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Published: July 16th 2006
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Tapalpa When I looked up from reading my book I was amazed by 2 things, the first was that I was still raeding on an undersuspentioned, slightly pungent, speeding, old Mexican bus on a winding mountain road and somehow had defied the law of physics that states that I should have been spewing my guts up (or at least feeling like I wanted to). The second was that we were still climbing - the road wound up and up forever. Actually, visiting Tapalpa is worth it just for the views as you leave the highway and climb up into the mountains. As we passed villages whose names no-one can spell and I defintaly can't pronounce, the valley of the dried-out lake bed spread out below us, while at every stop at every tiny roadside hut we were accosted by the seemingly hundreds of taco and corn-on-the-cob sellers you get on every 2nd class Mexican bus journey.
When we finally reached the top we suddenly dropped down again through the outskirts of the typically Mexican country town to the cenre where we were just in time to watch Germany grab the 3rd-place consolation prize. Not wanting to get stuck in the
mountains overnight put us on a bit of time constraint and so we set off in search of a lift to the giant stones: "Las Piedrotas", unfortuntaley, both of the town's taxis appeared to be on a lunch break, but evertunally we flagged one down and for the same price as the 3 hour bus ride through the mountains were ferried the 15 mins out of town to the stones.
The stones are really huge and I would love to know why and how they are there but unfortunately even Google lets me down on this one (answers on a postcard), despite this (or maybe because) they are pretty inspiring lumps of rock.
We walked back along the country road to town, pausing only breifly for me to fall down some loose gravel into a drainage ditch and graze and bruize my bum and write-off a pair of trousers. The walk was lovely (apart from the trousers incident), the whole country is so green and smells so fresh compared to the city, you almost feel it is safe to breath! I guess that's the advantage of the nightly thunderstorms with the incessant lightning flashing the normally yellow sky to bright
white.
The town of Tapalpa itself is really very pretty with a lovely old church now a museum and a new interesting red-brick replacement. The main square is surrounded by wooden-balconied buildings and interestingly the whole place seems to be filled with rich holidaying Mexicans (no idea what they do here once they've seen the stones and the old paper mill, which we unfirtunatly didsn't get a chance to visit.
The end of stage 2 Well if stage 1 was Spanish school then this is the end of stage 2. Next travelling. The last 2 weeks have been a fun-filled mixture of the great and the glorious. Here is a quick summary of the best bits...
*I went to the graduation ceremonies for the secondary and the primary school and said goodbye to Alma and Elizabeth the teachers we were working with there. That was really sad and I'm so sorry to be leaving them. The ceremonies were mostly taken up by the Mexican National Anthem which is a real epic of a song, and we heard the somewhat communist-style Secondaria Tecnica Anthem (for the progress of Mexico, glory, glory, glory!)
*We met Alma's family and she
gave us some sweet gifts to say thank you, I'm going to cry!
*I have attempted to make 2 more Victoria sponges, both of which were a desaster for completely different reasons. It's amazing how many different things can happen with the same mixture, dish and oven!
*We also watched the end of the football (very sad for Germany and then France)
*I have been packing bits here and there which probably means that I have mixed all sorts of things up and left loads behind but oh well, less to carry.
*Anne and I sunbathed in the park
*I finished by classes at Uni. I've only been there 3 weeks but I'm really sad to go. In our last classes we giggled our way through chinese whispers and struggled to explain the meaning of antidisestablishmentarianism to our beginner class.
*I had my last Spanish lesson
* I watched the OC, ER, Gilmore Girls etc and it will probably be at least a year before I find out what happens in the next episode.
*I had my hair cut for 1 pound 50p! Bargain!
*We went to a bar that was like a normal house with 2 for 1 apple
martinis - mmm!
*We went out with the other volunteers for my last night, had yummy pizza, and went to my last salsa. Really sad too, I hated saying goodbye to everyone, and there were so many new people just arriving I wanted to get to know more.
*I cooked risotto for the family with whom I've been staying and I'm happy to report it was a lot more succesful than my cakes. Saying goodbye to Rebeca (my substitue mum) and the rest of teh family was really hard too. I am going to miss everyone so much!
*After crying for the first half an hour, as Guadaljara slipped by for the last time (for now), I slept for 7 hours on a bus to Mexico city to avoid watching 7 years in Tibet (dubbed badly) for the 4th time. Then I met Mary, we found a hostel and tomorrow she is off to explore Mexico while I head for Taxco and Cuernavaca, we meet up again in 3 days.
Love you all.
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Char
Charlotte Morley
Goodbye!
To everyone in Guadalajara, a found adios, tchuss and bye. Hope to see you all again soon, keep in touch and stay safe. I´ll miss you all. Char xx