So much beauty and fun!!!

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This has been maybe the best day of my life. My favorite day in Mexico, anyway!!!
Woke up at 6:30, and Emma made me my usual breakfast of two eggs and a sliced tomato- mmmm. No fruit b/c she hadn't gone to the superama yet.
We met at school, and got on the huge bus. I slept the whole way, which was nice because I had been out until 2AM the night before. Then, we arrived in Uruapan, at the National Park. The whole park is set up around a series of waterfalls and scenes which correspond to a poem in Spanish, all about this royal family (I think its originally Purépecha...) I don't remember all of the stories, but most centered around the queen and her son in law, and their weird relationship... each waterfall or bridge told some story like "He loves her, but he wishes she would get stuck in a bull's horn" or, "he loves her, but if she were sick he'd sit by her bed praying for her death" and for her part, "she wishes he were an aquador so he would be less of an hablador" which, while not rhyming in English, means "She wishes he'd get a job so he'd stop talking so much." There were a few sweet scenes too, like the "Just married bridge" and the lover's waterfall. There was also a place called Rodilla Del Diablo (The Devil's knee) which is supposed to be where the devil used to live, cursing the people with constipation, until they called in a Spanish priest, who kicked the devil out, but when the devil fell he left an imprint of his knee, and that's where all the water comes from in the forest.

We took tons of pictures, and at three different bridges (puentes) or waterfalls (fuentes) there'd be three young men, shirtless, making a big scene about diving into the water. They'd climb high up onto some ledge, and their friends would say "LISTOS?" and wait and wait and wait until a huge crowd gathered. The diver would do some stretches, make really worried faces, look around at his friends, and cross himself and pray to God. Then he'd dive into the (pretty shallow) waters, swim out, climb back up, and ask for pesos. Pretty sure he made bank! After the first one, though, we realized what a show it was, how its not really dangerous at all, and they're loving doing it. Our guide who lead us all through this was a boy of about 9 years old who spoke Spanish and had an ID card hanging around his neck.

The whole place was so beautiful, it was like being in a rain forest. The waterfalls were small but still impressive and they had fountains in all shapes- one like a peacock tail, one like a hundred pipes shooting straight out of a wall... the trees were huge, the leaves huge, and their were giant flowers that hung like pink bells and the bees had to fly up inside them to pollinate. I saw one big white butterfly, and also about a million fish in the hatchery- they were medium sized and dark green with black spots. I don't know if I've been in a more beautiful forest! We payed our guide (also there were some viejitos lurking around, popping out from behind walls, waving and stomping their canes, then hopping back, cackling. I love their dance, but that doesn't make them any less creepy when they're alone and staring at you!!)

We got back on the bus where poor Rigo had been waiting- he couldn't come to the forest with us because he had to watch the bus. On the way there a woman offered me a chunk of avocado ice cream--- YUM. I wanted to go back and eat more, but we were in a hurry. Did I mention I was in the Avocado capital of the world?? And that Avocado is maybe my favorite food in the world?

We drove maybe another half hour, it was hard to tell- I slept. Then we arrived at Paricutin, which in 1943 made history with a volcano that sprung out of the ground over night. It was born February 20, 1943 in the middle of a Purépecha man's corn field. He says that its his volcano, because it was born on his property. Anyway about three days after it was born it erupted all over the small town, and everything was covered in lava. The lava eventually hardened into volcanic rock, and that is what is left for miles around the volcano. The only thing you can see now is the towers of the church, which were high enough to survive. The way to get to this town is a long long path, and we rented horses to take us there. They gave me a very bony, old horse with a wooden saddle and the smallest reins I've ever seen. His name was Cacahuate, which I'm sure is a joke from the universe because that's my favorite word in Spanish. Alexa rode a huge black horse named Four by Four. Rodolfo, Lauren, Letty, and Hayley all rode too, while the others decided to hike it through the dust and ash and rocks! My poor little Peaunt did not really want to run, but I kept him trotting when I could, and a lope every once in a while. The renters of the horses were a group of very young boys (one couldn't have been older than 7), all speaking to each other in Purépecha. They noticed my trouble keeping up and getting Cacahuate to move, so they gave me a big stick!! haha it was really fun, the group of us running around on horseback, and the quiet times when the horses were picking their way up rocky hills and down into the valley.
We arrived at a small group of shacks, selling quesadillas and t-shirts, and stabled the horses. It was amazing-- the whole town had been buried in lava!! the ground was now where the tallest of the roofs reached. We scrambled over the rocks to one of the tallest piles, and from there could see the volcano. Its pretty tiny as Pacific Northwest mountains go, but was also a perfect cone on top. Rodolfo said we could take horses up there too, but its a longer trip and more expensive (it was $12 for this one).

Soon, the hikers joined us, and we sat for a few minutes resting, when Terra, Rodolfo, Michelle, Chelsea, and I went over to the ruins of the church. Apparently there were a few holes in the rocks so that you could actually see down inside a bit of the church- unfortunately none of us had brought a flashlight, and so we couldn't really see inside, except to see that there wasn't much space at all. To get up to the actual church- that is, where the towers were still there, you had to crawl over a log that was no more than 6 inches wide, and perched between the wall of the church and a pile of rocks. I crawled first, putting one knee in front of the other, and made it across! We found out that if you walked along the edge (which was maybe a foot wide) you could get around to the inside of the tower-- this was amazing to me, to be able to actually crawl and walk and climb and touch a real ruin!! Usually you just look and take pictures and nod... it was also the first time I'd done much climbing, and I decided I wanted to do more- the inside of the church tower was more destroyed (not smooth rock like the outside of it) and so there were places where you could put a foot... Michelle helped me to find where exactly to put my feet and hands, and I pulled myself up to the top! I rested there for a while, panting like crazy, and then Michelle helped me back down. I so want to learn to rock climb now, but when am I going to get a chance like that again, to scale a church buried in volcanic rock? We crossed the log bridge again, and walked back to the tiendas, where I ate the most wonderful food:
First, the woman takes some blue corn and grinds it into flour. Then she adds water, salt, avocado (THE BEST IN THE WORLD) and nopales (cactus) to the paste, and makes a thick green-blue tortilla. She grills the tortilla and inside melts some Ouaxaca cheese, the most delicious cheese in the world. It melts perfectly, has a bit of a tangy sour taste, but at the same time is sweet and cheesey (I try and eat this cheese daily). Once this is melted into a quesadilla, you can add chorizo and papas to it, or eat it like that. She put it on a plate and her daughter sliced me up an avocado and I put salt on it and ate it like an orange. they also had a huge mortar bowl of salsa, which was delicious.
Then time to get back on Cacahuate, and ride back. We trotted almost the whole way, and at the end I didn't want to get off! My body did, though- the saddles were wooden with just a little but of felt over them, and I can feel my tail bone crying! We walked back to the bus and I slept all the way home.

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Photos

Uruapan Forest
Our guide

Uruapan Fountain
All of us by the fountain/waterfall

The Divers
One man dives while his friend gets the crowd excited

Paracutin
The church tower sticking out of the lava

Cacahuate
My sweet horse

Paracutin
Climbing up the rocks

The ruins
Climbing down into the cave

The Church
This window used to be way up in the air

Crossing the bridge
On the way back, you couldn't really crawl, you had to slide

More ruins
I climbed to the top left of this

The avocado capital of the world
Yum yum yum yum yum

Paricutin
The original explosion

Viejitos
Creepers!