Back by popular demand...

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Hello Friends and Family,

I know that I have been out of touch for a couple weeks now. My apologies. School is now in full swing and my work has kept me quite busy. There is lots of reading and comprehension that rob the hours of the day from me.

Everything has been going quite well down here in Xalapa. The weather is a little crazy, much like Victoria, with the frequent showers throughout the day but overall quite nice. Many parts of México are receiving incredible amounts of rain which has led to widespread flooding. Each day I thank our cities position way up here in the mountains.

So I have had time to take a couple trips in the past few weeks. Over my long weekend for Mexican independence day the family and I took a day trip to the port of Veracruz. The weather wasn’t so nice so I could not experience the main attraction of the port city which of course is the beach. We spent the afternoon with some of their extended family that live in the city then returned that night. On the way to Veracruz we stopped off at a very beautiful small village where Hernan Cortez resided during his time in this area. It’s a neat little place tucked away off the highway in farm country. I took some pictures for you all to see and will post them up on the blog when I find a good enough internet connection.

In more current news, last Saturday I took a bus from Xalapa to the city of Pelote about an hour away. Pelote is way up in the moutains as well and the ride there was really incredible with the road widing through switchbacks for most of the way. As the bus climbed higher, the mist becomes constant and sits atop the tree, giving the landscape a mystic tropical feel, very neat. My destination was Cofre de Pelote National Park, located just outside the city. I arrived around seven in the morning and took a cab to the small mountain village of Esconbillo. From Esbonbillo, a small farming road twists its way up Cofre mountain. Many residents of the town are herders and use this path to herd their stock up into the fields to graze. The park is quite famous throughout the state and I assumed it would be quite similar to the large national parks in the USA. However, the information I received, which was to take this narrow uneven rock path to the summit, must not be the information the rest of travlers receive for the road definitely did not appear highly frequented. The road passes through small farms of sheep and cow herders and I was the lone traveler on the road for the entire ten hour trip up and back besides those that live within the park. The solitude of the landscape and the few residents was incredible. I had intentions of sleeping at a campsite near the top, but around two in the afternoon, upon reaching the campsites, a storm was brewing and it began to rain quite hard. I made my way down the same road I had come hours before and arrived back in Esconbillo around 6pm quite tired and soaked through. I made it back to Pelote and hopped another bus home from the city, arriving back in Xalapa around ten that night. It was a long day! I would like to plan another trip out to Cofre de Pelote but need to research better and find where some of the stuff I had heard about really is, like the nature preserve with wild american buffalo and other cool stuff.

Other than short trips out of the city life is good. I've started hanging out with a couple of the international students for something to do during the day. I also spend a couple hours a week with my "cultural buddy"/tutor whom I have become more close with. The family is also well and still my primary means of speaking spanish.

Today is Saturday and I have no plans for the weekend besides studying and relaxing. I have a minor cold so I'll will be taking it easy for a few days to let it pass.

I hope everyone is doing well at their respective homes and jobs and I will keep up with the blog entries. I was sensing that I was falling behind because the emails began to start flowing in in greater numbers.. Ha.

Love to all home and abroad,
Barry

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Comments

[Andrea]

I agree with Lib......
travel with a friend! whew! what a long day and no wonder you have a cold. So glad you've found some friends to hang with - when you say international, what countries? I love the pictures - you and Zack have turned into wonderful photographers. Hope things continue to go well. We'll talk soon. I love you and love from Marcial too. xx Andrea