3 de marzo...

HOLA!!!!



Pues, tuve muchos problemas con la conneccion del internet con mi computadora, entonces no les he escrito por un rato. Lo siento! Tengo una conneccion esta noche, pero despues no tendra la abilidad de communicar por una semana!!




Como estan? I am in the city of Guanajuato tonight. This last week has been like a college seminar class. I have been learning in detail about the Mexican Revolution.


The reason I have learned so much about this is because San Miguel de Allende is where the first peasants gathered to fight for freedom and the city I am in now, Guanajuato, was the sight of the first battle of the Mexican revolution. Hence, I am surrounded by history and can't help but learn new things! That means that I have all sorts of stories to share with you about what lead up to the revolution - like horrific work conditions, slavery, illiteracy, and extreme poverty (all the silver and money was kept to the Spanish born people only). I'll share with you stories about crazy battles, men climbing with rocks on their backs carrying torches of fire, heads being cut off and hung in cages, women being locked up in rooms only to pass secrets of the revolution through key holes - and oh, so much more!!!


Let's see, I often think of fun details to tell you. Did I already tell you how our garbage gets picked up? We never know when it's going to be, but we listen for a bell chiming on our street and that's our signal to quick run and take out the garbage. We have to walk it up to the truck that is parked in the center of the block. Men personally take the garbage from us and stack it as high as possible before taking it to the dump.

Also, if we want clean water to drink we definitely don't take it from the tap. We had to walk about 2 blocks and buy 5 gallon jugs of it and then use it until the jug empties, take back the empty jug and then buy a new one. We only use tap water for showering, watering plants and washing dishes. While traveling, we have to buy bottled water.


If we want to eat fruit of veggies, we have to soak them for 15 minutes with some special antibacterial drops and then they are not harmful to us. We don't eat out much, but if we do, we don't eat lettuce or other leafy veggies as we never know if they have been treated. Ice, is also always out of the question.

And public bathrooms... Guess what? I have probably spent as much on using bathrooms as I have on taxi cabs! Here, if you want to use a bathroom, you have to pay $3 pesos per person. There is no such thing as free public bathrooms. You can imagine with two small boys, we spend a lot of pesos using los sanitarios.

5 de marzo...

I have the opportunity to wrap up this blog entry. I thought I would share with you some of the amazing sites I saw today. We are still in Guanajuato and so we are in museum heaven! Today, the boys and I visited the Mummy Museum, a silver mine, hiked to the historical monument of Pipila, visited the revolutionary museum and the house of Diego Rivera.

El Museo de las Momias: In 1865, when it was necessary to remove some bodies from the cemetery to make room for more, authorities uncovered mummified bodies with grotesque forms and facial expressions. The mineral content of the soil here and the extremely dry atmosphere has preserved the bodies. I can't explain exactly what they look like, so check out the photos. Some of the bodies still had their clothes. It only takes five or six years for a body to become mummifeed here. - Weird, huh?!!

La Mina de Valenciana: Before the MExican revolution, 20% of the worlds silver came from this mine. It was closed after the revolution, but reopened in 1968 and no yields gold, silver, nickel and lead. We couldn't go into the current mine, but we did go into an old mine shaft known as the Bocamina Valenciana. We were able to head 100 meters deep into a shaft. We were down there with lights the whole way, but I can't imagine what it must have been like for the miners in the 1700 and 1800's.

Monumento a el Pipila: This monument honors the hero who torched the gates of a granary on Sept. 28, 1810 enabling Hidalgo's forces (the main leader of the revolution) to win the first victory of the independence movement. This is a huge statue that overlooks the city that you can climb up to or take a tram. (You can guess with the kids, we took the tram up and hiked down!)

Casa de Diego Rivera: Check online for some of Diego Rivera's work. Those of you who have had me before know about Friday Kahlo and Diego was her husband. I've always loved both his and Frida's work, so I got to see more of it first hand! They wouldn't let me take any photos though, so I'll have to show you is the front of the museum!

Museo de Alhondiga: This is the museum that walks you through a couple hundred years of Mexican history. I'll fill you in on all the VERY interesting details when I see you!!! I took lots of photos! (Alhondiga means granary - this museum is the site where the first battle of the revolution took place).

OK - I'm off to sleep! We have to wake at 5:00 a.m. to catch a bus in the morning! Check out all the gross and interesting photos. I won't have internet again until March 11th - so stay warm and behave! Hang in there as I know it's the longer part of the school year!

Here are some of the interesting words of the week:


esposas: you may or may not know the word as spouse/wife - it is also the word for handcuffs.
azulejo - painted ceramic tile - found everywhere here!
damas - ladies, caballeros - men (words used on the bathroom doors)



Here's my schedule for the next week. Google some of these sites to check out the places and photos!

Guanajuato, Guanajuato
Patzcuaro, Michoacan
Morelia, Michoacan
Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l42ca94m-bE ; http://www.study-mexico.com/English/4/monarch-butterflies.cfm
Guadalajara, Jalisco
Bucerias Jalisco

ABRAZOS!! Sra. Koch