trip to Morelia

I had an amazing trip down to the state of Michoacan to visit Grant, Aleena and Franky. We had a blast and I couldn't have asked for better hosts and better company! We traveled a bit together to two other cities called Patzcuaro and Janitzio, both incredibly beautiful. Morelia is my newest favorite city in Mexico, it ties with Guanajuato for most beautiful! Colonial architecture, lots of history, beautiful churches, amazing food and great company! It was the best trip to end my travels within the center of Mexico.

the Lonestar State

Last weekend my buddy and Jon went up to visit his aunt who is a missionary in the border town of Reynosa. She works at a school for children with disabilities among other ministries and invited us over. The city itself is nothing to see, in fact, my buddy refers to the collecting garbage in the streets and river as "Reynosage", because it is a broken and dirty city, yet growing rapidly because of foreign industry taking advantage of the cheap costs in Mexico. After about 3 1/2 months in Mexico, I had a day back on American soil, which was pretty great. We went to a city accross the border in Texas called McAllen. It has all the comforts of an american town, plus some I hadn't experienced yet. We went out to breakfast at Crackerbarrel, which is super good. I had grits, friend apples, biscuits and gravy, and sausage-very tastey and so different than Mexico. We then shot over to target and I bought good cereal and granola bars, then a pitstop at Starbucks to buy pumpkin spice lattes...something that I have been missing here in Mexico. It was a beautiful moment when I put my lips to the cup-except she put whipped cream on my latte, something I am not a fan of. Luckily I have my buddy jon who is there to help me out in such times. I was able to call my parents from a u.s. cellphone, something I haven't done in a long time, and hear their voices over the phone. It meant a lot to me. After a day of indulgence I was pretty tired, I know, kind of pathetic, but its those things in life that you learn to appreciate after being out of the loop of things for so long.

Real de Catorce

We took an express trip last weekend to a city up in the mountains called Real de Catorce. Its a beautiful little city with old rocky streets and some beautiful architecture in the town center. In order to get there you have to take a bus through a 3 mile tunnel under a mountain. When you get out to the other side it is as if you have walked back 100 years in time. This is also the city where they filmed the movie "the Mexican" with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. Rumor is there is a small shrine to Brad Pitt somewhere in the city, but I never found it-just good homemade food and soup, and a couple amazing horseback trips. The first day we took a tour on horseback up the mountain to the mining ruins. It was beautiful. This was the original town before the mining industry went down significantly, over 100 years ago. The second day we ate breakfast at a creperie run by a husband and wife from Switzerland. They had really good coffee. We then took a large trip up into the mountains. It was so barren and beautiful, like out of a picture. Unfortunately my horse didn't like Katie's horse and if it got too close my horse would kick her. That, and from time to time our horses would decide to randomly break into a gallop and speed off in any direction. It made for a very interesting and exhilarating trip. We got back and we were all really sattle sore. I was actually happy to get off my horse. Our trip was a great break after exams and I got to meet some new people that were a bunch of fun to travel with. Some buddies from Austria, one from Germany, one from here in Mexico, the gringos and one from Prague, Czech Republic. It was a lot to cram into a weekend, but I'm very glad we went.

Copper Canyon Adventure

My buddy Jon, myself, and good friend Katie Rice went on one of the most incredible trips I have taken. Even though it took 26 hours in a bus to get to our destination, it was totally worth it. We decided to take a long weekend and travel to the state of Chihuahua to see the Las Barrancas del Cobre (the Copper Canyon). Chihuahua is the largest state in Mexico and incredibly diverse. When we started out on our trip we entered rolling dessert hills that seemed to go on forever. Then we hit massive plains and wheatfields of all different colors...i've never seen such a large sky and felt so little-not something you see in Washington. All the sudden we hit windy mountains and we were in alpine temperatures. Our first night we stopped in a beautiful little city of Creel. Its a western-style outdoors town with lots of cool stuff to see and do. Amazing mountainbiking...next time i'm staying for longer! We went hiking that afternoon and witnessed a true fall with changing colors. We stayed at a backpacking lodge called Casa Margarita...a really cool guesthouse, more like hostel where we met some great people. Hung out with some Canadians from Victoria and went to a restaurant run by a guy from Toronto. The place provided dinner and breakfast for us ontop of lodging for a total of $10 per day! super cheap in Chihuahua. The next day we woke up early and caught a small van through the copper canyon to our destination of Batopilas. Batopilas is an old mining town who's main source of development was as a result of the mining industry. At one point it was a flourishing pueblo but when they realized there was little promise of silver, the population almost dropped to zero. Today it is a hospitable town of about 1,000 people located in the copper canyon. It is right on the Batopilas river and subtropic climate...a hiker's oasis. We took a van for 6 gut-wrenching hours down the windy dirt roads of the copper canyon until we reached the sleepy town. We were greated at the front of our guest house by an old lady, who we called Tia Monse. She runs a gift shop out of the front of our house along with a guest house in her courtyard. She has a beautiful house. Each room is a separate hut built in along her courtyard garden where she grows bananas, limes, oranges and other fruits and flowers. We had quite the sweet setup for a bargain. I enjoyed the hikes we took in the morning and then coming back to swim in the river and sleep in the hammocks. It was a rough life. We went on two really cool hikes. The first day we checked out the Hacienda, the ruins of the large mining house where the miners lived and worked during the silver rush. The next day Katie and I hiked 7km to Mision de Satevo, a cathedral that was constructed in the early 1600s by the Catholic church. After trying to convert the local indigenas, the Raramuri people, the Church decided they would build a "visiting church" which means they built the church and appointed a priest who would visit on various occasions. The Raramuris are still very present in the Copper Canyon. They specialize in making cool sandals that are made from recycled tires from trucks on the highway. They grow chiles and jalapenos as well and the women make beautiful blankets and jewelry for us gringos to buy, i suppose. Had to indulge a bit myself. We greatly enjoyed our stay, couldn't have asked for better weather and better tostadas! I would love to go back someday, down that windy road to the sleepy little town. Definitely worth the 26 hr busride.

Dia de Los Muertos

Today, being Nov 2nd, is Day of the Dead in Mexico. Although it may sound pretty creepy, really it is a cool holiday and actually has meaning...as opposed to Halloween. Day of the dead is a time to commemorate one's relatives who have died. Tradition is to go to the cemetary where your relative is buried and bring candles to place at the graveside. Usually people also cook foods and dessert to bring to the graveside along with beautiful wreaths and flowers. They leave part of it out for the dead relative in honor of them. Outside the cemetary is a large festival of food, music, and vendors of all sorts of foods that are not healthy for you. We ate some churros filled with chocolate, homemade potato chips with salsa, and gorditas. It was a good afternoon.

Tis the season, right?

While many of you back home are having an appropriate fall-cooler mornings, falling leaves, warm coats and scarves, oh yeah and pumpkin spice lattes...I am pretending to have fall. Don't get me wrong, I love that its October 19th and still 84 degrees outside, but it seems like even the people here desire a fall, and try to make it look like fall, when really all fall is in Monterrey is just a cooler summer. I love the sunshine, love the absence of the rain, but miss the diversity of seasons-especially this time of year when I look forward to a rainy day and a hot coffee. The other day I was at Starbucks and I asked the barista if he could make a pumpkin spice latte (I usually have about two of them a year-usually an americano is plenty) because i was in a fall mood. He looked at me like I was from another planet (more like another country) and can to a sad realization that we're not going to have the fall drinks that some of us coffee addicts look for, as indicators that the season are changing. Call me pathetic but I know some of you, well, actually, many of you can relate. So do me a favor, the next time you order some festive coffee beverage, toast to Mexico, who although lacks diversity of seasons still remains home for me-at least til mid december. In the meantime an americano will do. Cheers,
-Jordan

The 2-1 Run

I had a blast this past weekend with friends at my birthday. We ate dinner downtown at this restaurant called "Feelgr@w" on friday night. It is THE coolest place to eat dinner, a really classy yet trendy restaurant with its own character. three stories, half indoor and half outdoor with cool lights, trees, art, a bar, cafe and tables. All 16 of us sat out on the terrace that had a view of the downtown and enjoyed the view, company and amazing food-i had a grilled salmon that was one of the best dinners i've had since i've moved to Monterrey. The place was packed come 11pm and there was a live Jazz band as well which was a sweet surprise. Awesome place to celebrate. I then went to 7-11 to get some hot chocolate because it was kinda cold (70 degrees)-I got in the taxi cab with some friends and we took off. My friend Holly accidentally knocked my hand with her elbow and all the sudden I had burning hot chocolate running down my shirt and onto my lap! It looked like I puked down my shirt, haha. It was a good laugh. Jon's taxi got pulled over by a policeman who asked for a bribe, everyone laughed in the Cab and thought it would have been great to take a picture of them at that moment paying their first bribe to policemen in Mexico! They told him they wouldn't support that and he let them go free...as if they done anything in the first place. After arguing over taxi fare with the cab driver who tried to rip us off, we went to my friend Natasha and Sam's and had birthday cake. Sam makes an amazing homemade chocolate cake with Nutella frosting! Thats right. We played a game very similar to guess that tune, and our team, the "Soriana Lovers" won by one point. We hung out, went for a walk to the park, realized it was incredibly late and took a cab home. It was an amazing birthday! Thanks friends!

Thanksgiving in Mexico

This past weekend was thanksgiving for us Canadian folk, so a group of us got together to celebrate. Getting a turkey down here is a bit difficult so I cooked up a good chicken- i've learned that anything tastes good soaked in oregano, garlic and chicken broth! The oven we used took forever to cook, no joke, three hours, but we weren't about to risk salmonella, and it turned out amazing! After a couple accidents and a broken plate, we were ready to eat at about 11:30pm...which is rather common for Mexico! I was impressed with everyone's dishes, mashed potatoes, vegetables, dinner rolls, and homemade pumpkin pie! It was delicious and made us feel at home. You honestly forget a lot about common foods when you are used to eating tacos everyday. Sunday night we had thanksgiving from my friend Natasha's perspective: curry chicken and rice. It was incredibly good and I'm stoked about the leftovers in my fridge. We celebrated with the french roommates as well, i think there were 9 of us. Good dinner and good dessert. This whole past weekend was filled with eating, and it was awesome. We also did some pumpkin carving, i'm a little rusty...and went to a Starbucks tasting class on saturday morning. (so cool if youre a coffee fanatic). I am looking for some new books to read and went out to find some at a book fair this past weekend downtown, but i'm not ready to front $25 for a paperback novel, just can't do it. I'll have to keep looking.

Paseo de Santa Lucia

Today some friends and I went downtown because there was many cool events going on towards city center. We did some window shopping and were introduced to my friend Oto's favorite coffee beverage, horchata with english toffee (sounds gross but it's tastey). It was a beautiful Sunday, about 90 out so we went down to the Paseo de Santa Lucia. This is an extensive river that runs throughout the downtown area past all the parks, one in particular, Parque Fundidora. We walked along the river while watching some of the boats and had a good time chillaxing. It was a very chill day. I'm definitely going to miss the friends I have made here, it has been awesome meeting them, from all their different walks of life and experiences. We went to an art show, which was pretty interesting and then out to a restaurant that i've been wanting to go to for a long time. La Casa de Maiz is the name and we're definitely going back- chill music, really good food, cool artwork-massive portrait of ghandi and a cool upstairs. One of the best days I have spent in Monterrey.

Words of Encouragement from Paul for today

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Phil 1:9-11

Climbing Trip to Potrero Chico

I went on a climbing trip this past weekend to a small little pueblo called Potrero Chico, about an hour outside of Monterrey. The town is known for its incredible climbing and extensive routes. Definitely a great place to get away from the city. The mountains were beautiful and the climbing was both challenging and amazing. We camped out at a local campsite and enjoyed a carne asada and bonfire...didn't get much sleep. The weather was perfect, low 90s and cool at night-I love still being able to camp at the end of September! Climbing has definitely been one of the highlights of Monterrey, I had no clue when I got here that I would get into it, but how can you not with such beautiful mountains? I swear I hear them yelling "climb me!"

Zacatecas

Zacatecas was the last city we stopped in on our trip over independence holiday. It is another beautiful colonial city. Incredible architecture, beautiful cathedrals, great restaurants and authentic Spanish food (quite different than Mexican actually), and we had amazing accomodations. Our hostel was very cool, it was probably seven floors tall and we had a view of the city center from the terrace in our room. (I took the pic of the cathedral from our hostel terrace). It was right downtown so we walked everywhere and enjoyed all the lights and decorations for independence day. Lots of beautiful shops and handmade things. The city is situated between two mountains and was stunning. We got up early our last morning and hiked up the mountain and encountered an incredible view of the city. There is a gondola that runs from peak to peak and gives you a view of the city from 150 meters above and we were one of the first in line. It was such a cool experience. Zacatecas is a very friendly city and there was never a dull moment here, it was a highlight of our trip.

Aguascalientes

Aguascalientes was stop #2 on our trek. Its about three hours north of Guanajuato and is famous for its hotsprings and bullfights, of which we partook in neither of events-none of us are big fans of killing animals for sports. But anyway, the city was very interesting. We arrived late the night of independence day and our hostel owner was incredibly cool. He showed us around and took us out to the famous bar and grill to toast to independence day. We enjoyed the festival there and were glad to celebrate independence day Mexican style. My friend Holly woke up really sick the next morning, she ate a bad avacado from the farmers market the night before and paid for it! luckily she recovered quite quickly. The downtown area of Aguascalientes is very quaint, it has the most beautiful garden I have ever seen in the center of the city. Long pathways with beautiful trees, tropical flowers and park benches. We took a bunch of photos and hung around the downtown area for the day. There were some beautiful churches and another cool cafe that we took advantage of downtown. We sat out on the patio and people watched for a large part of the morning. In the afternoon we went over to the Museo de los Muertos, hosted by Universidad Autonomia de Aguascalientes. It was pretty interesting, a snapshot of how the significance of death in the role of Mexicans from the beginning of Amerindian civilization, thru the conquest, the revolution and life today. The was some very peculiar and fascinating art at the end of the museum as well. The whole exhibition was inside an all-glass building that was stained red so that when you looked outside it had a really wierd eery look. We pretty much had the city to ourselves that day, everyone else was still recovering from independence day. We enjoyed the sights but were ready to go our next stop-the city was nice downtown but the neighborhood where our hostel was (seen in the last pic), is a bit sketchy. More of a modern city with its modern problems. We were glad to stop by though and thought the timing was perfect.

Guanajuato

I was so excited to travel over independence holiday, or down here called "puente." Three friends and bought a series of bus tickets and booked nights at hostels in three different cities, doing a trip through the heart of Mexico. Our first stop was Guanajuato, about 12 hours south of Monterrey. We arrived there in the morning and from the beginning it was a incredible. We signed up for a tour in the bus station, dropped off our packs at the hostel and immediately started in on our adventure through the city of ancient frogs...don't ask me why its named that, it just is. Our tourguide was a bit crazy, he drove down the narrow cobblestone alleys going faster than most people do on the freeway. The road system is incredible in Guanajuato, all major roads are underground in a huge network of extensive tunnels. It was impressive. Above, there are cobblestone streets but they are more like oneway alleyways, quite European. All the houses and buildings are stacked together and are skinny and tall, very beautiful. Our tour took us to the museum of the mummies, the mountain viewpoint that looks over the city, museum of the inquisition, where we learned about all the horrible things us Europeans did in the name of Christianity, the historic mines of San Marcos, a famous candy flavored liquor store (wierd?), city center, and other cool sights. Everything was cheap. I found my favorite coffee place downtown, called Cafe Tal, had the best cappuccino since I left Bellingham and made me feel at home. We also found some incredible restaurants to dine at, and then some that were not so great. Lots of live music for independence day and witnessed a great concert downtown hosted by students from the University of Guanajuato. The picture of the large cement building is the famous alhondiga, something you would read about in Latin American history class. This is the preserved building from the famous Amerindian and criollo revolution lead by Padre Hidalgo against the Spanish Peninsulares and gov't. The Mexicans held off the Spaniards in this alhondiga until some of them surrendered, and then overthrew them. Beautiful cathedrals, an insane weekend market, rich culture, I recommend this city to anyone who wants to experience the real Mexico!

Just one day away from holiday in Monterrey! Sept. 15th is the famous grito here in Mexico, meaning everyone yells "Viva Mexico!" numerous times while toasting to their independence. 3 friends and I have planned a trip to three different cities towards the heart of Mexico. We'll first stay in Guanajuato for 2 nights, there we hope to see las mumias, some of the famous mines, la alhondiga (location of a famous revolution between Hidalgo and the Spanish) and enjoy the colonial history and architecture. Then we're off to Aguascalientes to the north, a small town with one hostel and some cool sights. Then our final destination, Zacatecas, a famous colonial city thats known for its beauty. The beauty of these cities are that they are small enough that you can walk almost anywhere and we are excited to stay in some pretty cool hostels.
Prayer requests:
-I'm getting over the flu, I'm lacking energy after two busy weeks of exams and presentations
-Direction: I signed up to work with a non-profit Christian organization on weekends that works with children from abusive homes. We have a drop in shelter where we take care of kids from primary up to 15yrs of age. I will be helping with the kids and going on day trips with them to local parks, etc. I will need prayer and guidance.

Today was another great day-we are approximately one week away from Mexico's independence day, so the city is becoming more and more dec'd out in red, white and green. This morning we went to the Museo de Historia Mexicana. We got to see some great exhibits and artwork. There was a great exhibit of paintings from the colonial period. The paintings emphasized the transformation of social classes over time as Colonial Spain become more Mexico and less, Spain. I also enjoyed the exhibits dedicated to the architecture of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations. There were models to show how the cities once looked-makes me want to go back to Guatemala. We ended up going out to a Chinese buffet next to the museum and we all ate too much. It was a good revival after getting sick on the first Chinese food I ate here. There was a cool hippie-ish market that was going on down a couple blocks over. I saw some really interesting antiques and saw some other great restaurants that we will have to try out. It was a good way to end a long week of exams.

I went for a night run last night out on the track at UdeM and almost stepped on a tarantula. It looked very similar to this one, big and black, and almost squished. He didn't move much so I just kept running. I love Mexico.

Rainstorm in San Pedro

Just had a crazy night, another good memory. Some friends and I went downtown to do some shopping and get dinner not realizing that we were about to get inundated with a massive rainstorm! When we came out of the shopping mall there was torrential downpour, part of the street had turned into a river and there were no taxis to be seen! We ended up eventually getting one after waiting for about three hours. I had to roll up my pants to get to the taxi, the water was right up to the doorline. Monterrey has a very poor drain system as they're not used to getting so much rain, so quickly. In some areas, cars were completely submerged! We ended up driving for an hour and a half before getting home. We got stuck on a bridge and ended up having to drive backwards. During the time it was only slightly hilarious but now we can all laugh about it!

Zoos in Mexico

Well, yesterday some friends and I went on a zoo safari with other students from the University. It was quite the experience. It turned out to be a really wet, and humid day- that feeling of when you walk around outside and your shirt sticks to you. The safari trip was great, many times the animals would come right up and eat out of your hands, whether you liked it or not! There were zebras, monkeys, gazelles, camels (of course), and even bats. It was a lot of fun, the only downer for the day was when I decided to go down a massive slide, crashing and getting a bloody knee. The blood wasn't the bad part, it was all the mexicans that were laughing at me! Look at the funny gringo.

"...now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."

"...These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy..."

La alberca

This past weekend it was hot, as usual, so a group of us decided to find an outdoor pool. After cramming into a car and getting lost in traffic downtown Monterrey, we found the pool. We ended up staying at the pool for most of the day, of course we played uno, and met some more locals. It was a very relaxing saturday and we found that taking the bus is the best solution to getting around the city. this was short-lived however as on sunday we all woke up sick...something in the water was not completely right...haha. We'll survive though. Happy swimming.

Not so far from Home

As I sit here on the patio of Starbucks and do my homework, I feel as if I am back at home for a brief while. With my iced Americano in hand, my spanish dictionary and a essay due tomorrow morning, I am partially comforted by the aroma of coffee and textbooks. For a time as this I enjoy the result americanization and that fact it exists right on campus. guilty.