Mexican Independence day, a mid September long weekend marked one month in school. It had been a very, long busy month, full of many firsts, exhausting art classes with chatty children and a lot of changes in my life. Let's just say the short week was well deserved. I was able to go with my new friend, Sergio and his cousin to El Diente, a extreme sports festival. There was hiking, biking, rock climbing and slack lining. The area was located about 20 minutes out of Guadalajara, near a small village, in a rocky area surrounded by trees. It was just what I needed, to get away from the city for a while and spend it with a bunch of outdoorsy hippies!
To the right is a photo of te slack line competition. I have to say the girls were really impressive, even better than the guys in the competition. It was fun to watch. I'm thinking I might try to get into it. Since we didn't have equipment, we were only able to participate in the hike and watching events. The hike was super awesome and we came across this amazing tree. The entire day was beautiful. I was still pretty exhausted from the school week around mid day we just put a blanket down and napped, chatted and practiced some Spanish. It was a relaxing and perfect afternoon. The event I was most excited for was the DJ late in the evening. Unfortunately but ironically it began to rain and storm about 1 hour before the show was to begin. So we hid in the tent, only to discover that the tent leaked. In the the end we had to escape the flooding tent. It was quite an adventure to get from the camping area to the main stage. We ran through trees and ditches that had filled with water, now more like flowing rivers to safety. Then Sergio's uncle had to come rescue us in his Jeep. There is no way a regular vehicle would make it up to the rainy mountain. You can see below how muddy the rain made it that this bus got stuck!
Two of my favorite photos of a random climber. I love the sky in the
background. Really wish I could have climbed that weekend. I'm working
on finding a friend with equipment.
Guanajuato y El Rancho. The very next weekend I traveled about 2 hours east of the city to a rural area with smaller cities with my same friend, Sergio and his mom. She had an appointment to attend, so I went along for the ride. The traffic along the way was a bit nuts, I was glad I was not driving. The first night we stayed at a ranch. It is very common for Mexicans to own a ranch, a piece of land out of the city. I don't know what most ranches are like but this was pretty hilarious, kind of run down, not well kept and had just the bare minimum. Haha, there were spider webs everywhere and no running water. It was fun for one night. Getting in and out we drove on a windy, bumpy road with huge cactus in sight. I decided the subject of my next art works is going to be of cactus in bright colours.
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| One of the scary dogs living at the ranch sees us off |
Finally we arrived in Guanajuato. It was beautiful. I felt as if I was in Europe. There were many narrow, cobblestone streets, a lot of little shops, colours and people everywhere! It was great to be in such a rich, vibrant town. We walked around most of the afternoon, taking pictures of different sights.
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| Guanajuato view |
The night couldn't start off without cheap tequila shots. We ordered a good brand, but the headaches the next day made me think that somehow the tequila we drank was different than the label said.
To add to the headaches the next morning, the car license plate was removed by the police during the night because we had parked in a no parking zone late in the evening with the plan of moving it in the morning. We had to venture about the town to find the police station and Sergio had to pay to get it back. All in all, I don't think a few hours passed those last two weekends
without some "crazy-adventure-like" experience happening. I don't know if its Mexico, me or Sergio, but some sort of energy is following us making things hillarious!
Lastly before driving home, we visited the mummy exhibition, a great end to the weekend! I can't believe how crazy real these mummies are!
Mexican Independence day, a mid September long weekend marked one month in school. It had been a very, long busy month, full of many firsts, exhausting art classes with chatty children and a lot of changes in my life. Let's just say the short week was well deserved. I was able to go with my new friend, Sergio and his cousin to El Diente, a extreme sports festival. There was hiking, biking, rock climbing and slack lining. The area was located about 20 minutes out of Guadalajara, near a small village, in a rocky area surrounded by trees. It was just what I needed, to get away from the city for a while and spend it with a bunch of outdoorsy hippies!
Guanajuato y El Rancho. The very next weekend I traveled about 2 hours east of the city to a rural area with smaller cities with my same friend, Sergio and his mom. She had an appointment to attend, so I went along for the ride. The traffic along the way was a bit nuts, I was glad I was not driving. The first night we stayed at a ranch. It is very common for Mexicans to own a ranch, a piece of land out of the city. I don't know what most ranches are like but this was pretty hilarious, kind of run down, not well kept and had just the bare minimum. Haha, there were spider webs everywhere and no running water. It was fun for one night. Getting in and out we drove on a windy, bumpy road with huge cactus in sight. I decided the subject of my next art works is going to be of cactus in bright colours. 
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