It's Time...

...to change the tone of my blog. I decided I wanted to share what I was doing this past week when I received the news about my grandpa and pet Sally. Fortunately I was in the company of good friends and was traveling to see new regions in México, which helped distract me a bit.

I began by traveling by bus to Querétaro, a beautiful city in the central Mexican highlands where our friends, the art therapists Naomi and José live. We spent an evening walking the city where there is church after beautiful church and there are a number of historic buildings and plazas. They made me dinner and breakfast and I had my own room and bed to sleep in, which was nice.

Naomi enjoying sage tea and a cookie

View of the city from José and Naomi' s upstairs porch

The following morning we loaded up their car and headed east to the mountain city of Xalapa (pronounced Halapa- where the Jalapeño pepper originated) where our Fulbright friend Katie is living. The trip was a few hours longer than anticipated due to construction and odd road blocks, but we enjoyed the different scenery. It was a dusty, dry landscape and I had my first opportunity to see tumbleweeds and salt flats with huge white curtains of salt whipping through the air. About 20 minutes before we reached the city of Xalapa the scenery changed dramatically and turned green and lush and hilly.
Katie is living in the heart of the city in a quaint apartment, which felt like a cabin in the mountains- in the middle of the city. Our goal was to first visit our friend Martie's (another Fulbrightee) art opening. Martie created a show featuring the taxi drivers of Xalapa using her paper-making skills.

A map made from hand-made paper of the city of Xalapa with its taxistas

After the art show we happened upon a flamenco performance while having dinner

The following day we all headed to the nearby town Coatepec for a paper-making workshop hosted by Martie, the artist.

Martie and some of the people in our class

Later in the evening we enjoyed fresh strawberry margaritas and talked politics, religion, culture... this kept us interested enough to stay in Katie's apartment for the night instead of heading out on the town

Katie and José

Naomi and Colleen, a Fulbrightee writer living in México City

Riley and Katie (a Fulbrightee doing environmental studies outside of Xalapa). They live next door to Katie.

The following day we traveled an hour to the east coast, which is met by the Gulf of México. We stopped in a small town on the coast to have lunch and walk the beach before traveling south to Veracruz.

Becca (Katie's roommate from México City) and Katie

And finally we made it to Veracruz, a city with a pretty and historic interior and a gritty port-town exterior. We walked the malecon (boardwalk) and had a frustrating dinner out in the plaza where we were swarmed by vendors of all ages with sunglasses, bracelets, shirts, candy, noise-makers...
The evening ended on a better note as we enjoyed watching danzon, which is a style of dance and music (which Katie is studying) that is special to the Veracruz region.