Mexico 2010

Well for spring break last week for the first time I traveled rather then working a 40 hour week. Desi is studying abroad in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. This was a perfect, and my only, opportunity to visit her.

I flew out of Omaha NE, to Chicago, to Mexico City, To Veracruz. When I landed in Veracruz Desi was at the airport and I gave her a big hug! She looked super cute with the sun bringing out her freckles :)

Here is what our room looked like that first night.

And the view off that balcony was pretty good.

Right at the Gulf, it was really great. To the other side of this view there was a lighthouse off into the distance and I got a zoomed up photo of it.

Here is the house during the day, and a day view of the beach.

Before checkout Desi and I visited the Acuario de Veracruz, or Veracruz Aquarium. This was simply amazing and so much fun!

I really liked this photo:

We then took a bus ride of about two hours I think to the place she is staying in Xalapa. Here are some pictures of the city.

Those are two shots from by the house she is staying at. The place is owned by a very nice family who have a son Desi and my age. They are all super nice. Licha works at a hospital doing something with computers and Juan is a dentist. There son Javier likes to mountain bike and is in school for civil engineering.

A few of the adventures I went on included going to the La Monja Cascadas, near Xico, Veracruz, Mexico. Cascada is spanish for waterfall. The place was amazing, much like the black hills but a bit more hilly, tall, and dramatic. I liked that there was not as many distant paths or fences so visitors were free to go as we pleased.

It was a half hour fricken walk from Xico to the cascadas. Cobblestones are not amazing walking surfaces. All along the road were coffee plants and banana trees, which were pretty cool to see.

That house in the background was the destination. There was maybe 20 small shops lined up before that. People were selling food and many trinkets. I bought a coffee bean bracelet that is pretty cool.

There were two restaurants. One was near the above cascada and I ate my first squid.

The owner also told us that Arnold Schwarzenegger sat at that table!

It took forever to get up to the top, but here is the view. A photo does not do the location justice. We were so high up and it was simply amazing.

And we did not feel like walking all the way back, so we paid this guy 50 pesos (4 dollars) to give us a ride. This was both of our first time riding in a Vdub van. He pulled up for us and got out and opened the side sliding door. After he closed it and before he could get in the driver's side the whole thing started rolling down the hill! Luckily someone jumped in front and held the van until he could get it. He was really nice and took us right to the bus stop. Had to snap a picture quick :)

We also visited the Museo Interactivo de Xalapa (Mix) and Museo de Arqueologia (Interactive Museum and Archeology Museum) in Xalapa.

This museum is location of nearly all of the giant heads discovered in the state of Veracruz. We saw another one in a park and another on in a bus station. There is one in the city of Vercruz I believe.

And the mix was a pretty cool interactive museum with lots of little things to check out.

Here is a bed of nails. He told Desi what it was but she did not quite understand. I remember thinking the holes looked like a air hockey tables, so I said something about maybe air comes out of them. Turns out it was about the exact opposite of air.

And a giant..I'm not even sure what these are called...

Found this little guy

A life sized ship mast

It was a lot of fun. I remember going to a similar place as a grade schooler, and it brought back some memories.

We also visited the ruins where Cortez first landed. That's right, the guy that killed all the Aztecs, this is the same beach he was at. Pretty cool. Here are some photos of the tombs.

There was a bunch of those everywhere.

And if you look at the ruins, and turn around...right behind you is:

Villa Rica Beach, this was a lot of fun!

And here are some pictures from around Xalapa, loved the place!

There were statues and sculpture everywhere! I loved it :)

I thought the tower fell, but then someone told me they just never finished it!

The three dogs at the house we lived at, always licking me and Desi!

That is the view from the roof of the house. The entire city was weird like this. There would be a nice house are a nice bank or any other nice building, but right next to it was a crap hole. The inside of the house was very nice, however by looking at the outside you could never tell.

I loved all the colors in Mexico.

Found a cool tree at a park.

Had to try a bug, tasted pretty good. Crunchy.

Here is this super cool dining area at the "Mall of America" where the ceiling would change from day to night!

It totally felt like we were outside! But we were on the third floor of a mall! It was a lot of fun, and they had GREAT pasta there.

And I think, my favorite picture from the trip:

We did so much and I could write forever on all my impressions and everything, but the above pictures should be sufficient. Hope you enjoyed them :)