Cuernavaca, Mexico

The hostel in Oaxaca City was really nice too. After we checked in, we met up with some friends and went to watch the NCAA championships at a pretty expensive bar that we would have never picked out - not our choice, we were just tagging along. It was fun, but I just felt a little weird at first because there are about 8 of us, and we were all white people from the US who came either to study or do research. I couldn't really put my finger on what I didn't like about it, but I think it's because I feel like we (as people from the US) get a lot more out of the interactions than the people that live here. There are SOO many research thesis papers written about Mexico, but how does all this research give back to the people that share their lives for the sake of some nameless grad student from the US?

Hierve el Agua

The next day we rented a car and drove out to Hierve el Agua, some natural Spring where we thought we were going to get to swim, but it was REALLY windy and REALLY cold. Still beautiful though. It was really interesting because it's a pretty touristy place, but you have to drive through a really poor town to get to it. A lot of people in the town worked at the place selling food or t-shirts, but obviously this type of tourism did nothing to stimulate their economy.

El arbol de El Tule

We ate lunch there but it was really gross, so we had had enough of being cold we left for El Tule, where we saw this famous tree that's like 2 or 3 thousand years old. The pictures cannot do it justice - it is enormous.

The next few days we just spent wandering around the city and being tourists. In the mornings and early afternoons we would walk around and stop whenever we saw something cool. One day we went to the contemporary art museum, which was really cool and was in a really awesome old building. The next day we went to the pre-hispanic art museum, which i actually really liked, and was also in an awesome building. We went to a women's artesian cooperative and a couple artesian markets, where we each bought a few things. We ate tlayudas (giant tortillas with beans and cheese and sometimes tomatoes and avocado) every day. We would sit in the zócalo (the main square) and people-watch. We had smoothies or hot chocolate in tiny cafes. In the afternoons when we were tired of walking around, we would sit on the roof of the hostel and look at the mountains. One night we watched the sunset - It was absolutely beautiful to see the sun disappear behind the mountains.

View of the sunset from the roof of Oaxacan hostel

Cuernavaca, Mexico

a travel blog by Kimberly

Spring Break, The Real Thing

Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico