Sorry it's been so long since I was able to update. Mark was in town :) and just left this morning at 3:30am :(. Sadly, I can't post a whole lot because I have to get up early tomorrow to be in Cuanajo by 8am, but here a few shots from our hike up Estribo (you can see Janitzio in the background) and our adventures around the Paracutin Volcano one of the world's seven natural wonders!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A few highlights from today:
Whew, it was a busy day. We did 42 Maternal Health Surveys in Quiroga and then went to 3 hours of Mass! Ok, seeing as I am not Catholic, perhaps this should be explained further. Veronica, one of the outreach workers, invited us to come to mass with her. It was a combination of what I imagine a normal Catholic mass being and a modern service (with dancing and an electric keyboard). Veronica was one of the women who led the dances and she read a few bible versus and prayers. The dances were fun... but, the two homilies and readings in Spanish and Latin were a little dry. I guess I have been spoiled with my one hour Presbyterian services and didn't realize that Mass was going to be >3 hours. We made a break for it at the three hour mark when communion started....
Also, MARK IS COMING TOMORROW! I am sooo excited. It also means I may not post for a while, pero quien sabes?
Today Joanne, Katrina, and I went to the Island of Picanda (one of four) in Lake Patzcuaro. Picanda is considered a Purepecha community because all of the residents still speak the Purepecha language and most understand Purepecha better than Spanish. The island does have electricity, but no running fresh water system. Getting to Picanda from Patzcuaro is quite an adventure. It is about a 30 minute Combi ride through curvy mountain roads to the muelle (dock). Then you basically find someone to take you across in their fishing boat. Let's just say that the curvy roads and sitting on the floor of a fishing boat was not the best for motion sickness, but thank god for Dramamine. Once we arrived in Picanda we went on a search for women who had a child less than five years old to participate in our birthing survey. For such a small island we were able to do a large number of surveys- which was great. Since most of the women understood Purepecha better than Spanish, Margarita helped translate the survey that I gave in Spanish into Purepecha. Tantos lenguas! What an exciting and exhausting day!
Sunday, the gang and I went to the pueblo of Tzintzuntzan, which in Purepecha means the "land of the hummingbirds". Although this site is a lot more touristy than the Yacatas (Pyramids) in Ihuatzio, they were still pretty cool. Plus you can see the storage room where they kept the severed heads of their enemies. Fun fact: The Purepecha were never conquered by the Aztecs, like many other indigenous groups in Mexico. This is probably because their ability to craft metal gave them an advantage over their enemies to the east. Tzintzuntzan was the Purepecha capital up until the arrival of the Spanish in Michoacan. Although the Yacatas were blown up by the Spanish in search of gold, they were reconstructed in the 1940s and are still quite a site.
Also, fun fact: Don Vasco de Quiroga, who was a member of the second Spanish Audiencia that was sent to govern new Spain (after the crazy gold-loving conquistadors), was a follower of Thomas Moore. So he tried to create a utopian society with the indigenous people around the lake where each pueblo was not in competition with one another, but instead responsible for a specific craft. For example, Tzintzuntzan is famous for its green pottery. I am not sure how Utopian it was, but the different crafts still remain today.
Another interesting site in Tzintzuntzan is their church. The church and monastary were first built by Don Vasco and are home to the oldest olive trees in the new world! The church is also home to a growing Jesus! Yep, that's right, a figure of Jesus that is supposedly growing (See top picture). the Jesus is made out of a paste mixture of corn cobs and water and then is painted. The story goes that ever since he has been in the church he has been growing. He even broke the end of his glass enclosure, so an addition was made to accommodate him. As you can see in the picture, his head has to be elevated and there is an addition onto the case (the side closest to the camera) to make more room for Jesus.
Today was pretty exciting. In the morning we went to a nurses meeting for work. There were about twenty nurses that came, which was a great turn out. After the meeting. Joanne, Katrina, and I ventured to Santa Clara de Cobre- which is known for their hand made copper products. There were so many beautiful things it was hard not to buy everything. Although, I did purchase a very cool pitcher and mirror. On our way back home we ran into a parade on our street! There was a band, fireworks, balloons, and of course... Jesus (?) From what we could gather, they were moving the statue of Jesus from the church of San Francisco downtown to various neighborhoods in Patzcuaro for the whole week in honor of St. Daniel (?) And so, Jesus's first stop was in our barrio of Calvario. It was a lot of fun to march with the parade and I think the band got a real kick out of us being there.
This past weekend Joanne, Katrina, Jessie, and I went to beautiful Zihuatanejo! It was a much needed retreat from rainy mountainous Patzcuaro. Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa are about 3.5 hours away by car. So early Saturday morning we loaded into Nacho's van and took the new tool road (que chido!) to the beach. The drive through the Sierra Madre mountains was absolutely amazing See picture above). Mile after mile of lush beautiful mountains intersected by an occasional stream or lake. The land looked so untouched and pure - I felt like a was Pizarro discovering a beautiful new world (except I wasn't weilding corruption or disease and I was on a highway...). Which brings we to my next point, driving. The highways in Mexico seem to have 1.5 lanes in each direction which means that there is room for a car to move over to let another car pass... it sounds good in theory but in practice when this passing is happening in two oppossing directions it leads to intense games of chicken and some pretty scary scenarios. I learned very quickly that it was better if I didn't watch the road. Once we safely arrived at our destination we grabbed lunch and hoped in the water. Summer in Zihautanejo is brutally hot, so we quickly learned that going in the water often is a must. Zihuatanejo is the quant, cheaper, more mexican sister to the resort town of Ixtapa. So we were able to find a nice, cheap hotel right on Playa Madera. Zihuatanejo is actually a giant harbor with lots of beaches which is great because you can walk almost anywhere and explore. On Sunday we went to the Island of Ixtapa (not to be confused with the country club beach town of Ixtapa- too many manicured road medians). The island of Ixtapa is amazing! You can only get there by boat and they have no electricity - just four lovely beaches and a few restaurants (unclear how one keeps food fresh without electricity, but we didn't want to know). We got there pretty early on Sunday which was great because we were the only people in the water for a while when we went snorkeling. There is a pretty extensive coral reef just off the beach so we rented gear on the island and jumped in (literally)! There were lots of fish of all sizes and colors and I even got to hold a starfish- very cool! The rest of the day was spent exploring the other beaches on the island - one was a "natural" aka nude beach although we didn't realize that before we went and no was there, so we didn't follow the nude rule. The other beaches didn't have any coral, but where they lacked in coral they made up for in Jellyfish (ouch!). We ended the evening at a Salsa bar- which was highly entertaining, especially when they did a Michael Jackson tribute. Overall I had an amazing time, but I am happy to be back in cool Patzcuaro. For those of you who were worried - I only got a little sunburnt which is surprising given my ability to fry quickly. I would like to thank my bottle of 30 sunscreen and my giant Target beach hat for helping make this possible.
