16 de Septiembre

¡Viva México!

 This was the cheer that could be heard at 11pm on the evening of September 15. Every year on this date, Mexicans gather in their town centers to begin the celebration of Mexican Independence, which is officially on September 16.  I bet right now some of you are thinking…but I thought Cinco de Mayo was Mexican Independence Day?!? This is not the case.  Cinco de Mayo does not commemorate Mexico's Independence in any way, but rather an unlikely Mexican victory in a battle against the French way back when. This day is not celebrated with the same gusto as September 16.  In fact, I was in Mexico on Cinco de Mayo and don't remember a single festival or celebration on this day, but somehow it has become a sort of holiday in the U.S. (if by holiday you mean an excuse to eat quesadillas, salsa, and drink a margarita).  But alas, the true Independence of Mexico is September 16, with the celebration beginning the night before with the reenactment of the "El Grito de Dolores", or more simply called, "El Grito" (translated gritar means to shout, so it is like a chant/cheer for Mexico).   This commemorates the moment when Miguel Hidalgo addressed the country and officially declared Mexico's Independence from Spain.  In honor of this occasion, every year local government officials lead the people in the following cheer honoring famous Mexicans (municipalities will alter the cheer to honor various Mexican historical figures as they see fit).

Spanish:                                                          English:

¡Mexicanos!                                                                         Mexicans!

¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron                                       Long live the heroes that gave us 

la patria y libertad!                                                              the Fatherland and liberty!

¡Viva Hidalgo!                                                                       Long live Hidalgo!

¡Viva Morelos!                                                                      Long live Morelos!

¡Viva Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez!                                        Long live Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez!

¡Viva Allende!                                                                       Long live Allende!

¡Viva Galeana y los Bravo!                                                   Long live Galeana and the Bravos!

¡Viva Aldama y Matamoros!                                                  Long live Aldama y Matamoros!

¡Viva la Independencia Nacional!                                         Long live National Independence!

¡Viva México! ¡Viva México! ¡Viva México!                 Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico! Long live Mexico!

Of course, I had to go see this event for myself as a newly minted Mexican resident.  And so with the company of a few volunteers we set out for the Jardín (aka the central plaza).  After walking the arduous 5 minutes it takes to get from my house to the Jardin (great location, eh?), we arrived to a Jardín teaming with people eagerly anticipating the Grito.  To pass the time there were plenty of food tents for people to enjoy. Lots of hamburger, french fry and hot dog places could be found, but also more traditional foods such as tostadas, tacos, and churros were around.  After wandering awhile and examining my options, I decided to try a fruity dessert.  I forget it's exact name, but what it amounted to was a fried plantain served with butter, jam, and canela (carmel-like topping) on top. Needless to say, it was quite delicious, but not something I need to be eating every day.   Satisfied with my snack, we then ventured to find a good spot from which to view the Grito.  Whilst waiting for the Grito to begin, we were entertained by a beauty pageant that was occurring on the stage that had been set up for the night's festivities.  These ladies were competing for Señorita Zapotlán (the municipality that includes Cd. Guzmán).  These were not the finals, but a group of 5 was narrowed down to 3, with the finals set for a few weeks from now.  Anyways, after all these activities it was finally time for the Grito…I was able to capture a video of the ending of the Grito and beginning of the fireworks and can be seen here:

In Mexico, they not only enjoy setting off traditional fireworks, but also enjoy the added excitement of the Castillo.  A Castillo is a little hard to explain, but I will do my best.  The Castillo is a tall structure with various types of fireworks/sparklers attached.  You light it at the bottom and then watch the pyrotecnic display commence.  Each section of the Castillo has its time in the spotlight, and then as one section fizzles out it lights the next section…in other words a chain reaction.  This whole process probably takes around 10 minutes and you watch as the fireworks travel up the structure all culminating with the lighting of the topmost part, which when lit, starts spinning and then flies off into the air ending the life of the Castillo in spectacular fashion.  See for yourself below…this is a video of the last moments of the Castillo when the top is finally lit, starts spinning and then flies off into the sky to join the other fireworks.

As you may notice in this video, we are awfully close to the Castillo and the fireworks.  It is a little more dangerous watching fireworks in Mexico as there is not a great distance between where they are set off and where the people are.  The fireworks were literally right over your head engulfing you in a haze of smoke as ashes rained down on you (and perhaps into your eyes).

Left: The Castillo

Top Right: View of the stage with the government building in the background where city officials led the Grito

Bottom Right: Closer view of the local government building

After the fireworks, we were treated to musical performances on stage.  Later on, a huge downpour occurred, making everyone run for cover to wait out the storm as the music continued.

Top Left: People braving the rain to be up close to the stage

Bottom Left: People crowded into shelter, you can see how high the water level in the street is by looking at the traffic cone

Top Right: Members of the parade going by

Bottom Ride: School children marching in the parade

The next day brought with it more celebrations. The morning included a Desfile Militar (or military parade).  There weren't many military members as it primarily consisted of school children marching in their uniforms through the central.  Not the most thrilling of parades, but still fun to see all the school children proudly marching through the city.  The rest of the morning the city continued its celebrations. The Jardín was like a fairground with food (and some craft) tents set up.  The city was hosting the first ever Festival de Birria where they were going for the world record for making the largest birria.  What is birria you may ask…I had no idea either.  It is apparently a traditional spicy stew that originated in Jalisco, so a regional specialty.  And this being Mexico, it of course includes a lot of meat.  I assume they achieved the record (I can't imagine there was much competition), but will have to verify this.  I tried vegetarian birria (it had mushrooms instead of meat) and it was quite tasty, very flavorful.  

Left: Mexican regalia/souvenirs

Right: Trying another regional specialty, a Tejuino.  Hard to describe the flavor…the base of the drink is a fermented corn mixture, then there is something sweet in there, and also lime.  A bizarre mixture of flavors, but not so bad

Left: Mexican flag flying in the Jardín

Top Right: Morning scene in the Jardín, Festival de la Birria in full swing

Bottom Right: The pot in which the world record Birria was to be cooked

And this concludes the adventures of my first Mexican Independence Day!  Can't wait to see what next year has in store.  Maybe Ciudad Guzmán will beat its own world record and make an even bigger supply of Birria next year…fingers crossed :)

House Hunters: Ciudad Guzman Edition

After spending my first 6 weeks in Ciudad Guzman with a host family I was able to find an apartment.  Apartment hunting here required a lot of walking around looking for "Se Renta" (For Rent) signs and showing up to apartment visits with no expectations of what you were going to find…no Zillow websites here to show me pictures of an apartment beforehand!  Fortunately, Cassie and I (volunteer in my Peace Corps group who came to Cd. Guzman the same time as me) were searching for apartments at the same time so we were able to tag team a bit and report back to each other what properties were promising and what properties were not so promising.  This system is how I happened to find this place, Cassie found it first and told me it had potential and then I took a look at it and BAM, I knew I wanted to live there. 

For me, as with a lot of people, the most important thing about an apartment was the location.  This place is a perfect location for me, only a 5 minute walk from the downtown area and a leisurely 25 minute walk to the office (considering my office is on the outskirts of town, a 25 minute walk was definitely a win for me).  The place was also undergoing renovations including new tile, paint, fridge, stove, and bathroom updates so that was a plus as it would have a fresh look to it. I also have plenty of space (3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and bath), it is off the street in a little alleyway so it's quiet, the landlord lives next door so if I have problems I can tell them right away, and Cassie lives in the upstairs apartment so if I ever need to borrow a cup of sugar I'm all set.  Anyways, enough about how I found the place here is my new home.     

Top Left: Outdoor view, I live in downstairs apartment

Top Right: View of the living area from the front door

Bottom Left: Shoe Mat…One of the great things about living alone is I can walk around without shoes! Everyone in Mexico always wears shoes in the house so when living with my host families I had to wear shoes all the time which I did not like very much, my feet need to breathe!  The only drawback to this shoe mat is that now when people come in to visit they feel they need to take their shoes off as well, which is definitely not necessary…I'm not a clean freak, this just helps me keep my shoes organized and if I take my shoes of right when I come in the door my feet can enjoy maximum freedom-from-shoe time.

Bottom Right: View of the alley way I live on that leads to the street

Left: One of my extra bedrooms, it's only occupant is my bike
Top Center: Bathroom
Top Right: View of living from the other direction
Bottom: Second spare bedroom, I don't have anything in here

Left: View of the kitchen (galley style)

Top Right: Bedroom view

Bottom Right: Bedroom view

Top Left: My mail wall in my room with all the letters I have received since being in Mexico

Top Right: Ceiling detail in the main room I enjoy, gives my place some 'character' as they say

Bottom Left: Coffee table I bought and painted, the place needed some color

Bottom Right: View of the other side of the kitchen

And that's the tour of where I live.  I've been here since mid-July and while living with host families for several months was definitely a valuable and enriching experience, it has been nice to settle in to the place and make it my own a little bit (it was unfurnished so I had to buy all the furniture), cook my own food, and make my own schedule. So far, so good in my new home!

A week in the forest...and other thoughts

I was able to spend the past week helping out another volunteer on one of her projects.  This meant I got to spend a week in Parque Nacional Nevado de Colima (yes...the same park I have mentioned many times on this blog).  Most of the week was spent working on the mural Whitney designed for the revamping of the park's environmental education center. As you can see in the picture below, this is quite the mural.  It was designed to give the effect that you are in the forest and only includes those animals that can be found in the park.  The mural will eventually encompass the entire room when it is completed (all 4 walls and the ceiling).  We were able to finish off the first wall during our week in the park with the help of one of her coworkers.  This mural will look (even more) awesome when all is said and done.

Whitney and her mural

There were also many clear days where we were able to get some great views of the Nevado on breaks from painting.

View of Nevado de Colima

Climbing a tree in the forest...because why not???

Because we had so many nice clear days during the week and we were diligent in our painting and completed the wall on Thursday, we decided to reward ourselves with a day of outdoor exploration in the park on Friday.  It had been so nice every day of the week that we thought we may have a chance to summit if the weather remained clear for Friday. Alas, we awoke to find that the awesome days of weather were behind us and found ourselves facing another unlikely bid for the summit due to the weather (see previous blog post about my other attempt to summit here). After about an hour or two of walking and no real signs of the clouds letting up we thought our chances of summiting were slim to none…so we decided to take pictures of us on the summit of something just to say we had summited that day.

At a "Summit", notice the weather predicament
we were in

We slowed our pace a little bit at this point as we had no real time crunch now that the summit seemed out of our reach, but we still continued going up because at times the clouds would clear just enough to give us hope that maybe it would clear up.

Enjoying the view while there is a break in the clouds

Expedition Ready

As we kept walking up, we kept wondering how much further we should go up without fear of getting lost as the stubborn clouds kept on following us.

Pesky clouds impeding our visibility

However, the clouds still kept breaking just enough for us to feel safe continuing upward and little by little we made our way further up until all we had to do was make our way up this rock face to reach the top.

Somewhere at the top of this rock face is the summit

And low and behold after starting our trek at 7:08 in the morning at 11:40am we made it to the summit of Nevado de Colima, the tallest point in the state of Jalisco at about 4,339 meters or 14,235 ft.

Whitney and me at the summit

Given that the weather had still not completely cleared, there was not too much of a view with the clouds blocking the way, but it was still fun to have made it to the top!  We were able to enjoy a snack of homemade pizzas on the summit, take some pictures, and then head down when it started to rain.

Perfect post summit food, pizza!

…and then the rain turned to hail which just makes it more of an adventure heading back down.

Making our way down in the hail

The hail didn't continue for too long and later in the day when we were meandering our way back to the cabin we were able to get our first view of the peak from afar that day (due to the clouds we actually never saw the peak while walking up, only after we had summited were we able to see it)

A cloud free view of the peak

All in all it made for a fun day of adventure to the summit…never knowing until we were actually on the summit if the weather was going to allow us get there.  I now can check off summiting Nevado de Colima off of my things to do…although I wouldn't mind returning on a clearer day when you can get a better view of the surrounding landscape.

So that's all for my week in the park.  We returned back to Ciudad Guzman on Saturday and then it was back to the routine in the city.

Here are some other thoughts and updates I thought I would share just so you don't feel like you keep reading about my walks through the woods on this blog…

-I have begun my work teaching environmental education in schools in Ciudad Guzman.  The plan for now is for me to work with 2 schools and give classes weekly at each school.  I had my first class this past Monday with a group of first graders. The kids were nice, but a it was a challenge to get them to do what I wanted them to…I then realized later that this is only their second week in school in their lives, so I probably should have expected that.  I still enjoyed it though and look forward to my future classes.

-I felt like I had made it in Mexico when I made my weekly trip to the market and one of the vendors gave me my chiles for free…there are a few vendors I talk with when I go and he is one of them, so I appreciated this gesture. I tried very hard to pay him, but he said I was taking too little an amount of chiles for me to pay him, I beg to differ now as I made refried beans with my 'small' amount of chiles and they are some SPICY beans.

That's all for now…have a great week!