Cartago and a day in San José

Righto so here's our first Costa Rica update, dutifully delayed several weeks to heighten your anticipation. I'm stationed in a hotel on the side of the lovely pan-american highway (you know those no motor brake signs? you are lucky to have them). It's a pretty boring little area unfortunately, but luckily it's not too far away from Cartago proper or the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose. Here's a characteristic view along the highway. Note the school bus chop shop.

Anyway a few weekends ago I took a solo trek to Cartago itself. There are two main sites to see in Cartago, and the first are these ruins of a church. One thing about the area that's kinda interesting is that almost everything's been destroyed a couple of times due to earthquakes etc (we actually already had an earthquake since I've been here though it was not terribly impressive). The ruins enclose a small public garden and were really neat.
The second thing to see in Cartago is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. It's the only thing that's survived since way back in the day and it did look quite impressive from this side. Unfortunately the opposite side had been remodeled in the "large flat slabs of unadorned concrete" style so popular with basilicas of the day.
That was pretty much it for that weekend, and really there hasn't been much else to show for weekend adventures so far. Mostly I've been going out with co-workers to watch various soccer games or to 80s music nights or what have you. I'm hoping to start seeing more stuff soon here, but unfortunately I'm stuck trying to find people who want to go as well. ANYWAY this last weekend I went on a tour of San José through the hotel with a nice Swiss couple in town for the weekend. We started at the national theater which was very pretty.
The inside was quite lovingly maintained as well, which was nice to see.
It had a very European style going on, and contained some really cool paintings/sculptures/lighting fixtures/ceilings (as demonstrated here)
Fun fact: There was a JFK assassination attempt here.
After the national theater we went to the museum of money of Costa Rica. It covered everything from early civilizations and gold all the way to modern bills. This sounds like it should be really boring but given the caliber of illustrations they have going on it was pretty cool. To wit:
We ended the day fruitlessly trying to find a USA soccer jersey for myself and went on to a nice late lunch on a hill over the city. It had a very good view and very nice food but puzzlingly bad service.
And here's their logo and name:
So yea, that's what's been going on. My work at the plant's finally starting to pick up now (there was a lot of twiddling of thumbs at the beginning there) and I'm feeling pretty good about what I'm doing. I hope to get to a volcano just outside of town this weekend, hopefully the plan will work out! Until later!

Semana Santa Part 2

Righty then, part 2. After visiting Palenque and the various points of aquatic interest around it we headed over to San Cristobal de las Casas, which turned out to be one of my favorite towns in Mexico. It was a really vibrant town, with many musical acts, things to look at and do, and places to eat. We planned on staying for two nights. Here's a picturesque church near our hotel from the first night:

The day after this we went to see the canion del Sumidero, which is a quasi-famous canyon near the town. We took a boat tour through it and were treated to shear rock walls and lovely views. Here's the most famous view, it's on the crest of the province:

and this is a crocodile we saw along the way, he was just kinda hanging out there.
The trip took most of the day and we were fairly suntoasted by the end of it. We had a little extra time that afternoon and went walking around town. We climbed this hill up that church (it was a pretty long climb).
At the top was an enormous Mexican flag. The area served as an overlook for the city and afforded very nice views:
The next day we went on a small tour through several modern-day Mayan village, which was a very interesting cultural experience. Not very many of them speak Spanish and most lived in either adobe or government-santioned concrete abodes. It really was a world apart from Monterrey and the US way of living, but perhaps not so far:
The town itself was actually fairly large, here's a shot of the main sqaure where one could purchase many things I would never want to eat. It was pretty interesting as well, especially with the language problems.
Finally, here's the town's "Catholic" church. It's supposed to be an official church and everything and looks pretty normal. Inside, however, it was quite different from your average church as people practiced traditional Mayan religion. It was pretty interesting. As a fun fact, if someone sees you take a photo inside they will break your camera. Then take you to jail. Don't do that.
We personally saw two people get "arrested" by the policemen who had large sticks. After that funtime adventure we were shown the magic of weaving and treated to a typical Mayan taco (really spicy sauce and some interesting cheese on a tortilla). After this we arrived back at town just in time for Danny to get really sick. I had to use my emergency Spanish to get an extra night of hotel and change our bus to the next day, but it all worked out. The next day we bussed into Villa Hermosa and went straight to the airport to fly back to Monterrey. oddly enough we met another of my friends who was traveling with her friend at the airport, and got to share a taxi back to campus with them. It was a very long car ride spent wondering about the whys and hows of my removal from Mexico. Within the week I was on (oddly enough) a smaller airplane for my flight back to Detroit. Mexico really was a great deal of fun while it lasted, but I was really disapointed to have been called back so soon. Like I said before I finished my classes at Purdue without too much drama (although they still haven't payed me the travel expenses yet). To me the experience was really positive, as the school stuff I did in Mexico was up to par and the social things were much different than they were at Purdue (which made the early homecoming all the more annoying). I'd do it again a million times.

You may think my adventure ends here BUT WAIT, there's more! Right now I'm on a plane to Costa Rica to take part in an internship at Kimberly-Clark's Cartago plant. The GEARE office was really great in helping me find this position, they've been very nice in helping me make the best of the situation. I'm excited about the opportunity but anxious again about starting from nothing all over again. I'll be regularly updating this about my new adventures there, hopefully there will be cool things to show you all. Until next time!

Semana Santa Part 1

Well, it's been quite a little bit here, sorry. I'd been really busy sorting out the semester at Purdue and then doing as much of nothing as possible at home. I finished my semester at Purdue by taking similar courses and I had to make up a month and a half of material in one class. I had to stay on campus for a week extra, but I think it all worked out (still don't have grades yet). This update will probably be two pages (got a lot of photos) and will cover my jaunt with a French-Canadian by the name of Danny through various Mayan ruins and stomach illnesses.

We started by flying into Cancun, which has the highest theme restaurant coverage per captia in the world. It was pretty scary really. We really only used Cancun for the hotel, which was very nice. Day two began with a short bus trip out to Tulum, which were a set of very pretty ruins on the side of the ocean. Unfortunately it was there that I got the call from the GEARE office at Purdue saying I'd have to come home, but other than that we had a great day. The beachfront was open for swimming and what-have-you and we stayed to enjoy the sun and sand for an hour or so. Here is a picture of the ocean (there may also be an iguana):

And here is a photo of the ocean and some ruins:
The next day we bussed out with all of our belongings to Chichen Itza, home of the tallest surviving Mayan pyramid (I think). The site was really large, and had a lot of buildings of various size and purpose. Here's some cool carvings on a random building.

We saw Chichen Itza with a guide, which was kinda expensive but probably worth it in the end. Here's an observatory, they used rooms with little tiny windows to see stars and stuff with surprising accuracy.
And here's the main attraction, the pyramid itself. It's kinda hard to miss as it's right in the middle of the site and is really quite big. Apparently there's another little pyramid inside, but you can't see it anymore.
It really was very impressive. We had a good day there. After Chichen Itza we took a whole lot of busses down to Palenque, home of some more ruins. Here's what the bus ride looked like, it was very nice.
The bus system in Mexico worked pretty well really. We took a lot of first class busses between towns and they were all clean and on time. All of them showed movies too which was especially nice on some of our all-day trips. In Palenque we saw the lovely ruins, which were pretty expansive again. The main draw there was the jungle setting. While it may seem a bit boring to see so many Mayan ruins in four days or so they all seemed unique enough to justify the visit, I can't really think of one of the three I'd like to skip in retrospect. Here's two pictures of the Palenque ruins:

(click for bigger) After the ruins our tour took us past an enormous waterfall whose name escapes me and probably will forever. It was quite impressive.
After the waterfall we saw "Aquas azules" which were supposed to be a beautiful blue but in our case more of a brownish shade. Oh well. It was still pretty cool as there were dozens of little waterfalls across a mile stretch of river, and it was a lovely way to end the day (although we didn't swim).
That's the end of part 1, STAY TUNED.

:(

Sorry, I'll have to delay for a week here as I may be pulled back stateside. Personally I"m still comfortable staying in Monterrey but Purdue thinks it's too dangerous for me to stay (see, the title makes sense now!). Anyway there'll be a mega vacation update after the week, hopefully.

Xilitla and Narcobloques

Well as I said last time I went on a trip to Xilitla in San Luis Potosi this last weekend. It's a really interesting place with some very unique things to see. The bus ride down was slated to last 8 hours but somehow turned into 12, but that's Mexico for you. We stayed at a hacienda which offered little more than mats on which to place our sleeping bags, which was nice. We made a fire all three nights. Proof:
The first day we went to see some surreal gardens. They were funded by Edward James who was apparently best buds with a bunch of pretty big surrealist painters and wanted to give them a place where they could blow their minds (even further). At least that's what I imagine as the reasoning, not sure on that. Anyway, the place made no sense but was really massive. There were tons of seemingly unplanned concrete structures with staircases leading nowhere or to precarious vistas of the surrounding jungle.


It really was quite cool, although a tad confusing. We also took a side trip to a pretty large waterfall which we could stand under and try our best to get hypothermia. After this the trip took a turn towards (or I suppose kept turning towards) the bizarre as we were mysteriously invited to the house of the mayor of Xilitla (I think). Luckily it turned out to actually be a very cool house with a great view of the surrounding mountains. There was also horseback riding and 4-wheelers for those interested. Personally I just enjoyed the view and took a hike up a small hill to get the complete panorama.
Click for bigger as usual.
After that we returned to the hacienda for a night of bonfires and various beverages and fun all around. The next morning we begrudgingly awoke only to be thrown in the pack of pickups for an excursion.

On the agenda that day was a boat tour in an extremely blue river. For some reason we weren't allowed to swim in it until the very end and so it was a kind of annoying ride. We eventually arrived at this waterfall and promptly turned around without swimming much to the chagrin of my boatmates.
Luckily on the return leg we stopped for a swim in a cave off to the side of the river which really salvaged the trip for me. There was a nicely positioned rock wall for a ~25ft. dive into the water which was a lot of fun.
After the boat ride was complete we crammed back into the trucks for a two hour journey down some very unfinished roads, severely damaging our spines in the process. Luckily we soon arrived at 'the bird show' which made me a little anxious at first but turned out to be much cooler than I anticipated. It turns out that there's a sinkhole several hundred feet deep which houses a ton of birds. They all come back at night and circle around above the entrance. When the air currents are right, they dive in. It was really impressive. One could also pay 10 pesos to look over the edge (with a security rope around the waist which probably wouldn't do a thing but whateve). It was really impressively deep, and the birds dive-bombing overhead were really spectacular.

Here's a video for all you video fans out there!

Anyway, after another awesome truck bed ride we arrived at the hacienda for another evening (over which I did not end up sleeping at all). The next day we started off with the longest 'three hour' bus ride of my life (about 5 hours, incidentally) and arrived at an eco-hostel for the final leg of the trip. We were supposed to do some canoneering but we were running out of time so we ended up just swimming under a waterfall and in a pretty awesome canyon. Unfortunately for some reason they told us not to take our cameras so you'll have to take my word for it. We also walked across a rope bridge and had a lovely dinner. After that we piled on the bus and promptly fell asleep, only to wake up at 4 AM to see we had arrived at Tec. Luckily this time my first class was at 4 PM that afternoon so I could get some serious sleep in. Unfortunately somewhere along the way I got a brief but intense cold.

In other news this last week, Friday brought two bouts of bad news. Apparently two Tec students were killed by gunfire between the army and a few organized criminals just outside of campus in the very early morning. It was the first such incident involving Tec and has a lot of students quite worried. Personally I see it as an isolated incident and don't have a problem with staying in Mexico unless things keep going south. Also Monterrey was the target of a few 'Narcobloques' which are targeted attempts to cut off Army patrols but blocking major highways. This directly inconvenienced me as I was trying to make it down to Hill Rom's factory for a tour and got stuck in a traffic standstill for 45 minutes. Again though, it was more inconvenience than danger. In other news David Guetta, a pretty big electronic music guy came to town and I was able to go. It was a very nice evening although my ears still hurt a bit. Next week I'll be traveling further south for my longest trip of the semester, I hope to have an update out around the 4th of April, we'll see!

Guadalajara and 737s

The major excitement in the last two weeks was undoubtedly my trip to Guadalajara. It was a very pretty town with some nice buildings, cool art and good food. We arrived later than we were supposed to and crashed at the hotel at about 11. Around 3 we went to a Mariachi restaurant because, as they told us several times, Guadalajara is pretty much where that whole genre started (for better or for worse). The meal was very good (which was nice as we ate at 3 or so without an earlier meal that day), and the Mariachis were interesting to say the least. That night we took a double decker bus tour of Guadalajara which was really cool, albeit very cold. Here's the town's church:
Here's a roundabout road sign. "You can go around the outside and take any of these exits or, if you like, you can go right across the middle. Whichever's fine with us."
The next day was to be spent in Tequila. I will grant you two guesses as to which fine Mexican product is made in Tequila and no, it is not tortillas. We rode a train down to the town sampling a variety of unique cultural beverages then toured the factory where this unique cultural beverage was made. Needless to say there were samples available.
The ride back was very similar to the ride out, but with more dancing for some reason. I'm sure it was a celebration of the unique cultural beverage and it's positive impact on the local economy. Also some Mariachi showed up. Towards the second half of the train ride one side of our car, note here it was not the side occupied by somewhat inebriated college students, began ambushing anyone daring to walk by with dancing. Also note the other side of the car was occupied by very lively middle-aged couples. A one-dimensional conga line appeared. It was a very special train ride.
The night of the Tequila train extravaganza we headed out on a 45 minute bus ride to a club in town. For some reason the organizers felt we wouldn't get in but by that time the bus had grown restless and so we waited elbow to elbow for a while and eventually got into the place. It turned out to be a pretty sweet club (and from a nerd perspective the lighting was really cool too) and fun was had by all. The next day we went to Tlaquepaque, which was a very cool town filled with art. For instance, here's some art:

We had a very nice meal at a restaurant in town. Here are my (blury) enchiladas poblanas which were very tasty:
Aside from the art and a whole bunch of art vendors there isn't too much else to comment on in the Guadalajara trip (expect perhaps the 30 extra minutes we spent driving around town looking for lost students). We arrived back at Tec at 7:45, giving me just enough time to brush my teeth and show up for class. Yay college! More recently, it was flag day in Mexico and they had a nice but brief ceremony. Mexico's going through some tough times right now and so the speakers were all quite optimistic which was nice. They even had a shoutout to us international students and how important we are to the country etc.
Aside from that I attended a birthday party, saw Avatar in 3-D Imax twice (by no fault of my own), went fruitlessly shopping in the worst mall ever and spent a long time studying engine removal on Boeing 737s for my augmented reality project which is looking more impossible by the day. I'm going to be spending a lot of time staring at CAD models pretty soon so please send your last respects to my sanity whenever you have time. Next weekend I'm off to Xilitla which is supposed to be really pretty and really different, I'll be sure to inform you all in a month or so. Until then!

Cerro de la Silla

SORRY

Here's what happened last Sunday on Cerro de la Silla ('Saddle Mountain', so named for its sorta saddle-like multiple peaks). It's luckily pretty close to campus (I see it every time I walk home from school). You can get a general overview of the mountain from the first picture I posted in the 'Sproing!' update. The plan was to hit the North peak (the one in the middle) and then the far left peak (with the antenna). We started off the day with a minor car crash before we left Tec but luckily the damage was only cosmetic and we were soon on our way (you could say it was all uphill from there, but I wouldn't do that to you). Anyway we soon arrived at a drainage pipe which was reportedly the official entrance, and began the ascent through what I will affectionately call the rainforest n' rock zone. Here's what a lot of it looked like, with little climbing scrambles mixed in:

Soon enough we got to a steeper portion of the trail which let us see above the trees and notice that we were kinda getting higher (a bit). This was the ending point for the day, the antenna peak:

First on the agenda, however, was the north peak. Towards the end of this bit of the climb it got quite a bit steeper so there were a few puzzling moments involving disappearing trails and large rocks. Eventually, however, we got to the top. The view was pretty ridiculous, as we could see most of Monterrey and the numerous mountain ranges surrounding it. Here's Monterrey from way up:

And while there was a lot of fog which kinda obscured our view of the down below, I think it made it a really cool experience all in all:

Here's a panorama off to the side, as always click for bigger.
What the following photo does not do a terribly good job of showing is the several hundred foot dropoff to the left side of the rock I'm standing on. This was certainly not a mom-approved photo op:

We ate lunch on this peak, and as we waited more fog started to roll in. It was kinda cool to see it roll over the valley between the two peaks.

Soon we descended a bit, then walked right along the back edge of the valley between the peaks. Remember the photo of the antenna from before? How it was nice and clear? Well, it was a bit different later in the day:

So yeah, while the dropoff to the right side of the valley was supposedly several hundred feet we had to take the guide's word for it as it was kinda impossible to tell. This whole section was really cool and a little scary at points, as the path was right on the edge of the cliff with some decent wind. At one point I did lose my balance a bit but elected to fall to the left of the path, into a comically large cactus. While that was not the most fun I had that day, I think I made the right decision in the end.
This section of trail also had some more pronounced rock-scrambling moments which were pretty fun. Eventually we arrived at the antenna installation, which as far as I can tell is there solely to look ominous. The facility had a bunch of satellite arrays and other such things and was enclosed in razor wire (I was getting a 'Jurassic Park' vibe, especially with the fog).
The walk down was not very much fun for me, as we used an access road for the antennas. I use 'road' in the loosest sense possible, it was pretty rough even by Mexico standards and was not fun to walk on. Luckily half way down we arrived at a strange concrete square overlooking the city. As it turns out there used to be a cable car to that point, but it had some sort of accident on its second day of operation (somewhere in the 60s) and was abandoned. Here's the cable car station:And here's the view from the concrete sqaure:
Needless to say it was a fantastic hike which I enjoyed immensely (except for the cactus spines which I'm still finding in my knees). I think it was a pretty good level of difficulty for me and the rock-scrambling bits were a nice surprise. So there ya go, Cerro de la Silla.

The week after the trip I got back my first round of partial exams which have at least temporarily calmed my fears of any remaining language barrier. For example, in Mechanics of Materials I scored 50% above the average (but my professor won't let me have a grade over 100 for some reason...) I've also been fencing twice a week, which is good as usual if but a bit lower key than at Purdue (the club owns 2 weapons between all of us). That should pretty much bring you up to date as nothing terribly interesting happened this weekend. Thursday I'll be leaving on a trip to Guadalajara which should be cool, I'll report back the 28th or so (haha!).