http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from North America , Mexico , Veracruz en-us Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:36:41 BST Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:36:41 BST First Week of School Ftbol and PanI wake this morning around 9am pack my bag and walk to my school. The doors are open but the compound is quiet and still with only a few of the staff members noticed by their black collared EEE polo shirts pacing the walkways. Today is Friday and the first day of my extended weekend something I will enjoy every week here at La Escuela para Estudiantes Extra http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-320539.html Acclimation and a Mexican SundayI have spent the past couple days walking around ldquoel centrordquo or center city with my host mom Yolie. My days have been less than eventful most of them consisting of long waits while she runs errands in stores and talks to people on her phone but Irsquom seeing lots of the city by spending time with her. From what Irsquove experienced with my host fa http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-318614.html Five hours to Xalapa. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-318026.html Hello EveryoneI have arrived and settled in at my new home in Xalapa Mexico I arrived Wednesday night around 8pm after a fivehour plane ride to Mexico City and another five hours aboard a bus to Xalapa. The plane ride passed in a sleepy daze but the bus ride was beautiful cutting through the expansive countryside of eastern Mexico. Incredible fields of green vegetation stretched as far as the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-317979.html Hello EveryoneI have arrived and settled in at my new home in Xalapa Mexico I arrived Wednesday night around 8pm after a five hour plane ride to Mexico City and another five hours aboard a bus to Xalapa. The plane ride passed in a sleepy daze but the bus ride was beautiful cutting through the expansive country side of Mexico. Nearing Veracruz the terrain became quite mountainous and a thick m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-317657.html Today was our day for Catemaco. Though the town is only maybe 40 miles at most the trip was going to take 3 hours. We got up at 3 a.m. our time got ready and headed out the door to meet up with Karla's aunt and cousin who were tagging along. This time I was driving. We had no trouble finding the road we wanted but the road was less than stellar. There were many little towns and the towns consis http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Catemaco/Nanciyaga/blog-297188.html In the morning we went to visit Karla's neighbor who was always very kind to Karla as she grew up. She used to spoil Karla with mojarra so when we showed up unexpectingly she took us down to the store bought some fresh fish and fried up the mojarra. The fish was pretty good too. Unfortunately while we were waiting to eat there was a small old drunk man who wanted to tell his life story to me a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Coatzacoalcos/blog-295744.html Today was supposed to be our free day. We didn't have to be anywhere with anybody. We were going to go out and explore. First stop Catemaco the northern most tropical rainforest in the world and where many movies have been filmed including sean connery's shaman movie and most recently Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. It took me awhile to find one of those two roads that leads out of Coatzacoalcos and http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Coatzacoalcos/blog-295734.html We arrived sometime after 100 a.m. in Coatzacoalcos. Actually getting into the city is an adventure in and of itself. There are only two roads into the city and finding them is not obvious or well marked. We made a few detours and uturns but somehow found ourselves in downtown where we wanted to be. I printed out my google maps before making the trip but found that they were useless here. The st http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Coatzacoalcos/blog-295724.html ... http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-263478.html ... http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Papantla/blog-263471.html Well hello Its ages since Ive updated you all and for all those hanging on the edges of their seats Im very sorrySince I last updated not a lot and quite a lot has happened Firstly and most importantly we went to Veracruz for the weekend. Friday started out well enough with beautiful blue skies well we are in Mexico and pink blamanche for breakfask and whats more COLD MILK It http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-255819.html I have been terrible about writing in this blog But finally I will describe thewonderful weekend that I had now almost 2 weeks ago Liz and her boyfriend Nick came to visit they arrived on Friday the 22nd of Feb. On Saturday we headed to Veracruz Veracruz which is the closest beach to Puebla only a little over 3 hours in the bus. Veracruz is a very important port city in Mexico and there is http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-253449.html The first story I want to tell about the rainbow gathering is an adventure I went on near to the beginning of my stay. There was a lot of hype going on around how beautiful a certain spot was called The Source. It was apparently beautiful sacred almost supernatural. The sight of the Rainbow gathering was at the meeting of two rivers one river had gone through a small town and a fair bit of farm http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-252775.html Great fukken superbowl... the Mexico City Hooters was popping. I think it was full to capacity but a nice guy saw the sad looks on our faces when he wouldnt let us in and gave us a sweet table by the big flatscreen. I bet on the giants straight up at a 4 to 1 payout against Barton... he was pissed.... I was the real loser though as in an ironic twist I got the old Montezumas revenge bug about http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-243199.html When we last heard from fearless superheros ldquoBiker Nikkirdquo and ldquoSuper Simonrdquo they were in Azusa California braving the holiday season..and visiting grandma. Defeated by the bitter cold of southern California they had no choice but to fly their two wheeled rocket shipshellipSouthoftheBoarder hellipVROOM hellipZOOM hellipKAZOOM Te http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-235287.html find my pics athttpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid11022lc8f31id708372808httpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid12444l8869cid708372808I have a lot more but my camera is now water dammaged so it could be a while begore I figure out how to get the pictures off my memory cardand Chris's athttpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid11607le5746id708372808httpwww.facebook.comalbum.phpaid http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-230402.html Gros bonjour a tousCa fait maintenant 5 jours que nous sommes arrives et quel bonheur de retrouver ces mexicains chaleureux aimables et amoureux comme on les aime. Les activites ne manquent pas et je suis tres loin de m'ennuyer de mon bon vieux quebec.Notre voyage en avion malgre sa longueur s'est tres bien deroules malgre que j'ai failli me gerber les tripes en plein aeroport JFK. Qu'a cela ne http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Papantla/blog-228127.html Chers tous Bientt cinq mois que je suis au Mexique travailler pour Microcred et pourtant jrsquoai lrsquoimpression drsquotre un peu tous les jours aux quatre coins du mondehellip Rcit drsquoune journehellip.. 7h30 Rveille par la sonnerie du rveil de Mariline qu'elle a ramen de Rio et qui rappelle paradoxalement que lrsquoon est loin de se rveiller pour aller au carn http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/blog-211183.html Mes chers amis Je n'ai jamais t une grande amatrice de Noel... Je vous passe les poncifs et autres arguments recycls sur le consumrisme et le dclin des religions sur la socit individualiste en delitement qui recherche vainement une occasion a l'anne pour se draper d'un semblant de cohsion sur les classes moyennes suprieures de Shanghai et Pkin qui se mettent a fter Noel pour fair http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-211181.html Planet Finance est une organisation non gouvernementale controverse. Cre par Jacques Attali lrsquoancien conseiller de Franois Mitterrand en 1997 il propose lrsquoide de crer une banque virtuelle refinancant les institutions de microfinance. Au mme moment Arnaud Ventura est en Argentine et travaille pour la BNP Buenos Aires. Il rejoint Jacques Attali en Dcembre 1997 qui le charge http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-211180.html Lorsque lrsquoon arrive au Mexique et que lrsquoon vient de Chine lorsque lrsquoon est drsquoailleurs ni Mexicaine ni Chinoise mais encore une fois une trangre dans un nouveau pays avec de nouveaux codes de nouvelles habitudes un nouveau peuple avec une nouvelle histoire on ne peut pas srsquoempcher de tout comparerhellip. De comparer ce que le Mexique a et que la Chine http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-211179.html Chers tous Je suis bien arrive au Mexique dans la petite ville colore de Veracruz. Je rencontre peu a peu les membres de l'quipe de Microcred institution de microfinance cree par PlaNet Finance par laquelle j'ai t embauche. Mes prochaines semaines vont d'abord se composer d'un travail de terrain a savoir accompagner un agent de crdit toute la journe pour voir comment il recrute ses http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-211178.html VeracruzThis morning we went to the fortress of San Juan de Ula in the port of Veracruz. It was an old Spanish command post situated on the port entrance. When it was used it served as a home to presidents military headquarters and prison. Much of the fortress was constructed with coral rock and has bridges that connect different areas. It reminded me of a fortress from 'The Pirates of the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-185289.html VeracruzToday was a slower day than usual. After beakfast we headed to the Zempoala's archeological site to see some very interresting ruins. They were not as large as other sites but still great to see. For one reason or another we were not allowed to climb on the ruins as you are in other places. Then we went to Chachalacas beach to walk eat and swim on the beach. Nice to day to reflect http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-184910.html L.A. to VeracruzNos fuimos de Xalapa hoy y me senti un poco triste. Xalapa es una ciudad muy bonita con calles empedradas y callejones donde se resaturantes y cafes. Ayer por la noche algunos de nosotros del grupo salimos a comer postre en el centro. Encontramos un local con musica y mucha gente hablando y pasando el tiempo. Me senti muy a gusto y seguro en esta ciudad y me gustaria regresar. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Vera-Cruz/blog-184898.html UntitledThis morning we went to the Universidad Veracruzana to hear two different lectures. The first was by Dr. Rodrguez who presented on ldquoThe Impact of Climate Change in Veracruzrdquo. There were many different aspects presented on the enviornment and how much of a negative effect man has had on the area of Veracruz and the need for conservation. Interestingly most of the research i http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-184001.html Xalapa from CaliforniaFrom the city of Puebla we headed to Xalapa. Pronounced HALAPA On our way we headed went to a childrens orphanage for boys called IPODERAC. Its a great place which serves street children who are runaways or abonded. There are 60 boys that live there and are sent to school taught independents life skills socializing skills and technical skills. The boys range in a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-183688.html Whats up Well for those of you back home Anna and I made it to mexico but I think we might be illegals here because we didnt stop at the border and fill out a tourist card. oops. anyway the Rainbow gathering was good but it rained the first two days and was very muddy and Anna got poison ivy on her butt. There was such an elitest vibe there like who can be the biggest hippie It should be abo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-178112.html Hey everyone we are in the mountains on the gulf coast in the capital of veracruz. We arrived here yesterday after a day of driving from xilitla. In xilitla we stayed in a castle on the top of a mountain with a beautiful view pool marble tiled wide hallways an orchid garden and a 40 min. walk to Las Pozas. A man named Edward James built himself a castle in the jungle with amazing architectu http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Mexico/Veracruz/Xalapa/blog-178111.html