!
An example of Zumba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0q6qtThF4

Mosquito Death Count: 22

Mexpandable Waistlines

Mama told me to stay away from the tequilla...but not the tequilla ice cream!!! Nor any flavor for that matter. Though dad probably would warn me about eating too much ice cream. But if I listened to all of these consumption warnings, where would this wonderful section of the blog be?
Anyways, at the mercado in Tepoztlan there were plenty of opportunities to get ice cream. In fact, in all of the mercados I have been to so far, as well as at random places on the streets, there are "nieve" stands with vendors offering free samples on those cute little spoons. There are countless flavors and I have not tried one I did not like. When I was with my host mother last weekend, I tried mango with this red chile powder/paste called "chamoy" spread on the inside of the cup and over the top of the ice cream. It was actually pretty delicious!
In Tepoztlan we went to an actual shop to buy some helado. Sidenote: In Mexico, they usually mean the same thing when they say "helado" and "nieve." However, there is a definite difference! (says Wikipedia). Helado is made industrially with more artificial substances and chemicals and with a higher content of fat. Nieve is mostly hand made and consists of the actual changing of liquid into solid using natural methods and salt. It has natural flavorings from fruit pulp or nuts or whatever the flavor is, including tequilla. At our helado stop, I got three samplings of different flavors. They were all delicious but I have no idea what they were because I just choppily asked the scooper girl what her favorites were and got those. Otherwise, I would have never been able to make a decision. Later on we passed one of many nieve stands in the market and they had tequilla flavor. My curiosity as well as my sweet tooth led me to wholeheartedly agree to my second serving of ice cream in less than an hour. I'm not really sure how to describe this flavor, except that it wasn't nasty, as I might have expected. It was sweet and not too strong. It basically had whatever, if any, good taste of tequilla in it mixed with sugar. I'm not sure if I would get it just to eat it again, there are too many other flavors waiting, but it was yet another MW experience for the win.