Ancient Ruins, Cortez and Antigua

The main plaza in Antigua, with the cathedral in the background.

A street in Antigua.

This church is also in Antigua, and is THE oldest church in all of Latin America, built in 1523.

Part of what is left of Cortez's house; which is huge, and very impressive, this is only one of the many pictures I took. In reality, he was not in this "house" very often, as we was too busy in the area of present day Mexico City, demolishing the Aztec empire and culture.

This is the "gladiator circle". A captive was put in here with a warrior. If the captive killed the warrior, then a second warrior was put in here. If the captive killed THAT warrior, then he was allowed to go free. The ultiimate reality show!

This is the pit where they threw the dead bodies after sacrificing them by cutting their hearts out. The actual alter is elsewhere, I took a picture of it but didn't include it here.

Me at the main "pyramid".

Preparing for Dia de Los Muertos, which is tomorrow! Lots of preparations all around town, very exciting. Will include some photos of that in the next post.

Lunch by the Antigua River. After this we took a lancha (launch) down the river for a little tour. Saw where they'd dredged one of Cortez's cannons out of the river.

A typical Veracruzanian lunch. Fish, fish and more fish. Come to think of it, I need to go to the big fish market in town and take some pictures there too, it's supposed to be utterly amazing.

I Finally Feel Comfortable

A major breakthrough today -- suddenly I can understand almost all of what is said to me, and am conversing way better too. I have heard that a stay of less that three weeks is almost useless, as it takes at least a week for your brain to adjust, and that seems to be the case since I will have been here a week tomorrow. I'm sad that the two women I've grown closest to are leaving this weekend, though.....damn! The other people are nice, but that leaves just four of us, 2 men and 1 other woman plus me, and they are all beginners. There is a man coming this weekend, but he is advanced, supposedly really advanced.....and anyway I am hardly going to pal around with him. It will be odd to have just 5 of us here, and no one to do things with. Sigh! But I like doing things alone too, so it will be fine. Mostly I'm just so happy that I finally seem to be making real progress. Went to the Naval Museum today, which is actually more of a museum dedicated to the history of Verzcruz. It was great! Loved all the maps of what people thought the world looked like back in the 1400's. Lots about Cortez, the Aztecs, etc. Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to a pyramid and also to the place where Cortez had a fort -- the other group is going on a boatride through a mangrove jungle, so I hope I get to do that next week. On Saturday Mary Ann (an advanced student) and I are going to go to Jalapa, about a 2 hour bus ride away. Is supposed to be very different from here, cool and in the mountains amid beautiful terrain. May go white-water rafting that day too if there is time -- ah, the life of the world traveller, haha!

More tomorrow, right now we are heading out to the weekly performance of the ballet folklorico, and then to dinner on the zocalo (main out-door plaza, lots of activities, people watching and restaurants with outdoor seating). More pictures and gab tomorrow, so hasta entonces!

For today's post, see the one below this, this one is just for pictures. Remember that you can click on any picture or video to see it full-size. This is me sittin' on the dock o' the bay. Actually the Gulf.

The view from my window, looking down the street towards The Gulf.

A rather fearsome statue -- cannot really imagine such a thing in Los Estados Unidos. It reads that this man "died for his homeland" in 1914.

One of the impressive old buildings in Veracruz, from across the plaza.

The Day After the Night Before

Just finished class for the day ---- arrghhh, tough day. I was actually in tears during the last class -- had to excuse myself and get a drink of water. I always dread the afternoon class (a "class" is actually only one or two people) because my afternoon class is made up of me and a woman who is very advanced. I am perhaps a low to mid intermediate. So for me it is a feeling of constant pressure to keep up. I have to remind myself that Mary Ann has been studying Spanish for 10 years, against my 2 years. AND, I am able to stay with her most of the time. So I should feel proud of that, instead of feeling pressured and inadequate. Part of it is that I'm just so afriad she will be bored, or feel she's not getting enough out of the experience if she has to wait for me to respond, or has to sit through my mistakes ... but after all, I wasn't the one who decided on this pairing! Typical me, though, I take on all the responsibility for it. I have to say, I'm kind of amazed at being able to keep up with her at all -- and as everyone knows, you always learn more and get better faster when you're with people who are better than you are, no matter what you're trying to do. It's that way in tennis or in anything else.

Later Mary Ann (from Monterey) and I and probably Lynn (from near Durango, Colorado) will probably go out and walk along the Malecon (by the sea, a fabulous walkway that runs miles, the length of the city along the water) and look for some little spot to eat. Or maybe sit under the umbrella-ed tabled on the beach and have a beer or two. Mind you, we had quite a few beers last night at the little place, "Suriana", 3 blocks up, run by a great little old couple who have an alligator in the back. We were intending to ask them if we could go back and see their alligator, but I guess we had too many beers, because we forgot. Oh well, next time. Supposedly you can even pet it. Which I may or may not do. This place is dirt cheap and has fabulous seafood -- well, I mean, what place doesn't have seafood in Veracruz? I hate to say it, but it isn't even the end of week one yet, and I am already getting a little tired of fish! But the prices in this place are so cheap that I actually feel sort of guilty. It's hard to get used to the "cheapness" in general, actually. A beer in a restaurant is somewhere between $1.50-$2.00, depending on the brand. The roll of my favorite guava candy that costs $6.00 at home, costs $2.00 here. A huge shrimp cocktail in a tall soda glass chock-full of enormous Gulf prawns costs about $1.80. A taxi to almost anywhere in the city will run you about $2.50. The bus is 50 cents. And you may as well take the bus, because they're very nice, very speedy (s0metimes TOO speedy, ahem) and they come every few minutes. But let me post this and then I'll be back with pictures.

A quick post on Monday

It's been such a busy day today that I don't have much time to post, so this will be boring. Fair warning! Up at 6:15, shower, breakfast at 7:00 with much gab in Spanish, then class from 8:00 to 10:00. Then out to the Mercado for more "out and about" Spanish with one of the instructors. Then back to the school for lunch (SUPER Mexican food, home cooked), then class from 1:15 to 3:15. And now time for study, a rest, a walk or whatever -- looks like it may rain this evening, but it will be a soft rain, and refreshing. The time changed this weekend, so everyone is confused about that and getting times wrong. Two of the students got up an hour early this morning and wondered where everyone was. Not me, I was sawing logs. My brain is fried from having to think in Spanish for the majority of the day, and certainly whenever one goes out, as hardly anyone here speaks English -- but after all, that's what I'm here for! What a great city, though, all it's said to be, and more. No lack of anything to do, that's for sure, it is bursting with life and color. At the Mercado I bought a little "Dia de Los Muertos" figure, a drunk skeleton smoking a cigarette and wearing a serape and a cowboy hat, with a bottle beer at his feet -- hard to describe, but it's cute -- cost 15 pesos, about $1.20. Also bought 5 little skulls of dulce de leche for 3 pesos each, yum! They're so fresh and soft, unlike the stuff at home .... am embarrassed to say I ate all of them, and before dinner too, for shame! That's about it for today -- am going to rest, study a little, then go out to look for some kind of dinner, I suppose - -the "real" meal, El Comida, is in the middle of the day, so the "cena" isn't much. Just a light something or other to get you through the night. Today was laundry day, so YAY, I get a sack of clean clothes tomorrow! Estoy tan feliz! I'm off for now, but I promise a better post and possibly some more pictures tomorrow.

More pictures

This is the front of the school. My room is the one on the far right-hand side, with the balcony. That is Steve in the foreground, showing Jorge and Ceci and Jorge's friend how to cast a flyrod -- in the middle of the street! Mind you, they do not speak a word of English, but Steve doesn't care about that, he keeps explaining anyway. We joked that he was "pescando taxis", or "fishing for taxis" -- which were whizzing by at death-defying speeds.

Here we have the mall, "Plaza of the Americas", which is halfway between Veracruz and Boca del Rio. Beautiful place, with many nice stores. 2 movie theatres, tons of restaurants, etc. Lots of sushi places in the area, since Veracruz is famous for its seafood, of course.

A side street in Boca Del Rio.

A view of the Gulf of Mexico taken over the tops of some very fancy homes.

This one is of me on the bridge that goes over the freeway to the mall.

Jorge playing his guitar

Click on the video to play! This is Jorge, who plays classical music on his guitar. He's one of the people who are here to practice speaking, play cards with us (in Spanish, of course), or generally help the students out with whatever they need in the way of learning Spanish. As a matter of fact, just now he and I were playing scrabble before I came back up to my room to post this.

Boca Del Rio, the Mall, Flycasting for Taxis

Hola again from Veracruz. Busy day today .... being as it is a Sunday, and the weekend, there is no formal class, so we are free to do whatever. For me that means exploring, although I should probably be studying in my room. Hopefully I can do that tonight, though. No TV or anything like that in the house, so it's actually kind of nice -- the choices for evening are study, write letters or whatever on the computer, or go out in search of some night life. Ever since I saw Boca Del Rio on Thursday, my first day here, when you are taken out on a little tour of the area by one of the "charlantes" (who speak little to no English) so that you know your way around during your stay, I have been wanting to get back there. Linda, a woman who is also a student at the school here, said she would go with me, so off we went. There are no meals here either on the weekend, so we decided to wait until we go to Boca del Rio to eat breakfast (about a 20 minute bus ride from Veracruz.) Linda is from Tennessee, so she has an interesting accent. Also here is Kent, an oil man from Texas who has been stationed here and oversees rigs off the coast of Verzcruz, and has finally decided to learn Spanish instead of having a translator. So there is HIS southern drawl as well. Also Kim, a woman from Dublin, CA of all things (small world!) and Steve, who now teaches fly fishing, but is a musician and used to open for Maria Muldaur of "Midnight at the Oasis" fame, if anyone remembers her, and whose cousin is Nils Lofgren, who plays with Bruce Springsteen, and...oh, I don't know what else! He is an interesting character. Also just arrived is Lynn, who is an advanced speaker but she just got in last night and I don't know where she's from. Anyway, the woman I went on the excursion with, Linda, wanted to buy a ballcap like mine as protection against the sun, so that was on our "to-do" list. I'd gotten my cap the first day I was here, which you will see in the pictures. I got it because it is the team cap of the football (soccer) team "America", which seems to be the fave team of people in this area. Although one of the young women/teachers here likes "Puma" from Mexico City. But I digress. We caught the big blue bus at the corner (very nice modern buses, but the drivers are CRAZY!) and off we went. A bit muggy, low 80's, nice day.

I'm finding that pictures load in a weird way on here, so let me post this and then I will continue the story. The next batch of photos will be from Boca del Rio (as are the two above), and then the mall on the way back, "Plaza of the Americas". I wanted to go into the movie theater and see "El Chihuahua of Berverly Hills", but Linda wouldn't let me. Dang! I mean, !Que lastima!

Pictures of Boca del Rio and Veracruz

Here we have a view of some fishing boats on a typically overcast, hot, muggy day which threatens rain -- although the "threat"disappeared and the day was gorgeous. Will post better pictures of the Gulf of Mexico later, this was one of the few I had showing the water. Will take more tomorrow!

The picture below was taken in the "Mercado", a huge block full of different types of stores, bustling with people and music and anything anyone could possibly want to buy. Also lots of useless trinkets, as you may well imagine. But I LOVE that place! This was one of the many butcher shops there. Just had to take a picture of all that meat.

This picture was taken in the almost unbearably picturesque town of Boca del Rio ("Mouth of the River") which is a small town a short bus ride away. Utterly charming place -- I intend to go there tommorrow to spend the day, as there are a lot of activities on Sundays worth seeing. This was just a restaurant I liked the looks of, the thatched roof and all. The type of bike/cart the guy is on with the kid in front is everywhere, for selling things, transporting things. Very handy, I must say!

First Impressions

Here I am in Veracruz, at the school to do "Spanish immersion" for three weeks. So far it's been such a whirlwind that I'm looking forward to this weekend, so I can finally set up my room the way I want it and explore the area a little. The flight here was an adventure in itself! I left the house in Suisun at 6:30 am and finally arrived here at 11:00 pm, Veracruz time. And even though that was only 9:00 my time, it was a LONG day. Suffice it to say, if you ever fly through the airport in Mexico City it's helpful to know at least a little Spanish. Acckkk! I did fine, even explaining the problem I encountered when they somehow had no seat for me on the flight from Mexico City to Veracruz even though I had booked the ticket last FEBRUARY -- ahem!! Imagine me pounding on the ticket counter and explaining all this in Spanish with my eyes bugging out, not having had time to eat or drink anything all day or even use the bathroom, it had been such a rush between flights both in LA and then in Mexico City. So much for my plans of having a cervesa in Mexico City and people watching! As it was, I barely made the flight. Nice airport, though, I have to say, much better than LAX. I'm off to get coffee somewhere, will be back later in the next installment with tales of the school, the city, and some pictures.