Last looks

I moved out of my apartment in Xalapa and am now back in Mexico City for one final week of tacos, cervezas, and farewells. There are few signs of Swine Flu having ever been here, except for the city health workers who now stand in the subway, squeezing hand sanitizer out of condiment bottles into the hands of riders before they board. I hope they keep that going—it's great!

Here are some shots from the last few weeks, as I tried to be more disciplined with taking my camera around with me.

The elementary school in Coatepec, near Xalapa

Two streams converge to make this nice little swimming hole at the foot of La Granada waterfall, Coatepec

A neighbor lady talks on her phone while standing on her historic-tastic balcony, Xalapa

Phillip and Itzel in my Xalapa apartment, in the jarana-filled days after Son Jarocho camp

A fandango on my last night in Xalapa (see my official blog for more on this later.)

After moving out of Xalapa, I went to visit my friends Naomi, Jose, and Will in beautiful Queretaro. In New Spain, it used to be the gateway Mexico's mysterious northern territories.

A political rally for the PRI party in Queretaro.

A different kinda Mex Tape

These groundbreaking negatives of Spanish Civil War photography were hiding out in Mexico City until a few years ago. Once again, a New York Times slideshow has introduced me to a new aspect of my inner nerd and totally knocked my socks off.

Swine time

While I'm glad to not be breathing in their pathogens, I totally miss my friends in the capital. My weekends in Xalapa are pretty low-key compared to those D.F., and while this has been great for my work ethic, my freaked-out solitary self was not happy about it last night. 

I stayed in, taking a break from the Orwellian online updates with a novel. Between pages I tried to convince myself that, by moving to sleepy Xalapa two months ago, I should be grateful that I can now just hole up and wait for this thing to blow over. But dang it, I'm missing out on all the action! I want to go downtown and have a soldier give me a face mask! Chucking my novel aside, I fell into a funk. I realized that I've probably got a good deal of boredom and paranoia ahead of me, and only my houseplants to share it with.

At 10 o'clock I ventured out to a payphone to call my old roommate in the capital. Xalapa's streets were deserted, which is normal. I called her twice and she didn't pick up. Walking back to my empty apartment, I imagined all the small-scale rooftop parties that were probably springing up all over in Mexico City as an alternative to the closed theaters and clubs. Scared as they may be, no doubt people were excited on on some level— high-fiving over the obligatory two-week vacation, and cracking pig jokes from behind their matching cubrebocas. 

If my Great-Grandma Paulina had a blog....

I hope this is what she would say. The following is an excerpt from her emailed response (heck yeah my great-grandma sends emails!) to my mom, who had let her know that she and my dad were about to come down here for a visit:

Have fun in Mexico City. We did when we visited there in the motor home. We had the tour of the city, visited the pyramids and the famous cathedral there. We travelled with a caravan of some 25 rigs, camped outside the city and were bussed in. We also went to a Mexican Festivale and that was special. Your parents were here Saturday and we ate at the Chunese buffet. Mary Alice and family will come Friday night to go to Ponderosa. That seems to be the motto in this family anymore "Take Grandma out and feed her". Today I have a dental app't. This world is full of fun!

flutter byes

So whooped. But must chronicle.

My Mexico City chapter is about to come to a hectic close. But I'm pretty sure that in Mexico City, that's how it must be. In the past week I've returned from Oaxaca; gone to the dentist; drunk free wine at a friend's art opening; worked from home in a plastic chair and developed back problems; interviewed an indie band on the day of their D. F. debut while strongly regretting my choice of outfit; and made significant headway into packing by matching up all of my stray socks. And so, Mexico City, this is our fond and frenzied farewell before I move onto a greener, quieter, and probably boring-er place.

I only wish I had taken more time during this past week to remember to buy clean water. With no water at home and me being busy, I wound up having no choice but to hydrate myself with lots of coffee, or eating a cucumber before bed, or squeezing the daylights out of an orange this afternoon while on a huge failure of a hike (see below).

Butterfly sanctuary? more like CEMETERY.

The hike was through the famous El Rosario Monarch butterfly reserve in the mountains of Michoacán. Supposedly on a sunny day (i.e. every day in Mexico, or so I thought) you can see "rivers of butterflies" there. So my friends and I excitedly made the four-hour drive, only to watch the sky mysteriously darken as we pulled into the parking lot. Two hours later, we were huffing and puffing (and squeezing oranges for dear life) after a 100% uphill climb. 

We found ourselves in a massive butterfly dormitory, staring up at cloudy skies and gazillions of passed-out butterflies. They clung to tall pine branches by the thousands, heavy as bananas but about as exciting as dry leaves. We then realized that they were bracing themselves for a hailstorm, which would proceed to appear out of nowhere. Before we knew it we could see our breath, and were pelted with ice all the shrieking, arm-flailing way down. The highlight was when I wiped out in the mud, and the elderly Mexican woman who caught me then scolded me for running downhill.

Government bikes

Here's a little ditty I wrote while riding a rented bike through Mexico City this morning. It is best sung to the tune of a tone-deaf neighbor humming while happily washing his car.

Morale is up

And smog is down

When we ride rented bikes through town.

My bike was free

So I don't mind

That I waited for two hours in line.

Some very active

Families

Show off their bike accessories.

The street is safe

The trees are pretty

When cars stay home in Mexico City.