Blogs from Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico, North America - page 4

I haven’t written much so here’s an update. Carol arrived in MX on the 3rd of July and I took her to the airport in MX Mon. She spent the first week resting and getting acquainted with Cuernavaca and it didn’t take long for her to realize as I did quickly that Cuernavaca isn’t the town for us. In spite of the fact my host family couldn’t be nicer and they’re treating me so well, the city is large, filthy, loud and chaotic and doesn’t have the charm and history that Oaxaca has. We of course enjoyed our time together and she finally felt secure enough to visit the most tranquil areas on her own while I was in class. The only weekend she had here, we went to Taxco one day and Tepoztlan the ... read more

Saturday, July 11, 2010 There is nothing in the U.S. like the open air markets in Mexico. Everything is out on display. Buyers and sellers are in constant motion, a beehive of activity. We saw a man walk through the market with half of a slaughtered cow carried on his back. Meat is not refrigerated. They neatly stack it on the counter. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves. This is where most of the people shop for food, although they sell other things as well- shoes, clothes, purses, school supplies, flowers, etc. They also have stores like we see in the U.S., except everything’s written in Spanish of course. And like every other country in the world, they also have Walmart, Office Depot, Starbucks, and all the other franchises we know. Even though globalization has ... read more

Xochicalco is an impressive, ancient site that we visited on Tuesday. It has many pyramids and altars where they sacrificed people at least once a month (That's what happens when you don't have television). Of course, sacrificing live human beings wasn’t all there was to their culture, but that’s the memorable thing for most of us. They also were big into astronomy. Like the Mayans, they played a ball game where two teams competed to put a 7-pound rubber ball through a small loop that was about 21 feet off the ground without using their hands. We were told by the tour guide that the leader of the winning team was sacrificed to the gods. And to be sacrificed was a great honor and people went willing because they believed they would become a god or ... read more

Today we took a bus to Teotihuacan (tay-oh-tea-wa-kahn). It’s one of the most popular places to visit. We toured the ruins of a civilization that lived there 2,000 years ago, before the Aztecs. When the Aztecs came upon the ruins, hundreds of years after the people who had built them were gone, they thought they were the remains of a city of the gods, mistaking the pyramids for tombs. That’s why they named the major thoroughfare the Avenue of the Dead. The Temple of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world. It took about 15 minutes to walk up to the top. The steps are narrow and steep. Once we got to the top, the view was great. It was a long day though, and it was good to get home. Weather report: ... read more

Like elsewhere in the world, there is a choice of public and private schools in Mexico. Private schools are for those who can afford it (a few scholarships are available for those who can't) and public schools are for everyone else. But public schools are so crowded that they run on double shifts, a morning shift that's over by 1 p.m. or so and an afternoon shift that goes until 6 p.m. If you think class size in the States is a problem, classes here in public schools often average 50 students, sometimes up to 60. It's not uncommon for teachers to teach over 300 students during the course of a day. Of course, if your family is only making $3.00 a day, it's not likely your children are going to attend (they have to work ... read more