Argentina

Hola todos, I´ve been in DF for the past 3 days in the barrio Condesa, which is much nicer than the Historic Zone. If I compared DF to Buenos Aires, I would call the Historic Zone San Telmo and I would call Condesa Palermo. Before I came to Mexico City everyone said, "Ewww, Mexico City. Isn´t it really dirty there?" Yes, some parts are dirty like any big city, but Condesa is actually quite spectacular. Outdoor parks, quiet streets lined with trees, and little cafés. Easily liveable. But now my trip is done. Just one more night out with a girl I met from Seattle who got the scholarship I want to get this year. I´m pumped for Oktoberfest! Time to get back to real life I suppose. More notes about Mexico in list form for easy digestion: 1) The metro has a section for women and children at rush hour. While I suppose this is good for the women and children, it leaves the men to themselves to duke it out in the back cars. At rush hour, the metro is well over capacity. This results i...

Hola todos, My host in San Cristobal has been very hospitable and this weekend showed me most of San Cristobal. The highlight, though, was at her friends going away party when they paid for a 4 person mariache band to play 8 or so songs como despedida. The best song, though, if you are ever in the presence of a mariachi band to request is El Rey. When a Mexican hears El Rey, it is in their genetic code to stop whatever they are doing and sing along. I decided not to go to Guatemala because the cross border trek would have taken about 8 hours each way. Not worth it in my opinion. Instead I am going to DF (Mexico City) tomorrow at 5:30. My host Eri was crucial for this because I was going to pay around $900 pesos at the bus station I arrived at for a ticket. She informed me that I can take a similar bus that stops more frequently for just $350 pesos. Done. Today I went to an indigenous town that is about 20 minutes outside San Cristobal where the majority of the inhabitants speak s...

So I just spent the last week in Puerto Escondido. If you asked me to tell you what I did each day, I would not be able to seperate the days. The whole week was one continous blur of beach, swimming, soccer, and fiestas. It was definitely a vacation and not travel. I spoke English pretty much the whole time and met some pretty funny characters. My only complaint was how freaking hot it was there. I took cold showers by choice. Puerto Escondido has one of the best pipelines in North America but I really didn´t care because I don´t surf. One of the days, again I have no idea which one, we took a chartered boat for an hour to see the wild life. After about 10 minutes of driving full speed into the ocean, which is a little nerve wracking when you are going over large swells and have no life jacket, we encountered about 12 dolphines. They were only 10 meters from the boat and were swimming along the top. After we tired of dolphines, we went a little further. Out of nowhere, the driver speed...

I felt I needed to update my blog because if I didn´t, no one would know where I went. This morning during breakfast I decided to go to Puerto Escondido on a whim. I was just done with Oaxaca city. Yes mom, there is flooding in the state but not where I am. I left in a 10 person van at 12:30 and wouldn´t arrive until 7:30 after weaving around narrow twisting mountain rounds that cut through the jungle of south Mexico. The road was frequently covered with mini-landslides and occasionally we would have to dodge cattle mossying in the road. Pretty fucking epic drive. At the end I thought our van was going to get struck by lightning because we were the highest point on the road and are metal. But I made it. Now I am in an equally sketchy cabana in Puerto Escondido called Cabanas Edda. Suprisingly they have a website: http://cabanasedda.enweb.com.mx/. Let me just say first that I have never stayed in a place with a moquito net. And secondly, I realized that while I had thought I was staying...

Well, my host family kind of sucked. Actually no, let me rephrase that, my host old women really sucked cock. She was one of those lifer hosts that has been hosting people for so long that she doesn´t really give a fuck anymore. She basically ignored me and was quiet in her room. It´s really creepy being in an empty house that you are not familiar with. Plus, she was charging me $16/day which is steep in Mexico. Needless to say I got the fuck out in two days. My trip has kind of been random in that way. Here I was thinking I was going to spend 3 weeks studying Spanish and doing a homestay, but both turned out to be terrible. Now I am in a hostel and much happier. I am getting over my dislike of being touristy. Sometimes you just have to be a freaking gringo and not give a shit. The last two days have actually been quite good. Yesterday I went to an archaeological sight and met a women of about 60 years old who was really interesting. Her husband had eloped with a 25 year old meth addic...

My first blog ever from an iPod. Spanish school was a huge let down and I've already disenrolled. The grammar part was too simplistic and the business Spanish class was stuff I already knew and disorganized. Now I have no plans... Again. Although having nothing to do is liberating, it's also daunting. My life has zero structure and it's tough to handle. I have no plans tomorrow or the next day. I could do touristy stuff but I really don't like to. So we'll see. I found a cool website called world wide organization of organic farms or WWOOF.com. Basically I could volunteer on a farm and get free room and board. More to come when I get a computer with a keyboard.

I shaved my head. I was tired of rocking the shaggy hawk, so I shaved my hair to 3/8 inches. I like it and now I don´t have to worry about it. Today was a good day. I was a little bit bummed out yesterday because I hadn´t really done anything super important in about 2 weeks. My goal when I came here was to perfect my Spanish, and the truth is that pure travel really doesn't do that for you because you're normally not really talking to anyone. Anyway, enough is enough. I found a language school in Oaxaca that has a Business Spanish course and I signed up for three weeks. I haven't actually paid any money yet, but I'm going to go check it out on Monday after Acapulco. The program costs $460 for three weeks and consists of the following: 9:00am - 1:00pm Spanish grammar 3:00pm - 5:00pm Business Spanish 7:00pm - 6:00pm Conversation hour with a local Oaxacan, 50:50 Spanish/English. I will also be doing a homestay, which costs $13/day and includes breakfast. I calculate the w...

Well, while my sister is living it up, I am taking buses, eating tacos, and enjoying cold showers. I arrived in Cuernavaca on Tuesday and the place is nice. Cuernavaca is about 90 minutes from Mexico City and is a very popular choice for second homes. The weather is supposedly really nice, although all i have seen is rain. It is also unbelievable cheap to take Spanish lessons. At the hostel I am in, a German girl scored a deal for 4 weeks of Spanish instruction with a room included for $850. Rewinding a little bit back, the road trip last weekend was pretty awesome. Mexico is the definition of a second world country. For example, yes there are paved highways, BUT you have to pay a shit ton in tolls and there are unmarked speed bumps (topes) everywhere. Driving through the Mexican country side you see a lot of poverty, but they aren't hungry, they are just poor. They live in small cinder block houses with the steel reinforcement sticking out the top just in case someone wants to add...

Just wanted to check-in para que mama sepa que I'm safe. We took a pretty crazy road trip through Xalapa, Coatepec, Xico, and Veracruz. We got back last night. Today I have been trying to figure out how to get to Cuernavaca, which is where I will stay until Friday. On Friday, it appears that the same crew that took a road trip last weekend will be taking a road trip to Acapulco where Pedro has a sweet house. From Acapulco, I will go south to Puerto Escondido.

Strangely I don´t feel like blogging today, but I am in an internet cafe and have time to kill. Cholula has been very low key and mostly consists of me playing Mario on Super Ninentendo, practicing Spanish, and working on my Fulbright application by day, and by night going to house parties. There are a bunch of Brazilians here and it´s really fun to talk to them in a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. Most of them arrived without having taken any Spanish classes, yet they are picking it up suprisingly well. I´ve gotten some invitations to visit them in Brazil, and I may have to accept. On the negative, I got a fever last night so I have been feeling super tired and all my muscles are sore despite my aforementioned lathargic activities. We´re going out tonight and tomorrow morning I am taking a road trip with Paulina and her boyfriend, and two gay guys. But it´s cool, cause they are dating. Should make for an intersting time, though. We´re going to Veracruz for the weekend, which is on ...

Leaving D.F. tomorrow and heading to Puebla to visit Paulina, Gilda, y Karla. Pretty chill day. I bought a novel in Spanish and Spanish grammar book for a total of $100 pesos or about USD $7. I´ve tried to begin studying but we´ll see how long I last. I was super ambitious and got the novel Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, which is not an easy read. The historic district is super busy at all times. Stores compete in blaring their music over the noise of traffic and street vendors selling the most ridiculous stuff. A pen with 10 colores? Really? The best is when you get on the metro because these guys wear backpacks with stereos, blast music, and try to sell you pirated cd´s. I went to the Merced today, which is a retardedly large indoor flea market with narrow corridors and hanging merchandise that was not hung with a 6´3¨ gringo in mind. Getting to the Merced was more interesting than actually being there because I passed what appeared to be a area popular for prostitutes to attr...

Maybe I am cynical, but my experience in DF today has taught me that if someone comes up to you with a question, such as what time is it? Where are you from? Do you speak English (in English) or any combination of those three (basically Talk to Me!) they do not have good intentions and they are trying to scam you in some creative way. Today I felt like a d-bag because by the end of the day I simply would not talk to people that bothered me in the street. I know I am a gringo and white skin = stupid + money, but holy shit. Dejame tranquilo, sueltame en banda, no me molestes. Anyway, besides that, walking around DF for about 5 hours today was enjoyable. It was a Sunday so everyone was out strolling, eating ice cream, and generally being very cheerful. The hostel is definitley a party hostel and running like an well-oiled machine. At first I thought it was awesome that dinner is included in the price of the hostel as I have never seen that before, but now I understand it´s part of their b...

HOla todos, I am in Mexico City, or D.F. as they call it, as of 15 hours ago. I hadn´t really planned for this trip, just kind of let it sneak up on me but everything has been going to plan so far. I somewhat procrastinated and didn´t even tell my debit card provider I was leaving the country until I was on the jetway in Houston about to leave. This is also the time I called peter asking for directions to my hostel. Thanks for answering man, that was clutch. But I made it. When I got into the metro to go the hostel (it´s called Amigo Hostel, which for all you gringos means Friend Hostel), I was suprised at how much I had forgotten what it´s like to travel in a Latin country. Basically, there are a retarded amount of people and sounds coming at you. People selling, begging, performing, singing, talking, eating, laughing, and various other gerunds. I am getting better at navigating though as I only had to ask two people for directions from the time I left the airport to the the time I ar...