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!).

Guanajuato Trip

So, what happened in the last few weeks? The big excitement was my first out of Monterrey experience. The international programs office organized a trip to Guanejuato and Queretaro. Both of these were pretty cool towns with very high ratings in terms of color variation per capita (you'll see in a bit). Anyway we started off with a totally sweet overnight bus ride involving a somewhat puzzling mandatory 4:30 AM rest stop at the world's most expensive Subway. Anyway we eventually arrived at Queretaro (there's an accent on that second e but I'm a bit tired right now so I apologize). We ate breakfast at a fairly awful chain place called Vips and continued with a visit to several important revolutionary sites in Mexico. Unfortunately for all of you interested in hearing the history of Mexico you'll probably have to find another blog as I, being a superior engineer-type, have no room in my brain for such things (also I can't for the life of me remember half of them). We saw where Maximilian (bad guy) was killed and various places around there where he ran around and various rebel groups chased him etc. This building pictured below was where numerous prisoners of state were tortured and which served to sway public opinion towards the whole 'let's not let the government kill us' way of thinking (an important step indeed):

We also had a very nice lunch at a small restaurant off the main streets which was cool and showed the importance of having friends who speak Spanish well. Fast forward a day (and another sweet bus ride) and we arrived at Guanajuato. That night we had some pizza for dinner which counted as a cultural experience because it had chorizo. Most of the group went to a Salsa club, and while I had no idea what was going on I gave it a go or two, which ended up being pretty fun. The next day we set off through Guanajuato to see the sites in the city proper. We saw this church, which apparently is noted for having gold coated decorations but they hadn't aged well so here's a picture of the ceiling:

We also had a mini tour of a mine, which was interesting enough (but too dark for photos). Next we went to an overlook above the city, here's a panorama (click for bigger again):
There was also a funicular to bring us touristy types back to the city. I personally chose to see its lack of safety fallbacks as an endearing embodiment of the Mexican can-do attitude, but you can make up your own mind.

After a nice lunch (listed on the schedule as Lunch (optional), presumably to save on the 'all-inclusive' package cost), we had a jaunt through the lower parts of the city. Guanajuato has three layers, the bottom two of which are now used as footers for the top. They apparently have a lot of problem with drainage, so they just kept going upwards until it worked. Here's what happens when your significant other wants a window box in Guanajuato:

The second night in Guanajuato didn't go quite as smoothly, as the first club the group went to wasn't quite right for us (whatever that means). Eventually we ended up meeting up with a few friends who were doing a strikingly similar trip on their own at a local rock establishment which was a bit packed but certainly something unique. The next day we got on the bus and saw San Miguel de Allende, which was the most tourist-tastic place I have ever been to with the possible exception of Disney World. It's a cool town because it's pretty well maintained and has some great plazas and it was certainly nice and certainly beautiful but I don't think I've anyone's ever tried to sell me quite so many things in my entire life. Anyway, here's the reason the place exists, a very nice church:

After San Miguel we booked it down the road to another church which was apparantly a half-way point for some revolutionary marchers. Next, we went to Dolores which is where a priest rang the church bells to call the people to action. It was this church, in fact:

After that we had a stop at some ice cream vendors who had some very interesting flavors (including mole (the sauce, not the animal) and beer, which both tasted frighteningly like the real things). I bought some avacado, which had little chunks in it and was really interestingly good:

That essentially marked the end of the trip, and after another sweet bus ride and stop at the world's most expensive Subway, we arrived back at Monterrey to prepare for exams. Unfortunately this meant I had to delay my birthday celebration, but we'll see about that next time! Hopefully tomorrow sometime I'll have the last week written up (including an amazing hike), but given my track record you should come back in June. Until next time!