El Canon del Sumidero and Chiapa de Corzo

Yesterday (Saturday), Shelly, Danna, Carrie, and I went to Chiapa de Corzo, a small town about 30 minutes from here, to chill out and take a boat in the river Grijalva, which flows through the Canon del Sumidero. Chiapa de Corzo is cute, has a nice plaza, and offers different handicrafts than Tuxtla, but let it suffice to say that I'm glad I live in Tuxtla, where there are actually things to do.
The boat ride itself almost didn't happen, since we didn't have a full boat, and they wanted to charge us the price of a full boat divided among the would-be riders. We vetoed this, and waited an hour to see if more riders would come along, and they did.
I was expecting a slow boat cruise, but as I quickly found out, we were going to zip along in a speedboat, hair in the wind. My lifejacket made a nice cushion and safety net, and the ride was underway. We raced down the river to the start of the canon, and the driver stopped to tell us that the canon (pronounced canyOHN, I don't have the ~ over the N key) was starting...as if we hadn't noticed? We continued along, with the driver slowing down a few times to point out the highest point of the canyon, (1000 meters up, 100m water depth!), some crocodiles, one of the most powerful dams in Mexico, and a point where, if I understood correctly, someone fell on September 13.

Puerto Escondido

...or, not feeling like a freak show for once.

This weekend, we (Shelly, Lisa, Jennifer, and I) went to Puerto Escondido, a beach town about 12 hours from here on an overnight bus (or 6-7 if you drive yourself!). In August, we went to nearby Huatulco, and I really can't compare the two... Puerto Escondido just blows Huatulco out of the water. And with the size of the waves there, it really could. Puerto Escondido is mainly a surfer town, which implies a very laidback feel, and lots of gringos. Since there were many tourists, we weren't stared at very much, and it felt good to "blend in" for once! I didn't blend in trying to surf, though, as my two attempts to stand up on the d**n thing were fruitless.

We stayed at Casa de Dan y Carmen, which is now Casa de Dan y Carmen is down the road at their restaurant, which was the deal when they broke up. We rented a cabana/apartment for two nights, and got a great deal. I am itching to return!

The accommodations were great, the food was great, the beach was amazing (although unswimmable in some parts), and I really can't wait to go back!

Below: Ice cream man on the beach, an overhead view of one of the beaches, and our cabana.

Update on the kids

A number of you have volunteered to send monetary donations or supplies for the kids we are sending to school and for other children to attend school; for this I say, "THANK YOU!" And, so do the kids. I wanted to let everyone know that we've visited the school the kids are attending, and we are expanding the project to include helping the school in various ways. My roommate, Shelly, who is in with me on this thing, has started a blog just for updating everyone on the kids. You can check it out at http://bellasninos.blogspot.com . Basically, the kids attend a two-room school, with two teachers and NO other staff. The kids clean the bathrooms. No meals are served, and there's not even drinking water available. Among possible projects we might embark on with the school are:
- Supplying drinking water
- Starting a breakfast/lunch program
- Providing P.E., Art, and/or Music Equipment
- Volunteering teaching time, and arranging for teachers from our school who want to volunteer to do so
- Starting a scholarship program for kids who can't afford to pay for school/clothes/supplies

For more information, check out the blog my roommate started! There's tons of information.

Quieres gallopar? Esta bien asi.... WHOOSH

So, if you don't speak Spanish, that translates as, "Do you want to gallop?" "I'm good like this..." And the WHOOSH is self-explanatory. I spent Sunday morning (9/10) horseback riding and checking out a market outside San Cristobal, in a village called Chamula. The riding itself was a little hair-raising. Our "guide" (who's barely safe from being called a kid) told me I could go gallop if I wanted to once I'd showed him I could trot and post, and I said that I was okay, but he whipped the back of my horse and OFF we were. I really was picturing Christopher Reeves in my head as I was flying with the horse, thinking of how fast we were going and what sort of shape I might be in if I were to fall. I was also thinking about kicking the stirrups out of the way really quickly should I know I was going down, to avoid being dragged... but it ended well, and the views were beautiful.

We rode for about an hour, then spent an hour at the market at Chamula, then rode for an hour back. At the market, Danna had a good scare when she attempted to take a picture of some officials, it didn't work, yet the officials came flying at her telling her they needed to check her camera, photographing officials isn't allowed, etc. We knew photographing people at the market wasn't allowed (long story short, the indigenous people don't like it), but the officials were technically not in the market... As it turned out it was okay, but Danna was pretty shaken up and thought they were going to steal her camera!

Jaguares!

The Chiapas soccer team, the Jaguares, are not the world's most challenging bunch, but their game today against San Luis was cheap and entertaining. Beer peddlers carrying paint buckets of lager were followed up by peanut, mango, and Domino's pizza vendors.
We got to the game late, and realized that if you are five foreign women, you cannot walk into the soccer game late and go unnoticed. I felt like a turkey on the 4th Thursday of November.
As usual, I'm pretty tired, so I'll let the photos do the talking again.

Above: Moi, Shelly, Sarah, and Carrie.

Below: Moi and the unofficial Jaguares mascot, and a guy with a make-your-own visor made from his empty beer cup...

Spanish Words du Jour

I'm trying to keep track of some of the words I learn, at least on a one-a-day basis... I hope I'm learning more than that!

AUGUST (end)
8-28 despampanante (stunning)
8-29 iguende (elf)
8-30 eructar (to burp)
8-31 sacapuntas (pencil sharpener)

Ranch weekend

I spent this past weekend on one of my bosses' ranch, about an hour and a half outside of Tuxtla. It was the most peaceful, relaxing, Spanish-filled weekend I've had in a long time! And, I got to take one of their (old, slow) horses out for a bit! It felt nice to be "back in the saddle", and I'm looking forward to going riding again soon, maybe this time with a faster, younger horse.
Here are some pictures from the weekend. I'm exhausted from teaching so it's easier to let the pictures speak for themselves. There's a photo of me in a hammock, then me in the fields, then the group sitting around the table outside relaaaaxing, then a couple of me montar-ing en caballo...