Day Once

Today I technically went to bed around 6 am. And technically we had to leave the house before noon. So I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. My stomach had started to hurt around the early hours and it didn't get better. I figured I had just had too much fun the night before and what I needed was water and a nice meal. We went to a restaurant in the square and sat out in the sunshine to eat. I decided to take it easy and have a coffee and a large bowl of fruit for lunch (and some bread that came on the table).

It was a really nice long lunch. We talked about what we wanted to do for the rest of our time there. We were supposed to go to Leon which is a city famous for leather, but Guanajuato seemed to have caught the eyes of the ladies and they were eager to explore this city. Oscar and I said we would think about splitting up and maybe visiting Leon for a few hours.

 (photo by Esme Brandon ©)

After lunch, we started walking around a little bit. We saw an alley that is famous because of a story. Basically the story is about forbidden love. A girl and boy meet. They live across the street from one another and the street is so narrow they could kiss across is while standing on their balconies. So they fall in love and the father of the girl catches them up there and tells the girl she'll kill her if he catches them together again. Kill…his own daughter. Anyways, he catches them again and does kill her. The end. It was really awesome seeing the place and hearing the story from Oscar.

(photo by Esme Brandon ©)

(photo by Esme Brandon ©)

(The rest of these photos are Esme's and Sarah's because I wasn't strong enough to keep lifting my camera. pathetic, but look how beautiful this city is)

Thankfully Oscar took my camera as we walked a little further. After a bit more shopping, I was feeling awful, and I thought if I went back to the car I might be able to rest a little and feel better. I walked through the tunnels to reach the car (which took about 45 minutes. there's a vast amount of tunnels and the car was farther than we thought.

Once we got to the car, my stomach started being incredibly talented and it was break dancing. I swear I felt like I was in the movie Alien and at any moment something would tear right through my stomach lining. I promptly fell asleep while poor Oscar charged his phone and basically waited patiently for me. We drove back to the house to take a nap before dinner while the girls continued to take in the city. They had an incredible time walking through markets and eating on the rooftops that overlooked the entire city.

I slept some more and woke up close to dinner time feeling somewhat okay. We were to go to the fanciest restaurant in the city (Remember how I said earlier that most of our meals were around 100 pesos, well this place's most expensive dinner was 260 pesos). Even the most fancy place was barely $25 and it had incredible food.

Melissa had been talking to one of the photographers from the night before who said he could get us into a movie premier and after party, after dinner. I decided to just see how dinner went before I planned the rest of my night. Oscar was still napping and opted for sleep, so for dinner it was just us four girls. We went just as the sun was setting, it was a gorgeous view from above as we looked down on the city that was littered with a dark blue from the sky and twinkling lights. The inside was softly lit and had really elegant soft jazz. Sarah and Melissa ordered the steaks, Esme ordered this fancy pork stew, and I got a small dinner salad. They also had cactus appetizers, wine, and a cornbread dessert. Everything was delicious.

I decided to go home after that, because I was still super sick. We cabbed it back to the house where I found Oscar still sleeping, and he decided the continue to sleep than go with the girls. I almost watched a movie, but it wasn't long before I was curling up in the fetal position and trying to sleep.

NOTE: This was the end of my night… However I probably missed one of the coolest things. The girls got into another VIP party where Melissa was hanging out with one of the top Mexican Actors (his name might be sebastian zurita?). Esme and Sarah were dancing around with other men. They ended up staying out until 6 am and coming back into the house loud and happy. It was a disappointment to miss, but I couldn't even be mad because there was no way I could have gone out.

Day Tres

Day Tres Today was the day we were leaving Mexico City to finally see Ceracaly and meet the staff we'd work with for the next two weeks. So we packed up and got breakfast across from the apartment.

After half an hour, Maria Jose graced us with her presence. She's been working nonstop for the city ever since the elections and it was really great to see her and thank her for everything she had done for us. She did the unthinkable and offered up her car to us, which really saved us a lot of suffering later on.

I had my first taste of Chocolate caliente (hot chocolate) and papaya with limes. I ordered a spinach omelet that came with hot sauce. We talked and got to know everyone a little better. We went to pay and we saw the fire inside Maria Jose when the waiter swiped her credit card twice and did nothing to fix his mistake. She got really angry and it was kind of awesome to see this petite woman stick up for herself. She's got a lot of spitfire in her. We also met MJ's dogs. Paco was one of them and he was adorable. The other one had walked down to the market, which he does frequently. He either comes home or she has to go pick him up.

We left around noon starting on our journey. It was a gorgeous car ride. We were constantly seeing different rainclouds and storms. There were mountains all around us. We all took turns listening to one anothers iPods and talked a lot about ourselves. Melissa started out driving which gave me time to watch the scenes of rain evolve. A couple of times we hit some really bad patches of rain and it was unnerving; but Melissa was an incredible driver through it all (and I can't forget to mention the amazing Esme taking on the navigating role!) We traveled well as a team and around 4 decided to stop for some food at a place on the way.

I just want to say, it was Friday the thirteenth. We stopped in a bewitched city. It's nicknamed the wizard city because of the spirits in the city. It was rainy and we walked around the little town scoping it out. There was this massive gorgeous mountain that looked over the city. It was really beautiful. Everywhere we went we were stared at, and it was a little ridiculous. I'd like to say I got used to it by the end of the trip, but that's not true. I'm not used to standing out so much.

Anyways, we ate at a little place that had amazing guacamole and of course el baño. This was the day I learned to ask for a bathroom in Spanish. I won't try and spell it yet, but I am teaching myself Spanish.

We spent about an hour and a half in the town and then started back on our way. By the way, MJ had told us it would take three and a half hours to get to Ceracaly, Melissa's friend had told us it would take five hours. If you can calculate we've been in the car for about three to four hours and we still have a bit of a trek ahead of us. I started driving at this point, which was another accomplishment, driving in another country. I had no idea how fast I was going because it's in Kilometers. It seemed to get dark quickly because of all the rainclouds. In no time I was driving in the dark. About 30 minutes away from Ceracaly, it started DOWNPOURING. So we were driving around trying to find signs and see where we were going. Around 9:30 we found the dirt road that I almost jumped a curb to get to. We drove around the holes in the road that were rapidly filling up with water. Luckily, my boyfriends driveway is pretty bad and I happen to be an expert on avoiding potholes.

We came across a sign that said Ceracaly, and there was a little house next to it. Sarah was convinced that this was the place, she had seen it in a video. So Melissa stepped out (into a massive puddle), i honked my horn a few times, and this small mexican man came up to the window of his house as Melissa shouted a jumble of Spanish and he just waved us away. It was awkward, because Sarah was still convinced that this was the place, but Esme told me to keep driving a little ways and see what we came across. About a mile down the road there was a building on the side of the road. People were outside and we asked them if they knew the place we were looking for. They said this was it, so we walked inside, into this dark building. It was still pouring, there were places where there was no ceiling in this building, so it was raining inside. The people who were waiting for us, said the power had gone out. So we took a few candles, got our sleeping supplies, and pretty much went straight to our room.

We found out there was no cell phone reception, there was internet, but not without the power, that the power might not come on until Monday morning, and that the first night in Ceracaly without light, is very creepy. Melissa decided to really freak me out by putting the flashlight under her chin and talking about creepy schools at night. The best part is that she scared herself and she couldn't sleep that night. I slept with a small flashlight, ready to bash any ghosts, and we slept with furniture in front of the doors just to make me feel better.

*note: This post isn't finished. I'm awaiting more information and hunting down some photos!