We are well

Just a quick blog tonight to ease the fears of any of you who are worried about us. Yes, Mexico has pretty much shut down because of the swine flu. The schools are closed and also most any other gathering place. Peace Corps has restricted our travel and they canceled the trip we were to have taken today. We are being taken care of and have been issued masks for protection in crowds. Take care of yourselves, too.

Precautionary measures!

Beneath the Aqua Duct and Behind the Walls

There are some amazing surprises here. One of our favorite places to go on Sunday morning is the Starbucks which is located in the shadow of the ancient aqua-duct. At night it is spot-lighted, and in the day it is extraordinary.

The second thing is what you don't get to see behind the wall. The sidewalks come right up to the walls surrounding the houses. Occasionally we have gotten a glimpse of what is behind those walls when the gates are open. We have seen tiled garage floors, beautiful gardens and lovely homes.

Last weekend we traveled to the area where we will spend at least the first month after we are sworn in.We had a new alarm clock for being awakened each morning. We were used to the birds singing, but over the weekend the birds were joined by roosters and “roof dogs”. It was a cacophony of noise!

It is a nice city with some interesting historic sights. Near by is The Jardin Botanica which is inside the Reserva de la Biosfere and is an amazing cactus garden.

The cacti are huge and look like needles arising from a pincushion.

See Roger?

Could this be home?
After a month in the district office we will be moved to another more rural site which may well be very remote! One of the possible communities appears to be about 4 miles on a gravel road to get to a main highway....hummmm....could be interesting for transportation. When we left for the visit, we thought language would be our hardest challenge, now we are thinking transportation will be the biggest challenge! We have thought all along that if we didn't learn Spanish well enough, we might be cleaning bathrooms...looks like that may still be a reality.We were shown the office where there are 2 bedrooms and a half bath. HOWEVER the bathroom is used by the office too....not planning to clean the office bathroom! Time to LEARN that Spanish!
Monday we travel as a group of 10 volunteers and 6 staff to a small pueblo in the reserve for a field project. We will be staying in cabins, being fed by the local community and visiting with the residents about their hopes. There's more to come so stay tuned.....

Mountain Top Experience

I don't know where to start blogging the last week's worth of experiences. They have been a combination of solemnity and fiesta's.
We had some time off this week, well sort of. The PC office was officially closed from Thursday through Sunday. Of course many of us met for evening refreshments on Wednesday and hashed over the last 6 weeks. Yes it has been 6 weeks since we left family and friends. However since we all have at least 2 projects we are supposed to be working on between now and April 25th we also had meeting to attend during our "down time". And since we have our mid training espanol test on Martes, those of us getting extra tutoring had that too.!
However we found time for some cultural experiences too.


This being Semana Santa and Good Friday being a significant Christian holiday, we explored the Procession of Silence conducted here in Queretaro. Roger and I stood for 1 and a half hours at the church waiting for the procession to begin. We finally went to the favorite PC hangout and waited for it there. That took about another 2 hours and the procession included several hundred people! But what an impressive commitment!


Those people walked probably 3 miles , barefoot, most of them carrying crosses or "floats". Even small children. Here are some pictures.








Most of the older participants were dragging a chain on one foot.




Then Saturday morning we went on a tour with 7 other PCT's and 3 Mexican women to the town of Bernal which has a volcanic outcropping "pena" or cliff. We walked up part way, then the women went to the town to shop and the men ventured up the rest of the walkable trail. Everything above where they stopped requires repelling gear and a permit. We did see some climbers in the distance. The guide told us it is the third tallest such geological feature in the world. (see picture at the beginning of this entry.)


The town was very quaint and we had fun looking. Here are some lunch pictures of lunch options.








Gorditas= stuffed tortillas or Nopalis= cactus leaves!
What is your preference?????

From Bernal we went to a winery. Very busy as it was a holiday weekend, but festive. There was a small band playing quite good music. We stayed a while, sampled some wine and went to a "buffet" place for comeda (aka midday meal, usually large and served about 3 pm)
Finally ended up in Tequisquepan, another quaint town with lots happening! Muchos aresanos and tiendas.
That's it for now! We are off to visit our future site this weekend. Should be interesting!

Never thought!!!

There are somethings I never thought I would do in life, but I am finding this experience is changing that! Did you ever consider eating the "leaves" of a cactus? Well it is a standard vegetable here! I have had them in salad, cooked with tomatoes, and pickled, but today I ate a whole one, grilled! Interesting..can't say I love them, but I am thinking I would like to try sauteing chopped pieces with some other veggies. Weird! Wish I'd taken a picture.

Palm Sunday

So, today is Palm Sunday and I remembered my faith roots in "iglesia" this morning. As we entered the church, there were many people around the outside with the most amazing palm branch creations! Of course there were the usual palm crosses, but there were also these elaborate palm weavings of flowers, crosses, and even a cross with a woven shape of Jesus on it. I wanted to get one of those, but only found the flower ones where I was looking. Maybe my friend will have better luck.
The service was much more modern than I expected. The sanctuary was beautiful! Marble floors, alter and even benches for the priest. The priest happens to be the son of our host parents. There several women who participated in the readings. It was in some ways more protestant than traditional catholic. We were able to follow the readings because they were printed in espanol and the rest of the service (communion) was familiar enough for us to get the gist of it. Way cool!

A little bit of Fun

So, it has been a really tough week for us all. Everyone has had some down days and no time to relax, so last night several of us headed down to El Centro where there are lots of businesses and restaurants. It is an amazing place with many plazas where lots of people gather to listen to music and have fun. Complete with street vendors selling everything from food to toys. There were even clowns. We happened to catch a group of dancers performing to '50/'60s music and couldn't resist the urge to "get down and boogie" some .....hummmm may be why my knees are feeling a little stiff this morning! There was also a cruise-in of old Fords including many mustangs. Unfortunately I did not have my camera and by the time we went by again they were gone.
We found a bookstore and a fabric store, but did not purchase anything. Will have to return later. We also had snacks at "Harry's" , no not quite like the one in West Lafayette IN, but we did enjoy a little "happy hour" and "sliders"