Semana Tranquila

Cuernavaca has returned to its normal rhythm of life after last week's Día de Independencia festivities, but it seems as if everyone is still recovering from too much partying and eating. As my brother would say, they need a vacation after their vacation.

This week three new volunteers joined our crew!

Here we have Guillaume, Gerardo (Director of Casa Hoy), Kelsey, and Alex.. ¡Bienvenidos a los nuevos voluntarios!

We've had some fun adventures this week while also volunteering at our various placements, although it was a pretty peaceful and relaxing week.  On Wednesday, I went to Santo Domingo Ocotitlán to a plática about this incredible market in Mexico City called Mercado el 100, which is the first market in Mexico City that involves organic, local, and ecological producers. It occurs on Sundays in two plazas. Here's a YouTube video about Mercado El 100 and their movement.

The woman in charge of organizing the market, who is from an organization called Fundación Lu'um, is doing community outreach to get more local pueblos involved in the Mexico City initiative, so she came to Ocotitlán to recruit the people in the village to sell their local, organic fruit, vegetables, and herbs. This will really benefit the Ocotitlán villagers because they will have the opportunity to make a profit on whatever they sell in the market while also getting more exposure. In two weeks, the townspeople will organize themselves, their crops, and we'll go to Mexico City to check out the market. Emocionante!

After the talk with Fundación Lu'um, we took a mini tour of different peoples' houses to see what crops they could provide. It blew my mind to learn that practically every person in the village had at least one or two trees just full of fruit in their yards, so they will really benefit from their partnership with Mercado el 100. We also had the most amazing comida in the huerto which involved homemade tortillas, potatoes with spinach, cecina, nopales (cactus), salsas, beans, and rice, most of which was all grown and picked in the village. Can't say that I'm not eating well here :)

The kids had a lot of fun picking these GIANT three leaf clovers (called tréboles), making bouquets, and then eating them. They were surprisingly tasty!

 We took a little excursion to El Salto de San Anton, which is a huge and beautiful cascada located in one of the Cuernavaca neighborhoods. It used to be a popular swimming hole, but due to pollution, which is rising concern in Cuernavaca, it's no longer accessible.

 Here is one of the barrancas in the city. Cuernavaca is an environmentally fascinating city due to the ravines that run throughout. The reason the city has such a pleasant temperature all the time is due to these ravines, as they act as a sort of "air conditioning" to keep the city cooler. Unfortunately, there's a large concern because of people not only living in the ravines, but also because of so much solid waste and other pollutants being thrown into these gorges. If these ravines were to be ruined, it could have potentially harmful effects on the climate of the city, and the health of its inhabitants. Luckily, there are initiatives to protect these ravines, which I'm hoping to learn more about as time goes on! 

We spent some quality time in the beautiful Jardín Borda, a museum which was transformed from a mansion into these amazing gardens, terraces, and museum more than two centuries ago! They offer arts and crafts workshops, boat rides, music, food, etc. A very tranquil and educational place.

We got to see this bumpin' band called María Cantú at the Cine Morelos a few nights ago. Their music is a ska/reggae fusion, part political, part comical, and they completely killed the show. Here's a video of them performing a few years ago... You get the idea :)

We got to spend our Saturday at Xochicalo, the pyramids located about 25 miles southwest of Cuernavaca. The name Xochicalco is a Nahuatl name meaning "in the place of the house of flowers." The site developed its urban center between 700-900 AD, and was primarily built for the purpose of trade and defense. It's definitely one of the most interesting ruins I've been to, and we had some fun there by jumping off of the pyramids :)

 And of course, you can't be in Cuernavaca without going out and trying one of their specialty liter beers. These are chile beers with chile rims, with a little taste of tamarind to go along... And there are so many names for every type of beer mixture, I can't quite wrap my mind around them yet.. chamoyada, michelada, cubana, tropicana? 

Many more adventures to come this week! 

Nos vemos :)