Thirteen years later, still taking the same pictures in the same places.
A few weeks ago, we took the fastest visit ever to Mexico City took a side trip to Cholula, just outside of Puebla (2-3 hours from Mexico City). Way back in 1999, when I came to Mexico for the very first time, Cholula was home for 4 months. When I spent two years in Morelos, I came to Cholula every other weekend to visit Mario, making it home again. This town has a very special place in my heart, and walking around made me feel like I was home again.
The view from the zocalo.
As we drove into town, we drove behind the University de las Americas (where Mario studied and I spent my study-abroad semester). Our mouths hung open as we drove past bar after swanky club after posh bar--it was like the strip at Acapulco without the beach! Mercifully, once we got out of spitting range of the UDLA, it became evident that Cholula was still sleepy, loveable Cholula.
The Capilla Real--49 domes! One of my favorite churches in Mexico.
Mario lived for 11 years, two blocks from the zocalo and that was just about where we parked. We had tacos arabes at Tacos Robert (I was also craving a cemita and contemplating getting both a cemita AND the tacos, but they were out of cheese. What's a cemita without cheese? OK, it'd be a big, huge drippy sandwich--without cheese. No thanks). After that we wandered the zocalo, and visited our favorite chapel Cholula is said to boast 365 churches (as the Spanish built a church over Aztec pyramids and Cholula was a huge center of worship for the Aztecs). In reality, there are something like 200+ churches in little Cholula.
Front door to the main church.
Popo (the volcano) was putting on a good show!
Love the contrasts!
My boys in front of the Capilla Real (please correct me if I've got the name wrong!)
We had ice cream and people-watched on a bench in the zocalo. Then we noticed that they were setting up for a concert in the kiosko in the center of the zocalo, so we stayed to listen (Mario will do ANYTHING to drive into Mexico City as late as possible to avoid the traffic--the concert was a great excuse). And a highlight was that they played the William Tell Overture, so I could bounce Joey on my knee with accompaniment other than my own humming. I think I enjoyed it more than he did.
There are three huge, enormously old trees in the courtyard. Waaaay back in the day, the Indians weren't allowed inside the churches, so mass was held outside for them Passing these trees I always think about the countless people who spent hours sitting under these trees, nearly 500 years ago. Oh, the stories the trees could tell!
I had always wanted to hear a concert in the bandstand. This visit, dreams came true!
What a great day! We felt that we were literally walking down memory lane.
Earlier this year, we found our new favorite store. OK, that's an exaggeration, but I'm so excited that they opened up shop. And the proprietors are pretty excited that we're regular customers.
It is . . . (dum, dum, dum) . . . a store that sells nothing but diapers and toilet paper, mostly in BULK! Yes, this really does top the list of excitement when you've got two kids in diapers. So the other day, I stocked up again on 10 kilos of diapers (5 kilos for each kid). Let me tell you, that's a lot of diapers. I've got half of them put away and the other half . . . well, we just don't have room for them! Currently, they're sitting behind the door in the kids' room, where they'll likely stay until Mario gets tired of seeing them there and finds a creative solution for the storage problem. I can always count on him for that.
Clara with a mere 3 kilos of diapers
To prove how awesome the Diaper Distributor is, let me spell out the savings. I counted out the huge bag of diapers, and 5 kilos of size 5 diapers is 138 diapers. I paid 315 pesos for those diapers. A conventional bag of diapers contains 38 diapers and costs, on a good day, 115 pesos.
38 diapers = $115
138 diapers = $315
When doing some rounding in my head, I figured that that's like getting 3 packages for the price of 2 (a deal that Soriana used to do fairly frequently, but it's been awhile since I've seen that advertised).
And using the calculator for exact figures, one conventionally packaged diaper costs almost exactly 3 pesos. One diaper bought in bulk costs 2 pesos. (OK, it's not as dramatic a discount as I was hoping.) But, over the course of hundreds of diapers, that adds up.
Plus, it's pretty sweet to only have to buy diapers once every couple of months instead of once every two weeks.
It turned out to be a good idea to individually count out the diapers, as they come all smashed up and folded funny. Mario used to work in a diaper factory and 30% of the diapers made there were unfit to be sold and had to be thrown out.
No kidding. 30% straight to the trash.
There is a debate that rages whether cloth diapers really are better for the environment than disposable. To my way of thinking, it's a no-brainer that cloth diapers are better. However, it turns out that in comparison to the total amount of trash that chokes up landfills, disposable diapers are a very small percentage of the total trash generated. And, disposable diaper champions also claim that the water used in washing diapers at home is wasteful in itself.
However these arguments fail to consider the industrial costs of producing each diaper. There is a certain amount of water necessary to produce each disposable diaper (putting it close to on par with washing cloth diapers?). And then fact that one out of every three diapers has to be thrown out! Yikes!
Wow, that was quite the tangent that I didn't mean to go down!
Anyway, I'm guessing that my cheaper, smashed up and funnily-folded diapers are the irregular ones that they couldn't sell at full price but are salvageable for selling in bulk. In our last 5 kilo bag for Joe, there were about 30 that were missing the fastening tabs. Fortunately, those who run the diaper store want to keep their customers and therefore are happy to exchange those 30 for diapers with tabs. And, if Joe grows out of his size 3s before we run out of diapers, they're also happy to exchange whatever we would have left over for the next size. Awesome.
But do you know what the really, really cool part of the Diaper Distributor is?
It's right next to a bulk candy store. And they sell dehydrated strawberries.
Such a shame that we buy so many diapers in one shot that we only go there every 3 months or so.
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Where is the Diaper Distributor?
In Saltillo, on the south side of the Periferico, almost directly across the street from Soriana Lourdes.
And this time I didn't make it up or learn it from another gringo--it's standard around here! I saw it on a billboard a few days after hearing it.
The other day, I walked past a table where someone was selling cupcakes. They asked me if I wanted a quequito. Of course, my English-driven brain heard "cake-ito".
But no, if you want a cupcake in northern Mexico, a quequito it is.
Yet another joy of living awfully close to the border!
Last Monday, apart from being a day off of work for most, thanks to the observation of Benito Juarez's birthday, was celebrated down my street for the day is was, San Jose Day! (It's a big deal down this street.)
We actually started celebrating the Sunday before with a parade from the Alameda to the church. It was officially called a pilgrimage. Padre Gordo reminded us to keep the true spirit of pilgrims, by thinking about our pilgrimage through life. Huh . . . glad he mentioned that! (Although it was easy to get distracted with the dancing chickens in the bed of one truck, courtesy of those who organize the children's mass.) Joey and I were all about joining in, and I was impressed that Mario and Clara were agreeable, especially after we arrived at the Alameda. I forgot that two or three matachin groups generally join the procession. They were very noisy, and neither Clara or Mario tolerate noise well. What troopers!
Then, the following Sunday, the church changed their usual 5-10K race into a mere 1.5 Run/Trot/Walk family event. So I signed us up for that, too. (Yep, I'm a joiner.) Mario had a long night the night before and bowed out, so I strapped Joey into the kangaroo (that's what baby carriers are called in Spanish--how awesome is that with a boy named Joey?), tied the three-year-old into the stroller, and we trotted off around the neighborhood with our Josefino family. I had fun running 5 steps then walking 10--it was pretty fun to watch Joey's head bounce around--but when 1.5 kilometers turned into a longer distance than I had imagined, I gave up and just walked.
After the race, they held a raffle, so we stuck around. My neighbor gave us an extra ticket from a friend who wasn't able to be there. Imagine my surprise when they called that very number for the last prize--a tricycle! As I lept up to claim the trike, Clara tripped and burst out sobbing, so it wasn't a pretty scene at all. I don't think she realized until we got home that the trike was hers. Then she was pretty excited and has been ever since.
Then, of course, last Monday was the actual San Jose Day. They closed the street at about noon and various vendors set up shop. It's my one chance a year for street food (rather, street food that isn't nachos), and once again I was impressed that Mario was game for eating on the street. Beyond food, they had games, rides, bingo, people selling clothes, and a plant lady.
I was also surprised that Clara was really into the matachines. When we first heard them in the morning, she insisted on going to see them and would have happily stayed all day, just watching them. For a kid who doesn't like noise, I was more than a bit shocked. She does, however, really like dancing.
After eating, I told her she could go on four rides. They had trampolines, which she had tried when we went to the Cola del Caballo, so she was set on that one. She had been spying one with cars (that just went round and round in a circle) for a day or two before, so she jumped at the chance to try that. After about 5 turns around though, she said that she was done, and I tried to explain that she couldn't get off until the man stopped the ride. She did well with that one.
Then she wanted to go into a bounce house. Despite being the only kid on it, once she got her shoes off, she decided she no longer wanted anything to do with the bounce house. Oh, finicky three-year-olds! The lady was great and gave me my money back. We wandered down the street and she decided that she really did want to go on a train ride. We watched it down around for once whole ride, so she could determine if she really, really wanted to go. She did. I kept reminding her that she couldn't get off until the lady stopped the ride (not just whenever Clara decides the ride should end). She understood. She still really wanted to ride the train. So she got on the train with another little girl and and soon as she was strapped in, she decided she really did NOT want to be on the train.
Too bad. It's time to stick by your decisions, kiddo!
She screamed the entire time. It was pretty close to bedtime. And it was pretty noisy (that's the reason Clara told me afterward). And the entire environment was pretty overwhelming. Poor kid.
Apparently the experience did not traumatize her for life, because this week they set up some fair rides in the grocery store parking lot. Clara was pretty interested.
But I'm not falling for that again!
And, of course, no proper Saint Day celebration in this country is complete without fireworks. Patty and I ran down the street at about 10, after the bells had been chiming for awhile. We missed the good ones.
Word to the wise: get out the door as soon as the bells start ringing. This is still Mexico, and the scheduled time is always relative.
And a destination this was! Two years ago, we meandered out this way with some friends, but never made it to the actual waterfall. It wasn't in the original plan anyway.
So this time around, when my parents were around and we thought that a drive through the mountains would be lovely, I was determined to get to Cola del Caballo. Of course, I wasn't driving!
Leaving Saltillo, we made our way to Arteaga, the county just east of here. Arteaga is known for their apple orchards, last year's forest fires, and the largest artificial ski slope in Latin America. Huh. They do boast a number of cabins to rent, which I'd really like to do some weekend when the spring/summer heat gets unbearable.
Right around the time we meandered to the Nuevo Leon border, we found ourselves in this impressive canyon, which we explored two years ago. Traffic is very light, so a number of people (ourselves included, clearly) just pulled off to the side of the road and pondered the sheerness and immensity of the cliffs. Incredible. To be honest, this part of the road was more impressive than the waterfall that was our destination.The view from (almost) straight up.Some perspectiveThrowing rocks into the stream.
I thought that the waterfall would be just twenty minutes more down the road. After another hour had passed, I was quite confident that we'd shortly be entering the outskirts of Monterrey and we had somehow missed the waterfall.
I wasn't too far off. However we did find the entrance to the Cola del Caballo just before we cruised into Monterrey. If one would be driving from Monterrey, the entrance would be much more obvious. But if, like us, you prefer the longer, windier road, keep your eyes open!Mom & Dad with the waterfall Clara & Grandpa
This morning we went to the passport office to get the kids' Mexican passports. Immediately, we were slapped in the face with a nasty surprise. Thanks to the ex-governor's impressive levels of deficit spending, all passports issued in the state of Coahuila are slapped with an aditional $1220 fee. That's about 3 times the total cost of the baby's passport. (As an additional comparison, last year the fees that the state applied to passport applications were around 200 pesos . . . yep, we're that far in debt.)
Thanks for that, ex-gob!
Unfortunately for those who came up with this genius pay-off-the-debt measure, they failed to take into account that the two biggest cities in the state, Torreon and Saltillo, are a short drive to neighboring states. Which is why the passport office was eerily silent this morning. Now, instead of the state government collecting 200 pesos from each of the roughly 30 people that would file for a passport daily, they can now rake in 1220 once every two or three days from some poor schmuck who just doesn't have the time to go to Monterrey.
But, the good news is that it's no longer necessary to make an appointment to renew your passport in Saltillo!
Through a sly twist of fate, I live in Mexico with my husband and kids. Had I known years ago that I'd spend much of my adult life in Mexico, I likely would have avoided like the plauge any step that brought me here. Therefore, it's a good thing we can't know the future--I would have missed out on one fantastic journey!
What a great day! We felt that we were literally walking down memory lane.
The view from (almost) straight up.
Some perspective
Throwing rocks into the stream.
Mom & Dad with the waterfall
Clara & Grandpa
