Cacaxtla, Tlaxcala

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So Yesterday, the fourth, was a pretty uneventful day around here. No fireworks, no parades, sniff sniff... But we celebrated on our own with a Cahuama (a 40) of Corona. We made micheladas, which you make by adding beer to lime juice in a salt-rimmed glass. MMMM.. We later went to the mall and saw Fast and Furious 2: Tokyo Drift.. or El Rapido y Furioso 2: Tokio Drift. Pretty dumb but fun to watch. It was in English with Spanish subtitles... except when they spoke in Japanese, the subtitles were still in Spanish... so that was kinda hard to figure out.


This morning we went to the ruins of Cacaxtla (cah-cahsh-tlah) in the state of Tlaxcala (tlas-cah-lah). This website has been annoying in that it's not letting me upload the higher pixel pictures I took. so when I went to the ruins, I took all sorts of sizes of pictures (by choosing between 1 or 3 stars on the camera's mode).

The ruins are huge and covered by a giant pavillion. They have beautiful paintings inside so covering them protects them from wear. It's situated up really high on a hill so it can see the green farmlands of the valley below. The land here is now being cultivated just like it was when this site was inhabited - between 600 and 900 AD. From this site, you can also see across to another hill with a pyramid on top.

The paintings here are gorgeous, with brightly colored reds, blues, and yellows. In the gift shop I bought a piece of artwork that immitates a scene from one of the paintings. Cost me only $3.50! I also bought a bracelet of onyx for $0.60.

On the way down from the pyramid it was easy to find small pieces of broken pottery littered along the ground. There were also huge cacti that grew on trees. These have lime-sized buds that are the fruit of the cactus. In Mexico, these fruits are called "tunas" and they eat them or make juice out of them. Jorge tried to pick one of these fruits for me but - should have known better - they have small tufts of yellow spines that look soft but apparently aren't. He had tons of them stuck into is thumb, forefinger and middle finger. Not good news for a bass player. We tried to pick them out and had to use tweezers and finally wax to get them all out. We found out later that gum is a good trick to get them out. Picture a hundred miniscule slivers pricked into your skin. OUCH! He's better now - and he's learned his leason.

This afternoon Jorge brought my old broken computer to his friend, who completely reinstalled Windows XP on it, so now it should work fine. Afterward, we ate some more tacos Arabes at a local restaurant. Yum! Total cost for two tacos Arabes, a quesadilla Arabe, and two coronas: $7.75. I love this place!

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Photos

Parrot Factory
Here they bred parrots and kept them in boxes that served as cages.

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[Jenny]

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i miss you!