Mexican Sidewalks!

I left the house today with plenty of time to spare and I am walking down Av. Horacio. This street has a wide greenbelt in the middle lined with trees and is a lot better than walking down some of the other strees and dodging cars and people washing the sidewalk etc. The only thing to worry about is the bold flower sellers who don't like the hear the words "no gracias". So I am about half way or more to school when I step on what I though was a flat portion of the walkway and I stumble and twist my ankle pretty good. I heard a few pops and I think to my self, "Oh Crap, I am in Mexico and I just hurt myself pretty good!" I managed to stay upright and dodge a few taxis and I flasback to the multiple times I have done this in the past. Will this be one of those times when it stops hurting in a few minutes or am I in for some serious pain? The pain starts to subside a bit and I keep walking but it never really feels better. After sitting in class for two hours I get up and I can hardly walk. I am in some serious pain. After a few minutes I am able to walk and I leave school. I walk about two blocks and decide to take the bus. I get on the bus but I have to stand for most of the trip. That sucked! When I get off the bus I have to limp another 4 blocks to the apartment. So needless to say, I have stayed at home all day with my foot up and rotating ice packs. It hurts alot but it is not bad enough to go to the hospital. (It wouldn't have been the first time in a foreign hospital.) I will try to stay off it as much a possible and take some Tylenol and what not. Jeff and I are supposed to go out with some of the embassy people tonight but I don't know if I can make it. Oh well, thats life in Mexico. Moral of the story = Never trust a sidewalk in Mexico. Talk to you all later.

The Mini-Bus Part II

Not much going on here the past couple of days. Yesterday Jeff and I got our dive gear out and ready for our trip at the end of the month. We spend the rest of the day veggin' out and watching TV. Today I went to school and have spent the afternoon reading. I did find some pictures of the mini-buses that run wild here in Mexico City. Imagine each bus filled with about 30-40 people. Enjoy

Teotihuacan

Jeff and I went northeast of the city to the archeological site called Teotihuacan. Before we got out there we stopped at the northern bus station to see get some infomation on how to get to San Carlos to go diving at the end of the month. The weather was great today and when we got out to Teotihuacan I was quite impressed. It has two large pyramids that you can climb. We climbed them both and got some great views. I did not take this picture you see here, but I have one just like it on my camera. The large pyramid in the distance on the left is the pyramid of the sun. The picuture is taken from the pyramid of the moon. It was hard work climbing those pyramids since we are at an elevation of around 7000'. We stopped for some food in the historic center of town on our way back. We are going out tonight with some of Jeffs firends from the embassy. I hope you are all doing well. Drop me a line if you get a chance. I would love to hear from you. All is well south of the boarder. Bye for now.

Que Baracho

I was a bit late in leaving Jeff's apartment today so I had to really walk fast to get to school on time. I made it right at 9:00 but I was pretty tired. After class I went down close to the U.S. Embassy to have lunch with Jeff. I took one of the local favorite modes of transportation, the minibus. It costs $2.50 pesos (about a quarter) and I was jammed on this bus that looked more like a moter home or a catering truck. Muy authetico. I rode for about 15 min and then took a short walk to meet Jeff. We went to an Argentinian Steak restaurant for lunch called Que Baracho. It was very good. One of the best steaks I have had. I also had an empenada (pastery filled with various items) to die for. Mine was ham and cheese. At Que Baracho they surve chimichurri with your bread. It is real good. Check out this site if you want a recipe. After lunch I tired to get the bus back but I could not seem to find the right stop or the right street so I went down and took another bus that took me to the metro station and then I took the metro back to Polonco (the nieghborhood Jeff lives in). The metro was kinda dirty and crowded, but it is very cheap ($2 pesos, less than 20 cents U.S.). The Mexico City metro carries the third most people in the world per day behind Moscow and London and it is the cheapest in the world. The weather was great again today, mostly sunny and in the 70's. As long as this weather holds, Jeff and I are off to see the pyramids in the morning. Until then!!

The Turibus

After class today I decided to take the Turibus to see the main sights of Mexico City. The Turibus is a large open top, double decker bus that winds its way through the city. It has an audio guide that tells you about the areas and sights. From school I walked to the stop and right as I arrived the bus pulled up. It costs $115 pesos (about $11 U.S.) and you can hop on and off as much as you like in one day. It takes about three hours to make the circut. I stayed on all the way and saw the sights of the city, the Zocalo, Monumento a la Independencia, Bosque de Chapultepec, Condesa, Roma, and many others. I will say this, the traffic in this city sucks! There were times when it took us more than 30 min to go about 1/4 mile. At least the weather was nice today. It rained like crazy yesterday afternoon. You can go to the Turibus website and click on D.F. and you can see the route I was on today. Talk to you all later!!

Mexico Update

I started Spanish class yesterday. I am enrolled in the Angloamericano Centros de Idiomas school. This school has many campuses throughout Mexico and besides Spanish they teach English, French, German, and Italian. There are seven people in my class. I am the only one from the United States. There are two students from Japan, one from China, one from Germany, one from Turkey and one from Brazil. It is great that all of the instruction has to be in Spanish. When I was taking classes in the states, if there was a question it was answered in English. Now I am forced to use the Spanish that I know to ask the questions and all of the answers are in Spanish. This is helping me alot. The school is about a 30 min walk from Jeff's apartment. Class starts at 9:00 am and lasts for two hours. After class I have been walking around the neighborhood called Palonco, and getting my bearings. I will venture out in a few days. If the weather is nice, Jeff and I will go to Teotihuacan this weekend where there are Aztec ruins. It is outside the city a ways. Thats all for now. Talk to you soon.

Safe In Mexico

I arrived safely in Mexico City yesterday afternoon to dark skies and thunderstorms. It is a real stretch on the brain being in Alaska a few day ago with its wide open spaces and few people to the sprawling metropolis that is Mexico City. These two places are real opposites. I start Spanish classes today and then I will start some exploring of the city. I am staying with Jill's brother Jeff who works down here. We had some great street tacos last night for dinner. YUM!!

As far as an update from Alaska goes, I will need some time to process and then I will write a detailed post. The short version is it was an awesome experience! I was not able to convert my pictures to portable media before I left so I will not be able to post any pictures of Alaska until I return to the states next month.

Life is good and I will be in touch with you all soon. God Bless!!